Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Co
of Sheepbridge Iron Works, Chesterfield
1854 Company established as Dunston and Barlow Co, Ltd.
1864 The company of the present name was established [1], for the purposes of taking over from Mr William Fowler the blast furnaces he had established at Sheepbridge (also including foundries and a forge), and also the Nesfield, Dunston and Sheepbridge collieries[2]
Sank a new colliery - Norwood - at Eckington, 9 miles north of the works. By 1869 it was producing 400 tons daily and soon doubled that output.
Formed a joint venture with the Staveley Coal and Iron Co, brokered by Pochin (who sat on the Sheepbridge and Staveley boards) to sink a new mine at Newstead, in the Nottingham coalfield.
The company turned to alternative supplies of ironstone as local supplies were running short. Four companies (Sheepbridge, Staveley, Clay Cross and Wingerworth) formed The Midland Counties Iron Ore Co to negotiate with the mineral owners in Northampton and Lincoln. Sheepbridge took up leases at Cottismore and later at Brixworth but the new supplies were unsatisfactory, so the company turned to seek ore at Frodingham in Lincolnshire. This led to a brief period when Sheepbridge debated whether it would be more profitable to move the works to Lincolnshire and ship-in the coal.
By 1872 the company had taken a lease of coal at Glapwell (including some of that owned by the Arkwrights of Sutton) and a little later taking a lease at Langwith of coal owned by the Duke of Portland, the Marquess of Hartington and Lord Bathurst. The Langwith mine was sunk in 1876 and Glapwell started production in 1883.
John Stores-Smith, the M.D. of Sheepbridge, publicly recognised that trade unionism was an accomplished fact - in contrast to the attitude of his counterpart, Charles Markham, at Staveley.
After Stores-Smith retired, James Colquhon was recruited from the Tredegar Iron Co but profits from iron were minimal, and it was the success of Glapwell colliery that kept the Company viable.
1902 Moved into the South Yorkshire coalfield by taking shareholdings in new sinkings at Dinnington Main, and, in 1908 in Maltby Main.
Along with John Brown and Co of Sheffield, formed the Rossington Main Colliery Co to exploit the Rossington and Wadworth coal fields.
Charles McLaren (later to become Lord Aberconway), who was Pochin’s son-in-law, took over as Chairman of the Company. He was a great propagandist for his companies. Pig iron was now being made into pipes for the gas and sewerage industries.
1910 Built an engine in the Sheepbridge Workshops for their 20 inch mill. [3]
By 1913 the ironworks had been extended substantially, including blast furnaces, rolling mills, pipe and general foundries, and engine-building shops; also had subsidiary companies including:[4]
and also a half interest in Newstead Colliery Co and in Langwith By-Product Works and several iron ore mines.
1914 Norwood was running out of coal and closed in 1914. Newstead, which was still partially owned by Sheepbridge, started the development of Blidworth colliery in Nottinghamshire while Sheepbridge in conjunction with Wallingwells Boring Co obtained a controlling interest in the development of the Carlton area of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
1914 Coal and iron company. [5]
WWI The Perchlorate Safety Explosive Co. Ltd. proposed building a plant at Langwith colliery to use the sulphate of ammonia manufactured in the coke by-product plant - see also Langwith By-Product Co.
1916 the Ministry of Munitions took over the production of the iron works as a "controlled establishment" and financed a new steel-making furnace and rolling mill.
Post-WWI The larger newer collieries in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were much better placed to weather the reduction in demand of the 1920s than the small pits of South Wales and Northumberland and Durham. The back log in orders for piping, caused by the war, brought a boom in trade, that enabled investment in a new blast furnace and for the first time the iron side of the business earned more than coal mining.
1920s Sheepbridge and Staveley ran the Newstead Colliery company very successfully, so much so that it financed the sinking of Blidworth colliery.
The interest in the Finningley coal field was sold and the money put into the Firbeck area - with joint financing, Staveley and the Sheepbridge and Dinnington Company sank Firbeck colliery to the Barnsley seam.
Started to manufacture of cylinder liners for large piston pots; the company started buying up small companies, first spun castings for piston rings, forming a new company with F. W. Stokes, Sheepbridge Stokes Centrifugal Castings Co.
1927 See Aberconway Chapter II for information on the company and its history. Owned collieries in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as well as large coal investments in South Yorkshire pits and ironstone mines in Northamptonshire and Rutland.
1928 Manufactured concrete block-making machines for Knap Concrete Machines Ltd[6]
1929 Newton, Chambers and Co were also involved in spun castings so Sheepbridge bought-out their interests.
Maltby Colliery was sold to the Denaby company, and a new holding company was formed to run Sheepbridge, Dinnington, Rossington and Denaby and Cadeby collieries.
To strengthen its London coal sales, the company bought a share of Rickett, Cockerell and Co
1920s/30s The main metal product was still pig iron although the water and sanitary pipe business continued to prosper. The Company took up the Hornsey and Hopkinson iron making process, building new plant for the purpose. At the same time a tar-macadam plant was built but was soon leased to William Prestwick and Son, as an outlet for slag and tars (also the reason for an investment in the Chesterfield Asphalt Co).
1930s Sheepbridge bought Tibshelf and Birchwood collieries, closing Tibshelf but keeping Birchwood until 1941.
WWII The Ministry of Supply financed new buildings at the company’s subsidiary, Humber Co. Ltd., at Coventry and new plant to make bomb forgings.
1944 Mr F W Stokes joined the board to improve the board's knowledge of the subsidiary Sheepbridge Stokes Centrifugal Castings Co[7]
1947 The collieries were nationalised.
1948 The Sheepbridge Company split its assets, separating the engineering businesses from the businesses likely to be nationalised; the engineering businesses were sold to a new subsidiary Sheepbridge Engineering Ltd; the remaining businesses were ironstone mines, blast furnaces, rolling mills, wagon repair ship and sawmill[8]
1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain[9]
1955 Company transferred from the Holding and Realization Agency to Staveley Iron and Chemical Co[10].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Times 1 Dec 1913
- ↑ The Steam Engine in Industry by George Watkins in two volumes. Moorland Publishing. 1978/9. ISBN 0-903485-65-6
- ↑ The Times 1 Dec 1913
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Times, Oct 04, 1928
- ↑ The Times Sep 28, 1944
- ↑ The Times, Oct 19, 1948
- ↑ Hansard 19 February 1951
- ↑ The Times, 29 January 1955
- [1] Nedias newsletter #79b