FOR more than 150 years Paxmans has been one of the major employers in the town.

These archive images show the engineering company through the decades.

At its peak, the Paxman works covered 23 acres and employed more than 2,000.

Paxman was founded by James Noah Paxman, Henry and Charles Davey as Davey, Paxman & Davey, Engineers in 1865.

The company manufactured steam engines, boilers, agricultural machinery, and mill gearing.

By the early 1870s it was supplying machinery to the Kimberley diamond mines in South Africa.

The brand is now owned by MAN SE, as part of MAN Diesel & Turbo.