of Stanton by Dale, near Nottingham
1960 Stewarts and Lloyds acquired the Staveley Iron and Chemical Co
1962 Stanton Iron Works Co was merged with the Staveley Iron and Chemical Co to form Stanton and Staveley.
1963 Expansion announced. 'Stanton and Staveley's new plant is costing £3,400,000 and will take about two years to complete. The principal item of equipment is a 55/70-ton Kaldo converter and ancillary plant to convert high phosphorous iron made from home ore into low phosphorous foundry iron. As part of the scheme the company is to extend its capacity for making ductile iron pipes and fittings at its spun pipe plants and foundries at Stanton works. Ironmaking is the foundation of the company's activities, using ores from the Midlands. But the trend has been towards low phosphorous iron; hence the "Kaldo" vessel, which will dephosphorise molten iron from the blast furnaces.'[1]
1967 Stewarts and Lloyds became part of the nationalised British Steel Corporation, and their major subsidiary - Stanton and Staveley - was also incorporated.
1960s The Holwell and Staveley blast furnaces were closed.
Stanton and Staveley became part of the Tubes Division of British Steel Corporation. At its height, the company employed around 12,500 people of which 7,000 worked at the Stanton works.
Over the years the company produced a vast range of products. Spun iron pipes, pig iron, pre-stressed concrete pipes, street furniture, lighting columns and cast-iron tunnel segments, used in the construction of the London Underground and the Mersey Tunnel. Other by-products included chemicals, coke oven gas, bitumen and road-stone.
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.
1976 Joint venture established with Pont-a-Mousson Group, Eurovalve Ltd, assembling water valves at Stanton.
1980 Hallam plant, making large diameter ductile iron water pipes, commissioned at Stanton.
1981 Re-formed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Steel Corporation
1983 Modernisation of the Stanhope and Dale spun iron pipe plants at Stanton
1985 The firm was privatised; 75 percent of the shares were acquired by the French Pont-a-Mousson Group, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain
1986 Stanton and Staveley Ltd was re-registered as public company, Stanton plc[2], part of the Pont-a-Mousson Group.[3]
The new parent ended the manufacture of iron products at the Stanton site.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] A brief history of Stanton ironworks