PAPERS OF THE BUTTERLEY COMPANY

Records of the Butterley Company of Ripley, and of its various subsidiaries, including: title deeds [1803-1897]; administration papers [1839-1980]; minutes [1878-1948]; correspondence [1795-1910]; company results and reports [1889-1967]; share records and accounts [1888-1967]; general management papers [1869-1888]; financial papers [1790-1969]; production records [1791-1971]; plans [1835-1958]; legal papers [1789-1955]; labour papers [c.1800-1982]; papers regarding prices and promotions [1801-c.1950]; photographs [20th cent]; and miscellaneous papers [1727-c.1967]; as well as papers of subsidiary companies: Butterley Housing Co. Ltd. [1924-1966]; First Intertown Properties Ltd. [1951-1961]; AH Couser Ltd. [1941-1979]; FC Hibberd & Co. Ltd. [1927-1979]; Richard Lees Ltd. [1946-1965]; Blaby Brick and tile Co. Ltd. [1926-1979]; Butterley Aglite Ltd. [1956-1980]; G Tucker and Sons Ltd. [1694-1979]; Muggington Sand and Gravel Ltd. [1932-1967]; Apex Sand and Gravel Ltd. [1948-1965]; Butterley Quarries Ltd. [1945-1979]; Exhibition Minerals Ltd. [1961-1970]; Butterley Building Materials [1969-1985]; National Star Group [1887-1989]; Clay Products Ltd. [1928-1929]; Claughton Manor Brick Co. Ltd. [1961-1984]; and Castle Fire Brick Co. Ltd. [1961-1974].

Contents of list

Records of the Butterley Company D503/1-99

Title deeds D503/1-2

Company and administration D503/3-7

Minutes D503/8-11

Correspondence D503/12-13

Company results and reports D503/14-15

Share records and accounts D503/16-21

General management D503/22

Financial - Final accounts D503/23-25

Financial - Profit and loss accounts D503/26-27

Financial - Private accounts D503/28-34

Financial - General D503/35-38

Financial - Salaries and wages D503/39-41

Financial - Forge/foundry/ironworks D503/42-47

Financial - Mining D503/48-50

Production - Forge/foundry/ironworks D503/51-61

Production - Mining D503/62-66

Property - Mining & Plant and premises D503/67-68

Property - Farming and tenancy D503/69-72

Plans - General D503/73

Plans - Individual properties D503/74-75

Plans - Mining D503/76-77

Legal, courts and disputes D503/78-80

Labour - General D503/81-82

Labour - Apprenticeship D503/83-84

Labour - Wages and disputes D503/85

Labour - Welfare D503/86-88

Prices and promotional D503/89

Photographs - Castings and products D503/90

Photographs - Works and premises D503/91

Photographs - Individuals D503/92

Photographs - Groups and functions D503/93

Other illustrative material D503/94

Miscellaneous - History of company D503/95

Miscellaneous - Articles D503/96

Miscellaneous - Directors, etc D503/97

Miscellaneous - Business D503/98

Miscellaneous - Assorted D503/99

Records of Subsidiaries D503/100-126

Butterley Housing Co Ltd D503/100

First Inter-Town Properties Ltd D503/101

A H Couser Ltd/ Butterley Simms Wulpa Lift Co Ltd/Butterley Wulpa Lift Co Ltd/Butterley Engineering Co Ltd/Butterley (E) Ltd D503/102

F C Hibberd and Co Ltd/Butterley (FCH) Ltd D503/103

T Darnell and Sons Ltd/Butterley (TD) Ltd D503/104

Vibrocon (Norwest) Ltd/Richard Lees Ltd D503/105

Blaby Brick and Tile Co Ltd/Butterley and Blaby Brick Companies Ltd/Butterley Brick Co Ltd D503/106

