A letter from Henry Smith dated September 1890. Henry was co owner of The Eaglescliffe Iron Works along with a man named Stoker. The Iron Works were sold on to the firm of Head Ashby later to be known as Head Wrightson. Letter and information courtesy of Mike Smith
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Re the football field adjoining Head Wrightson’s foundry, it was a first class pitch probably laid on foundry ash hence well drained. My late cousin Tom Grainger played before the war for a team called Norton Nomads and broke his leg playing at Cliffe Park. He was taken to hospital in a passing milk float. During the war he was in the 8th. Army and played against Micky Fenton, famous Boro centre forward, in Egypt. Tom also saw a tremendous amount of action but that’s another story. He dropped dead at 47. I wonder!
Some one asked about a moulder who used to finnish early and had a labourer working with him, not sure about the time you were taking about but when I started Headwrightsons Eaglescliffe in 1963, every moulder was making segments, an elderly moulder called Nobby Clarke made little Key segments and I think this could be the moulder you asked about, I worked with a moulder called Colin Castle {Cass} I was just starting out on my apprentice moulder, we made key segments also, I would ram the moulds on a gantry, turn the box over to Cass, he would put the cores in make the top, all this was on little rail lines, the big segments would be made a furious pace, casting took place all day long, I left Heads and started my moulding proper at J. Downings iron foundry, the greatest place I ever worked. All the best to all, Derek.
Derek, It was me that asked about the moulder you have just mentioned. I was part of the apprentice school and was doing training in the maintenance dept and noticed that each day he finished work just after lunch time because he had made his money doing piece work, Remember the tale about him. During Sir John Wrightsons initiation into the firm as a young man he worked in the foundry alongside Nobby and knew each other very well. In later years when Sir John was head of the firm at Christmas time he would go round the works shaking hands with workmen he specially knew. This day Nobby was up to his eyebrows in dirt when he met Nobby. and shaking the blackest hand going.
Bob, when I started work at Heads Eaglesclife Norman Rowntree was foreman, a very very nice man, it was he who gave me my first job, on a more sour note the manager was Franky Main {ex Military I think } I remember him swearing his head off at me over some moulds that weren’t turning out right because gasses were getting away, he asked me how many times I vented the moulds { Key Segments }
No moulder counts the number of venting he does to any mould, he was ranting and raving at me, a 15 year old kid, the moulder I worked with Colin Castle { Cass } went to the shop steward Tommy ? and he made Franky Main come back into the foundry and apologise to me { by the way when I say ranting and raving I mean shouting expletives, a frightening experience at the time, I was glad I belonged to a union I can tell you.
All the best Derek
Way back in the 1930’s and 1940’s there was a football pitch, a good one, adjacent to the foundry and the then pub. It’s eastern side was parallel to Yarm Road and on its north side was the mineral railway line, often known as the Cuckoo railway swinging round from Hartburn towards Thornaby. I played there in the Hartburn Minors single season 1943-44 prior to uniting with Park Rangers Juniors to form West End FC. We changed in a dismal shed on the SW corner. Quite a number of spectators lined the fence on Yarm Road!
re smith and eaglescliffe foundry and cleveland house, hartburn. i believe i am related to these smiths, via evans, via perry, via ormston. from what i understand henry smith of the foundry had a son henry, who had annie, sarah frances and eric, sid and richard (at least). Sarah had dorothy (flint) who had joan (perry) who had ME. On the other side, eric’s offspring included mary smith and gwendoline erica. maybe that helps with a family line somewhere? andrew
Hi Andrew, I’m Gwen’s daughter and I often hear Mary mentioning Jean Ormston. So it seems we are 4th/5th cousins?
I am the great grand daughter of Henry Smith mnd would like to be put in touch with long lost relatives of his as I am researching my family tree! I believe Mike Smith is also a relative. My sister is Judith Pratt. 20/03/2012 14:50:17
Hello, I am Jacqui the Great great granddaughter of Henry Smith, Great granddaughter of Richard Northall Smith, whose son Eric was my granddad. I live in Wales but my aunt is still in Eaglescliffe . I just found this website and am also working on the family tree trying to push back past Henry. Please email me x
I was interested in the comment by Ian Hudson concerning Fanny Robinson, formerly Clement. My great grandfather Frederick had a sister called Fanny who was born about 1860. Could this be the same person?26/01/2012 21:20:10
A relative of my wife ‘Fanny Robinson nee Clement’ lived at Cleveland House Lodge according to the 1901 Census. Her husband Moses Robinson was recorded as Coachman and Gardener (Domestic). Would he have been working for Edwin Cowley?26/01/2012 15:58:17
Edwin Cowleys brother Alfred was born in 1853 and married Elizabeth Robinson (born 1853). In the 1891 census they had boarder, John Robinson living with them. Do you think Fanny and Moses could have been related?
