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Mills Of Birmingham

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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cromwell said:
Webster & Horsfall, Wire Drawers of Hay Mills, Birmingham has survived to this day.
Click to expand...

And didn't they produce the first trans-Atlantic cable? I'm sure they've a short section of it at the Thinktank.
 
In reply to #213. I went past Claybrook st today and they have started to redevelope the site. There was a large excivator pulling up huge chunks of concrete from a depth of about 20 ft. This would sugest that the houses that were built there in the mid 1800s needed a stable base to be erected. I would sugest that the original site would at one time be some kind of water course.
 
Time to ressurect the Mills, the National Archieves have been adding new information to their site, and one of the items is all about the "Winfield Rolling Mills", Cambridge Street, Birmingham, so guess who's going to the library to have a look. Also W.B. Bickley's archives have appeared, his archives are providing alot of information on the Mills of Warwickshire including the one at Marston Culey (Marston Green). I may have disappeared for a while but I have become square eyed looking at archives!!
 
Hi

The Rolling Mills of Birmingham.
The term is also applied to Engineering.
A rolling Mill in Cambridge Street could be where
Metal strip is Rolled. IMI at Witton had miles of
Rolling Mills for Metal.
Clearly what the site may have been in Historic
record there may have been a Mill there.
Great thread on Mills

Mike Jenks
 
Looks like the Marston Green (Culey) mill was right at the end of the Elmdon Airport runway. The stream is still there and dissappears under ground to reappear at the other side of the runway. I think Mike is right, the mill on Cambridge Street may have been a metal strip mill. Steam driven at first, close to the canal. There is no water course there. There were many such works along the canals there, the polution from which contributed to the wealthier classes moving out of Birmingham up-wind.
 
Glad to see you back posting Loisand, I missed you.:)

IMI had mills during my time there in the 50's, Rod Mill, Strip Mill, but they weren't the conventional mills powered by water - were they?
 
IMI Mills

The only reason for water there was for cooling the red hot metal after it had been cast or rolled, water for this was pumped from underground then once used had to be treated before running off into the river.


Bren
 
Bren thanks for posting the link to the John Morris Jones Collection, a lot of us know of the excellent set of documents about our Brum but it's time it was reposted.
 
The link below adds a little meat to the bones of maps and such. Lloyds Mill it seems to me was mentioned in respect to the war between the Roundheads and Cavaliers and I wonder if the old building was around then. I put a couple of commernts below the picture.

https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/69105173

Incidentally Mill lane is still on Google E. and appears to be exactly the same run as back then. All of the old buildings have gone though.
 
Di.Poppitt said:
Glad to see you back posting Loisand, I missed you.:)

IMI had mills during my time there in the 50's, Rod Mill, Strip Mill, but they weren't the conventional mills powered by water - were they?
Click to expand...

Don't know how i missed this post before, i also worked at IMI in the Strip Mill from abt 1972 to 1985. When i think back i wish i had taken more interest with some of the old guys there but hey, i was a lot younger then but i can remember a couple of blokes who retired whilst i was there who had worked there for an amazing 50+yrs, wonder what memories they could have told.

bren
 
My uncle used to work in Rod Mill, he must have been there from early in the last century until his retirement in the 60's. My only memory is of him telling me how hot it was in there and I seem to remember there was an accident when a rod shot off its course and hit and killed a man.

Rupert any photo I see of the Phyllis Nicklin collection saddens me that some how, apart from those saved by Keith Berry, we have lost them from the web. The quality of them is amazing and yet another record of what we lost in our city.
 
Di. Rolling mills have changed a lot since the time of your uncles association with them. Much less manual labour now and mostly automation of machinery. Many mini-mills are around now that re-melt shreaded scrapped cars in electric arc furnaces and the resulting molten product is poured continuously into a casting machine that moulds the steel into long red hot lengths of cast product maybe 4" x 4" section, which runs down a curving conveyor onto a flat bed, being cut up into 50 ft or so lengths for further processing in the rolling mill. It is hot if you go close to the hot billets but mostly there is no need to. Buildings are much bigger now and probably much better ventilated. You are more likely to be cold these days. The places are still dirty though; it's the nature of the business and you still get the occasional rogue billet.
 
