C F Booth Ltd is a family-owned scrap metal and recycling business based in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Operations

Clarence Frederick Booth founded the business in 1920, as a metal purchaser and trader. Over the company's history, there have been a number of associated sites and businesses including: a rail served site in Doncaster (closed); and a site in Aston, near Rotherham, which concentrated on dismantling buses. Today the company's main site is the Clarence Metal Works, located on the residual southern section of the

Sheffield and Rotherham Railway The Sheffield and Rotherham Railway was a railway line in England, between the named places. The North Midland Railway was being promoted but its route was planned to go through Rotherham and by-pass Sheffield, so the S&RR was built as a connecti ...

adjacent to the Rotherham Ring Road. Obtained in the 1960s, the railway embankment was removed and the ground level access allowed for easier dismantling of redundant diesel and electric locomotives. This work continues at present, although a number of the vehicles bought are now resold for preservation. Many wagons, carriages, underground and departmental stock are also processed here. C F Booth was involved in one of the most high-profile scrapping contracts for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

of all time, with the media descending on the site for the arrival and scrapping of several vehicles from the

APT Apt. is an abbreviation for apartment. Apt may also refer to: Places * Apt Cathedral, a former cathedral, and national monument of France, in the town of Apt in Provence * Apt, Vaucluse, a commune of the Vaucluse département of France * A ...

fleet in 1987. Rail vehicles can still be brought in through a connection to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, although much is now brought in by road. Cable and electrical equipment is also a significant part of the business, but the interest in the railway activities and the proximity of the railway sidings to roads give this side of the business a high profile.

Present

The Clarence Works site is essentially a

scrapyard A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish, British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and ...

for ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and non-ferrous Melting Shop. The company's

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

s and three Derrick cranes make the site quite distinctive. In 1989 the company introduced a

copper alloy Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. The best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, and brass, using zinc instead. Both of t ...

melting division, to service the

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

industry with copper-based

ingots An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedure of sha ...

for re-melting purposes. Today it is one of the largest manufacturers of copper based products in the United Kingdom. The firm also provides machining services on large billet and slab metal sections, which supply customers in the marine, oil and gas and defence industries. In 2012 the company achieved the Queens Award for International Trade. Company turnover is circa £170 million.

Millmoor

In 1987, Ken Booth bought

Rotherham United F.C. Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

out of administration. For 17 years, the Booth family owned the club, with Booth chairman. After the collapse of the

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...

deal, and with club debts at £3 million, the family sold the club for a nominal £1 in December 2004 to a group of supporters led by solicitor Peter Ruchniewicz, in returning for gaining ownership of the club's ground at

Millmoor The Millmoor Ground, commonly known as Millmoor, is a football stadium in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was the home ground of Rotherham County F.C. between 1907 and 1925 and then its successor Rotherham United F.C. until 2008. Th ...

(located adjacent to the firms main scrapyard, the Clarence Metal Works), the Tivoli nightclub in front of it and the Hooton Lodge training ground. The club paid the Booths £200,000 per annum in rent, and were responsible for the grounds maintenance and up keep. The club started a ground upgrade programme, but came into dispute with the Booth's over the lease period and additional fees, which included: 30 free tickets to every home match, with entertainment; advertising in the ground; and first call on away tickets and FA Cup final tickets. In May 2008, Rotherham United left Millmoor after talks with Ken Booth broke down. The team moved to the

Don Valley Stadium Don Valley Stadium was a sports stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The venue, which was completed in September 1990, hosted the 1991 World Student Games. It was designed by Sheffield City Council's Design & Building Services and nam ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

until 2012, when the club moved into a new community stadium in Rotherham. Millmoor is currently unused apart from its car park which has been used by C F Booth as an overspill and storage area for former

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

trains awaiting scrapping.

Contributions to Railway Preservation

Some of the vehicles passing through the yard have been sold on for preservation. Examples include Class 06 No. D2420/06003 in 1984, Class 08 No. D3861/08694 in 2009, Class 31 No. D5630/31206 in 2006 and Class 50 No. D426/50026 ''Indomitable'' in 1993 during Operation: Collingwood.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, CF Renewable resource companies established in 1920 Companies based in Rotherham Privately held companies of England Family-owned companies of the United Kingdom Non-ferrous metallurgical works in the United Kingdom Waste management companies of the United Kingdom Railway scrapyards in the United Kingdom 1920 establishments in England