page_title: Round Oak Steelworks
section_title: Steel Production
hierarchical_section_title: Round Oak Steelworks / History / Steel Production
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of William Humble Eric Ward&#32;(1894&#8211;1969)
context_page_description: The Round Oak Steelworks was an important steel production plant in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, England. It was founded in 1857 by Lord Ward, who later became, in 1860, The 1st Earl of Dudley, as an outlet for pig iron made in the nearby blast furnaces. During the Industrial Revolution, the majority of iron-making in the world was carried out within 32 kilometres of Round Oak. For the first decades of operation, the works produced wrought iron. However in the 1890s, steelmaking was introduced. At its peak, thousands of people were employed at the works. The steelworks was the first in the United Kingdom to be converted to natural gas, which was supplied from the North Sea. The works were nationalized in 1951, privatized in 1953 and nationalized again in 1967 although the private firm Tube Investments continued to part manage the operations at the site. The steelworks closed in December 1982.
context_section_description: Demand for iron began to fall from the 1870s as steel production began to compete with traditional iron products, and it was decided to convert the plant to steel production. In 1890, the Dudley Estate sold the iron works to a new public company, which would aim to convert to steel production. The price of the works was set at £110,000 pounds of which £10,000 was paid in cash and the remainder by a mortgage provided by the Dudley estate itself.  The company passed to the Lancashire Trust and Mortgage Insurance Corporation Limited, which floated the shares in the firm to the public, receiving £135,000. The new company was called the Earl of Dudley's Round Oak Iron and Steel Works and was incorporated on 16 April 1891. The chairman of the new company was Mr Richard Dalgleish and the managing director was Mr R. Smith Casson. Steel was first produced in August 1894. However, the company had run into financial difficulty and on 26 November 1894, the company went into liquidation, resulting in repossession by the Dudley Estate. A new company, The Earl of Dudley's Round Oak Works Ltd, was established on 15 July 1897 under the ownership of the Dudley family. The chairman of the new company was The 2nd Earl of Dudley, and the managing director was George Hatton.
  The steel plant, built next to the ironworks, included three 17-ton furnaces of the open-hearth type, a 30 inch cogging mill and a 28 inch finishing mill.
  
  In 1904, the works were described as consisting of: "iron works for the manufacture of high-class bar iron ; chain works for the manufacture of chain ; and steel works for the manufacture of Siemens-Martin steel in bars of every variety of section". It was also stated that the steelworks "comprise five large open-hearth-steel melting furnaces, standing in a shop 350 ft. long by 90 ft. wide." The Bertrand-Thiel process of making steel was being used at the works.
  The works prospered until just after the First World War when the firm faced a financial crisis due to a national depression combined with weaknesses at the plant itself It was the Earl's son, the then Viscount Ednam, who tackled the problems by taking specialist financial advice. In 1923, a new board of directors was constituted.
  In 1927, it was reported that the equipment at the plant included a 90-ton tilting furnace, two 50-ton and three 40-ton fixed open-hearth furnaces, in addition to a  30-inch cogging mill and a 28-inch finishing mill.
  The company's name was changed to Round Oak Steel Works Limited on 14 December 1936.
  At the end of the Second World War, it was found necessary to carry out a modernisation of the plant, which cost over £4,000,000, the financing coming from the Finance Corporation for Industry Limited.
  The works were nationalised by the British Government in 1951, but were sold to Tube Investments in 1953. Tube Investments paid £1.4 million and took responsibility for the repayment of loans totaling £4.2million. The chairman of Tube Investments, Ivan Stedeford, took over as chairman of Round Oak Steel Works.
  Steel was produced at the works using basic electric arc and open hearth methods. Principal products included alloy and carbon steel bars (case hardening, bright drawing, free cutting, machining, hot and cold forging), special sections, railway bearing plates, rounds, squares, flats, angles, channels, joists, billets, blooms, slabs and large forging ingots. Round Oak manufactured a weldable extra high-strength steel under the brand name, 'Thirty-Oak'.
  The 3½ mile-long railway between the steelworks and Baggeridge closed in September 1966.
  The works were re-nationalized in 1967, becoming part of British Steel although the works continued to be part  managed by Tube Investments.
  By the 1970s, the factory's viability and profitability began to decline owing to a fall in demand for its products. At its peak some 3,000 people were employed at the plant, but by 1979 the job cuts began and the plant's future was thrown into serious doubt.
caption: The then Viscount Ednam, who later became The 3rd Earl of Dudley, brought about the management changes that improved the prospects of the steelworks in the 1920s
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