Catalogue description Dorman Long and Company Limited Collection

BS/DL/1. Corporate Records
Memorandum and Articles of Association
Minute Books
Reports of the Proceedings of the Ordinary, Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings
Reports and Accounts
Registers of Directors
Seal Books
Corporate Records of Affiliated Companies

BS/DL/2. Share
Registers and information on Shareholders, including Deaths, Probates and Letters of Administration; Notices of Lien; Marriages and Powers of Attorney
Call notices

BS/DL/3. Administration
Secretary's Files for individual Directors
Internal memos on various subjects including engagement of workers
Managing Director's/ General Managers Reports
Reports on Collieries
General Managers Files including correspondence on various subjects including Bridge Contracts, Local Defence, Workers Pay and Conditions.
Files on Dormanstown Tenants Limited
Construction Department Files

BS/DL/4. Financial and Accounting
Balance Sheets
Auditors Reports
Ledgers, Journals, Cash Books
Rent Books

BS/DL/5. Legal
Patents, Trade Marks and Design Registrations
Agreements and Leases
Licences
Records of Litigation
Trust Deeds, Mortgages and Conveyances

BS/DL/6. Operational
Estimates
Order Files
Coal Analysis Books
Production Records
Technical Drawings / Plans of Bridges and Buildings
Letter Books

BS/DL/7. Marketing and PR
Product Catalogues
Photos
Photos of Directors and Managers; Workers; Works and Plant; Bridges and Buildings
Newspapers and Magazines including Press Cuttings and Articles
Dorman Long Illustrated Magazine
Reports from Visits Abroad
Company History
Visitors Books
Commemorative Items

BS/DL/8. Staff and Employment
Salaries Books
War Services Allowance Books
Occupants of Works Registers
Registers of Employees
Pensions and Contributions Registers

BS/DL/9. Property
Surveys
Plans including Dormanstown; Wharves and Riverside Properties; Works; Mines
Insurance

Dorman Long and Co Ltd

The origins of Dorman Long and Co. Ltd. can be traced to the forming of a partnership between Arthur John Dorman and Albert de Lande Long in 1875, and the leasing of the West Marsh Iron Works, Middlesbrough. The works were modest in size, with 20 puddling furnaces employed producing wrought iron bars. Just four years later, in 1879, the partnership had prospered sufficiently for it to take over the much larger Britannia Works from Sir Bernhard Samuelsons. Britannia had at the time 120 puddling furnaces - with half of them converted to Siemens Marin open hearth steelmaking process, with the first steel joists being rolled in 1883.

Progression continued, and on the 8th November 1889 the partnership was formed into Dorman, Long and Co. Limited. The company was created with capital of £350,000 in £5 ordinary shares and £135,000 in debenture stock of £100 bonds each bearing 5% interest. Shortly after Incorporation, De Lande Long retired from playing an active role in company, leaving the path clear for AJ Dorman to become the figurehead.

Following Incorporation the company made several annual losses, but soon returned to profitability with in excess of £100,000 being made in 1899. On the strength of such returns expansion was possible, wire works and sheet works being purchased in the Ironmasters' District of Middlesbrough and a 50% interest in Bell Bros Ltd being acquired.

AJ Dorman was a man not averse to risk-taking, and was fully committed to the expansion of the company. A policy was set that saw the regular acquisition of companies that would provide Dormans with the necessary raw materials and production capability. Thus, by first investing in and then taking-over Bell Brothers Ltd., the company ensured control of the raw materials of ironstone, coal and pig iron and acquired the production capability of Bell's Clarence Works. In 1915 the purchase of Walker Maynard and Co. Ltd, Redcar was completed, with Maynard's 2 blast furnaces and ironstone mine at Kilton being desirable assets. Dorman Long were also keen to expand into overseas markets, and an example of this saw them form Wade and Dorman Ltd., a partnership made with Charles Wade and Company, Birmingham to operate in South Africa.

In 1923 saw the amalgamation into Dorman Long of four companies which the company owned, but had previously chosen to operate as separate entities. The companies were Bell Brothers Limited, Sir B. Samuelson and Co., Carlton Iron Co. Ltd. and the North Eastern Steel Co. Ltd., and A.J. Dorman explained the reasons for their amalgamation at the 34th Ordinary General Meeting of the company held on the 21st December 1923, when informing the shareholders that 'For some considerable time past we have been faced with the fact that a complete amalgamation was becoming urgently necessary if full advantage was to be obtained from the working of the various properties of the Allied Companies'.

However, this amalgamation did not signal an end to expansion, and on the 10th October 1929 an agreement was struck to amalgamate with Bolckow Vaughan and Co. Ltd. - who at the time were one of the most prominent iron and steel companies in the country. This saw not only the works, mines, and collieries owned by Bolckow Vaughan pass to the company, but also resulted in the acquisition of the whole of the ordinary share holding in construction company Redpath Brown and Co. Ltd., Glasgow.

This valuable addition of Redpaths greatly increased the construction capacity already available to at Dorman Long from their Britannia Construction Works and Battersea and Nine Elms Yards in London. Dorman Long had, by this point, already established themselves as world leaders in the construction of bridges - with the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 being the most obvious example of their prominence. Their position was further enhanced through the acquisition of The Tees Side Bridge and Engineering Works Limited (later Teesside Bridge and Engineering Limited) in the late 1940s

The company continued to evolve, and in November 1954 Dorman Long would undergo a major re-structuring. From that point onwards Dorman Long and Co. Ltd. would only exist as a holding company, with all matters of operation and production being passed onto three new companies - Dorman Long (Steel), Dorman Long (Bridge and Engineering) and Dorman Long (Chemicals)

Around the same time of this re-structuring, the format of the name Dorman Long was also changed. When first incorporated in 1889, the names of the two protagonists - 'Dorman' and 'Long', were separated by a comma, but some time in the early 1950s this was discarded. The reasons for this change (or the precise date) is unclear, with no reference being found in the minutes of the Directors' meetings of the period.

The company continued to run profitably until in the early 1960s when the first signs of depression appeared. Yet the company continued to operate under its volition until early in 1967, when it then joined with Stewarts and Lloyd's, Corby and South Durham Steel and Iron Co. Ltd, Middlesbrough) to form part of British Steel and Tube Ltd. However, just months later this newly formed concern was dissolved as nationalisation of the industry by the Government was secured on Vesting Day on the 28th July 1967. With the works of the Company becoming a part of British Steel Northern and Tubes Group and era came to a close. It was an era in which the name Dorman Long had been synonymous in the iron and steel industry, both in Teesside and beyond.

Dorman Long: a concise history (E.T.Judge)