Before Richard's death, the partnership was dissolved. From the London Gazette, 9th February, 1849.

To the north of the canal stood the oldest of the three blast furnaces and several coal and iron ore mines. This was one of the earliest, largest, and most important  iron and steel companies in South Staffordshire, and had a name for good quality iron. The company also owned a factory at Kings Hill.

The barrows were hand-filled in the ore and coke pens, and dragged to the bridge of the hoist where the 'cager' would load the full barrows onto the hoist, and unload the empties. To start the hoist he rang a bell as a signal to the engine man who operated the steam engine that powered the hoist.

At the top was a 'filler' who wheeled the barrows to the throat of the furnace, lowered the bell that sealed the top, and emptied the contents into the furnace. He would then close the bell. At night the furnace top and the surrounding area was lit by the waste gases burning at the 'monkey', a bypass pipe on top of the bell. 

Furnace charging mechanism.

The charging tower, blast furnace, engine house, and heating stoves. From an old postcard.

A view from the other side of the furnace. Also from an old postcard.

Samuel Mills became a wealthy man, thanks to the success of Bills & Mills, and the earnings from his many collieries in the area. In 1855 he leased the Essington Wood Colliery which was situated on the western side of Bursnips Road, Essington. He purchased the colliery in 1860 and ran it as a separate business alongside Bills & Mills. The company eventually employed around 2,000 people.

On 3rd August, 1863 Samuel Mills sold the ironworks, collieries, and plant to Samuel Lloyd, Joseph Foster Lloyd, Wilson Lloyd, and William Henry Lloyd, for a quarter of a million pounds, which led to the formation of the Darlaston Steel and Iron Company.

Mr. Sampson Lloyd of Wassel Grove, Stourbridge became company Chairman with Mr. Francis Lloyd as Managing Director. The business was re-registered as the Darlaston Steel and Iron Company on 7th November, 1872 and rapidly expanded. The number of puddling furnaces grew to 43 with 17 reheating furnaces, 8 rolling mills, a drawing-out forge, 63 steam engines, including the three 70h.p. blast engines for the blast furnaces, and rails, which were laid to all parts of the works.

The rolling mills required very little manual labour and could automatically roll enormous quantities of strip in great lengths using Brown's patent process, where the strip being rolled is automatically passed through a second pair of rolls to complete the work. There were two of Casson's patent puddling furnaces and a Griffiths mechanical puddling machine, which worked well together.

The company's collieries and mines, mining a 12 yards thick seam, covered 850 acres, 350 of which were freehold and 500 leasehold. Some of the seams produced what was called "Brooch" coal and others "Heathen" coal. There were also ironstone mines thanks to thick seams of "Gubbin" ironstone, "New Mine", Whitestone", and "Blue Flats" ore.

The iron industry as a whole felt the effects of the depression between 1875 and 1886 during which many blast furnaces, forges and mills closed. The Darlaston Steel and Iron Company was also badly effected and closed in 1877 as can be read in the announcement below:

The family lived in Darlaston House on the western end of what is now Victoria Park, where Samuel died in 1864. The house and its surrounding land occupied the modern Rectory Avenue, the Post Office, and the area behind Pardoe's Cottage, where the dovecote still stands. In the 1920s when foundations were dug for the war memorial in Victoria Road, the ground gave way to reveal part of the cellars of Darlaston House. The workmen found a number of bottles of wine, much of which was drunk there and then, although some bottles of parsnip wine did find their way to The Green Dragon in Church Street, were they went on sale. The original All Saints Church in Walsall Road was built in 1872 in memory of Samuel Mills, who died in 1864.

Jane Mills, one of Samuel's daughters, was a public spirited lady who did much for the town. She founded the Jane Mills Institute in Rectory Avenue, in connection with the Parish Church to help the needy women and girls of the town. The building housed the institute and was given to the town when Jane moved to Whitton Court, Whitton, near Ludlow, in the late 1890s. The institute, later known as the "Mothers Meeting and Girl's Institute" eventually became a clinic and later "The Sons of Rest". The building is now a family home.

Rough Hay Furnaces

Rough Hay Furnace & Foundry, Darlaston Green, was founded on 27th August, 1842 by Edward Addenbrooke Addenbrooke of Kingswinford, Thomas Smith of Cheltenham, and Charles Pidcock of Worcester. The firm was managed by Edward and two of his sons, John and George Addenbrooke. The firm traded as Addenbrooke, Smith & Pidcock, coal and iron masters.

The family was descended from the Addenbrookes of Wollaston Hall, Stourbridge. Their father, Edward Addenbrooke, and grandfather, John Addenbrooke Homfray were both ironmasters.

