Baldwins: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:55, 5 July 2012

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of Wind Street, Swansea. Works: King's Dock, Swansea; Mansel, Port Talbot; Wern, Briton Ferry

Midland Branch: Wilden Iron Works, Stourport-on-Severn

1902 The company was established and registered on 7 April, to acquire the businesses of iron and steel manufacturers, and colliery and iron proprietors, of E. P. and W. Baldwin, Wright, Butler and Co, Alfred Baldwin and Co, the Bryn Navigation Colliery Co and the Blackwall Galvanised Iron Co^[1]. Alfred Baldwin was the first chairman and his son Stanley was managing director. Stanley had sole responsibility for the Midland Division which accounted for about one quarter of the turnover^[2]

1914 Iron masters and colliery proprietors. Specialities: round, square and hoop iron; bar, angle and tee steel; black and galvanized sheets, tinned sheets, tinplates etc. The company has its own blast furnaces and steel works and numerous factories where steel bars are converted into a variety of metal sheets. Employees 6,000. The following brands are important features of the company's output:
- In galvanized sheets: "Phoenix" corrugated, plain and best sheets for seaming and working-up; "Lion and Crown" best dead flat galvanized sheets.
- In black sheets: "Vale", "Shield" and "Lion and Crown" dead flat and suitable for trunks, pipes etc., "Plough", a cheaper brand for ordinary use.
- In tinned sheets: "Baldwin-Wilden", "Cookley K" and "Lion and "Crown" made in best coke finish and heavily-coated charcoal finish for dairy work, gas meters etc.
- In tinplates: "Cookley K", "Cookley CSS" or "Wilden", "Wolverley", "Unicorn", "Cookley Coke" and "Stour"; and for Welsh tinplates "Kemys", "Kama", "Keblah", "Kaolin", "Karoo", "King's Dock, Swansea" and "Galles". ^[4]
1918 New private steel company formed by Baldwins, their bankers and associates; it was called the British Steel Corporation; it had acquired the Briton Ferry Works and extensive land between the Swansea docks and the Neath River to host blast furnaces and coke ovens^[5].

1919 the British Steel Corporation was acquired by Baldwins which then would have more productive capacity than any similar undertaking in the U.K.; Baldwins was also said to be planning to move into the manufacturing side of the steel business^[6].

1930 Amalgamation of South Wales Steel works with those of GKN to form British Iron and Steel Co.

1937 British Industries Fair Advert for Welsh Tinplate Works. (Engineering/Metals/Quarry, Roads and Mining/Transport Section - Stand No. D.328). ^[8]

In 1945 Baldwins and Richard Thomas and Co merged creating Richard Thomas and Baldwins, an organisation of some 27,000 employees.

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 [[Category: Iron and Steel]]
 [[Category: Iron Works]]
-[[Category: Iron Mills]]
+[[Category: Iron/Steel Foundry]]
 [[Category: Steel Mills]]