Newton, Lyon and Co
1803 Sale Notice: 'NORTH WALES. The GREENFIELD COPPER and BRASS COMPANY'S PREMISES and ESTATES, at Holywell in Flintshire.
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION by Messrs. SKINNER, DYKE and Co. ....
LOT 1. A Capital and powerful BRASS ROLLING MILL, capable of working two pair of Rolls, three Battery Mills and Turning House, with 24 feet fall of water, ....
LOT 2. A most capital and powerful with three large wheels, and sufficient room for four pair of tolls, three pair now fixed, four furnaces, with 23 feet fall of water, with a refinery and useful buildings.....
LOT 3. Six Brass Melting-Houses, four fires in each, calamine calcining house, with calciner buddles and drying oven; a mill, with a pair of stones and a pair of rollers, with four feet five inches fall of water; ..... likewise a fall of water not in use, of about 21 feet, that may be separated from the other prt, and room for an extensive manufactory.
LOT 4. A commodious Dwelling-house called Greenfield Lodge, now an inn, .....
For further particulars apply to Mr. Samuel Taylor, the Agent, on the Premises; To Mr. John Stevens, Copper Office, Liverpool; or to Messrs. Skinner, Dyke amd Co., Aldersgate-street. '[1]
1806 Formation of Newton Lyon and Co to take over the Battery Mill site in the Greenfield Valley in Flintshire in order to manufacture copper and lead items.
1809 Advert: 'GREENFIELD LEAD AND COPPER WORKS.
MESSRS. NEWTON, LYON, and Co. of Liverpool, having perfected their Establishment for the rolling of Copper and Lead of every Description, they are now prepared to execute any Orders with which they may be favoured.
The superior Power of their Mills, situate on the Holywell River, and commanding the greatest fall on that remarkable Stream, will at once ensure to their Friends unequalled Dispatch, and enable the Proprietors to tender their Services on Terms particularly advantageous to the Trade.
Pig Lead or Copper (either in the Cake or Shruff) entrusted to their Care at Liverpool, or sent direct to their Works, in Flintshire, will be manufactured in the best Manner and returned with the utmost Promptitude.
Cooper's Row, Liverpool, June 6, 1809.'[2]
1821-1830 Agent to Lord Anglesey and the Mona Mine Co.
1831 Purchased the Merllyn Lead Works at Bagillt, Flintshire.
1832 Formed the British and Foreign Copper Co with Waddington, Templeman and Co of London aka as Brownell and Co in Liverpool to import and smelt South American copper ores. British and Foreign Copper Company built the Sutton Oak smelting works in St Helens under the supervision of William Keates.
1838 Purchased lead rolling and pipe works in Glasgow and opened an office and warehouse in Deansgate, Manchester.
1844 Withdrawal of the Lyon family from the partnership William Keates became the managing partner and the partnership was renamed Newton, Keates and Co.
1941 'NOTES FROM MY SCRAPBOOK By LT.-COL. J. L. WILLIAMS (Holywell).
THE HISTORY OF GREENFIELD. 1856.
The following are extracts from Lt -Col. J. L. Williams' book, which may prove of interest to of our readers. Co. Williams is the oldest memmber of the Holywell Urban District council, and is a magistrate.
YELLOW FACTORY.
(Recollections of Thomas Parry, of Bagillt. Nailer. Aged 104-116?). My father lived in one of the cottages close to the Yellow Factory, on the East of the stream, and I was born there. I recollect when some fine poplar trees, that stood by our house, felled, and my father and the other tenants claimed them, as they also did their cottages and gardens. There were disputes about the proprietorship of the lands at the time, but Sir Pyers Mostyn one day brought a great number of his tenants and after a hard combat carried away the timber and eventually forced them out of their houses. A little lower down than our house, at the lower end of the present Yellow Factory, was a Black Jack Works. There were 4 or 5 furnaces in it. I do not know when it was built. At the upper end of it was an arched building. I can recollect it was about the centre of the present factory, and over it was a conical building, and over another building in which was hung a bell. I recollect throwing stones from the helt (heltydd) at the bell. This building was called the Cupola. It was detached from the other buildings. This was taken down by Smalley, to the surprise of the neighbourhood.
I recollect Mr. Champion working the Black Jack Works. He gave them up because they did not answer his expectations. Mr. Smalley built his factory as soon as he procured the lease, and the bottom part of it touches the upper part of the Black Jack Works. He pulled down, after erecting his factory, all the old buildings. There were no other buildings about except the Snuff Mills and the Flour Mills. I recollect an Iron Wire Mill where the half-moon (Crescent) Factory is now, worked by Smalley, and I recollect it as a Flour before. I remember the building that was used by Fouglass (Cotton Twist Co.) as Smithy, a Pin Making Mill. The man removed his mill to the Rope Walk at Bagillt, where the Parish Houses are now.'
'GREENFIELD MILLS.
I recollect Lyons Works. It was at first a small building, used for drawing wire, by a man called Waughton (probably Vaughton). He removed his shop to the bottom of Well Street (!), and afterwards to the corner of Whitford Street, where it is now. I suppose (this Is Vaughton ? shop). It was afterwards considerably extended by the Brass Battery Co., who made brass pans — very large ones. I well recollect the dam (dam-head) being built. I do not recollect the names of the partes who built it, but they were those who had taken the works, strangers from Staffordshire.
- November 1856, T.H.
Greenfield Mills. These are on the site of the Brass Battery Mills, built in the year 1765 and set to work Sept. 20th, 1766. The first brass made at Greenfield was on the 20th August, 1766, then held by Messrs. Patten and Co. Since 1786 they have been in the hands of Thomas Williams, Esqr. and under the firm of the Greenfield Copper and Brass Co., who have much improved it by various erections. They make brass nrphones(?) or large pans which the negroes make salt, etc. — Pennants History of Holywell.
YELLOW FACTORY
Mr. Pennant recollected an ancient smelting works on the site of this factory. This smelting works was erected before 1736 by lease from Roger and Pennant Esqr. was conducted by Madame Kemp and Co. It was reverted probably same year into hands of the lessors in consequence of smoke nuisance. In 1738 a lease of it was granted to Mr. Champion to calcine Black Jack. In the Spring of 1777 the Factory (the old Cotton Mill) was erected by Mr. John Smalley:. In 1764 a Pin Mill was erected close to it by or for James Eden and he failed in 2 years. It was afterwards occupied a Mrs. Chambers and was converted by her into a coarse paper mill, and used 1783 when it fell into the hands of the Holywell Cotton Twist Co. who turned it into a smithy. See Pennants History of Holywell. This pin mill is now (1855) used by Mr. Jones, Crescent Factory, as a flannel storeroom.'[3]
See here for Thomas Pennant's 'The History of the Parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell'.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Ken Davies, Newton, Lyon/Newton, Keates & Co of Liverpool 1806-1894, Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 109 (2013) pp. 166-197.