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Henry William Schneider (12 May 1817 – 11 November 1887) was a British industrialist, and politician, who played a leading role in the development of the new town of
Henry Schneider was the son of John Henry Powell Schneider, of Swiss background. He arrived in Barrow-in-Furness in 1839 as a speculator and dealer in iron. He took over the Whiteriggs iron mine and other ore deposits. His breakthrough in 
While chairman of the Barrow Steelworks, he lived at Belsfield House on the shore of
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 t ...
.
Biography
Henry Schneider was the son of John Henry Powell Schneider, of Swiss background. He arrived in Barrow-in-Furness in 1839 as a speculator and dealer in iron. He took over the Whiteriggs iron mine and other ore deposits. His breakthrough in Furness
Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire.
The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...
was the discovery of the massive Burlington iron ore mine near Askam in 1851.
He and other investors including James Ramsden founded the Furness Railway
The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England.
History
Formation
In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...
, the first section of which opened in 1846. He decided to build furnaces in the town, in partnership with John Hannay. Schneider's iron company later merged with one founded by Ramsden to form the Barrow Hematite Steel Company
The Barrow Hematite Steel Company Limited was a major iron and steel producer based in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire (now Cumbria), England, between 1859 and 1963. At the turn of the 20th century and the Technological Revolution it operate ...
and the two magnates oversaw the construction in 1859 of what was then the largest 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 removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation ...
steelworks in the world, employing more than 5,000 workers.
He was elected Liberal MP for Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...
from 27 March 1857 to 31 July 1859 and was later MP for Lancaster from 20 February 1865 to 31 December 1866, but was disqualified when it was found that he had bribed voters.
While chairman of the Barrow Steelworks, he lived at Belsfield House on the shore of Windermere
Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...
. Every morning he left home and travelled on his steam yacht SL Esperance, on which he had breakfast, across the lake to Lakeside. From there he would travel by train in his private carriage to his office in Barrow. The Esperance is preserved in the Windermere Jetty Museum of Steam, Boats and Stories. It became the model for Captain Flint's houseboat in Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...
's ''Swallows and Amazons
''Swallows and Amazons'' is a children's adventure novel by English author Arthur Ransome and first published on 21 July 1930 by Jonathan Cape. Set in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District, the book introduces the main characters of John, S ...
''.
He had other homes in the area at Roa Island
Roa Island lies just over half a mile (1 km) south of the village of Rampside at the southernmost point of the Furness Peninsula in Cumbria, though formerly in the county of Lancashire north of the sands. It is located at ( OS grid ref. SD ...
, next to the lifeboat station, later used as a fisheries centre and at Oak Lea, near Sowerby Woods, which burnt down in mysterious circumstances in 1913.
A statue of Schneider, erected in 1891, stands on Schneider Square, Barrow-in-Furness near the town hall.
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Henry W. 1817 births 1887 deaths British businesspeople UK MPs 1857–1859 History of Barrow-in-Furness Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1865–1868 English ironmasters People from Barrow-in-Furness 19th-century English businesspeople