Brymbo Steelworks

The Brymbo Steelworks was a former large steelworks in the village of Brymbo near Wrexham, Wales. For much of its life it was a rather ordinary ironworks and later steelworks, but is significant on account of its founder, and as having one of a modest number of surviving blast furnace stacks.

History

The works was founded by John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson who built a blast furnace in 1793, just after he bought Brymbo Hall. The reasons for his move from the nearby Bersham Ironworks are not clear, but it may be that there was no room for expansion, that he only rented Bersham, or due to difficulties with his brother William, who was claiming a share in his business.

A second furnace was built by 1805 and a third about 1869, but from 1892 no more than two were used, and from 1912 only one. [P. Riden and J. G. Owen, "British Blast Furnace Statistics 1790-1980" (Merton Priory Press, Cardiff 1995), 49-50. ]

After Wilkinson's death, his estate was contested between his natural children and legitimate heirs.and the works passed through various hands. By 1841, it passed to the Brymbo Iron Co., which was managed from 1846 by William Edward Darby and Charles Edward Darby, grandsons of Abraham Darby III of Coalbrookdale. After their deaths in 1882 and 1884, the business was incorporated as Brymbo Steel Co. Ltd. [E. Thomas, "Coalbrookdale and the Darbys" (1999), 144 194. ] The business changed company name in 1934 and 1948, on the latter occasion becoming Brymbo Steel Works Ltd in 1948, having become part of GKN, being a branch of GKN Steel Co. Ltd in the early 1960s. It was nationalised with the rest of the steel industry in 1967, becoming a division of British Steel Corporation. [Riden & Owen, 49-50. ]

The works were served by the Wrexham and Minera Branch of the Great Western Railway, later of British Railways.

The steelworks lasted until 1990, when it was closed. 1,100 jobs were lost and Brymbo village went into a depression and many residents into the negative equity trap.

Today

The site now is being terraformed to support large amounts of housing. This, along with improved access to Brymbo, will hopefully revitalise the community. It is currently planned to keep the long standing Machine Shop and No 1 blast furnace, both original buildings. More of the still standing buildings may be kept standing as well.

References

External links

* [http://owensaw.homestead.com/BrymboSteelWorksOpenDay.html Brymbo Steelworks Open day photos]
* [http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=329500&Y=353000&width=500&height=300&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=&pc=&zm=1&scale=25000 Multimap aerial photo of site today]
* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mossvalley/mv/pix/brymbo.html Aerial photo of Brymbo and steelworks site, 1993]
* [http://www.bhg.org.uk The Brymbo Heritage Group]