United Steel Companies

1938.

November 1947.

of 17 Westbourne Road, Sheffield, 10. Telephone: 60081 (7 lines). Telegraphic Address: "Unisteels, Sheffield". (1937)

The United Steel Companies were a steel making, engineering, coal mining and coal by- product group based in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

• 1918 Formed at the instigation of Henry Steel of Steel, Peech and Tozer, who became the first chairman. By exchange of shares the new Company acquired 10 other companies, including:
  • Appleby-Frodingham Steel Co of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire
  • Daniel Doncaster and Sons of Sheffield
  • Samuel Fox and Co of Stocksbridge, near Sheffield
  • Bekermet Mining Co
  • Workington Iron and Steel Co
  • and the coal mining and by-products interests of Rother Vale Collieries at Orgreave, Treeton and Thurcroft.

• Bought Butlin's Ironworks at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and control of the Martino Steel and Metal Co of Birmingham.

• Purchased a large interest in Thomas Smith's Stamping Works of Coventry and Walsall.

• 1920 On the death of Harry Steel, Albert Peech became chairman.

• Modern continuous-rolling mills were put down at Templeborough for the production of strip and bar as Templeborough Rolling Mills; for this purpose United Strip and Bar Mills, a subsidiary Company, was formed.

• 1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history.

• 1930 Became a public company.

• 1937 British Industries Fair Advert for 'Service to the Steel Industry'. Irons and Steels (special and ordinary qualities), in strip, wire, bar and plate forms. Forgings, Railway Materials, Road Vehicle Springs, Constructional Steelwork, Sheet Piling, Civil Engineering Caastins, Pre-cast concrete Products. (Engineering/Metals/Quarry, Roads and Mining/Transport Section - Stand Nos. D.713 and D.612). Of Westbourne Road, Sheffield.

• 1937 Steel and iron manufacturers.

• 1939 See Aircraft Industry Suppliers

• Over the years other companies were added to the portfolio: The Sheffield Coal Company, owners of Birley Collieries, Brookhouse and North Staveley collieries, was bought by the United Steel Companies in 1937. This also included coal by-product operations at Orgreave and Brookhouse, suppliers of Metallurgical Coke for Blast Furnaces.

• 1944 The Kiveton Park Colliery Company was taken over, with reserves from, amongst others, the Barnsley seam being an attractive proposition. The facilities also included coke and coal by-products (including gas). The colliery interests became part of the National Coal Board at nationalisation. The coke ovens closed in 1956 and the colliery in 1984.

• In 1945 the mining portfolio was increased with the purchase of the Shireoaks Colliery Co the colliery being just over the Nottinghamshire border. As with all their collieries, this became part of the National Coal Board in 1947.

• 1948 The Yorkshire Engine Co was bought by the United Steel Companies Limited. With United Steels wanting new locomotives following the end of World War II the opportunity arose to purchase the company at a good price and also a suggestion to centralise the engineering workshops which would serve their steelworks at Templeborough (Rotherham) and Stocksbridge.

• 1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain

• 1953 Retained one third of the shares in the first nationalised company to be sold by the Iron and Steel Holding and Rationalization Agency, namely Templeborough Rolling Mills .

• 1953 Public offer for sale of the shares in the company held by the Iron and Steel Holding and Rationalization Agency; United Steel was the largest steel producer in the UK, accounting for 13.5 percent of national output, and owned iron or mines, coal carbonizing plant and chemical enterprises as well as iron and steel plant.

• 1961 Employed 37,700 persons in the group. 26 subsidiaries. Manufacturers of carbon, alloy, stainless and special steels, hematite and basic iron; billets, blooms, slabs, forgings, bars, hot and cold rolled strip, tyres, wheels, axles, rings, wire, laminated and coil springs, watch springs, stainless steel sheets, plates, joists and sections, rails, sleepers, fishplates; umbrella frames; derivatives from coal carbonisation; constructional engineering; ingot moulds and iron castings; locomotives.

• 1967 The iron and steel works on nationalisation became part of British Steel and the mining interests passed to the National Coal Board. The coal by-products plants came under the ownership of a subsidiary, the United Coke and Chemical Co. The works, at Meadowhall, closed.

• 1968 Structural steelwork.

• Nowadays the steel interests at Rotherham, Scunthorpe and Stocksbridge are part of Corus and all the mining interests have been closed, the last, at Treeton, in the 1990s.

See Also

• The Engineer of 15th October 1920 p380