Ramsden & Chaplin, Melbourne. Manufacturers of boot‑making machinery, clicking presses, and municipal water‑industry castings. Active in the early 20th century, the firm operated a combined foundry and machine shop supplying local industry and municipal councils. Very few records remain, but from research it is known they operated at 8 grant Street Nth Fitzroy Melbourne from the early 1900's, in 1937 they were incorporated and eventually vacated the premises in 1961. They likely manufactured the water meter castings in the 1930's to 1940's with the Siemens type inferential measurement principle fitted internally. Until recently, nothing was known about the company — least of all that it produced water‑meter casings, probably as a sub‑contractor to the major manufacturers. The two newly discovered 3/4" meters are therefore significant, offering very rare, high‑interpretive‑value evidence of the broader and more varied landscape of Australian meter production. Interestingly the two water meters in the museum's collection have at some point been upgraded from imperial to metric Davies Shephard KG registers and likely with new PD chambers inserted some time from 1971 onwards when Australia began implementing the metric measurement standards. On the casting are the letters - SRWSC, which stands for Sydney Regional Water Supply & Sewerage Council. This was a functional/administrative marking used on fittings, valves, and meter bodies supplied to councils within the Sydney water‑supply region (likely 1930s-1950s) before the modern Water Board standardized branding. Timeline:- c.1910s • Probable founding period. Melbourne’s boot‑making and leather industries expand rapidly. • Engineering shops proliferate in Collingwood, Fitzroy, Richmond. 1924 • The Argus newspaper documents Ramsden & Chaplin machinery at auction. • Confirms active manufacturing of boot‑making equipment. 1930s–1940s • Production of clicking presses, edge‑trimmers, and mechanical leather machinery. • Expansion into municipal castings: water‑meter bodies, valve housings, pipe fittings. • Had an agent Frederick R Whittmann at 154 Redfern St Redfern NSW. 1950s • Continued operation at 8 Grant Street, North Fitzroy. • Likely supplying local councils and plumbing contractors. 1961 • Company vacates 8 Grant Street and cancels telephone service. • Marks the end of their documented operations.