Baker & Bessemer Ltd
previously John Baker & Co
In 1870 John Baker of Nottingham moved to Rotherham to manage Owen's Patent Wheel, Tire and Axle Co. In 1874 he entered into a partnership with Thomas Burnett. The company John Baker & Co moved to premises in Conisbrough where they produced wheels and axles for railways and tramways. Initially they produced the finished items from component parts purchased from other manufacturers.
As there was an increase in trade Baker moved back to Rotherham and took over the large Brinsworth Iron & Wheel Works, at New York in Rotherham where he began manufacturing hot spoke or welded wrought iron wheel centres.
In 1903 Baker moved to a site alongside the canal at Kilnhurst. A steel works with a forging press and disc wheel mill were installed. in 1904 John Baker died and the firm was taken over by his son. During the First World War the production of the company was turned over to munitions and the company produced over 6 million shells.
The company became a public limited company in 1920. In 1927 they took over Harrison and Camm acquiring a 4,000 ton wheel press. Early in the 1930s the company took over Henry Bessemer Limited and became Baker and Bessemer Limited.
During the Second World War they again became a munitions factory producing shells, aircraft catapult pulleys, armour-piercing nose caps, anti aircraft rocket bodies and bogie wheels for the Churchill tank.
In 1963 the company was taken over by United Steel Companies Limited and English Steel Corporation and the Kilnhurst plant was closed down. About a thousand workers were made redundant. Questions were asked and issues raised about this in the Houses of Parliament but the closure and redundancies still went ahead.
Some records are kept at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield and you can see a drop hammer from the Kilnhurst site at Beamish Industrial Museum.