Thos W Ward

Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, steel, engineering and cement business which began as coal and coke merchants then expanded to recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, engineering and the supply of machinery.

In 1894 as part of the scrap metal operation Ward's began to set up substantial shipbreaking yards in different parts of England and in Scotland and Wales. By 1953 Thos W Ward employed 11,500 people.

Ward's business was reorganised at the end of the 1970s when it moved from being an engineering group with a motley assortment of subsidiaries to being principally dependent on cement. In 1982 it was bought by RTZ.

This business was founded by Thomas William Ward in 1878 with the name Thos. W. Ward. Ward's provided coal and coke and very soon recycling or scrap metal services then added dealing in new and used machinery related to the iron, steel, coal, engineering and allied industries and manufacturing that machinery.

Ward's Constructional Engineering Department manufactured and erected steel frame buildings, bridges, collieries, steel works equipment and furnaces. The Rail Department supplied light and heavy rails, sleepers, switches and crossings and equipped complete sidings. De Lank Quarries produced the granite for Tower Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, major lighthouses and prestige buildings in London and elsewhere.

In 1894 Ward's moved into ship breaking at many different locations. A limited liability company was formed and registered 19 May 1904 to own and continue all the businesses operating under the name Thos. W. Ward. By 1920 when raising further capital from the public the prospectus claimed these notable facts for Thos. W. Ward: "Premier shipbreaking firm in the world, largest stockholders to the iron, steel and machinery trades, constructional engineers, merchants, etc."

New capital was raised from the public in 1928 to establish a new greenfield Portland cement business at Ketton in Rutland on 1,170 acres of freehold land with oolitic limestone and clays suitable to produce the highest quality rapid-hardening Portland cement. It was a particular project of new chairman Joseph Ward (1865-1941), brother of Thomas Ward (1853-1926).Ketton Cement Works became the core activity of Ward's in the late 1970s.

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