Family background

John and George Addenbrooke were descended from a long line of ironmasters going back to the early 18th century. It started with their great, great grandfather Francis Homfray who owned two forges, and a slitting mill in South Staffordshire. The family lived in style at Wollaston Hall which stood on the western side of Stourbridge.

John and George had family links with the huge iron industry in South Wales. Their great grandfather's brother Francis Homfray had three sons, Samuel, Thomas and Jeremiah. Samuel and Thomas founded a large iron works at Penydarren, on the banks of the Morlais Brook. They also built a mansion nearby called Penydarren House. Samuel is best remembered as the promoter of Richard Trevithick's Penydarren locomotive, the first locomotive in the world to run successfully on a railway. The test took place on the Merthyr Tramway which ran for 9½ miles from Merthyr to Abercynon. It managed to haul five wagons carrying ten tons of iron, and seventy men, at a speed of five miles an hour. Samuel was one of the main promoters of the Glamorgan Canal, and founder of the Tradegar Ironworks. He became High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1813, and in June 1818 became Member of Parliament for Stafford. His brother Jeremiah was one of the founders of the Ebbw Vale Ironworks.

In 1787 John and George's grandfather John Addenbrooke (Homfray) and his cousin Francis obtained a lease for Lightmoor Ironworks which had two furnaces, and stood roughly halfway between Dawley and Ironbridge. In 1797 they obtained a lease for the Lightmoor coal mines, and also ran the Little Dawley coal mines. They operated the Little Dawley mines until 1822, and Lightmoor Ironworks until 1839. Francis was also a partner at Calcutts Ironworks near Broseley, Shropshire, where amongst other things he made cannons for the American Civil War. As well as blast furnaces, he also owned blade mills, slitting and plating mills, finery, chafery, balling furnaces, rolling mills, and forges.

John Addenbrooke's surname was originally Homfray. In 1792 he had it changed to Addenbrooke, his mothers' maiden name.

John and George were born in Kingswinford, and had three brothers and six sisters. Their father was Edward A. Addenbrooke (1782 - 1855) who married Emma Pidcock (1794-1875) in January 1815 at Old Swinford. She came from Coalbourne Brook, near Stourbridge. In 1851 they were living in Dudley Road, Kingswinford and had eleven children:

Edward, John, Emma, Elizabeth, Henry, Emma, George, Thomas, Laura, Frances, and Henrietta.

John was born in 1817, and George in 1825.

The family's ironworks and collieries in Darlaston and the surrounding area

For several years Edward A. Addenbrooke and three of his sons, Edward, Henry, and John ran the Moorcroft Ironworks at Bradley, which had two furnaces, and produced around 100 tons of iron each week. They also ran Moorcroft Colliery and Bradley Hall Colliery, both linked to the ironworks by tramways. The businesses were sold in 1841. Edward A. Addenbrooke is listed as the owner of Brickfield Mine at Rough Hay, Darlaston, in the list of owners and occupiers that accompanied the 1843 tithe map of Darlaston. The list also includes details of the many fields that he owned at Rough Hay, along with several pieces of land beside the canal, known as Canal Bank, Rough Hay Bridge and Long Bridge Piece.

Their ironworks at Rough Hay, Darlaston,  founded on 27th August, 1842, became very successful. The brothers developed and patented a system for extracting hot combustible gases from the top of the furnaces, and used them to heat the air for the blast, and to generate steam for the blast engine, which also operated the hoist to lift the coal and iron ore etc. to the top of the furnace. This technique enabled iron to be produced more quickly and cheaply, because the furnace remained at full operating temperature during the blast.

The process, which removed carbon dioxide and water from the ore, and oxidised it, was much cheaper to run than the traditional method, in which the ore was calcined in open mounds.

John Addenbrooke married Elizabeth, and they had eleven children. In 1851 they were living in Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove, and by 1871 had moved to The Elms, Sutton Road, Walsall. In the 1881 census their address is given as Waterloo Terrace, Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton.

After 1855, when Edward Addenbrooke died, John and George ran the business on their own. Addenbrookes were Darlaston's second largest employer, until the business closed at the beginning of 1882, putting over 1,000 people out of work. They had three blast furnaces at Rough Hay, all traces of which have now disappeared. Their products included bar, rod and sheet iron.

Addenbrooke, Smith & Pidcock also owned Rough Hay Colliery, one of the largest coal mines in the area, employing 500 people.

John and George owned many collieries in the area, including a number at Leabrook in Wednesbury, and the Bedworth Coal and Iron Company Limited in Warwickshire.

