page_title: Thomas Walmsley and Sons
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Walmsley and Sons
caption_attribution_description: English: Atlas Forge, Bridgeman Street, Bolton Thomas Walmsley - the last company to roll wrought iron using steam driven hand mills. They had stopped rolling by now and had become steel stockholders. The rolling mill area was now looking very ramshackle.
context_page_description: Thomas Walmsley and Sons was a company that manufactured wrought iron. It was founded in 1866 or 1869 by Thomas Walmsley at the Atlas Forge on a site bounded by Bridgeman Street and Fletcher Street in Bolton, then in Lancashire, England. The forge had at least 16 puddling furnaces and forging and rolling mills.
  In 1874 a Rastrick boiler at the forge exploded, causing six fatalities.
  Production lasted for more than 100 years until 1975 when it was the last plant in the United Kingdom to produce wrought iron. Much of the plant, the wrought iron rolling mill, the Rastrick boiler and the steam engine that powered it were preserved in working order by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust for its Blists Hill museum where it is used to demonstrate the process to visitors. A steam hammer supplied to the company by Nasmyth & Wilson of Patricroft is preserved outside Bolton University.
  After 1975 the company became steel stockholders as 'Walmsley Steelstock' and closed in 1984.
context_section_description: Thomas Walmsley and Sons was a company that manufactured wrought iron. It was founded in 1866 or 1869 by Thomas Walmsley at the Atlas Forge on a site bounded by Bridgeman Street and Fletcher Street in Bolton, then in Lancashire, England. The forge had at least 16 puddling furnaces and forging and rolling mills.
  In 1874 a Rastrick boiler at the forge exploded, causing six fatalities.
  Production lasted for more than 100 years until 1975 when it was the last plant in the United Kingdom to produce wrought iron. Much of the plant, the wrought iron rolling mill, the Rastrick boiler and the steam engine that powered it were preserved in working order by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust for its Blists Hill museum where it is used to demonstrate the process to visitors.  A steam hammer supplied to the company by Nasmyth & Wilson of Patricroft is preserved outside Bolton University.
  After 1975 the company became steel stockholders as 'Walmsley Steelstock' and closed in 1984.
caption: Atlas Forge and the figure of Atlas, as steel stockholders in 1983
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