| Description | The records for the company have been arranged in the following series
NCB/A/STV/1 Ireland Colliery accident report book, 1936-1947
NCB/A/STV/2 Markham Colliery accident record books, 1919-1947
NCB/A/STV/3 Warsop Main Colliery accident record books, 1943-1947
NCB/A/STV/4 Markham Colliery accident plans, 1924-1946
NCB/A/STV/5 Markham Colliery compensation returns, 1921-1928
NCB/A/STV/6 Records on explosions at Markham Colliery, 1937-1944
NCB/A/STV/7 Staveley Coal and Iron Company employment records, 1897-1967
NCB/A/STV/8 Staveley Coal and Iron Company management records, 1918-1939
NCB/A/STV/9 Staveley Coal and Iron Company industrial relations records, 1920-1946
NCB/A/STV/10 Staveley Coal and Iron Company estate and mineral rights management records, 1809-1949
NCB/A/STV/11 Staveley Coal and Iron Company surveying records, 1893-1940
NCB/A/STV/12 Markham Colliery production records, 1907-1946
NCB/A/STV/13 Ireland Colliery pre-vesting records, 1917-1960
NCB/A/STV/14 Markham Colliery pithead baths plans, 1935-1939 |
| Administrative History | There had been an iron forge at Staveley in the 18th century. Walter Mather took over the lease (by the Duke of Devonshire) in 1783 and he set about developing new ironworks. On his death in 1800 the business passed to his daughter, whose second husband George Hodgkinson Barrow who took on the responsibility for the Staveley ironworks in 1825 and was responsible for branching into the coal trade to supply the coal for the ironworks. He took on the leases of four collieries (Norbriggs New, Staveley Upper Ground, Handley Wood and Netherthorpe) in the 1820s-1830s. A key factor in the future success of the company was the lease he obtained form the Duke of Devonshire of all the mineral rights in the manor of Staveley in 1840. At around this time the business passed to brother Richard Barrow, who caused more pits to be sunk (Speedwell, Hopewell, Hollingwood, Springwell and Seymour) in the 1840s and 1850s. Richard Barrow decided to convert his family's investment into a limited liability company, the Staveley Coal and Iron Company Limited, which was incorporated in 1864.
Although Barrow was made first chairman of the company, his death not long afterwards meant that the direction of the company passed to Henry Davis Pochin. It would, however, be Barrow's appointment of Charles Markham as Managing Director and Chief Engineer which inspired the continued growth and expansion of the company. Over the next 25 years his expertise, professionalism and tireless energy guided the company through a programme of improving the performance of the company's furnaces and expanding old pits and leasing new collieries (Campbell, Barlborough and Ireland). Markham himself strongly disliked traded union activity, and it remained a characteristic of the company as a whole to resist the the perceived threat of unions. He opposed the the launch of a union of Derbyshire miners in 1865, leading to a miners' strike at Staveley which ended after 5 months with the capitulation of the workforce, leaving a legacy of bitterness. Charles Markham died in 1888, and his death led a period of improved industrial relations.
His son, Charles Paxton Markham, was appointed as chairman in 1894 (elected permananent in 1903). With regard to the coal industry, there was increased domestic competition from collieries in North East England, Wales and elsewhere. During the period of C.P. Markham's tenure up to 1926, greater emphasis was placed on the development of the coal production side of the business, resulting in a sharp growth in output in the 1900s, following the modernising and improved efficiency of the company's pits. Joint ventures with other companies were made to invest capital in deeper coal workings, which included several companies in the South Yorkshire. In other areas the development of new processes to extract chemicals from coal and coke production, such as tar, sulphate of ammonia, concentrated sulphuric acid and carbolic acid, led to Markham taking on an ambitious programme to build new furnaces in 1908 and a new chemical plant in 1911-1912. The development of the Devonshire Works helped to lead to a period of enormous profits for the company during the First World War, with their collieries, blast furnaces and pipe shops being as modern as any in the country. With the death of C.P. Markham in 1926, the company lost some of its drive. It did, however, have a large and diversified business which continued to perform during the economic downturn of the Depression era. Its pipe prodction suffered from competition with Stanton Ironworks, but the blast furnaces and collieries still produced high output figures and the chemical works and engineering plant produced good business returns. During the Second World War the company's production lines was geared up to help the war effort.
After the war the company was faced with the dismantling of their coal mining operation, as the company's collieries were transferred in 1947 into the control of the National Coal Board by the nationalisation of the coal industry. Coal production had been a massive part of the company's business, but they still had their iron production and chemical ane engineering works.The Staveley Coal and Iron Company became a holding company, later called Staveley Industries Limited. |