Catalogue description Bowesfield Steel Co. Ltd. Collection

1. Corporate Records
2. Share Records
3. Administration Records
4. Financial and Accounting Records
5. Legal Records
6. Operational Records

Bowesfield Steel Company Limited

The Bowesfield Steel Company Limited incorporated on the 22nd June 1896 following the purchase for the sum of £19,000 of Bowesfield Ironworks, Stockton on Tees from The Bowesfield Ironworks Syndicate . The company was launched as a Private Limited Liability Company, with a working capital of £50,000 raised through the issuing £1 shares. The initial Board of Directors establishes the close links with another local iron and steel company Head Wrightsons, both figureheads of that concern, Thomas Wrightson and Charles Arthur Head, being appointed Directors of Bowesfield. Later in 1896 Arthur Baldwin, MP, and father of future Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was appointed a Director of the company.

After taking over the ironworks, extensive expansion and renovation work was undertaken with new sheet mills, furnaces and engines being installed to provide the modern plant the shareholders demanded. A local iron and steel company Dorman Long and Company Limited purchased shares in the company in 1912. Over time they increased their presence, as individuals with ties to Dorman Long being admitted to the Board of Directors of Bowesfield, and through buying increasing number of shares Dormans eventually become the sole holder. The company was liquidated in mid-1938, with Dorman Long themselves being appointed the liquidator.

After a period of just over a year Bowesfield Steel Company Limited was re-launched as a Private Limited Company being incorporated on the 27th October 1939 with just 100 shares being issued; 2 individual shareholders holding 1 share apiece with Dorman Long Co. Ltd holding the remaining 98. The company continued operating as a subsidiary of Dorman Long until it was part of the country wide dissolution of steel companies under the government order of 1970 (first phase) which eventually led to all steel producing companies being Nationalised.