SINGLETON BIRCH COMPANY

Records 1851-1973, of Singleton Birch Company, mineral merchants and producers now of Melton Ross Quarries, Barnetby

The list is arranged as follows

CORPORATE

402/10 Minutes

402/11 Registers

402/12 Memoranda and Articles of Association

402/13 Shares

402/14 Correspondence

ACCOUNTING

402/15 Balance sheets

402/16 Ledgers

402/17 Journals and Cash Books

402/18 Invoices

402/19 Miscellaneous

SALES

402/20 Correspondence

21 Miscellaneous

STAFF

402/22 Wage Books

402/23 Payroll

402/24 Agreements

QUARRYING

402/25 Sites

402/26 Haulage

402/27 Plant

PREMISES

402/28 Offices and warehouses

402/29 Miscellaneous

PHOTOGRAPHS

402/30

FINAL MISCELLANEOUS

402/31

The following notes are based on some made by the Business Archives Council's Company Archive Survey in 1982-3:- William Singleton Birch started his mineral merchant business about 1851. He developed warehouses and distribution centres in Lancashire based on the railway and canal network. In 1856, after the Manchester Sheffield and Lincs. Railway had been extended to Grimsby, he took over the Earl of Yarborough lease of mineral rights and an existing small whiting works at Chalk Hill, Melton Ross

W.S. Birch and his two sons, W.A. Birch and T.H. Birch, developed the works and in 1875 became suppliers of stone for fluxing to the Scunthorpe Iron Works. At that time the business was being carried on at Upton Street, Manchester (Lancs) and Effingham Road, Sheffield (Yorks). The business was incorporated as a limited liability company on 23rd April 1875

W.S. Birch died in 1881 and his eldest son a few years later. After the younger son died in 1920 many of the assets had to be sold, including the china clay mines at Rosvear, St. Austell (Cornwall). The lease of the Melton Ross quarry was retained and as the Scunthorpe steelworks expanded the area of the quarry grew. By 1939 the annual quantity of stone mined exceeded 100,000 tons

During the post-1945 years changes in demand from the steel industry led to changes in production. In the 1970s major redevelopment in machinery and plant took place as a direct result of the British Steel Anchor project, which required a large supply of high quality burnt lime, a large proportion of which Melton Ross provided

In 1973 the Melton Ross lease was extended for another sixty yars. By 1979 the company was the third largest lime producer in the United Kingdom. The area of the lease covered 412 acres and the company had a capacity of 260,000 tonnes of burnt lime p.a