Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Co
of Ferryhill, Co. Durham
1859 James Morrison began the Ferryhill Iron Works, erecting three blast furnaces, each 55 feet in height.
OR
1860 The first 2 blast furnaces were built at Ferryhill
c.1864 Morrison amalgamated his interest in these and other works in the county of Durham with the owners of the Rosedale' estate, forming the Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Company, the other partners being George Leeman and Alexander Clunes Sherriff.
1866 Another 4 furnaces were built
1866 Another 2 taller, furnaces were built
1866 Another 2 furnaces were built
1872 Built 2 new blast furnace[1]
1879 'THE GREAT FAILURE IN THE IRON TRADE. A meeting of the creditors, whose claims are over £1,000, of the Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Company, which is one of the oldest aud largest Ironworks in the North of England, will be held to day at Mr. Belk's office, Middlesbro'. Messrs. Monkhouse and Goddard will present a statement of the accounts.
The Newcastle Chronicle writing of the suspension of the Ferryhill Iron Company, says; — The Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Company laboured under peculiar disadvantages compared with their competitors at Middlesbrough, because the only way that they could carry materials to or from their works was by rail. It was calculated that this made a difference of 2s. per ton against the company as compared with the Middlesbrough Ironmasters, who possessed great shipping facilities. Gradually the company got into difficulties, and within the last few days one or two heavy Losses, combined with the non-receipt of a considerable sum of money which was calculated upon, compelled the company to issue the circuiar announcing that they would not be able to meet their bids due on Saturday morning. Tbe property of the company consists of a large freehold and leasehold estate at Rosedale, in Yorkshire; the South Kirby Colliery, a very valuable property in the neighbourhood of Barnsley : the Thrisington Colliery, in Durham ; and the Ferryhill ironworks, comprising ten blast-furnaces, many of which are of the most modern construction. The liabilities of the company in Middlesbrough are extremely small, and are due chiefly to coal and coke owners. It is estimated that about £1000 would clear off the creditors in Middlesbrough. In Newcastle, however, a very considerable sum is due to bankers. The liabilities of the company, so far as they can at present be ascertained, are about £280,000 with an expected surplus, after the estate had been realised, of about £50,000. Compared with tbe magnitude of the concern, the liabilities are not large, and from what we gather the suspension will not, it is expected, cause much injury to the district. The bulk of the liabilities are secured on the ample properties, and the unsecured creditors are a few wealthy coal and coke proprietors in the district. In a little time it is believed that with careful liquidation, both they and the secured creditors will be able to get all that is uue to them. The company, however, felt that they had no alternative but to place the matter in the hands of their creditors. Considerable regret has been expressed that such a course was rendered inevitable, and much sympathy is felt for the young members of the firm, who have had so many difficulties to cope with during these hard times. We understand that Mr. George Leeman, M.P., is not now a partner in the concern, having sold his interest some six months ago. The late Mr. Sherriff's representatives sold their interests to the late Mr. Morrison's three sons, Martin, James W., and Reginald, by whom the company has since been carried on. Mr. Sherriff was originally the traffic manager of the North-Eastern Railway Company, and lived at Newcastle. He afterwards went to Worcester, and was at the head of a waggon building establishment there. The Ferryhill Ironworks, built in the year 1859, were the original creation of the late Mr. James Morrison, who was not only known in the town and neighbourhood, but all over the country, as an extensive ironmaster and coal owner. In 1864 he amalgamated his interest in these and other works in the county of Durham with the Rosedale estate and mines, then owned by Mr. Leeman, Mr. Sherriff, and the late Mr. Isaac Hartas, The company was formed with a capital of 60,000 £10 shares paid up, and 15,000 £10 shares unpaid. Since then the amalgamated concerns have been carried on under the style of the Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Company, Limited. The works considerably developed, growing up to have a producing power of 250,000 tons of pig iron per annum. It was Mr. Morrison's boast that he had built and worked the largest furnaces in the world. The Rosedale estate and large adjoining royalties of ironstone was a magnificent speculation. Messrs. Leeman and Sherriff came upon an immense basin or quarry of magnetic limestone, about 120 feet in thickness, and known to all the metallurgists and mineralogists of the North as the Rosedale magnetic ore. Among its many other singular properties, this stone, although attracted by the magnet, before calcining, will only, with some very rare exceptions, attract iron itself. It contains from 48 to 50 per cent, of metallic iron, whereas the best part of the main seam of the Cleveland ironstone proper contains no more than 33 per cent. The Rosedale ore is thus much more valuable than that of the Cleveland district proper. From the mines at Rosedale to the furnaces at Ferryhill is an easy and natural transition, although much more natural than easy, the stone having to be carried by a very circuitous route. There are are now eight furnaces at Ferryhill, including the largest in the world. Mr. Morrison, at the Ferryhill Works, has carried the argument in favour of high blast furnaces to is extreme limits. His l03ft. furnaces are eight feet higher than the next largest furnace in Cleveland; and when we say Cleveland, we mean, of course, the whole world, for nowhere else have blast furnaces been carried to anything like the same height. The results obtained in these monster furnaces apparently convinced Mr. Morrison that he had not yet reached the limit of height to which furnaces might be built with advantage, seeing that he built other two which have been carried to an altitude of 105 feet, and worked with great success. Ironmasters watched these furnaces with eager interest, many of them being incredulous of the wisdom which had actuated their construction. The cubical capacity of the new furnaces was close on 50,000 feet; that of the first furnace built at Middlesbrough by Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan was only 4566 feet. The weekly production of the eight furnaces blowing at Ferryhill a short time ago was about 3500 tons. When the two new furnaces were blown, the weekly make of pig iron reached little short of 5000 tons per week, or a larger make than any other establishment in the north of England. But tbe mechanical appliances at Ferryhill are scarcely less wonderful than the furnaces. Altogether, the apparatus that actuate these immense works are on a scale worthy of them; and it may be said of the concern as a whole that it is a fitting monument to the enterprise of its proprietor.
