The company was founded in 1856 by Arthur Wallis and Charles Haslam in newly-built premises that they named The North Hants Ironworks. The works were sited on Station Hill in Basingstoke and the company began trading as Wallis & Haslam. Shortly afterwards the company were highly commended for their hand worked bench drilling machine at the 1857 Royal Agricultural show in Salisbury, United Kingdom. Even at this early stage, the company were producing a wide variety of agricultural equipment, and alongside the bench drill were corn drills, turnip drills, four types of horse hoe, drag harrows, a 3 hp threshing machine, a barley hummeller and sundry other devices. In 1862, a third partner, Charles James Steevens joined the company and when Charles Haslam retired in 1869, the company became Wal