# Talk:Consett Iron Company

Shouldn't this be moved to something like Consett Steel Works. It seems strange that such a huge industrial undertaking should only have a tiny article devoted to it, something which a move to a broader title may help. Just a thought Fintan264 (talk) 16:10, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

The title is probably fine - all companies change their names at frequent intervals. We could add a redirect for the other name. But additional material, if suitably sourced with citations of books, museums, and reliable websites would be welcome: as you say, the article is very short for the topic. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

The following appears to be entirely unsourced (WP:OR) so I've moved it here. If you can find sources for any of it, feel free to add it back. With the sources, of course. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)
"The company was closed because of the over capacity caused by the construction of new iron and steel making facilities for which there was no market available to British Steel. The company undertook a hugely expensive expansion programme to double the capacity from around 15 million tonnes/year to around 30 million. Little consideration was given to the finishing end, which is the reason why the company could not sell the increased production.  Once the new facilities were completed, the options were to close the older works like Consett and Corby, or not start-up the new furnaces.  The latter option would have been too embarrassing to contemplate, so the Consett works was closed. It was not for valid economic or even financial reasons.
The huge capital investsment programme undertaken by Brtish Steel resulted in debts of around £4 billion which were never paid off. These debts were wiped off the books when the company (British Steel) was privatised and sold as a "profitable" business."

This article is plainly in need of a complete overhaul. There is substantial material available in Jenkins (see Bibliography in the article), with useful materials at the Durham Mining Museum and other sites. The article requires a decent history explaining the basic timeline, the changes in company name, size and fortunes, illustrated with some historic photographs. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:16, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Done (in May 2012). Hope new version goes some way to satisfying the topic - certain that more could be said, especially on the final phase of the company. Chiswick Chap (talk) 06:11, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I created a redirect -from Derwent Iron Company  this article gives the details (founder, date, financial trouble) - so in the absence of a proper article, this page seems appropriate. If any problems with this please let me know.Oranjblud (talk) 20:19, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Consett Iron Company/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: CorporateM (talk · contribs) 05:25, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

I'll take on this review. CorporateM (Talk) 05:25, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Many thanks for volunteering your time, it's much appreciated. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:48, 12 October 2014 (UTC)


### First look
### Lede
It looks like parts of the Lede are cited and parts aren't. If the cited parts aren't included in the body, I think that's ok. However, if they are, you should stick to one format or another (cites in the Lede or no cites) CorporateM (Talk) 21:12, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Moved refs to body. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:33, 20 October 2014 (UTC)


### Early history
### William Jenkins
A lot of the second half of this section I think is not written in an encyclopedic tone and needs could be better integrated with the rest of the content. I might take a crack at copyeditng and moving things around if you don't mind, because I think it would be hard to explain precisely what I mean. CorporateM (Talk) 21:44, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
OK; have copyedited and checked for tone.
"prosperity" What do you mean by this? Large, consistent profit margins, or... CorporateM (Talk) 21:17, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Changed to 'profit'. See table.
"efficiency" Does the source say anything more specific about how we brought about efficiency? CorporateM (Talk) 21:22, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Careful financial management. Cited.
"For this purpose it created the Angle Mills on a sixteen-acre site. These mills could produce 1500 tons of angles, bars and girders per week" - this sentence uses "the" (singular) but "These Mills" suggests plural. A bit confused. CorporateM (Talk) 21:40, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Reworded.
"at Crookhall" - is this a city? CorporateM (Talk) 21:43, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Linked.
can we take "infirmary" out of quotes? CorporateM (Talk) 21:46, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
"Contemporaries regarded [Jenkins] as being particularly shrewd in two respects: in his judgement of what was profitable business, and in his choice of men for managerial posts." I'm not sure I understand this quote... CorporateM (Talk) 22:01, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Added a gloss.
"had been sub-manager" was "sub-manager" his actual title? CorporateM (Talk) 22:02, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
He progressed from being a chemist, a blastfurnace manager and eventually General Manager after Jenkins.Wilson, p203 Said 'a manager'.
"He reconstructed Consett Iron Company in 1903–1909 at a cost of £750,000" what is meant by reconstructed? CorporateM (Talk) 22:05, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Extended the description of Ainsworth's time.
"until his death in 1920." Needs a source CorporateM (Talk) 22:05, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.


### Twentieth century
Can we get some conversion numbers (to modern currency values) in parentheses? CorporateM (Talk) 22:20, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
was wealthy enough  Unneeded editorializing CorporateM (Talk) 22:20, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
I think it could be merged into fewer paragraphs and copyediting to improve the flow. CorporateM (Talk) 22:20, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
The very last paragraph has a really long run-on sentence and needs copyediting/re-writing. CorporateM (Talk) 22:20, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.


### External links
The number of external links seems excessive. Could some of these be integrated as references? CorporateM (Talk) 16:52, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
Would suggest "Further reading" rather than "Bibliography" as a bibliography usually refers to works published by the article-subject, as oppose to works about them. CorporateM (Talk) 16:53, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.


### Final review
"On 4 April 1864, after operating for several years under the threat of bankruptcy, a new Consett Iron Company Ltd was formed[5][6] with capital of £400,000, which was divided into 40,000 shares priced initially at £10 each,[2]:2 with J. Priestman as managing director; two local Members of Parliament, Henry Fenwick and John Henderson, were among the directors." Can we break this up into 3 sentences to avoid a run-on. CorporateM (Talk) 15:32, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
Done.
"n 1938, the company helped to found" How did it help found it? CorporateM (Talk) 15:36, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
With financing.
"resulting in an unemployment rate of 35%," in that area? CorporateM (Talk) 15:46, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
In Consett. Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:05, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

As this article has a citation error in huge red letters, I was going to deal with that.
But then I read in more detail and I was uncomfortable with some details. As a lot of people have evidently put a lot of work into this article I hesitate to put my ideas in without consultation ...
May I also make the point that Wikipedia articles are for people who don't already know about the subject, and editors who do know about it will wish to bear that in mind.
So here goes:
1) The top image appears to be captioned "ironmaking" and appears to be a great cloiud of dust. I now see that it isn't a caption, but maybe one should be provided. I suppose the purpose of the image is to shout "See how awful our living conditions were here" and when I was there about 1962 they were awful; but are we sure that is a helpful and encouraging introduction to a reader?
2) There are several red links; red links are only justfied if there is a realistic expectation that someone will provide the linked article shortly.
3) The citation errors.
4) There are numerous dead links. You can't just link to an external news item and expect that it will be static and valid for ever more.
5) One of the links simply takes you to a registration page. Maybe the editor who provided the link had already registered, but a novice reader will not have done so.
6) The section references in Jenkins are unusual [not in itself objectionable] but puzzling until you read the citation at the bottom. Since we never do it this way for a printed book (and Jenkins is a printed book), are we sure this system is helpful?
7) This looks like an attempt to shoehorn a political point into the article: In 1938, the company helped to finance the founding of the New Jarrow Steel Company from the old Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company[1] which had collapsed in 1933, leading to the Jarrow March of 1936.
Afterbrunel (talk) 16:52, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

In 1964, Consett bet on the kaldo converters. That year, 2 Kaldos and 2 LD converters were built. [1] In 1966, Kaldo production became little. [2] In 1968, a third LD was built. [3]
My question is : when did the Kaldo production definitively ceased ? I didn't find any ref about it. Borvan53 (talk) 23:17, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
 Done, I finallly got it : first Kaldo was converted in a 150-t LD in 1968, the second one in 1971 [4]. Borvan53 (talk) 21:26, 12 December 2016 (UTC)