Rotherham The Unofficial Website

www.rotherhamunofficial.co.uk

Trade & Industry

The Rotherham Directory for 1837 lists the following manufacturing firms - Eleven maltsters, Seven nailmakers, Seven rope and twine makers, Six blacksmiths, Five iron manufacturers, Five wheelwrights, Four steel converters, Three sawmills, Three iron founders, Three fork makers, Three whitesmiths, Two boat builders, Two manufacturing chemists, Two tanners, Two worsted manufacturers, Two glass manufacturers, One flax spinner, One seed crusher, One starch manufacturer. There were forty-five inns and twenty beer houses, hence the eleven maltsters.

The 1887 Rotherham Directory also lists agricultural implement makers, boiler makers, stove grate makers, chain manufacturers, file and spring makers, hoop makers, spade and shovel makers, steel rollers, brass founders, brewers (I take this to means firms rather than individual maltsters), and earthenware manufacturers. Public Houses and beer houses had increased to sixty-five apiece - that was a hundred and thirty places to drink in town.

The rope and twine making industry must have been very important when seven firms were in production in the town in 1837. You have only to thing of the numerous uses on the canals, in the mines and works to realise the reasons why. However, thus far, I have been unable to find any information about them.

Bell Founding

There is little known about the history of this industry but a bell at Thornton-on-Curtis in Lincolnshire is inscribed "In praise of God I sing and triumph the King. The marriage joys I tell and sound the dead man's knell. L. Ludlam. Rotherham. Founder." A Joseph Ludlam is mentioned in the Feoffees accounts in 1733 and 1736, and he is mentioned as receiving sums for making locks. It looks as if the Ludlams were bell makers and locksmiths. Bell makers are a bit thin on everybody's ground these days.

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Chemicals

From 1801 there was a chemical works on Wellgate for many years. Thankfully it is no longer there. I cannot remember where Wellgate Works were sited, nor for that matter Wellgate House where the owner lived. I asked my mother who moved to Rotherham from Tinsley in 1937 but she had no recollection either.

Laporte Chemicals (now called something else can't remember what exactly - Croda I think) are now neatly tucked away on Ginhouse Lane. As a kid I always found it fascinating that right next door to Ginhouse Lane was Amen Corner - the TTs in pursuit of the inebriate. Actually the original name was Enginehouse Lane as there was an Engine House there.

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Confectionery

I have been unable to find a great deal about the early history of confectionery in Rotherham. Sweets were made certainly from 1853. The firm evolved as Kenyon Son and Craven Ltd in 1891. Originally production concentrated on sweets such as Mint Imperials, Aniseed Balls, Gobstoppers and Sugared Almonds, as well as pickled goods. I don't think these are made here any more as the company now concentrates on nut products.

In 1952 Kenyon Son & Craven Ltd decided to launch a completely new line, and Hercules Nuts were introduced. In 1953 Kenyon Son & Craven Ltd decided that as it said "Kenyon Produce" on each box and packet, these initials alone would be used. Hence the birth of KP Nuts. The company is still in product and is now part of United Biscuits. There was a takeover in 2006 but I've forgotten the name of the new holding company.

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Newspapers & Printing

Early attempts at publishing newspapers in Rotherham had not been successful. In 1858 Ann Hinchcliffe and Henry Hepworth began the regular publication the Rotherham and Masbrough Advertiser. The Rotherham Advertiser with its cohort the Record are still published today. There are various other free papers - The Dearne Valley Weekender is the only other one I know still in publication in the Borough of Rotherham.

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Quarrying

Quarrying was once a major industry in Rotherham. If you look at old maps there were quarries in almost every area. The biggest and most important of these was at Kiveton Park. Much of the stone used the rebuild the Houses of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century was quarried here and sent in barges down the Chesterfield Canal and on to London.

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Textiles

Rotherham was never a great player in the textile industry. Worsted was manufactured in the Nineteenth Century. Worsted was originally a fine woollen fabric but the sort produced in Rotherham was much more likely to have been strong hard-wearing stuff suitable for the local market.

Of rather more importance was the production of linen thread and cloth. In 1835/6 the old town corn mill (previously converted to a rolling mill in the Eighteenth Century) was rebuilt as a flax mill for the production of linen thread. Until it closed in the 1860s it was the major source of female employment in the town. There was also a flax mill at Masbrough near the glassworks which was converted to a foundry in the Nineteenth Century. The meadows at Masbrough in the area of what is now Tenter Street was where the finished linen cloth was hung out to bleach in the sun.

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Watchmaking

Clock and watchmaking was an important trade in this area from the 1700s and throughout the Victorian era. There were many clock and watchmaking workshops in Rotherham, Masbrough, Parkgate, Swinton and Wath, many of them once familiar household names now long forgotten. One of the most important was John Masons founded in 1822, which is perhaps the only one likely to be remembered as it existed up to the present time. Now unfortunately this will shortly be closed if it has not already done so. December 2002 the shutters have gone down for the last time.

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Water Companies

Well, everybody knows about the big water companies that run the business now and the less said the better. In the old days the water supply came from springs and wells all over town. The ones that I know of were St Anne's Well and the Domine Lane Well and I have read that the water supply in Wellgate at times, flowed as a steam along the street, through the centre of town, and down Bridgegate before entering the river.

In 1827 a water company was formed to provide piped water to the town. This passed into the hands of the Board of Health in 1833 who improved the supply with more reservoirs and pumping stations. All the wells are capped and the streams culverted now.

The old Rotherham reservoirs at Ulley, Thrybergh, Rother Valley and Firsby are now Country Parks.

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