Henry Bolckow
| Henry Bolckow | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 8 December 1806 Sulten, Germany |
| Died | 18 June 1878 (aged 71) |
| Resting place | Marton, Middlesbrough |
| Monuments | Statue, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough |
| Occupation | Chairman, Bolckow Vaughan |
| Spouse(s) | Miriam Hay, Harriet Farrar |
| Parent(s) | Heinrich Bölckow, Caroline Dussher |
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, (8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.
In a lifelong partnership with John Vaughan, Bolckow set up and ran an ironmaking business which became the company Bolckow Vaughan. It came to operate coal mines, limestone quarries and a major ironworks which stimulated the growth of Middlesbrough. Bolckow became the town's Mayor and its first Member of Parliament.
Heinrich Bölckow, the son of Heinrich Bölckow of Varchow, in the region of Western Pomerania, and his wife, Caroline Duscher, was born at Sülten in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. When he was fifteen his parents placed him in a merchant's office in nearby , to learn about commerce, and there he made the acquaintance of Christian Allhusen, who in 1827 invited him to move to Newcastle upon Tyne to become his business partner in the corn trade.
After several years in business in the north of England, Bölckow became a naturalised British subject in 1841 by act of Parliament and anglicised his name as "Henry Bolckow".
He was persuaded by the ironmaster of the Walkergate works in Newcastle, John Vaughan, to invest in the burgeoning iron trade. At the suggestion of Joseph Pease they set up their first iron foundry and rolling mill at Vulcan Street, Middlesbrough, where they processed pig iron imported from Scotland. In 1846 the pair opened Witton Park Ironworks, 20 miles (32 km) to the west of the town, where ironstone from Grosmont, could be smelted in blast furnaces to produce the pig iron for the Vulcan Street works. The high transport costs generated by this operation led the partners to look closer to home for their raw materials, and in the end they found what they were looking for on their own doorstep. In 1850, Vaughan and his geologist John Marley discovered large seams of iron ore at Eston, in the nearby Cleveland Hills. A year later they began mining there, and soon a branch railway line was built to transport the ore to Middlesbrough.
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