Barber, Walker and Co
Barber, Walker and Co,
One of the oldest in the Midlands, also owned collieries in Yorkshire
A lease was granted to its predecessors by Colonel Hutchinson, of Oliver Cromwell's army.
Early 1700s The Staveley Iron Works was founded.
1786 three blast furnaces were lit, owned by Ward and Lowe.
1850 The furnaces were acquired by Charles Barrow
Subsequently floated as a public company by a group of Manchester capitalists, with Charles Markham as Managing Director and Henry Davis Pochin as Chairman.
The Devonshire Chemical Works was constructed on an extensive scale to utilise the gas from the coke ovens.
The Company owned seven collieries in Derbyshire (of Eastwood Collieries, Nr. Nottingham), with an output of 2,500,000 tons, and employed 7,000 men. It controlled the Doncaster Collieries Association, (of Bentley) with an output of 5,000,000 tons, and other coal property in South Yorkshire.
- 1927 See Aberconway Chapter II for information on the company and its history