Parkgate Iron & Steel
The company was founded in 1823 by Sanderson and Watson. The site at Parkgate was chosen because of its proximity to coal supplies and the South Yorkshire Canal. In 1832 the company was sold and became the 'Birmingham Tin Plate Company'. In 1839 the first blast furnace was installed and by 1840 the company had changed hands again. In 1845 a rail mill was installed to produce tracks for the railways (the name still exists today as Rail Mill Way but everything else is gone). In 1854 the company became Samuel Beale and Co and in 1856 began producing armour plating for ships, including the wrought iron plates for Brunel's famous steamship the SS Great Eastern.
Samuel Beale retired in 1864 and his son incorporated the company under the name Parkgate Iron Company Limited. In 1871 two more blast furnaces were installed and through the 1880s continual improvements were made including a slab mill, a large plate mill, a billet mill and three open hearth furnaces. The company was renamed The Parkgate Iron & Steel Company Limited in 1888. In 1905 two more blast furnaces were installed and in 1906 a three high plate mill.
Changing demands for steel meant that the company began concentrating on bar steel. More land was purchased at Roundwood and by 1920, a tenth open hearth furnace was opened together with 12" and 14" rolling mills were operating at Aldwarke. By 1953 plate steel was no longer being made and a new continuous bar mill was begun.
The company was put up for sale and the majority of shares acquired by Tube Investments Limited. Part of the works was demolished in 1961 and a new 42" reverse blooming mill was begun to produce wire. By 1964 there was a continuous narrow strip mill and a new billet and primary mill. About 6000 men were employed on the site and 250 grades of steel were produced.
By the 1970s demand had changed and part of the plant was demolished in the early 1970s with the rest of the Parkgate site closing in 1982. The Aldwarke site remains open.
As for the site, I have been browsing over an old Ordnance Survey map of 1924 and virtually everything in the Low End of Parkgate has gone. It is now covered by trading estates, and some small manufacturing units and the only memory of the past is in the odd street name like Rail Mill Way. In fact I was utterly lost until I found the end of Taylors Lane and began to find my way around. I think that the only old bits that remain are the two schools on Rotherham Road (one of which is the Door Store).