Goldendale Iron Co
of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent
1844 Company established
George Watkins photographed two beam blowing engines in 1952. He noted that one was said to have been bought when the works started in the 1840s from and ironworks which had started in 1833. The other was said to have been made on site. The cylinders were indoors, sharing an engine house, while the outer end of the beams and flywheels were outdoors. They had both been built as direct-acting engines, but were made rotative and were harnessed to the same crankshaft and flywheel. Later they had separate crankshafts and flywheel[1]. Watkins noted that in 1950 one furnace made cold blast pig iron to special order[2]
1844 Company established on the foundation of a much older business dating from the eighteenth century, founded by Williamson Brothers.
1847 'FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR TUNSTALL.- John Turner, a lad 12 years of age, met with his death on Tuesday last, at the iron furnaces of Mr. R. Williamson, at Goldendale, near Tunstall, in the following manner. The deceased was employed in filling boxes with stone, which are emptied into barrows and drawn up by the engine to the top of the furnace. On Tuesday morning, a barrow of stone was being drawn up, when the lad got into the carriage to ascend with it. When it was elevated about 15 feet, a cog of the wheel of the engine broke, and the carriage instantly fell. The deceased made an attempt to jump off, when he fell on his face, and received such injuries as to cause his death shortly afterwards.'[3]
1886 'HEAVY FAILURE OF IRON AND COAL MASTERS. The Goldendale Iron Company, Goldenhill, North Staffordshire, who also trade as the Stone Trough Colliery Company at Scholars' Green, have suspended payment, and yesterday they filed a liquidation petition in the Hanley County Court. The partners are Messrs. H. H. & W. S. Williamson, The concern is extensive one, and the liabilities are reported to be about £50,000. The assets are not yet ascertained. The failure is attributed to the long depression in trade, and the excessively low prices that have long prevailed for iron and coal.'[4]
1914 Cylinder pig-iron manufacturers. Specialities: hard, close, grey and very fluid pig iron for cylinder making, easy to machine. [5]
1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain[6]
1954 Company purchased from the Holding and Realization Agency by William E. Dunn Ltd[7].
1964 The prospect of re-nationalization was said to be inhibiting the board of the parent company from further investment in Goldendale[8].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain', Vol 5: The North Midlands by George Watkins, Landmark Publishing
- ↑ 'The Steam Engine in Industry' by George Watkins in two volumes. Moorland Publishing. 1978/9.
- ↑ Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday 18 September 1847
- ↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 11 November 1886
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ Hansard 19 February 1951
- ↑ The Times, 4 January 1964
- ↑ The Times, 4 January 1964