Brymbo Steelworks

Brymbo Steel Works

Part of the works in April 1962
Built	1796
Location	Brymbo
Industry	Steel mill
Products	Steel
Defunct	1990

The Brymbo Steel Works 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.

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. This initial furnace ("No. 1") worked continuously until 1894 when it was finally 'blown out', and continued in use afterwards as a sand hopper. From 1805 a second furnace was brought into production.

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 cost of the actions in the Court of Chancery were to bankrupt Jones and to absorb much of the inheritance of Wilkinson's children. The ironworks lay idle for some years, with a few attempts at restarting production, one of which was made by the ironmaster John Thompson.

In 1841, the works and estate were to be bought by Robert Roy (one of the Brymbo estate's trustees) and in 1842 were handed to Henry Robertson to develop. Robertson engaged William Henry Darby and Charles Edward Darby, grandsons of Abraham Darby III of Coalbrookdale, to manage the works. The works gradually expanded, and in 1854 he bought out Roy's share of the business, local tradition stating that the transaction was decided by a horse race which the steelworks employees, favouring Robertson, ensured he won.