Frank Pearn & Co Ltd

Frank Pearn & Co was a pump manufacturing and hydraulic engineering company based in the West Gorton area of Manchester. Brothers Frank and Sinclair Pearn formed the company in 1880 as a partnership with Thomas Addyson.

The company had previously existed as a partnership between the two brothers, beginning around 1871, before Arthur Collings Wells joined as a third partner, and the company became known as Frank Pearn, Wells & Co. It is not recorded when Wells joined the partnership, but it is estimated to be around 1878 or 1879.

Under its new name, the company continued to manufacture pumps, supplying to waterworks across the United Kingdom. From 1886, Frank Pearn & Co was also the maker of the Clarke's railway signal wire compensator and developed designs for patent universal horizontal surfacing, boring, milling, drilling and tapping machines, which the company licensed to George Richards & Co. The machines were advertised under the name Pearn-Richards.

Following Frank Pearn's death in 1914, Sinclair Pearn continued as chairman and managing director until his death in 1933. Sinclair Pearn was succeeded by his son Harold Walker Pearn, who had been joint managing director with his father. Harold Walker Pearn died in 1954, and the company was wound up the following year. Its business was absorbed by Holden & Brooke Limited.