- Source: Thos. W. Ward
Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, steel, engineering and cement business, which began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture of machinery.
In 1894, as part of the scrap metal operation, Ward began to set up substantial shipbreaking yards in different parts of England, and in Scotland and Wales. By 1953, Thos. W. Ward employed 11,500 people.
Ward's business was reorganised at the end of the 1970s, when it moved from being an engineering group with a motley assortment of subsidiaries to being principally dependent on cement. In 1982, it was bought by Rio Tinto Zinc.
History
This business was founded by Thomas William Ward in 1878 with the name Thos. W. Ward. Ward's provided coal and coke, and very soon recycling or scrap metal services. It added dealing in new and used machinery related to the iron, steel, coal, engineering and allied industries, and manufacturing that machinery.
Ward's Constructional Engineering Department manufactured and erected steel-framed buildings, bridges, collieries, steel works equipment and furnaces. The Rail Department supplied light and heavy rails, sleepers, switches and crossings, and equipped complete sidings. De Lank Quarries produced the granite for Tower Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, as well as major lighthouses and prestige buildings in London and elsewhere.
In 1894, Ward's moved into shipbreaking at many different locations. On 19 May 1904, a limited liability company was formed and registered, to manage all the businesses operating under the name Thos. W. Ward. By 1920, when raising further capital from the public, the prospectus claimed these notable aspects of Thos. W. Ward: "Premier shipbreaking firm in the world, largest stockholders to the iron, steel and machinery trades, constructional engineers, merchants, etc."
= Portland cement
=New capital was raised from the public in 1928 to establish a new greenfield Portland cement business at Ketton in Rutland, on 1,170 acres of freehold land, containing oolitic limestone and clays suitable for the production of the highest quality, rapid-hardening Portland cement. It was a particular project of new chairman Joseph Ward (1865–1941), brother of Thomas Ward (1853–1926). Ketton Cement Works became the core activity of Ward's in the late 1970s.
After 55 years, in 1934, when the employees numbered in excess of 4,000 people, the principal businesses were:
Construction, mechanical and electrical engineering manufacturers
Coal coke iron steel metal and machinery factors and merchants
Ship and works dismantlers, owners and brokers
Wharf owners
Machinery and plant valuers
Nut and bolt manufacturers
Horn handle manufacturers for cutlery
Brick manufacturers
Dry slag and tar macadam manufacturers
Quarrying
Freehold Premises:
Albion Works, Tinsley and Millhouses, Sheffield
and at Silvertown, Grays (Essex), Inverkeithing, Glasgow, Wishaw, Birmingham, Briton Ferry, Milford Haven, Lelant, Silverdale, Low Moor (Bradford), Albion (Mansfield) sand quarries etc and Brickworks at Longton, Newark and Apedale
Leasehold Premises:
Charlton Works and Effingham Road, Sheffield
Liverpool, Dublin, Cornish Granite Quarries (De Lank), Denny, Preston, Barrow-in-Furness, Pembroke Dock, Hayle and Scunthorpe.
Subsidiaries:
Milford Haven Dock & Railway Company, Low Moor Best Yorkshire Iron, The Midland Iron Co, Pengwern and Gwydir Quarries, The Drybrook Quarries, North Lonsdale Tar Macadam.
The Ketton Portland Cement Co (controlling interest)
= W. S. Laycock
=This old-established business was bought in 1934. Laycock's made railway carriage and steamship fittings, underframes for locomotives and railway coaches, and automobile axles, gearboxes, propeller shafts and Laycock's own Layrub flexible drive joints. Two years later, Laycock Engineering was sold to some investors.
= 1970s
=By 1969, the Ward group was believed to be primarily in metal supply, particularly from ship breaking, but also producing cement, supplying roadstone, constructing rail sidings, and building new industrial works and equipping them with the necessary plant and machinery.
Division
In October 1981, Thos. W. Ward's was split into three:
Thos. W. Ward (Raw Materials) the former iron and steel division active in processing and merchanting carbon scrap, special steel scrap, non-ferrous scrap metals and steel stockholding.
