Heatly & Gresham Limited was founded by the engineer Harry Heatly and his father-in-law James Gresham on the 14th November, 1892 in Manchester. The business had a start-up capital of £10,000. The initial focus was ‘to purchase, make, sell, or otherwise deal in punkahs” (a type of cloth fan, originating in India) and other types of air circulating equipment. Heatly & Gresham quickly diversified, and in 1895 were advertising a “germ filter” for water available from their Kolkata-based ‘Sanitary Branch.’

In 1900 Heatly established premises at Bassingbourn Iron Works, Royston, Hertfordshire, where the company made some of London’s first motor cabs. The company went on to produce the Rational Car from 1901, and a two-cylinder 10 h.p. car.

In 1904/5 the business moved to the purpose-built Gresham Iron Works in Letchworth, Hertforshire. The firm manufactured the component parts of the continuous automatic vacuum brake, as well as other railway equipment, and industrial oil-engines. The business remained an associate of Gresham and Craven, Manchester. They continued to be active in India, with premises in Mumbai (Bombay) and Kolkata (Calcutta) selling private electricity installations.

Heatly & Gresham transferred their operations and equipment to Manchester in 1934.

The Company number is 00037554.