18th Century Iron & Steel
From the end of the 17th and into 18th Century Rotherham the iron and steel trade in Rotherham were part of a series of changing, interconnecting partnerships with the Fell, Simpson and Spencer families prominent. In 1709 the Fell partnership purchased "all that steele furnace with smithy and tenting belonging thereto situate in Rotherham in or near the beast market"
ie. on Moorgate, from Dysney Staniforth, but this was out of business by 1717.
By the early years of 18th Century Rotherham the shortage of locally available timber for charcoal was a major problem on the iron and steel makers of South Yorkshire. New technologies enable the use of coal for smelting. Some of the old firms failed to embrace these and went out of business, others like the Walker brothers used them to become very rich.
The Walker Family
The Walker family from Grenoside were originally farmers and nailmakers who did quite well for themselves. Jonathon, Aaron and Samuel Walker established themselves at Masbrough from about 1747. On a site off Masbrough Street the Walkers built two reverbatory furnaces, a casting house and a smithy. This business expanded in 1748 when Samuel Walker entered into partnership with John Booth, nailer and nail chapman, to erect a reverbatory furnace to make blister steel. The iron business and the steel business were always separate entities.
The company made cooking pots and by 1751 they were making over 20 tons of casting a year. They built two barges to carry their goods to market via the canals. In 1754 they leased land now known as Forge Island between the river and the canal (now occupied by Tesco supermarket and car park) which was the site of a steam powered forge. A forge existed here until 1981. Believe me when you were sat in the Odeon Cinema quietly enjoying a film the vibration from the drop stamp forge nearly shook you out of your seat. This was a partnership between the three Walker Brothers and John Crawshaw. In 1758 they expanded on the site of the Holmes Slitting Mill where there was a blast furnace and a rolling mill driven by water power from the Holmes Goit. Much building and rebuilding ensued in the following years with grinding and boring mills being added 1759-60. Collieries and ironstone mines were opened and a new cut was built to give access to the canal. In 1762 they took over the existing fulling mill and iron forge at Thrybergh with permission to build other forges, tilt hammers and grinding wheels. They also built dwellings, carpenters' and smiths' shops and a charcoal yard. Some or most of the workers resided on site as it was remote from the village. In the late 1770s they began to acquire and use steam engines. The Walker Brother also owned and ran many other concerns outside the Rotherham area.
The various Walker Brothers companies soon became one of the largest iron and steel firms in the country. They made Southwark Bridge, the Wear Bridge at Sunderland and produced cannon for the Peninsula War and the American War of Independence. The historian Clark advises that "On Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, about 80 of the 100 cannon that blasted Napoleon's hopes out of the water were made in Rotherham by the Walker family's ironworks. In the Americas, our Redcoats fired Walker cannon at the colonists who used bought, stolen or captured Walker cannon to fire right back at them."
As well as the big stuff Walker Brothers companies made boilers, pans, ploughshares, smoothing irons (sad irons) and suchlike.
By 1782 Jonathan, Aaron and Samuel Walker had all died but their legacy was taken over by various sons. Different partnerships existed in different names. The Walker family was very influential in the town and erected large houses here. They built the Independent Chapel and College, and in 1792 founded the bank, now the Royal Bank of Scotland. The firm cast Southwark Bridge (not the present day one) about 1811 - 1813 but lost a great deal of money when the Bridge Company defaulted on part of their debt. From about 1820 it was resolved to close the iron and steel making works in Rotherham and was eventually wound up in 1833. The assets were sold off and others used this as an opportunity to set themselves up in the iron and steel trade.