IMI had three buildings known as rolling mills, Sheet Mill, Rod Mill and Strip Mill and they all worked Non Ferrous metals, copper, brass and all their various mixes of these depending what the end product was. The Strip Mill also produced all the various coin metals and also processed some Titanium. At the time your uncle worked in the Rod Mill Di they would have been putting Cadmium in with the various copper mixes to make it harder but this was eventually banned as they found it was absorbed into the body and would accumulate because the body couldn't get rid of it and there was concerns as to how it affected the workers. I know that in the Strip Mill foundry they swapped over to tin as the better option.


bren
 
Thank you Rupert and Bren for your replies. I walked by those mills many times without ever understanding what was happening inside, and of course they were out of bounds to us.
 
mills

enjoyed themaps and pics... of the mills, and rivers, also the history, fantastic.... thankyou :D
 
I'm back, delay was due to circumstances beyond my control....internet provider!!!! Anyway whilst I've been away it gave me an oppurtunity to transfer alot of my hand written research onto my laptop, and even though I say so myself my reaerch is coming along lovely. I notice from some of the above posts that some of you used to work in the rolling mills etc, it would be nice to hear alot more of your memories, and if you don't mind could I use some of the info.
I am trying to find out information about "Hinks, Wells & Co", metalic pen holders, the address is 12, 13, 14 Buckingham Street, Buckingham St Steel Rolling Mills, Birmingham....there are 2 reasons for this, one for my research and the other is number 14 appears on my husbands birth certificate. The only thing I know is that the rolling mill was there in 1849, I am assuming then that perhaps it was made in to flats or that type of accomodation. Any help would be gratefully received.
It's great to be back, really missed you all
:) :) :)
 
Welcome back loisand yes you have been missed.
There is a lot of information about Hinks and Well's Co Ltd at the Pen Museum. I know Colin Giles has done a lot of research into this company. The info about the company is at the museum in large files relating to Key Hill Cemetery which you can read and take notes from. They are lovely people just ask if you visit.
John Hinks is buried at Key Hill Cemetery see photo.
 
Thanks momma p, hubby and I will take a trip up there to have a look, I was so gobsmacked when the address of the mills appeared on his original birth certificate, very intriguing. Once again thankyou :)
 
Hi Loisand, it is lovley to see you posting again I missed ya.:)

I looked for Buckingham Street on the 1901 Census, but it is a bit like a needle in a haystack. But I'll have another poke around.
 
The Iron Masters Of Penns

For anybody interested in Webster and Horsefell there is a fantastic book called "The Iron Masters of Penns" by John Horsefell. So far I'm about a quarter of the way through the book, and it's about the family history of Webster and Horsefell from Hay Mill to Penns Mill to Plantsbrook Mill and 2 mills in Perry Barr, it tells of the buisness of wire drawers etc, how they made the wires for pianos and the cable wire for the Atlantic, of how members of the family died, which in the Webster side...they seemed to die very young....an unlucky family!!! A brilliant piece of reading and very informative about the mills I've just mentioned, most of the research is from family papers of the 2 families, but also Birmingham Central Library had helped.....enjoy if ever you get the chance to read it...:)
 
Yes Di it is, I got it from Sutton Coldfield library, after I've read it I'm going to go back through it and take some relevant notes from it, if you can't order it from your local library I will pm my notes to you....I think you will be very interested in it....take care :)
 
Thanks Loisand. Our library has been demolished!! They used the land for bus's to Cambridge which will runon a track!!!!!!!!!!! I have yet to find out if we have a new library. The mind boggles really.:(
 
What a wonderful find that must have been, Loisand, I wonder if there may be a few lurking in cupboards in Brum. Dollyferret would have enjoyed reading that.:)
 
Mills of Birmingham

Lois this is for you - on Carl Chinn's page in the Birmingham Mail last night there is a mention of "Saltley Mill with its pool lay just above Saltley Bridge in Mill Meadows. through part of which Mill Street, later called Crawford Street, would be cut. In existence by about 1542-3 the mill ground corn but became a blade mill in the later 17th century. It reverted to corn mill in the early 19th c. and was still in existence in 1880. Soon afterwards it disappeared and its site was occupied instead by a gas holder". Not sure if you knew of this one.
 
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