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In 1903 Alfred Hickman, by now rolling in money, was created a baronet, and lived in some state at Tinacre Hall on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, far from the dirt and dust his works were creating in Bilston. He also became an MP for Wolverhampton. But his firm was not without concern for its workers. In 1910hey built a canteen for the workers and they also had a full-time welfare officer. In 1919 they started a works magazine called “The Ingot”. Alfred Hickman also gave Hickman Park to the public of Bilston and half the land for East Park in Wolverhampton. The East Park land was fully worked out and derelict, of no use to Sir Alfred and of no value; but the Hickman Park donation was a more munificent gift.
The next
part of this history of the works is taken from a duplicated document entitled
“Brief History of the Bilston Iron and Steel Works”. A copy was kindly provided
by Kath Kiely of Bilston. Its origins are unknown but it seems to have been
written by someone well acquainted with the works and having technical
knowledge. It was written well after nationalisation and there is no sign in it
of any possible closure of the works.
"At the end of the nineteenth
century, a decision was taken to install gas engines, both to provide
electricity and to blow the blast furnaces. These were supplied by the Premier
Gas Engine Company of Sandiacre, Derbyshire, and the first two cylinder
positive-scavenge engine ever built was installed. It was a 1,000 h.p. engine
and, apart from a small single cylinder built for experimental and works
lighting purposes at Sandiacre, can be regarded as the pioneer of the principle
of supercharging. The gas engine house, demolished in 1958 to make room for the
modern charging arrangements of the Melting Shop, provided all electric power
and lighting, with a total installed gas engine capacity of over 20,000 h.p.
"Immediately prior to the First World War, an extensive refrigeration plant was
installed to remove the moisture from the blast of the furnaces, as it was well
known that blast furnaces drove better in frosty weather. Much trouble was
experienced with the compressor sleeve valves and the experiment was a failure,
although the plant was kept in limited use as a store for the Hickman family’s
game and their wives’ fur coats!
"In 1907 a new 36-inch Cogging Mill was installed, driven by a
Ward-Leonard Ilgner set supplied by the Electric Construction Company of
Wolverhampton. This was another first for a mill of that size, and probably of
any size, in the United Kingdom. (Two other Ward-Leonard Ilgner sets were being
installed at the same time in Middlesborough by other makers on smaller mills
and there can only have been a matter of weeks between the starting dates.) This
equipment was to remain in service until the late 1950s and performed yeoman
service during the Second World War, rolling 22 ton ingots of armour piercing
steel for the production of 25-pounder shells.
"The change-over to Open
Hearth Steelmaking finally come about during the First World War and the nucleus
of the shop was completed in 1919. The “A” Furnace of 40-ton capacity was
equipped with electric tilting gear. Subsequently, this furnace was rebuilt to
provide a 55-ton capacity, hydraulically tilted and fitted with a Radex basic
roof, which was spring compressed and fitted with special follow-up gear to
maintain the shape of the arch during cooling and heating. This roof achieved a
world record output and, immediately suitable British materials were available
again after the war, the record was broken on three further occasions.
"All subsequent furnaces were of a nominal 80/100-ton capacity, a very suitable
size for the wide variety of ingot sizes required for tube manufacture by
various processes. Incidentally, all the steel for “Pluto” (Pipe Line Under The
Ocean) was made at Bilston during World War II. "Stewarts and Lloyds
Limited acquired the works in 1921 to provide a source of steel for tube
making."
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