Thos. W. Ward (Industrial Supplies)
Thos. W. Ward (Industrial Dismantling)
Within a short time, Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) began to buy a substantial shareholding and the takeover was completed in early 1982. RTZ amalgamated the Ward cement operation with that of Tunnel Holdings, and named the combination RTZ Cement, which then had about one quarter of the UK cement market. The Railway Engineers department of Thos. W Ward was bought by Henry Boot. RTZ sold Thos. W. Ward (Roadstone) to Ready Mixed Concrete in June 1988.
Dismantling
Works dismantled before 1926: Abbott's Works, Gateshead; Bowling Ironworks; Kelham Rolling Mills, Sheffield; Derwent Rolling Mills, Workington; Dearne & Dove Works; West Cumberland Whittington Works, Crawshay's Cyfarthfa Works, Bessemer's Works, Bolton; Mars Ironworks, Wolverhampton; Effingham Nut and Bolt Works, Sheffield. Thos W. Ward. also dismantled the Crystal Palace.
HMS Akbar
HMS Benbow
HMS Boadicea
HMS Centurion
HMS Colossus
HMS Devastation
HMS Edinburgh
HMS Narcissus
HMS Nile
HMS Prince Albert
HMS Sans Pareil
HMS Warspite
SS Adriatic
SS Alaska
SS Arabic
SS Britannia
SS Cleopatra
Cordoba
RMS Etruria
SS Furnessia
SS Leviathan
RMS Lucania
SS Majestic
SS Munchen
SS Servia
SS Syrian
Terec
SS Vancouver
RMS Saragossa
RMS Cherbourg
Shipbreaking
= At Inverkeithing
=HMS Magnificent (1922)
HMS Dreadnought (1923)
HMS Mars (1929)
SS Zeeland (1930)
HMS Tiger (1932)
RMS Cedric (1932)
RMS Olympic (Hull only during 1937 — the superstructure was removed at Jarrow between 1935 and 1937)
HMS Caledonia (1943)
HMS Otway (September 1945)
HMS Uproar (February 1946)
HMS Unruly (February 1946)
HMS Unsparing (14 February 1946)
HMS Revenge (1948)
HMS Royal Sovereign (1948)
HMS Nelson (1949)
HMS Rodney (1949)
RMS Empress of Australia (1952)
HMS Formidable (1953)
SS Mulbera (1954)
RMS Maloja (1954)
HMS Implacable (1955)
RMS Scythia (1958)
HMS Glory (1961)
MV Britannic (1961)
HMS Thule (14 September 1962)
HMS Concord (R63) (22 October 1962)
RMS Mauretania (1965) (Cunard's second Mauretania)
MT Haakon Hauan (1960)
SS Ambrose (1946)
SS Hilary (1959)
HMS Howe, June 1958 → 1960/61
HMS Armada (1965)
HMS Alaric (July 1971)
HMS Ambush (July 1971)
HMS Anchorite (July 1971)
HMS Aisne (1970)
HMS Maidstone (May 1978)
HMS Roberts(1965)
MV Robert Ley (1947)
HMS Lion(1975)
= At Briton Ferry
=HMS Adventure
HMS Bellona
HMS Bermuda
HMS Cambrian
HMS Croome
HMS Crossbow
HMS Cumberland
HMS Dee
HMS Druid
El Inca (1979)
HMS Fury
HMS Gloucester
HMS Hardy
HMS Howe
HMS Loch Dunvegan
Marrakech (1979)
HMS Mutine
HMS Revenge
HMS Rother
HMS Royal Oak
HMS Shakespeare
HMS Taciturn
HMS Tally-Ho
HMS Tempest
HMS Tenby
HMS Thrasher
HMS Tonbridge
HMS Tuna
HMS Venus
HMS Zambesi
RFA Salvestor
SS Empire Rest
ST Sea Alarm
HMCS Nene
HMS Hampshire
HMAS Brisbane
HMAS Napier
= At Grays
=HMS Ark Royal
HMS Sapphire (1904)
HMS Berkeley Castle
HMS Bicester
HMS Carstairs
HMS Contest
HMS Foylebank
HMS Hydra
HMS L2
HMS Lance
HMS Laverock
HMS Liffey
HMS Spirit
HMS Tiverton
HMS Walpole
MV Sand Star
