Bell Brothers
of Cleveland
1836 Furnace built at Wylam
1844 Company established by Isaac Lowthian Bell and his brothers [1]to lease the furnace at Wylam from Christopher Blackett
1854 Three furnaces and made 12,536 tons of pig-iron.
1863 The original furnace was finally blown out.
1866 See 1866 Cleveland Blast Furnaces for detail of furnaces.
1873 Converted to a private company.
1883 Building a plant to make soda using the ammonia process from the salt from the deposit at Port Clarence that was being developed by Newcastle Chemical Works Co[2].
1899 Became a public company. According to the prospectus 'produced during the past three years an annual average of pig-iron, 320,000 tons; coal, 715,000 tons; coke, 305,000 tons; ironstone, 40,000,000 tons; and limestone, 1,165,000 tons.' The company was registered on 24 January, to take over the business of iron masters and colliery owners of a private company of the same name. [3]
1914 Ironmasters, colliery and ironstone mine owners. Specialities: pig iron manufacturing, coals, coke, ironstone, limestone etc. Employees 6,000. [4]
Late 1920s Dorman, Long and Co took over the concerns of Bell Brothers and Bolckow, Vaughan and Co[5]
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history.