As a result of the tragic accident, the business was put-up for sale. The contents of the works were sold in June 1882. The sale included 50 tons of casting boxes, 60 tons of pig iron, and 100 tons of scrap. The large amount of casting boxes suggests that they were from a reasonable sized foundry. No puddling equipment was included in the sale, so the factory must have produced pig iron that would have been sold to wrought iron producers.

Both sides of an Addenbrooke, Smith & Pidcock token.  Courtesy of Joy Beasley.

George is remembered by the street that is named after him; Addenbrooke Street. He was a founder member of the Darlaston Local Board (the forerunner of the council), a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and churchwarden at St. George's Church. In fact the Addenbrooke company gave the land on which St. George's vicarage was built. He died on 20th May, 1906 at the vicarage in Chalford, Stroud and was buried at St. George's Church, Darlaston.

The photograph shows the demolition of a bridge and tramway in Rough Hay. The opening under the bridge was known as "The Khyber Pass" and is commemorated today by the street named "Khyber Close". The old tramway must have been the one that ran between Addenbrooke, Smith & Pidcock's factory, Rough Hay Colliery, and a canal basin. The dirt track under the bridge is now Hall Street, and the bridge beyond crosses another tramway that ran between two of the coal mines. The view looks southwest towards the Dudley-Sedgley ridge.

A map showing the location of "The Khyber Pass" and Addenbrooke, Smith & Pidcock's factory, which stood roughly at the junction of Rough Hay Road and Hall Street. At each end of the lower tramway was a winding machine. There were many abandoned mine shafts and spoil heaps in the area, which would have looked very different to today's flat landscape. The council must have had an immense task clearing the area when the pre-war council estate was built.

George Addenbrooke's lovely home, Greenhill House, in Wombourne.

The Albert Works and Moxley Iron Works

The Albert works were built in 1827 and run by David Rose. The Moxley Iron Works were founded by brothers Daniel and David Rose in 1830. Daniel retired in the early 1840s and the younger David ran both of the works. The works produced iron forgings and charcoal sheet iron of all kinds that was used for such things as boiler plates and gasometer sheets. Galvanising and corrugating were carried out on a large scale at the works and all kinds of bars including small rounds and fancy iron were produced. Other products included pan and tank plates, galvanised and corrugated sheets, and pig iron. The Victoria Works, founded by William Molineaux and James Jordan were also on the site producing strip iron for such things as locomotive and boiler tubes.

The location of the works.

David Rose owned a number of mines in the area and the site included a sand pit were sand was dug and sold for use in blast furnace and mill furnace bottoms. The clay from some of David's mines produced high quality fire bricks and these were one of the company's many products. The mines also contained sufficient coal to supply the works for 20 years. By the1870s there were 40 puddling and ball furnaces, 5 sheet mills, 1 plate mill, 1 bar mill, and one hoop mill.

The railway line in the bottom right hand corner joins the London & North Western Railway's Darlaston Branch, near the junction of Holyhead Road and Portway Road.

An advert from the early 1870s.

An advert from 1861.

Victoria Ironworks was acquired by William Henry Wesson in 1898 and he ran the works under the name of Wessons. William died in 1936 and is buried in the graveyard at All Saints' Church, Moxley. Wessons became known as Ductile Wesson, a part of Niagra LaSalle (UK) Limited.     Read the story of the Rose family and their ironworks at Moxley     In January 2009 the company announced that the future of the factory was in doubt, putting around 150 jobs in the balance. A further announcement, made in February, confirmed that the factory would close by the end of the year, and 63 jobs would go by the end of April. The factory, which covered the site of both the Victoria Ironworks and the Albert Ironworks was demolished in 2011. A large scrap yard and housing estate now occupies the site of the Moxley Iron Works.

William Wesson's grave at Moxley.

Bull's Bridge Iron Works Bull's Bridge Iron Works were situated in Bull Lane, Moxley, next to Bull's Bridge on the Walsall Canal. They were owned by E.  Cresswell and Sons, and put up for sale in November 1859. The factory covered just over one acre and included eleven puddling furnaces, a bar mill, twelve other furnaces, a large cinder kiln, and a 25 hp. steam engine to drive the machinery. Adjoining the main factory was a double office, a smith's shop, a store room, stable and coach house. The site was acquired by William Molineux & Company, and listed in 'Griffiths' Guide to the Iron Trade of Great Britain', published in 1873, as having 10 puddling furnaces and 2 mills and forges. The firm mainly produced sheet iron.

The notice of the sale of Bull's Bridge Iron Works on 19th December, 1859.