The United Steel Companies was a steelmaking, engineering, coal mining and coal by-product group based in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

and

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England.

History

The company was registered in 1918 and the following year saw a joining together of steel makers Samuel Fox and Company of Stocksbridge; Steel, Peech and Tozer of Templeborough and Ickles in Rotherham; the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company of Scunthorpe; and the coal mining and by-products interests of Rother Vale Collieries at Orgreave, Treeton and Thurcroft. Over the years other companies were added to the portfolio: The

Sheffield Coal Company The Sheffield Coal Company was a colliery owning and coal selling company with its head office situated in South Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Formation The Sheffield Coal Company was one of the oldest colliery companies in Sh ...

, owners of

Birley Collieries The Birley Collieries were a group of coal mines set in the Shire Brook Valley in south-east Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They were connected to the railway system by a branch line from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway ...

, Brookhouse and North Staveley collieries, was bought by the United Steel Companies in 1937. This also included coal by-product operations at Orgreave and Brookhouse, suppliers of Metallurgical Coke for Blast Furnaces. The Kiveton Park Colliery Company was taken over in 1944 with reserves from, amongst others, the Barnsley seam being an attractive proposition. The facilities also included coke and coal by-products (including gas). The colliery interests became part of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

at nationalisation. The coke ovens closed in 1956 and the colliery closed in 1984. First Light, Jodrell Bank 11

In 1945 the mining portfolio was increased with the purchase of the Shireoaks Colliery Company, the colliery being just over the

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

border. As with all their collieries this became part of the National Coal Board in 1947. The

Yorkshire Engine Company The Yorkshire Engine Company (YEC) was a small independent locomotive manufacturer in Sheffield, England. The company was formed in 1865 and produced locomotives and carried out general engineering work until 1965. It mainly built shunting engi ...

was bought by the United Steel Companies Limited in 1948. It was said there were two reasons for the purchase. With United Steels wanting new locomotives following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the opportunity arose to purchase the company at a good price and also a suggestion to centralise the engineering workshops which would serve their steelworks at Templeborough (Rotherham) and Stocksbridge. The works, at Meadowhall, closed in 1967. The iron and steel works on nationalisation became part of

British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and the mining interests passed to the

. The coal by-products plants came under the ownership of a subsidiary, The United Coke and Chemical Company. Nowadays the steel interests at Rotherham and Stocksbridge are part of Tata Steel, the steel plant in Scunthorpe part of the new British Steel, and all the mining interests have been closed, the last, at Treeton, in the 1990s.

Cybor House

With the appointment of

Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics. ...

in 1956, the United Steel Companies became one of the pioneers of management cybernetics. They installed a

Ferranti Pegasus Pegasus was an early British vacuum-tube (valve) computer built by Ferranti, Ltd that pioneered design features to make life easier for both engineers and programmers. Originally it was named the Ferranti Package Computer as its hardware design ...

computer in Cybor House, located in Tapton House Road,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

. This was the first computer specifically dedicated to management cybernetics.

References

* Official Company Handbook * Various Issues of the internal works newspaper "Steel News" {{Authority control 1918 establishments in England 1967 disestablishments in England Coal companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Scunthorpe Companies disestablished in 1967 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Defunct companies based in Sheffield Defunct companies based in Yorkshire Rotherham Steel companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1918 Manufacturing companies established in 1918