Richard Thomas and Baldwins

Richard Thomas and Baldwins Ltd (RTB) was a major iron, steel and tinplate producer, primarily based in Wales and formed in 1948 by the merger of Richard Thomas & Co Ltd with Baldwins Ltd. It was absorbed into British Steel Corporation in 1967. The business now forms part of Corus, a subsidiary of Tata Steel.

Richard Thomas & Co Ltd was an iron, steel and tinplate producer and colliery proprietor. The founder, Richard Thomas (died 1916), leased two tinplate works in Gloucestershire: Lydbrook in 1871 and Lydney in 1876. He went on to acquire local collieries and in 1888 the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works near Cardiff. Richard Thomas & Co, in which Thomas was succeeded as managing director by his son Richard Beaumont Thomas in 1888, became one of the principal tinplate manufacturers in the United Kingdom. The Ebbw Vale Steel Iron and Coal Company was taken over by Richard Thomas & Co in 1936, and a new steel plant and strip mill was erected in the town.

Baldwins Ltd began as EP&W Baldwin, ironfounders of Stourport. In 1870 Alfred Baldwin bought out his relatives to become the sole proprietor of the firm, but continued to trade under the old name. In 1888, he brought his 21-year-old son Stanley, afterwards Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, into the business. The firm was incorporated as EP&W Baldwin Ltd in 1898, and gradually acquired a number of tinplate works, mainly in South Wales.

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