Benjamin Goodfellow (1811-1863), mechanic and manufacturer, was born in 1811 at Rainow near Macclesfield. He began to work in a silk mill at the age of six years. After moving with his parents to Hyde, near Manchester, he worked at the Carrfield Mills, Floweryfield and was employed there as a mechanic upon the various machines used in spinning and weaving cotton until 1838.

In early 1840s he established B. Goodfellow and Co. works for the manufacturing of the steam-engine piston and general engineering work. In 1888 the company presumably changed its name to Goodfellow and Matthews. Goodfellow's arrangements of compound steam engines for economising fuel were largely adopted in the cotton manufacturing districts and he was one of the original members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers from its commencement in 1847. Benjamin Goodfellow died at the age of 52 on 29th April 1863.