T. Cooke & Sons
T. Cooke & Sons was an English instrument-making firm, headquartered in York. It was founded by Thomas Cooke by 1837.
History
By 1855 Thomas Cooke had built a factory at Bishophill in York.[1]
The firm built the clock face on the Darlington clock tower.[2]
Following the death of Cooke in 1868, the business was continued by his sons.[3]
In 1914, a new factory was built in Bishophill.[3] In 1915 Vickers acquired a controlling stake in the company.[1]
In 1922 Vickers merged it with Troughton & Simms to form Cooke, Troughton & Simms.
In 1924 the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vickers.[1] In 1939 another factory was built on a larger site in Haxby Road and during the Second World War, the company employed 3,300 people.[1]
In 1963 the company was renamed Vickers Instruments.[1]
In 1989 the company was sold to Bio-Rad Micromeasurements, apart from the defence products, which were sold to British Aerospace.[1]
The Haxby Road site was demolished in 2008.[1]
