| Administrative History | Information from Chesterfield Library: Local Studies
In c1856, John Fowler, a civil engineer, and William Fowler, a Land Agent, purchased the land on which the ironworks was to be sited, and also the strip of land on which to install the branch line into the works from the Midland Railway. They formed a partnership with Arthur Hankley, trading as the Dunston and Barlow Mineral Company, c1858.
By 1864, William Fowler, now described as "Ironmaster" and residing at Whittington Hall, had established four blast furnances and a foundry, etc. and built some fifty homes and cottages for employees. In this year, the partners sold the business including all the properties to a consortium of merchants, all of Manchester, who registered the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company Ltd, of which William Fowler was appointed Chairman and Managing Director.
The business continued to grow and extend operations in the 1870s and 1880s, sinking colleries at Nesfield, Norwood, Langwith, Glapwell and Newstead. Subsidiary companies were established at Dinnington, Maltby and Rossington in the 1900s. The ironworks was used a munitions factory during the First World War. After the war, the instability of the market and labour problems had an adverse effect on production, and the strikes of the 1920s and the Depression of the early 1930s hit the company hard. During the Second World War, demand returned and the firm was once more involved in the production of shells and munitions.
In the late 1940s the Sheepbridge Company entered the field of light engineering. As the Sheepbridge Engineering Company it produced a variety of products such as diesel engine liners, cylinder blocks, plough shears, copper rolls for the printing industry, air vibrators, bottle filling machinery and cages for the mines. In 1962 the Sheepbridge Iron Works was taken over by the Staveley Iron and Chemical Company (see D3808) and the rest of the firm survived as Sheepbridge Engineering Ltd. Operations were extended through various subsidiaries, relying on research and development to find new materials and methods. Power loaders and lathes were manufactured, but the core production was of centrifugal castings for cars, heavy motors, aircraft and marine diesels.
In 1979, Sheepbridge Engineering Ltd became part of GKM and was renamed GKN Sheepbridge Stokes. |
| Custodial History | Item D5818/1 was acquired by Derbyshire Record Office in 2002 from Chesterfield Museum. Records received in Apr 2011 were transferred from Chesterfield Museum. The remaining records were transferred from Chesterfield Library in August 2016, having been deposited there by the Company in 1983. |