Newton, Keates and Co
of St. Helens.
1806 Formation of Newton, Lyon and Co to take over the Battery Mills site in the Greenfield Valley, Flintshire to manufacture copper and lead items.
1832 Newton, Lyon and Co had rolling mills in Flintshire, and decided to become smelters. They engaged William Keates, who built the Sutton Smelting Works near St Helens Junction in 1832, trading as Newton, Keates & Co [1]
1844 Withdrawal of the Lyons family from the partnership and appointment of William Keates to be the managing partner. The partnership was renamed Newton, Keates and Co. Keates was also manager of the British and Foreign and Co which opened a copper warehouse and office in Broad Street in Birmingham.
1849 OS map shows the factory to be a narrow building running from Deansgate to the River Irwell, close to the north east end of Deansgate.[2]
1850 Copper roller makers [3].
1850 Erected a factory in Bagillt, Flintshire to deal with the blister copper produced as a bi-product at the Muspratt chemical works in nearby Flint.
1850s Took over Meadow Mill, Greenfield Valley, which had been established in 1780 by the Greenfield Copper and Brass Co. In the 1890s the site was taken over by William Eyre for rubber processing.[4]. Remains of the works can be seen at Greenfield Valley Heritage Park and Museum.
1855 British and Foreign Copper Co set up a copper smelting works at Parr, St Helens to smelt imported ores.
1859 Erected the Sutton Moss Rolling Mill in St Helens.
1860 Messrs Newton, Keates and Co had a smelter at Bagillt, Flintshire[5].
1861 Closure of the Parr Smelting works which was re-opened by Henry Baxter in 1863.
1863 Death of Charles Brownell and withdrawal of Waddington and Templeman from the British and Foreign Copper Co which then became a wholly owned subsidiary of Newton, Keates & Co.
1866 Withdrawal of Newton Keates from lead smelting and manufacturing. Works at Bagillt and Glasgow sold to Walker Parker and Co. All lead works in the Greenfield Valley were closed though the sites remained in the ownership of Newton, Keates and Co.
1871-2 New steam powered copper and brass wire mill construct on the site of the lead works at Greenfield Mills. Lease on Meadow Mills site reverted to Newton Keates which converted it to a copper and brass rolling mill.
c1880 Newton, Keates and Co began using a trade mark of a crown and anchor with the letters 'NK&Co'.
1891 Closure of the brass rolling mill at Greenfield and closure of the blister copper works in Bagillt following the take over of Muspratt & Sons and of the Runcorn Soap & Alkali Co by the United Alkali Co in 1890.
1892 Closure of wire making works at Greenfield.
1894 Closure of remaining Newton, Keates works at Greenfield. Sale of the Sutton Moss rolling mill to Thomass Bolton and Co though 1894-1899 it traded as Newton, Keates and Bolton.
1895 Closure of the Sutton Oak copper smelting works.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Ken Davies, Newton, Lyon/Newton, Keates & Co, Liverpool 1806-1894, Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 109 (2013) pp. 166-197.