Templeborough Rolling Mills
Templeborough Rolling Mills, a rod mill, of Rotherham.
During WWI Steel, Peech and Tozer built a new Melting Shop and Rolling Mills over the site of an old Roman fort at Templeborough. The Templeborough Melting Shop, when opened, was the largest melting shop of its type in Europe and contained 14 open hearth furnaces where steel scrap was melted down.
To meet the demand for wire-rod a plant was built, in accordance with the wishes of the Admiralty, based on the system developed in the USA by the Morgan Construction Co. This plant was installed at the works of Steel, Peech and Tozer, Limited, The Ickles, Sheffield, and was owned by the Templeborough Rolling Mills Company, Limited, a subsidiary company in which Wm. Cooke and Co., Limited, Tinsley, Sheffield, and the Doncaster Wire Co, Limited, of Doncaster and Cleckheaton, were also jointly interested.[1]
Early 1920s: In order to protect the British wire rod industry, United Steel Companies floated the Templeborough Rolling Mills, Limited, formed by a combination of three or four interests, of which the United Steel Companies's was the principal. This company erected the first fully automatic wire rod rolling mill in the UK; it was of the Morgan continuous type and attracted a great deal of attention.
Soon after, United Steel Companies formed a subsidiary United Strip and Bar Mills where another Morgon continuous merchant bar mill and a steel strip mill was installed. These mills were designed to work in conjunction with the large cogging mill and soaking pit at Templeborough and the series of fourteen open-hearth steel melting furnaces, each of about 50 tons capacity, erected by Steel, Peech and Tozer, Limited, so that eventually the whole plant, including the wire rod mill, would operate as one unit.
1925 British Ropes acquired a share of the company, giving it an interest in a key materials supplier[2].
1931 Acquired William Cooke and Co[3].
1951 Templeborough Rolling Mills were nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act[4]; British Ropes had 50% interest in the company[5]; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain.
1953 The first nationalised company which was sold by the Iron and Steel Holding and Rationalization Agency - the original owners regained their shares - one third were sold to British Ropes Ltd, one third to William Cooke and Co Ltd and one third were retained by United Steel Companies Ltd. Templeborough Rolling Mills's holding in Scunthorpe Rod Mill Ltd was sold to the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain[6].
1967 One of the larger steel re-rollers not subject to nationalisation[7]
By 1980 The company was jointly owned by Bridon and British Steel[8].
1982 The firm invested in a £1.3 million new plant. This was the final phase in a 10-year development programme designed to make it the most up-to-date rod mill in the world. Despite this the company faced cut-backs in June 1982.[9]
1998 Mill closed.
The site is now occupied by the Magna Science & Adventure Centre.