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An entrance to Albion Works, Sheffield

Cement kiln 8, Ketton, Rutland

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.

History

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

Shipbreaking

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.^[3] 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."^[4]

Portland Cement

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).^[1]Ketton Cement Works became the core activity of Ward's in the late 1970s.

After 55 years, in 1934, when the employees numbered in excess of 4,000 people, the principal businesses were:

• Construction, mechanical and electrical engineering manufacturers


• Coal coke iron steel metal and machinery factors and merchants


• Ship and works dismantlers, owners and brokers


• Wharf owners


• Machinery and plant valuers


• Nut and bolt manufacturers


• Horn handle manufacturers for cutlery


• Brick manufacturers


• Dry slag and tar macadam manufacturers


• Quarry owners

Albion Works 2013

Freehold Premises:

Albion Works, Tinsley and Millhouses, Sheffield

and at Silvertown, Grays (Essex), Inverkeithing, Glasgow, Wishaw, Birmingham, Briton Ferry, Milford Haven, Lelant, Silverdale, Low Moor (Bradford), Albion (Mansfield) sand quarries etc and Brickworks at Longton, Newark and Apedale^[3]

Leasehold Premises:

Charlton Works and Effingham Road, Sheffield

Liverpool, Dublin, Cornish Granite Quarries (De Lank), Denny, Preston, Barrow-in-Furness, Pembroke Dock, Hayle and Scunthorpe.^[3]

Subsidiaries:

• Milford Haven Dock & Railway Company, Low Moor Best Yorkshire Iron, The Midland Iron Co, Pengwern and Gwydir Quarries, The Drybrook Quarries, North Lonsdale Tar Macadam.


• The Ketton Portland Cement Co (controlling interest)^[3]
  

W S Laycock

This old-established business was bought in 1934. Laycock's made railway carriage and steamship fittings, underframes for locomotives and railway coaches and in 1934 also makes automobile axles, gearboxes, propellor shafts and Laycock's own Layrub flexible drive joints.^[3] Two years later Laycock Engineering was sold to some investors.^[5]

1970s

By 1969 the Ward group was believed to be primarily in metal supply, particularly from ship breaking, but also producing cement, supplying roadstone, providing rail sidings, building new industrial works and equipping them with the necessary plant and machinery.^[6]

Division

In October 1981 Thos. W. Ward's was split into three:

• Thos. W. Ward (Raw Materials) the former iron and steel division active in processing and merchanting carbon scrap, special steel scrap, non-ferrous scrap metals and steel stockholding.


• Thos. W. Ward (Industrial Supplies)


• Thos. W. Ward (Industrial Dismantling)^[7]
  

Within a short time RTZ began to buy a substantial shareholding and this takeover was completed in early 1982.^[8] RTZ put the Ward cement operation with that of Tunnel Holdings and named the combination RTZ Cement which then had about one quarter of the UK cement market.^[9] The Railway Engineers department of Thos. W Ward was bought by Henry Boot.^[10] RTZ sold Thos. W. Ward (Roadstone) to Ready Mixed Concrete in June 1988.^[11]

Ship and Works' dismantlers

Works dismantled before 1926: Abbott's Works, Gateshead; Bowling Ironworks; Kelham Rolling Mills, Sheffield; Derwent Rolling Mills, Workington; Dearne & Dove Works; West Cumberland Whittington Works, Crawshay's Cyfarthfa Works, Bessemer's Works, Bolton; Mars Ironworks, Wolverhampton; Effingham Nut and Bolt Works, Sheffield.^[12]

HMS Akbar

HMS Benbow

HMS Boadicea

HMS Centurion

HMS Colossus

HMS Devastation

HMS Edinburgh

HMS Narcissus

HMS Nile

HMS Prince Albert

HMS Sans Pareil

HMS Warspite

SS Adriatic

SS Alaska

SS Arabic

SS Britannia

SS Cleopatra

Cordoba

RMS Etruria

SS Furnessia

SS Leviathan

RMS Lucania

SS Majestic

SS Munchen

SS Servia

SS Syrian

Terec

SS Vancouver^[4]

RMS Saragossa^[13]

RMS Cherbourg^[13]

List of ships broken up at Inverkeithing

The RMS Mauretania arrives at Inverkeithing ready to be broken for scrap, 1965

• 
  HMS Magnificent (1922)


• 
  HMS Dreadnought (1923)


• 
  HMS Mars (1929)


• 
  SS Zeeland (1930)


• 
  HMS Tiger (1932)


• 
  RMS Cedric (1932)


• 
  RMS Olympic (Hull only during 1937 as superstructure was removed at Jarrow between 1935 to 1937)


• 
  RMS Majestic/HMS Caledonia (1943)


• 
  HMAS/M Otway (September 1945)


• 
  HMS/M Uproar (February 1946)


• 
  HMS/M Unruly (February 1946)


• 
  HMS/M Unsparing (14 February 1946)


• 
  HMS Revenge (1948)


• 
  HMS Royal Sovereign (1948)


• 
  HMS Nelson (1949)


• 
  HMS Rodney (1949)


• 
  RMS Empress of Australia (1952)^[14]
  


• 
  RMS Maloja (1954)


• 
  HMS Implacable (1955)


• 
  RMS Scythia (1958)


• 
  HMS Glory (1961)


• 
  MV Britannic III (1961)


• 
  HMS/M Thule (14 September 1962)


