The firm was established when John and Stephen Salter took over Isaac King's boat building firm based at Folly Bridge in Oxford. They were the country's leading racing-boat-builder in the 1860s (distributing craft around the world) and they built many of the beautiful Oxford University barges at Christ Church Meadow, used over many years as a base for the various colleges for the sport of rowing. These have now all been replaced by boat houses. They became one of the largest inland boat-letters in the country by the late 1880s and in the twentieth century they built many pleasure craft for corporations and councils around the country.