Charles Roe and Co
of Macclesfield
1756 Charles Roe (1715–1781), a silk producer, started mining at Coniston in the Lake District and at about the same time at Alderley Edge, near Macclesfield, trading as Charles Roe and Copper Company.
1758 Roe built a copper smelter on Macclesfield Common
Roe entered a lifelong partnership with Brian Hodgson, of Buxton, who had coal-mining interests at Disley.
The company built rolling mills for copper sheets, using copper from Staffordshire mines
1763 Built a brass-wire mill at Havannah, in Eaton, near Congleton. Mining started at Penrhyn-Du in north Wales.
1764 Mining started on Parys Mountain on Anglesey
1765 Started to purchase Cornish ore
1766 Built brass battery and rolling mills at Bosley, south of Macclesfield.
1767 Supported by John Walker of Liverpool, built a copper smelter on Liverpool's south shore.
1767 Successfully petitioned Parliament with other major brass and copper concerns, against a royal charter being granted to the Warmley Brass Co.
1768 Roe's mining agent, Jonathan Roose, made a large find of copper ore at Parys Mountain.
1770 Smelting was moved further along the Mersey estuary to Toxteth Park.
1774 A new partnership, the Macclesfield Copper Company, was created.
1781 Charles Roe died in Macclesfield; his eldest surviving son from his first marriage, William Roe (1747–1827), took on responsibility for the business
By 1782 the Macclesfield Co had profits of £15,000 per annum.
1790 As Roe and Co the company moved from Liverpool and Macclesfield to Neath Abbey where labour costs were lower and coal cheaper. Erected copper works close to the Mines Royal Works on the bank of the Clydach River[1].
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Charles Roe, ODNB [2]