Mr. James Morrison, the founder of the Ferryhill Ironworks, was born in 1806, in Glamorganshire, South Wales, and he died in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in February, 1878, in the 72nd year of his age. His parents belonged to Northumberland, and were in comparatively humble circumstances. ln his youth he was a clerk, but at nineteen years of age he went to South America, in connection with the Poliso Mining Company, but the company failed before he reached the mines, and he was thrown upon his own resources. For the next few years little was known of his career. About 1830, when he was 22 years of age, he became connected with the iron and coal trades of Monmouthshire. Although he had gained considerable insight into the rationale of the trade, his prospects at this place failed to answer his expectations. He left Wales about the year 1836, and come to the North of England. At that time the Ridsdale Iron Works, on the north of the Tyne, were just completed. They were erected by some gentlemen connected with, or at one time forming part of the Derwent Iron Company. There were then only two works of the kind in operation throughout the North of England. On the establishment of the Consett Ironworks, in 1840, Mr. Morrison was elected to fill a responsible position in their management. In 1845, Mr. Morrison went over to France and became connected as manager and principal proprietor of the Guines and Marquise Works, the former about six miles south of Calis, and the latter nearly the same distance from Boulogne. Mr. Morrison remained at Guines until after the French Revolution of 1848, when be became connected with the Rosieres Works, also in France, under somewhat singular circumstances. In March, 1851, Mr. Morrison again crossed the Channel, and settled down in Newcastle, where he continued to reside until he died. While in France, in connection with a French engineer, he invented an ingenious process for purifying small coals by washing out the impurities with which they were mixed. His intention was to develop this process in the North of England, where nothing of the kind had previously been successfully attempted. It was then the custom at all the north-country collieries to burn at the pit mouth the immense accumulation of small coal or 'duff,' which was obtained as the residue of the screening process. Mr. Morrison had no difficulty in making arrangements for tbe supply of an almost unlimited quantity of 'duff.' Having made these advantageous arrangements, he subjected the 'duff' to his new washing process. After the small coal had thus been purified, it was admirably adapted for the manufacture of coke, yielding from 50 to 58 per cent of that material. To this purpose it was converted by Mr. Morrison, who established coke manufactories on a large scale, and made extensive contracts with iron-masters for the supply of that necessary component in blast-furnace practice. The result was a grand success. For several years after he had initiated the washing coal process, Mr. Morrison found himself rapidly amassing wealth. He established works at Coxhoe, Thornley, Wigan in Lancashire, and Staveley in Derbyshire. He became probably the largest coke manufacturer in the world. None could compete with him, far less undersell him, so that he was almost without a rival. This was probably the greatest achievement of his life."
EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE AND DERBYSHIRE. </ref>A correspondent writes: — A good deal of sympathy is being felt throughout South Yorkshire with the partners in the Rosedale Iron Company who have been obliged to suspend payment owing to tbe depressed state of trade. It may not be generally Known that the partners are deeply interested in valuable colliery property and ironworks in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The late Mr. James Morrison, the founder of the Rosedale Works was, at the time of his death, in February last, one of the partners in the Manvers Main Colliery, between Wath and Mexbro', employing from 700 to 800 men, and having a drawing capacity of fully 1000 tons per day. He was also a partner in the Renishaw Iron Works, Derbyshire and was interested in collieries in the same county and elsewhere. It may also be stated that tbe New South Kirby Colliery, which is the deepest pit in Yorkshire, is owned to a considerabe extent by the firm, The colliery, on which something like from *£70,000 to £80,000 has already been expended, is likely to become one of the finest coal properties in Yorkshire, being sank on the estate of Mr. Allott, in the centre of what is described as the finest coalfield in Yorkshire between Hemsworth and Hickleton, measuring six square miles in extent. The estate on which the shafts are being sunk comprises fully 2000 acres of coaL The coal is of excellent quality, being fully nine feet in thickness. The shafts are 15 leet each, and are lined to a great extent with metal "tubbing," which has been made at the Rosedale Works. Two massive engines, which have been made by Messrs. Davy Brothers, of Sheffield, each of which is 120 borse-power, have been fitted, as well as seven large and powerful boilers from the works of Messrs. Wood Brothers, Sheffield. The colliery when opened out will have access by the Great Northern to London and the south, and by the New Swinton and Knottingley line to the north. It was expected that the partners, owing to their interest in the large concerns mentioned would be able to take fully a third of the coal raised when the colliery was in working order.' [2]