Yorkshire manufacturing history

 Britain's largest county with a long history of wool, coal and steelmaking. I draw together an overview of coal mining and iron and steel making to place individual regions in a national context.

Sheffield

Sheffield was to steel as Manchester was to cotton and Leeds to wool. This developed in Sheffield plate (silver plating) and stainless steel. On a larger scale, it was the place of Huntsman’s invention of crucible steel and the development of the Bessemer processes embraced by the father of Sheffield steel, John Brown, for rails and armour plating for naval ships. It was the birthplace of Vickers and the Vickers/Cammell Laird English Steel Corporation (Sheffield). Part of this now continues in public ownership as Sheffield Forgemasters. Read more about Sheffield manufacturing by following this link.

Leeds

A city that made its wealth from the wool industry; in the years following the Second World War the Burton factory employed 20,000 people. Wool attracted textile machinery manufacturers and engineering more generally, including the railways. Yorkshire Chemical Company provided the dyes for the wool industry. See much more by following this link. In nearby Temple Newsam one of the first fulling mills was erected in 1185.

Bradford

The home of worsted production and a major iron producer. In 2025 the UK City of Culture. See much more by following this link.

Wakefield

A coal mining town on the river Calder with a history of working with wool. Sirdar knitting wool is spun here. Sirdar was also famous for their knitting patterns. Hodgson and Simpson, soap manufacturer later part of Unilever, was active here. Coca Cola has major plant here. The British Premium Sausage Company formed in Bradford to produce high end sausages distinct from then prevalence of cheap sausages with low quality ingredients. At nearby Batley Angloco make fire engines.

Castleford

In 1972 Burberry moved its production of gabardine overcoats.

Yeadon

North of Leeds, Avro produced Lancasters and and Ansons in what was reputedly the largest single factory unit in Europe at the time employing 17,500 people. The Dowty Heritage site offers more fascinating detail on aircraft production and the shadow factories.

Rotherham

Yorkshire was home to Park Gate Iron and Steel Co formerly owned by Tube Investments. Liberty’s Speciality Steel is part of its progeny. J & E Walker's tin plate works was known as one of the greatest in the country until 1829. Tinplate later focused on South Wales. J&E Walker's predecessor Samuel Walker cast both iron and brass (bronze) cannon.

Halifax

Famous for its Piece Hall where merchants traded woollen products made by the many hundreds of spinners and weavers in the surrounding area. A keen competitor of Bradford in the worsted trade having the advantage of more water power. It later concentrated on 'fancy' worsted. Together with Keighley and Huddersfield, Halifax was part of a cluster of Yorkshire towns where machine tool manufacturers explored new ideas in the nineteenth century. It was where John Mackintosh set up his shop selling toffee; it merged with Rowntree in 1969. I tell more of Halifax in this blog.

Huddersfield

The home to wool products which made the town wealthy. "It is believed, in the 1940s, Huddersfield had more Rolls-Royce owners per capita than anywhere else in England, displaying the wealth of the mill owners at the time". English Cloth are one of the remaining wool manufacturers and their website tells the story. You can read more about Huddersfield manufacturing by following this link.

Barnsley

A town in the Yorkshire coalfield where mining and related metal manufacturing dominated. It was famous for its nail makers operating from small workshops, also wire stretchers. Joseph Bramah produced his famous unpickable locks in London to which he had travelled from Barnsley to seek his fortune. Metal working skills were adapted to clock making very much aimed at the monied classes. Redfearn Glass at Monk Breton near Barnsley at one time had 16% of the UK’s glass bottle production. RHM made Mr Kipling 'exceedingly good cakes' in Barnsley, subsequently owned by Premier Foods.

Whitby

Was a coal and whaling port. The ship Endeavour was built there.

Scarborough

The Canadian McCain have made frozen chips nearby since the sixties.

Hull

The city was one of the two great ports serving the industrial revolution, the other being Liverpool. Historically the docks were home to commercial shipbuilding and manufacturing activity grew up around the products traded. In the later nineteenth century fishing became a massive part of Hull. I write more about Hull manufacturing in this blog.

