From Slitting Mill to Alloy Steel: the Development of Swalwell Ironworks

Abstract

This reviews Men of Iron, M.W. Flinn's 1962 analysis of Swalwell Ironworks and the Crowley organisation of which it formed part, in the light of new information and a different approach. Ambrose Crowley III (1658–1713) developed a major mercantile iron business, supplied by his factories on Tyneside. The first major works, at Winlaton Mill, was started in the 1690s. Swalwell was set up by a separate company, but acquired by Crowley in 1707; he added a forge, Grand Warehouse, and workshops to the pre-existing slitting mill, and his son John (1689–1728) added steel furnaces and a foundry. Further workshop ranges were added until the mid-18th century. The works declined from the later 18th century under the Millington family; an increased emphasis on steel-making from the 1810s heralded conversion into a steelworks and specialist engineering works after buy-out by the final manager for the Millingtons. This works in turn was rebuilt in the 1880s, using gas furnaces and producing alloy steels. The processes of growth and decline were longer and more complex than believed by Flinn, and less completely centred on the achievements of Sir Ambrose Crowley.