Hadfields Limited
| Hadfields | |
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Formerly called
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Hadfield's Steel Foundry Company Limited |
| Public listed company until privatised 1967 | |
| Industry | Steel |
| Founded | 1869 in Sheffield, England --> |
| Founder | Robert Hadfield (1831-1888) |
| Headquarters | East Hecla Works, Attercliffe, Sheffield, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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International |
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Key people
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| Brands | Era, Heclon |
| Owner |
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Hadfields Limited of Hecla and East Hecla Sheffield, Yorkshire was a British manufacturer of special steels in particular manganese alloys (which were discovered by the founder's son and often known as Hadfield steel) and the manufacture of steel castings.
There was a very heavy involvement in the armaments industry, in the production of shells and armour plate steel.
In 1977 Hadfields became part of Tiny Rowland's Lonrho. The over-capacity of Britain's steel industry forced the closure of the Leeds Road plant in June 1981 and the East Hecla workforce was much reduced. Lonrho finally closed the last part of Hadfields in 1983 receiving compensation from GKN and the British Steel Corporation. Most of the site is now covered by Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
Robert Hadfield (c.1831-20 March 1888) who died aged 57 after a long illness, belonged to a family with close links to steel makers (Brown's) and Sheffield's cutlery industry. Hadfield served his apprenticeship with edge tool firm John Sorby & Sons of Attercliffe. After a period as Attercliffe's rate collector he joined a steel wire making business associated with Sorby's. Following the death of his wire-maker partner, Shipman, Hadfield began in 1869 his own steel casting business on a site close by the River Don, off Newhall Road, Attercliffe. Success was assured when he became able to produce materials and castings for shells which previously had to be imported from France. By the time of his death in 1888 it was estimated there were more than 1,500,000 Hadfield's cast steel wheels and axles in daily use all over the world and his firm could make castings weighing up to 16,000 lb (7 t). He was able to produce cast steel of a strength previously provided only by forged steel. Hadfield left the business to his two daughters and his son, Robert Abbott Hadfield. In compliance with his will his business was transferred to a limited liability company incorporated the year of his death and shares offered to the general public. The prospectus for the new company described its castings as unrivalled and of a modern and progressive type and listed these products:
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