York

Home to Rowntree, Terry's and the National Rail Museum which grew out of the railway workshops in the city. Although without a university until 1963, it was a place of scientific invention. I tell in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World how technical development tended to be on the job rather than in formal educational settings as in France or Germany. Many towns had their scientific society where ideas were shared and stimulated. You can read more about York manufacturing by following this link.

Doncaster

Where the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard were built. International Harvester set up their first UK full manufacturing plant before the Second World War. I write more in this blog.

Goole

The company town of the Aire and Calder canal through which many thousands of tons of coal from the South Yorkshire coalfield. It is now home to Siemens new railway factory. Croda Chemicals began production in 1925

Skipton

Was home to Dewhurst, maker of Silko thread. Metcalfe Models now make wonderful card kits for model railways.

Northeast England manufacturing history

 This was surely the powerhouse for the Industrial Revolution in Britain, with abundant coal, iron ore and limestone, a canny workforce and some of our best engineers. The coalfields of Northumberland and Durham were the biggest source of coal in the UK the total production of which in 1913 was 287 million tons with the mighty USA a short distance behind. The output of the Durham field alone was 41 million tons. The region produced iron and steel and played a big part in shipbuilding.

Berwick on Tweed

In 1850 Robert Stephenson built the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick, connecting London and Edinburgh.

Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead

A shipbuilding town built on coal. Home to William Armstrong's engineering ventures which joined with Vickers to become a giant of engineering, shipbuilding and armaments. CA Parson steam turbines were invented and built in the city and transformed both the generation of electricity and the way ships were powered. You can find more in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World and by following this link.

South Shields

Barbour have made wax jackets since 1894.

Sunderland

On the river Wear, home to builders of clippers for fast carriage of tea and silk. Now home to Nissan UK and its electric car and battery plant. I write much more in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World and in this link.

Washington

A new town designated in 1964 home to a BAE Systems munitions factory derived from the Second World War Royal Ordnance engineering factory at nearby Birtley. You can read more by following this link.

Jarrow

Home to Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Company. This was one of the companies which in the 1930s was deemed surplus to the nation's needs. Palmers with eighteen berths and one hundred and thirty one thousand capacity closed in 1935. Vickers later brought it back for repair work.

Blyth

A major port for the shipment of coal. Nearby Cambois was home to a Glaxo primary manufacturing factory

County Durham and Durham

The county was home to one of Britain’s largest coal fields and a good deal of the industry of the area development round the need to transport that coal to market. The first water powered pump to clear a mine of water was introduced in Finchdale in1486. In recent times, there was some diversification. Phillips (formerly Mullard) made colour TV tubes at their Durham factory.

Consett, the Derwent Valley and Shotley Bridge

The Derwent Valley was rich in coal, iron ore and limestone and made it the perfect place for iron and steel production. I write more in this blog piece.

Hartlepool

A shipbuilding and iron and steel town built on the carriage of coal by rail from the Durham coalfields to the sea. Still home to a Tata steel plant. You can read more in this link.

Peterlee

A new town designated after the Second World War in 1948. You can read more in the link.

Middlesborough

On the south of Teeside, and so in Yorkshire. One of the 19th century towns created by the railways. Along with neighbouring Hartlepool, Stockton and Darlington historically focused on shipbuilding, coal and iron. You can read more by following this link.

Billingham and Wilton

ICI built massive chemical plants forming the core of the British chemical industry. Read more in this link.

Stockton

One end of the first railway, this town on the winding river Tees. was important for its engineering skills. You can read more in this link.

Darlington

The North Eastern Railway workshops moved here from Gateshead. Whessoe foundries and engineering had their home here. Cummins Inc set up their diesel engine factory here in 1965. Dorman, Long continues to trade as DLT Engineering with the Whessoe Technology Centre at Darlington, head office in Northamptonshire and operations in China and India. Here is the link to DLT. Rothmans made cigarettes here.

Barnard Castle

Glaxo's first factory producing penicillin. I write more in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Newton Aycliff

New Town designated in 1947. Home to a Royal Ordnance shell filling factory in the Second World War to which the government persuaded the British Bakelite company to move in the late forties. Home now to Hitachi Europe, one of the few remaining UK railway locomotive works, and the government owned semiconductor plant, Octric. You can read more in this link.