Aglite (Midlands) Ltd/Butterley Aglite Ltd D503/107

G Tucker and Sons Ltd D503/108

Mugginton Sand and Gravel Ltd D503/109

Apex Sand and Gravel Ltd D503/110

Lincolnshire Traffics Group D503/111-123

Lincolnshire Traffics Ltd/ Butterley Quarries Ltd D503/111

Ackroyd Quarries Ltd D503/112

Agricultural Limes Ltd D503/113

H Appleyard (Grimsby) Ltd D503/114

Dunston Stone Quarries Ltd D503/115

Grasby Limes Ltd D503/116

Hartsholme Gravel and Sand Co Ltd D503/117

Hartsholme Sales Ltd/Aglite Engineering Ltd/Butterley (AE) Ltd D503/118

Lincolnshire Construction Co Ltd D503/119

Lincoln Stone Quarries Ltd D503/120

E Plant and Sons (Grimsby) Ltd D503/121

Trentford Gravels Ltd D503/122

Crystalime Ltd/Trentford Mixed Concrete Ltd. D503/123

Pre-Mixed Concrete Ltd D503/124

Lincoln Mixed Concrete Ltd D503/125

Parish Quarries Ltd/Exhibition Minerals Ltd D503/126

Records of Butterley Building Materials and Subsidiaries D503/127-140

Butterley Building Materials D503/127

National Star Group D503/128-136

National Star Brick and Tile Holdings Ltd D503/128

Star Brick and Tile Co Ltd D503/129

Neal and Co Ltd/National Brick Co Ltd D503/130

Tondu Brickworks Co Ltd D503/131

National Star Floor and Wall Tiling Co Ltd D503/132

Bayliss Brickworks Ltd/Birmingham Brick Co Ltd D503/133

National Star Group Sales Ltd D503/134

Abersychan Brick Co Ltd D503/135

Cwmbran Brick Co Ltd D503/136

Clay Products Ltd D503/137

Claughton Manor Brick Co Ltd D503/138

Castle Brick Co Ltd/Castle Fire Brick Co Ltd D503/139

Unidentified D503/140

In 1790 Benjamin Outram and Francis Beresford became partners to exploit the coal and ironstone on the Butterley Estate in the parishes of Pentrich and Codnor. In the following year William Jessop and John Wright joined the partnership. They were primarily iron masters who mined coal to supply their own furnaces. Originally called Benjamin Outram and Co, it had became known as the Butterley Company by 1807. Outram himself died in 1805, but the Wright and Jessop families continued the business. In 1888 the Company became a public company, incorporated to carry on the business of coal masters, iron masters and iron founders. It remained, however, a family concern for the most part, the majority of directors being members of the Wright family until the 1950s.

From the earliest days there was a furnace and foundry at Butterley, and very shortly a second set of ironworks was established at Codnor Park, where one of their early major collieries was situated. During the 19th century the Company became a thriving success. In 1862 there were seven furnaces at Butterley and Codnor Park which produced one-fifth of the total output of iron in Derbyshire. Later in the 19th century the production of ironstone declined locally, but the Company still remained a major force in the iron industry. It was heavily involved in the expansion of the railway industry, by the manufacture of track and wagons at its foundry and engineering works, and Butterley was famously used for the huge arched roof of St Pancras Station in London. The Company was heavily involved with the production of bridges, heavy structural steelwork, mining equipment and machinery, presses, castings and overhead cranes.

The Company set up and owned several mines in the East Midlands coalfield. They were primarily set up to supply the Company's own furnaces, but by the late 19th century, the Company had one of the major coal mining enterprises in the country, producing ever-increasing coal outputs. Collieries owned by the Company included Bailey Brook, Britain, Denby Hall, Exhibition, Loscoe, Lower Hartshay, Upper Hartshay, New Langley, Ormonde, Ripley, Waingrove and Whiteley in Derbyshire and Kirkby, Portland and Ollerton in Nottinghamshire. Following the Coal Nationalization Act 1946, the Company lost all their collieries, railway wagons, Kirkby Brickworks, and houses mainly occupied by colliery workmen.

With the nationalization of the coal mining industry after World War II, it was necessary for them to diversify and concentrate on other areas such as civil engineering and brick-making. They took over several companies such as A H Couser Ltd of Warwickshire in 1947 for their plant and contracts, T Darnell and Sons Ltd (of Colwick, Nottinghamshire) in 1954 for their light engineering works, and F C Hibberd and Co Ltd of london in 1964 for the manufacture of diesel locomotive parts. Occasionally the Company experimented with projects as part of their diversification policy but soon dropped them, such as their involvement in the construction of car-park lifts and oxygen plants around 1960.

The Company had also been a major landowner since the initial purchase of the Butterley Estate in 1790. It is believed that the Company was the third largest landowner behind the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland. Although not regarded as part of their core business, their lands were still farmed as profitably as possible until the 1950s, when the incursion of open-cast mining led to the abandonment of large scale farming. As major employers in the area, they also built and let several thousand houses for colliers and ironworkers, including the new village of Ironville. The Company also had limestone quarries at Crich, which operated to supply the ironworks but which also ran its own operations. Limekilns were built at Codnor Park and Amber Wharf.

Although there had been brickworks in the Company for several decades, these were similarly regarded as a by-product of their other, larger activities, with the clay sites being physically located close to the coal pits. After 1945, however, that side of the business was developed and expanded. There were works at Ollerton and Waingroves. There had been works at Kirkby, which had been taken over by the government at the same time as the collieries. As part of their expansion they acquired the quarry of Mugginton Sand and Gravel Ltd in 1947, as well as the brickworks at Ambergate and Blaby in Leicestershire and gravel pits of Apex Sand and Gravel Ltd in Lincolnshire. In 1955 they acquired Richard Lees Ltd, who made pre-stressed concrete beams at works in Lancashire. In 1956 they moved into the area of lightweight aggregate, known commercially as Aglite. They also gained control of several companies known as the Lincolnshire Traffics Group in 1963, which had various interests in the extraction, processing and sale of sand, gravel and limestone, and G Tucker and Sons Ltd, brick and tile manufacturers of Loughborough in 1964.

In 1968 the Company was taken over by the Wiles Group, later called Hanson Trust Ltd, and eventually Hanson plc. They sold off the engineering side of the business, including the Butterley Works, very shortly after takeover, and concentrated their efforts on the brick-making side of the business, operating all their operations under the new name of Butterley Building Materials in 1969. Several businesses were taken over by Hansons and run by Butterley Building Materials. These included the National Star Group in 1971, seven brickworks from the British Steel Corporation, (including the six that formed the Castle Brick Co) in 1972 and the London Brick Co in 1984. The name of the whole brick enterprise became Butterley Brick Co Ltd in 1985.

For further reading on the history of the Company, see:-

The Butterley Company 1790-1830 by Philip Riden, published by the Derbyshire Record Society, Volume XVI, 1990

Through Five Generations: The History of the Butterley Company by R H Mottram and Colin Coote, published by Faber and Faber, 1950

Butterley Brick: 200 Years in the Making by Roy Christian, published by Henry Melland Ltd, London, 1990