Catalogue description THE LILLESHALL COMPANY COLLECTION

Introduction:

This collection consists of business and property documents emanating from the Lilleshall Company, spanning over two hundred years. The Company's business over this period involved the mining of coal, limestone, and ironstone, as well as the manufacture of heavy clay products, heavy and light engineering, iron and steelmaking and finishing.

Arrangement:

The documents in this part of the collection range from 1660 - 1980s and represent many different forms. Most are property documents for Gower family lands in the Lilleshall area or that which is now within the boundaries of Telford. Many different families and other companies appear in these documents, either as tenants of Lilleshall Company owned property or as contracted parties.

The collection came to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust partly in the early 1970s through E. Bruce Ball and Cyril Nicholls (the last manager and secretary of the Lilleshall Co. respectively). A second batch of records was received in the 1980s after the company offices in Priorslee closed. However, since this date further material donated from the Company has meant that this updated catalogue to the entire collection has had to be produced.

Much of the original order of the collection has been lost in previous cataloguing but wherever found has been retained. Some documents carry their company or previous reference number but these have been crossed out to alleviate confusion. The original catalogue is now obsolete but there is a cross-referenced version available for checking previous reference numbers.

The Lilleshall Collection consists of three sections and many of the records within these sections inevitably overlap, therefore, the researcher is advised to consult the Lilleshall Company's modern business files series (ref. DLIL/2), the company maps list and the company ledger series (DLIL/1). Please ask Library staff for further details.

Please note that all spellings are as they appear in the original document.

Other Lilleshall Co. material:

It is suggested that the researcher consults the printed material on the Lilleshall Company in the Museum Library, particularly W.K.V. Gale & C.R. Nicholls, "The Lilleshall Company Ltd. - A History 1764-1964" (publ. by the Lilleshall Co. Ltd. 1979), from which the above summary of the Company has been taken. There is also an unpublished account of the Company by W. Howard Williams (1973).

For a general history of the Lilleshall Company, please see the Victoria County History of Shropshire, vol. XI. For details of Lilleshall Company tenants and workers, please consult the Jim Cooper Index, which is available on request. A copy of this index is also lodged with the Shropshire Family History Society. For Lilleshall Company photographs please ask to see the Museum's photographic index for the Company.

Lilleshall Company material held elsewhere:

There are large Lilleshall Company collections held at Shropshire Records & Research Centre and Stafford Record Office, both forming part of the Dukes of Sutherland Papers. The Scottish Record Office also has a large collection of Sutherland Papers.

Lilleshall Company, 1803 -, Prior's Lee, Shropshire

• Metallurgy

The origins of the Company began with a partnership formed in 1764 between Earl Gower (Granville) and Thomas and John Gilbert, two brothers who helped develop the mineral resources on Earl Gower's estates in Shropshire. The early days of the company and the Gilberts is covered in P. Lead's book, "Agents of Revolution" (see 92GIL in Library). The Lilleshall Co. as such, was not established until 1802. After Gower's death in 1803, the Leveson-Gower family continued to participate in the management of the Company up until its last days in Shropshire in the 1980s. The company still exists today, based in Newbury and primarily concerned with the manufacture of plastic building components.

• View Record