RFA Robert Dundas
RFA Sea Salvor
SS Holdernith
Cutty Sark
= At Preston
=HMS Dominion
RMS Etruria
HMS Hind
HMS Hindustan
HMS Holderness
HMS Jed
HMS Nith
HMS Ribble
HMS Skirmisher
HMS Starfish
HMS Sutlej
HMS Swale
HMS Welland
SS Aleppo
SS Staveley
HMS Exe
= At Barrow-in-Furness
=HMS Blencathra
HMS Dido
HMS Garth
HMS Meteorite
HMS Scylla
HMS Southdown
HMS Whitehall
RFA Abbeydale
SS Baxtergate
TSS Duke of Clarence
HMS Explorer
HMS Excalibur
HMS London
HMAS Australia
RMS Empress of Russia
SS Bendigo
HMT Dongola
= At Morecambe
=HMS Diadem
HMS Glasgow
HMS Imperieuse
HMS Northampton
HMS Orlando
HMS Raleigh
HMS Repulse
RMS Majestic
SS Ben-my-Chree
SS Ionic
= At Pembroke Dock
=HMS Birmingham
HMS Chatham
HMS Leamington
HMS Southampton
HMT Richard Bacon
RFA Salvestor
RMS Victorian
= At Milford Haven
=HMS Kangaroo
HMS Opportune
HMS Prince of Wales
HMS Tetcott
HMS Watchman
= At Lelant or Hayle
=HMS Aberdeen
HMS Acasta
HMS Bellona
HMS Bristol
HMS Chelmer
HMS Cockatrice
HMS Fareham
HMS Newcastle
HMS Tartar
SS Lyonesse
Lizzie the elephant
At the outbreak of World War I, 1,235 people were on the payroll of Thomas Ward's company and a thousand tons of scrap metal per day was being fed to the country's steel makers. With demand so high, and many of the horses Ward had previously used to transport his goods around Sheffield requisitioned by the military, he had an increasingly difficult time to match supply with demand. Lizzie the Elephant was brought in as a solution to the problem.
After work horses from Thomas Ward's were sent or requisitioned to the front in World War I, Lizzie the Elephant was drafted in from Sedgwick's Menagerie, a travelling circus run by William Sedgwick (1841–1927). The elephant was said to be able to do the work of three of Ward's horses and soon got herself the name "Tommy Ward's Elephant" as she became a familiar sight carrying or hauling goods around Sheffield, controlled by her trainer Richard Sedgwick (1875–1931) (son of the circus ringleader William Sedgwick). Lizzie was said to have inspired other Sheffield firms to creative means with their wartime transport, and a company in the Wicker area of the city was said to have used camels, also from Sedgwick's Menagerie, in place of their own horses.
References
Publications
Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
Ormston, John M (1998). The Final Berth: Columbia Wharf: Shipbreaking at Thos. W. Ward Limited, Grays. Grays: JM Ormston. ISBN 0953304701.
External links
Gracesguide.co.uk: Information on Thos W Ward yard
Liverpoolmuseums.org: Information on Thos W Ward company
Sheffield Educated - Lizzie the Elephant
Information on the elephant
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Triumph Motor Company
- Kapal samudra kelas Imperator
- RMS Olympic
- Stasiun Angkatan Laut Pearl Harbor
- Thos. W. Ward
- Laycock Engineering
- RFA Robert Dundas
- Explorer-class submarine
- Town-class cruiser (1910)
- RFA Salvestor
- RMS Majestic (1914)
- RFA Abbeydale
- Thomas William Ward (industrialist)
- SS Empire Rest
