The Weardale Iron and Coal Company, established in the 1840s, produced iron and steel at

Tow Law Tow Law is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated a few miles to the south of Consett and 5 miles to the north west of Crook. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,952, increasing to 2,138 at the 2011 ...

and

Tudhoe Tudhoe is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated approximately south of the city of Durham. It lies just outside Spennymoor, a short distance to the west of the Great North Road. The village is now a quiet backwater, its green ...

in County Durham in England, where it also owned collieries.

History

The founder of the company, Charles Attwood (1791–1875), was born in

Halesowen Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England. Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, the town is around from Birmingham city centre, and from ...

in the west midlands of England; his father and grandfather were involved in the iron industry of that area. His brothers

Matthias Attwood Matthias Attwood (24 November 1779 – 11 November 1851) was a British Conservative and Tory politician, and banker. Attwood was the second son of ironmaster Matthias Attwood of Hawne House, Halesowen, Worcestershire and Ann née Adams, and the ...

and Thomas Attwood were bankers and politicians, and other brothers also had notable careers. Charles Attwood had other business interests during his career, and was a politician. The company, founded in 1845 as the Weardale Iron Company, was created to exploit

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. T ...

; leasing rights were obtained there in the manors of Stanhope and

Wolsingham Wolsingham is a market town in Weardale, County Durham, England. It is situated by the River Wear, between Crook and Stanhope. History Wolsingham sits at the confluence of the River Wear and Waskerley Beck. It is a small settlement and one of ...

. Six

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

s were built at

in County Durham, and the company built a railway to transport the iron ore to the ironworks. The company became in 1846 the Weardale Iron and Coal Company, with Attwood as a managing partner; it was controlled financially by

Baring Brothers Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

. Collieries were established in the area, and the company built houses for employees."Tow Law"
Tow Law Community Association. Retrieved 25 February 2020. In 1853, an ironworks was built in

, near

Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham, England, Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers ...

in County Durham. Forges and

rolling mills In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

were built, and collieries were opened."History of Spennymoor"
Tudhoe and Spennymoor Local History Society. Retrieved 25 February 2020. In 1861 the company began to make steel by the

Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is steelmaking, removal of impurities from the iron by ox ...

in Tudhoe, the first to do so in northern England. At Tow Law Attwood was the first licensee of the

Siemens regenerative furnace An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial Industrial furnace, furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to Steelmaking, produce steel. Because steel is difficult to ma ...

to make steel. In 1865 Attwood retired as managing partner of the company. The ironworks at Tow Law had closed by 1882; Tudhoe Iron and Steel Works had closed by 1901.

References

{{coord missing, County Durham Ironworks and steelworks in England Industrial history of England 1845 establishments in England Buildings and structures in County Durham Mining in County Durham