"Let us now praise famous men..."

Ecclesiasticus 44:1-15

 Granville Levison Gower (1773-1846)

"....for the steelmen of Stoke-on-Trent, the most significant [event] must have been the blowing in of three blast furnaces on the Shelton site in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. 
Work on the furnaces began in 1839; the first iron was tapped in early January 1841.
Shelton had been born - A tradition had begun."
 

Granville Levison Gower
1st Earl Granville Marquis of Stafford
1773-1846

"If industry grows strong through the collective abilities of thousands of me, it is born because of the vision of individuals." anon...

For one industry in Stoke-on-Trent that individual was Granville Levison Gower.
Born at a time when the industrial revolution was in its infancy, he grew up in an atmosphere of great change and development in the iron industry. In 1815 he was elevated to the peerage and created an Earl.
That same year his son was born, named George, who was to take over the running of Shelton on his father's death in 1846. The first Earl leased a tract of land from the Duchy of Lancaster. This land was adjacent to the Trent and Mersey Canal.

His immediate neighbour was another man of vision, Josiah Wedgwood. His factory had been in existence since 1866 and Josiah had not only built a factory, but also a small village to house his employees. 
He named the village Etruria after the area in Italy where the clay came from to make the distinctive blue and white china which is so famous today.

Earl Granville built has first three blast furnaces on a site between Cobridge Road and Mill Street (later to become Etruria Road), in the Shelton Parish, which gave the works its name.... "Shelton Bar"

The first three blast furnaces to be built on the Shelton site

Rowhurst No. 2 Pit

The rich seams of coal and iron ore in the Stoke-on-Trent area were instrumental in the selection of the Shelton site by the first Earl Granville. 
There were numerous coal workings on the Shelton site before the Levison Gower family took an interest in it but after the lease was taken up the pits were rapidly developed.

They were all part of the unique industrial fabric of North Staffordshire. Coal pits were peppered around the Shelton site.

There was The Grange; the three Racecourse pits; Rowhurst One and Two; Bootham Pit, Tinkersclough and the 'daddy' of them all, Deep Pit.

Deep Pit got its name from the fact that it had the area's deepest shaft, reaching 1,500 feet. The Racecourse pits, named after a racecourse which saw its last event in 1840, were almost 1,000 feet deep.

 
expansion of the Shelton Works
this map shows the location of Wedgwood's pottery works
The Shelton Iron & Steelworks site is shown in pink

Dramatic increases in activity took place in the 1850-55 period. A further four blast furnaces were built at the Etruria site, to take the total to eight. A fourth had been built alongside the original three in the Shelton site. 

Ironmaking was to take place on this second site without interruption until 1978.

Silver Medal, Paris 1855

Quality was as important in the Nineteenth Century as it is in the Twentieth Century. Competing against the rest of the world in 1855, the Shelton Bar Iron Company won the Silver Medal for wrought iron quality at the Paris Exhibition.

For the first three decades of its life of the Shelton site was under continual expansion.

Locally-mined ore was mixed with that from nearby Froghall to improve its quality until coke replaced coal as a fuel. The ore from South Wales and the north of England was then used instead.

This continual expansion was to reach its next significant milestone in 1866, with the decision to form a private limited company. On July 10th that year the Shelton Iron and Steel Company Ltd was registered. It had capital of £250,000 in 250 shares each worth £1,000, of which the Earl Granville held 77.

He also held on, very firmly, to the blast furnaces, which continued to operate under his direct ownership.
Although he traded under the name Earl Granville, the two separate sides of the organisation appear to have been operated as one unit.

Early exhibition stand for the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Co. Ltd.