Sir Bernhard Samuelson and Co Ltd Collection

BS/SBS/1. Corporate Records
BS/SBS/2. Administrative Records
BS/SBS/3. Financial and Accounting Records
BS/SBS/4. Legal Records
BS/SBS/5. Marketing Records
BS/SBS/6. Property Records

Samuelson?s is probably best known for its Newport ironworks, located on a 40 acre site at the western end of Middlesbrough?s Ironmasters? district. Rather like Bell Brothers, the firm concentrated primarily on iron smelting: by the early 1870s its eight blast furnaces were capable of producing 2,500 to 3,000 tons of pig iron each week. The Newport works, however, were not the firm?s first or only venture in the Cleveland iron trade. Bernhard Samuelson, the owner, and later principal partner, had been producing iron in Middlesbrough since the early 1850s and was also involved in other parts of the industry at one time or another. In many respects Samuelson possessed the ideal attributes for an ironmaster in the entrepreneurial hothouse of the early Cleveland iron trade. He had experience as a merchant in Liverpool and was the proprietor of an agricultural engineering works in Banbury, Oxfordshire. A period working in France for a railway engineering business gave him not only a grounding in engineering, but also useful knowledge of, and contacts in, Continental European markets. He also travelled extensively in Britain promoting agricultural machinery. Indeed, it is reported that it was on one of these marketing trips that Samuelson became aware of the potential of Middlesbrough?s fledgling iron industry. A chance meeting with Robert Dockwray, a railway engineer and former colleague of his brother, Martin, at the Cleveland Agricultural Show in Stokesley Autumn 1853), led to an introduction to John Vaughan. Vaughan was the engineering partner at Bolckow Vaughan, Cleveland?s first and at the time largest iron firm, and at some point Samuelson was shown around the firm?s new Eston Ironworks about a mile to the east of Middlesbrough. Samuelson clearly had an ability to identify a promising business opportunity and to act quickly. Before the end of the year he had bought a site for a new iron works at South Bank, close to the Eston works, and signed an agreement with Bolckow Vaughan for supplies of ironstone from their mines in the Eston Hills. The following year, 1854, the South Bank Ironworks were in operation, with three 50 feet high blast furnaces, making Samuelson?s one of the first five iron firms on Teesside. For reasons that are not altogether certain ? perhaps Samuelson wanted a larger site away from the expanding interests of Bolckow Vaughan at Eston ? Samuelson sold the South Bank works in 1863 (to Elwon, Malcolm & Co), and with the proceeds bought the Newport site. Initially, there were four 69 feet blast furnaces (blown-in in 1864); over the next eight years an extra four much larger furnaces were added, with Samuelson himself contributing to the design. Furnaces No. 6 and No 7, built in 1870, are reported to have cost £50,000 for the pair (over £3.5 million in today?s terms). The rapid expansion of Cleveland?s industry in the 1860s induced Samuelson to extend his interests into iron processing. In 1870 the Britannia ironworks, trading under the name Britannia Iron Co, and comprising 120 puddling furnaces and several rolling mills, was built on a site adjacent to the Newport works. It was later floated as a limited company (1872-74), but the works was never very profitable until it was leased (and later sold) to Dorman Long in 1879. Samuelson was also a shareholder in an early attempt to manufacture steel using pig iron produced from Cleveland ironstone. The firm, which also included well known Teesside ironmasters such as Joseph Dodds (also a solicitor and MP for Stockton), Joseph Richardson and John Stevenson (of Stevenson, Jaques and Co, Acklam Ironworks), leased the North Yorkshire Ironworks in Stockton and planned to produce steel rails and plates using the Siemens-Martin open hearth method. The relatively high phosphorous content of Cleveland ore, however, meant that the venture was a costly failure, resulting in a loss of some £25,000 to £30,000. Bernhard Samuelson, unlike many other Cleveland ironmasters, never made Cleveland or North Yorkshire his base. His main attachment was to Banbury, where he was Liberal MP, elected first in 1859 and later holding the seat from 1865 to 1895. In contrast to another ironmaster-MP, Henry Bolckow, who never made a Parliamentary speech, Samuelson?s public service career was distinguished by his contributions to numerous Parliamentary Reports and Royal Commissions, most notably on technical and scientific education. In his absence, his Cleveland interests were left in the very capable hands of William Hanson as the Newport works manager, Richard Howson as chief engineer and Thomas Ward, the firm?s secretary. In 1870 Hanson became Samuelson?s partner in the business, and under his and the others? guidance the firm expanded and prospered over the years, acquiring interests in ironstone mines (Slapeworth and Spa Wood, near Guisborough) and collieries (Hedley Hope at Tow Law and later other coal mines near Sherburn, Country Durham). In comparison to other iron firms, Samuelson?s was relatively late in taking advantage of the limited liability legislation. Perhaps because the ageing Samuelson ? he was by this time 69 ? wanted to ensure the continuation of the firm, it was eventually registered in 1887. The firm, now named Sir Bernhard Samuelson and Co. Ltd. following Samuelson?s knighthood in 1884, was effectively a private limited company as all the shareholders were family members plus a few long-serving employees. On registration the shareholders? interests were valued at £204,000; Hanson became Managing Director and Sir Bernhard, Chairman, a position which he retained until 1895 when he was replaced by his Oxford-educated son, Francis. As the majority shareholder Bernhard remained on the board his death in 1905. In the early 1900s Samuelson?s entered an agreement to supply Dorman Long?s Britannia Steelworks, the plant next door to Newport, with molten iron. This development is indicative of the growing integration of the Cleveland industry at that time as firms sought cost-saving improvements in production techniques and technology. By 1910 the link-up between the two firms had become more formal, with a long-term supply agreement signed in November of that year and Francis Samuelson taking a seat on the Dorman Long board in the next. Eventually, in 1917, Dorman Long took over Samuelson?s at a cost of £140,000 in cash and an exchange of shares. As with other Dorman Long takeovers of the time, Samuelson?s remained a separate company, but there were a number of management changes. Francis Samuelson resigned as Managing Director, but remained as Chairman, and Arthur Dorman and Hugh Bell, respectively Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Dorman Long, joined the board. The works manager (William Hawdon), resigned, to take semi-retirement and a position of consulting engineer, and was replaced by R.H.A. Coulson. Samuelson?s remained as a wholly owned subsidiary until 1923, when the collapse of the post-war boom in the steel trade forced a major reorganisation and financial restructuring at Dorman Long. The seriousness of the recession is illustrated by the fact that at the time there was only one furnace in blast at the Newport works. Along with the other subsidiary companies, the firm was absorbed into the parent company, and as with Bell Brothers, another of the pioneering iron businesses on Teesside, the Samuelson name disappeared from the list of firms in the Cleveland iron and steel industry. By Stephen James, Teesside Business School, Teesside University Sources:British Steel Collection, Teesside Archives. James, S., Business Networks in the Cleveland Iron Industry, 1840-1875, draft ms, 2006. James, S., The Early Development of Middlesbrough?s Iron Industry, draft ms, 2008. Jeans, J.S., Pioneers of the Cleveland Iron Trade, Middlesbrough, 1878. The Times, May 11, 1905 (Obituary: Sir Bernhard Samuelson) Trinder, B, ?Sir Bernhard Samuelson?, in D.J. Jeremy (ed), Dictionary of Business Biography, vol.5, 1985.