Stanton Iron Works Co
of Stanton-by-Dale, Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Formerly known as Stanton Ironworks
1855 Incorporation of the Stanton Iron Works Co[1]
1870 The Franco-Prussian War created a huge demand for iron; the works expanded rapidly with the construction of new furnaces and foundries (the New Works) alongside the Erewash Canal in the early 1870s.
1877 First factory to install electric arc lighting. It was a new factory to produce cast pipes. Owned by George and John Crompton.
By 1878 there were 8 blast furnaces, a general foundry, 3 collieries (Tevesal, Pleasley and Dale ) and ironstone properties in Desborough, Wellingborough and Finedon (Northamptonshire).
The company had seen a lot of growth in the 1870s when the Franco-Prussian War drove demand for iron. It also started to develop the manufacture of iron pipes, which grew dramatically as a market area with the burgeoning of municipal authorities providing gas and water supplies to the populations they served.
1878 The company was incorporated as Stanton Ironworks Company Limited, although it remained very much a family-run for several more decades under chairmen George Crompton (1878-1898) and John Gilbert Crompton (1898-1913). The pipes business would become the main and very successful focus of the company's business, with the founding of an iron pipe foundry.
Another far-sighted development was the leasing of several iron ore sites in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, as the local ironstone seams at Stanton were being worked out. The development of "New Works"turned the company into the joint top Derbyshire iron producers with the Butterley Company. Modernising and mechanisation of the collieries and ironworks led to increased production and profitability.
1900 The The Stanton Ironworks Company Ltd was registered on 6 July, in reconstruction of a company of the same name[2]
1917 Appointment of Edmund John Fox as Managing Director; the company then experienced a period of dramatic growth. He recruited the best engineers and salesmen from rival firms, developed a new colliery at Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire and took the opportunities provided by the pioneering new ways of producing iron pipes by centrifugal casting (as developed by International Delavaud Corporation). Due to these new methods of production the company took on the supply of iron pipes for major concerns such as the London Underground and Mersey Tunnel in the 1920s.
1918 Selling Agents for Messrs. James Oakes and Co.
1919 Became European licensee of the Delavaud spun iron pipe making process.
1920 April. Issued catalogue on cast iron signposts
1920 Took over the ironworks, foundries and ironstone properties of James Oakes and Co. The Stanton company also took over the Holwell Iron Co
1923 The company decided to put three further blast-furnaces into operation on March 1st. The company was then working twelve out of its seventeen furnaces.[3]
1926 June. The large works of the Stanton Ironworks Company at Stanton Holwell and Riddings, Derbyshire, closed owing to lack of fuel, throwing 7000 employees idle. [4]
1927 See Aberconway Chapter II for information on the company and its history. Mr. C. R. Crompton was Chairman and Mr. W. Benton Jones was among the Directors. It owned seventeen blast furnaces, with a consumption of 337,000 tons of coke per annum.
1933 Acquired Cochranes of Middlesbrough
1938 Acquired Wellingborough Iron Co[5]
1938 Issue of debentures to pay for new coke oven plant.
1939 Became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stewarts and Lloyds, Britain's major steel tube producer.
1942 The company lost some of its drive after the resignation of Fox.
1947 The company's collieries were nationalised.
1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain[6]
During the 1950s the company faced strong pressure in export markets for its products and this led to investment in and collaboration with some firms in overseas countries.
1961 Part of Stewarts and Lloyds. Employing 9,000 persons.[7]
1962 The company was merged with the Staveley Iron and Chemical Co Ltd to form Stanton and Staveley.
1967 Stewarts and Lloyds became part of the nationalised British Steel Corporation, and their major subsidiary - Stanton and Staveley - was also incorporated.
1969 Kunkel-Wagner automated foundry plant commissioned at Holwell works.
1970 New Central Melting cupola plant commissioned at Stanton works. Major investment to convert the product to ductile iron was underway.
1974 Last blast furnace closed at Stanton; thereafter the feedstock was scrap steel, melted in a cupola.
A Brief History of The Firm
Abstract from 'Basic Blast Furnaces' The Engineer 1917/11/02 p 392.
"It was established in 1855 with an office staff of four, and three small furnaces, a small foundry, iron fields at Stanton and in the neighbourhood parish of Dale Abbey, and the Ironstone Bell pits at Babbington. The partners were Messrs George and John Crompton - brothers and partners in the firm of bankers of Crompton and Evans - Mr Newton and Mr. Barber. At first the pig iron was made entirely from local ore, but in 1865 Northamptonshire ores were introduced into the company's mixtures, and a little later iron mines in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire were acquired and developed.
In 1878 the pipe foundry, now probably the largest in Great Britain, if not in the world, was started under the management of Mr James Chambers, whose son Mr Frederick, is the present manager. Ten years prior to this date the company sunk its first colliery at Teversal, the Pleaseley Colliery followed in 1873, and The Silverhill in 1878. As indicating the progress of the firm it may be mentioned that in the twenty years immediately prior to 1914, the output of coal had increased by 94 per cent, the ironstone output by 38 per cent, the pig iron output by 29 per cent and the cast iron pipe output by 184 per cent. The company has now some 7000 people on its pay roll - 3000 at Stanton, the same number at the collieries and 1000 at the ironstone mines." November 2nd 1917.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1917/11/02
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Engineer 1923/02/09
- ↑ The Engineer 1926/06/25
- ↑ The Times, Jun 23, 1938
- ↑ Hansard 19 February 1951
- ↑ * 1961 Guide to Key British Enterprises