Eastern Scotland manufacturing history

 Scotland became home to high tech in the area now known as Silicon Glen between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh. At Grangemouth it was home to oil refining and cracking for the plastics industry. Aberdeen was the heart of North Sea oil. Earlier, there was wool and iron and, in Dundee, jute.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh was a capital city of many trades: publishing, printing, paper making, bookbinding, wool, linen, cotton, glass and electronics. Read more by following this link.

Grangemouth

Grangemouth is home to the Ineos, formerly BP, refinery and cracker. The Distillers Company had its headquarters in the city but owned distilleries across the country. I tell in Vehicles to Vaccines of its involvement in chemicals, plastics and man made fibres. ICI also had a plant at Grangemouth (formerly part of British Dyestuffs).

Rosyth

The Royal Naval Dockyard at Rosyth was commissioned in 1909 and opened in 1916 in order to support the fleet in the North Sea just in time to deal with the aftermath of the battle of Jutland. Babcock International now run the Rosyth dockyard

Falkirk

Where the Carron Iron works, one of the earliest of which I wrote in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World, set up. I write more in this link.

Stirling

As wool production spread across much of Scotland in the eighteenth century, mills were established in Stirling using steam power. It was an important military centre.

Perth

The Glenturret distillery produces many of the malt whiskeys that are blended into Scotland's top brand Famous Grouse now owned by William Grant & Sons.

Livingston 'Silicon Glen'

A new town designated in 1962 and thought of as the capital of silicon glen. NEC set up a major plant but closed it as a result of the downturn in electronics in 2000. Its proximity to Edinburgh means that is is now benefitting from the growth in indigenous software development companies.

Galashiels

A centre of the wool industry and the place chosen for the Heriot-Watt University's School of Textiles and Design.

Hawick

In the early nineteenth century framework knitting of hosiery produced in Hawick accounted for half of all Scottish production which in turn was one quarter of the total for Britain. I write of framework knitting in my blog piece on Leicester.

Dalkeith

Home to Ferranti measurement and inspection equipment which was later sold to Plessey.

Dundee

Home to linen manufacture which in the eighteenth century accounted for nearly half of Scotland’s exports (much to England) and also to Jute manufacture for use in sail cloth now largely gone overseas except for Jute Products Ltd at Kidderminster. The coming of steam power caused a massive increase in coal imports into Dundee from the coal fields of Fife and the Lothians shipped from the ports of Alloa and Charleston on the Forth. The largest of the linen manufacturers was Baxter Brothers Dens Works said to be the biggest in the world in 1840. Paper manufacture also took place here. Ferranti made components and laser systems here. NCR set up cash register and adding machine manufacture after the Second World War. It finally left the city after the downturn in electronics in 2000.

Dunfermline

Home to fine linen manufacture. Marconi Electronic Systems established here in the Second World War and subsequently became part of BAE Systems.

Montrose

A Glaxo primary manufacturing factory

Kirkaldy

Linoleum was manufactured by the Nairn family

Glenrothes 'Silicon Glen'

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War 1948. Elliott Automation and English Electric semiconductor plants were based here. Rodime, founded by former American and Scots employees of Burroughs, pioneered the 3.5 inch hard disc drive in 1986. In 1960 Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon) manufactured germanium and silicon diodes. General Instruments established a wafer fab

East Kilbride 'Silicon Glen'

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War in 1947. Home to CVH Spirits formerly Burns Stewart whisky distillers. Quartztec Europe's site in East Kilbride, Scotland has been operational for over 35 years (owned by Motorola), manufacturing and supplying the Semiconductor, Solar and Fibre Optic markets.

South Queensferry

Digital Equipment operated a semiconductor manufacturing plant and sold it to Motorola. It was closed as a result of the down turn in electronics in 2000.

Linlithgow

Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) set up a major plant but the downturn in 2000 caused its closure.

Hillend, Fife

Home to BAE Systems electronic engineering. Fife is also home now to the distilleries making Tanqueray and Gordon's Gin, owned by Diageo.

Aberdeen

Home to shipbuilding dating back to clippers for the tea and silk trades. The UK base for North Sea oil and gas and now home to British Energy. Read more in this link. In nearby Rothienorman, Mackie make ice cream and chocolate.

Inverness

Nearby Speyside is the largest centre of Scotch whiskey production. In Dufftown is the Glenfiddich distillery and headquarters of William Grant and Sons.