• 
  HMS Concord (22 October 1962)


• 
  RMS Mauretania (1965) (second vessel to carry the name for Cunard)


• 
  MT Haakon Havan (Renamed Norske Esso) 1960


• 
  SS Ambrose (1946)


• 
  SS Hilary (1959)


• 
  HMS Howe, June 1958 --> 1960/61


• 
  HMS Armada (1965)


• 
  HMS/M Alaric (July 1971)


• 
  HMS/M Ambush (July 1971)


• 
  HMS/M Amphion [became Anchorite]. (July 1971)


• 
  HMS Aisne (1970)


• 
  HMS Maidstone (May 1978)

List of ships broken up at Briton Ferry

HMS Adventure

HMS Bellona

HMS Bermuda

HMS Cambrian

HMS Croome

HMS Crossbow

HMS Cumberland

HMS Dee

HMS Druid

HMS Fury

HMS Gloucester

HMS Hardy

HMS Howe

HMS Loch Dunvegan

HMS Mutine

HMS Revenge

HMS Rother

HMS Royal Oak

HMS Shakespeare

HMS Taciturn

HMS Tally-Ho

HMS Tempest

HMS Tenby

HMS Thrasher

HMS Tonbridge

HMS Tuna

HMS Venus

HMS Zambesi

RFA Salvestor

SS Empire Rest

ST Sea Alarm

HMCS Nene

HMS Hampshire^[15]

HMAS Brisbane

HMAS Napier

List of ships broken up at Grays

HMS Ark Royal

HMS Berkeley Castle

HMS Bicester

HMS Carstairs

HMS Contest

HMS Foylebank

HMS Hydra

HMS L2

HMS Lance

HMS Laverock

HMS Liffey

HMS Spirit

HMS Tiverton

HMS Walpole

MV Sand Star

RFA Robert Dundas

RFA Sea Salvor

SS Holdernith

Cutty Sark

List of ships broken up at Preston

HMS Dominion

RMS Etruria

HMS Hind

HMS Hindustan

HMS Holderness

HMS Jed

HMS Nith

HMS Ribble

HMS Skirmisher

HMS Starfish

HMS Sutlej

HMS Swale

HMS Welland

SS Aleppo

SS Staveley

List of ships broken up at Barrow-in-Furness

HMS Blencathra

HMS Dido

HMS Garth

HMS Meteorite

HMS Scylla

HMS Southdown

HMS Whitehall

RFA Abbeydale

SS Baxtergate

TSS Duke of Clarence

HMS Explorer

HMS Excalibur

HMS London

HMAS Australia

RMS Empress of Russia

SS Bendigo

HMT Dongola

List of ships broken up at Morecambe

HMS Diadem

HMS Glasgow

HMS Imperieuse

HMS Northampton

HMS Orlando

HMS Raleigh

HMS Repulse

RMS Majestic

SS Ben-my-Chree

SS Ionic

List of ships broken up at Pembroke Dock

HMS Birmingham

HMS Chatham

HMS Leamington

HMS Southampton

HMT Richard Bacon

RFA Salvestor

List of ships broken up at Milford Haven

HMS Kangaroo

HMS Opportune

HMS Prince of Wales

HMS Tetcott

HMS Watchman

List of ships broken up at Lelant or Hayle

HMS Aberdeen

HMS Acasta

HMS Bellona

HMS Bristol

HMS Chelmer

HMS Cockatrice

HMS Fareham

HMS Newcastle

HMS Tartar

SS Lyonesse

Lizzie the elephant

At the outbreak of World War I, 1,235 people were on the payroll of Thomas Ward's company and a thousand tons of scrap metal per day was being fed to the country's steel makers. However, with demand so high, and many of the horses Ward had previously used to transport his goods around Sheffield conscripted by the military he had an increasingly difficult time to match supply with demand. Lizzie the Elephant was brought in as a solution to this problem.^[16]

Lizzie the Elephant was drafted in from Sedgwick's Menagerie, a travelling circus ran by William Sedgwick (1841–1927), after work horses from Thomas Ward's were sent or requisitioned to the front in the First World War. The elephant was said to be able to do the work of three of Ward's horses and soon got herself the name 'Tommy Ward's Elephant' as she became a familiar sight carrying or hauling goods around Sheffield, controlled by her trainer Richard Sedgwick (1875–1931) (son of the circus ringleader William Sedgwick).^[16] Lizzie was said to have inspired other Sheffield firms to creative means with their wartime transportation and a company in the Wicker area of the city was said to have used camels also from Sedgwick's Menagerie in place of their own horses.^[17] Unfortunately, walking around the cobblestoned streets of Sheffield damaged Lizzie's feet, and although she continued to work for Ward's firm for sometime after the end of the first world war she was eventually returned to the circus.

Lizzie has gone down in Sheffield legend, and many stories and legends surround her adventures. She also gave name to the popular Sheffield sayings "done up like Tommy Ward's elephant" - meaning someone carrying much weight, and the self-explanatory "like trying to shift Tommy Ward's elephant". A Sheffield Community Transport bus was named "Lizzie Ward" after her and is an Optare Solo model.

References

Publications

Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.

External links

• Gracesguide.co.uk: Information on Thos W Ward yard


• Liverpoolmuseums.org: Information on Thos W Ward company


• Sheffield Educated - Lizzie the Elephant


• Information on the elephant

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thos W Ward Limited.