Brymbo Steelworks

The Brymbo Steelworks was a former large steelworks in the village of Brymbo near Wrexham, Wales. In operation between 1796 and 1990, it was significant on account of its founder, one of whose original blast furnace stacks remains on the site.

History

John Wilkinson's ironworks

The works was founded by the pioneer industrialist John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson. Wilkinson, who had owned the nearby Bersham Ironworks jointly with his brother William, purchased Brymbo Hall and its 500-acre estate from the Assheton-Smith family in 1792 for the sum of £14,000, some of which may have been lent by Boulton and Watt. The estate was rich in coal and ironstone deposits, several small coal pits having existed even before Wilkinson purchased the estate. By 1796 Wilkinson had erected the first blast furnace on the site, east of the Hall, 884 tons of iron being produced in this first year.P. Riden and J. G. Owen, British Blast Furnace Statistics 1790-1980 (Merton Priory Press, Cardiff 1995), 49-50.



After Wilkinson's death, his estate was contested between his natural children, who he had fathered with the Brymbo Hall housekeeper Ann Lewis, and his nephew Thomas Jones. The...
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