Regarding the Reay Brass Foundry in Portrack Lane, in the 1970s this was one of the group of companies owned by James Brown and Sons Ltd, Brass Founders, of Commercial Street, Middlesbrough. I worked for Browns as a secretary from 1974-8. The company offices were ‘over the border’ in Middlesbrough and the company was founded in, I believe, the 1850s or 1860s.
Have read the above comments with much interest. Many thanks to all.
Mary Ann Lloyd Northall (1797-1886) is my GGGGrandmother. She married Henry Nock (1795-1837 a bricklayer killed by a falling chimney) in 1823 in Wolverhampton. They had a son Richard Nock (1829 – 1909) and a daughter Mary Francis Nock (1824 – 1896) who married Henry Smith (1823 – 1897) who I learn from the comments above, co-owned Eaglescliffe Ironworks in Stockton.
Henry Nock (bricklayer)is the nephew of Henry Nock, famous gunsmith to the King during the late 18th Century. When Henry Nock (gunsmith) died in 1804 the busines passed to his right hand man Wilkinson who continued making guns and then bayonets and swords, and this eventually became the Wilkinson Sword company as we know it today.
Richard Nock above (who married three Wilkinson sisters in turn) was a moulder and later when he moved to Stockton he was elevated to the position of foundry manager, and I’m wondering whether he worked for his brother in law Henry Smith at the Eaglescliff Ironworks? Does anyone out there have any information on this Richard Nock and indeed his father Henry Nock the bricklayer who by a process of elimination, I have established is the nephew of the royal gunsmith of similar name?
My aunt has three heavy brass or bronze plaques of famous people (5" diameter approx), passed down through the Nock line with the gunsmith legend, but which I guess probably emanated from Richard. Again, does anyone know anything of this type of work.
I have lots of info on the Nock connection but none on the ironworks at which Richard worked. Am happy to share email addresses and what info I’ve got.
Hello Michael
I have just come across your message and am fascinated as I had been told by my aunt we had a connection to Henry Nock Royal Gunsmith but had not been able to confirm this.
I am the GG granddaughter of Henry Smith, Great granddaughter of Richard Northall Smith, whose son Eric was my granddad. I live in Wales with my mum but my aunt is still in Eaglescliffe. I just found this website and am also working on the family tree trying to push back past Henry. Please email me x
Hi Jacqui,
I have lots of info on the Henry Nock line which I shall be delighted to share with you.
As soon as we have each others email addresses we can get things moving. I live in Surrey, have Nock family history connections in Cwmbran, Cardiff.
Michael
Michael, I would love to connect with you. I am tracing the family for my daughter-in-law whose Grannie Betty While was born in 1928 to Emily Smith (Harwood) and Godfrey While. Emily was the daughter of Francis who was son of Henry Smith and Mary Francis Nock.
Sandie
Hi Jacqui,
I wrote earlier today. If you would like my email address please email pictures@stockton.gov.uk and they will forward it onto you.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Michael
This is amazing! I am tracing the Smith/Nock tree for my daughter-in-law. Her grannie was the daughter of Emily Smith (Harwood) and Godfrey While born in 1928. She was adopted and would love to know more about her birth family. Betty or Barbara as she is now is getting on in years and I am doing this all as a matter of urgency.
Would love to hear from anyone who is of the family, has any information to share… I live in Devon, my daughter-in-law in Newport and Betty is in Surrey.
Sandie
Hi Harold, names from the past keep on cropping up on these posts and it is wonderful that so many of us still live thrive and survive. Would love to chat and certainly the idea of an old friends reunion sounds wonderful. Picture Stockton have my email address. So look forward to hearing from you.
Nice to hear your name again after all these years, Mike. In fact Eaglescliffe Station should have read Egglescliffe, it was a mistake made by the railways of the time. I wouldn’t mind, not so much having a school reunion but an old friends reunion, maybe a good idea to see how many people respond Mike.
Brian Swales – I heard a story, apocryphal or not, that the mistake was made on the railways. The original name WAS Egglescliffe and a railway clerk spelled it wrong on a hand written ticket. Treat this explanation with as many ‘grains of salt’ as desired
When I left Tilery boys school 1962-63 I started work as an apprentice moulder at Head Wrightsons iron foundry Eaglescliffe, then I was in rows n rows of gangs working making Segments. One set of men rammed the drags (bottom of mould) one set of men the top, the drag would be passed to the 2 moulders and they would fit the cores, then the top of the mould would be put on the drag, closed, clamped, then molten iron poured in, then the whole thing would start all over again, I made little key segments with Colin Castle (Cass) a smashing lad. Another smashing lad I got to know worked in the machine shop across the way, Danny Booth. I only stayed for about a year, the work was boring so left to start my apprenticeship at Downings Iron Foundry, the work was very interesting and I loved every minute I worked at the old foundry. When I was working at Head Wrightsons, Eaglescliffe I had my first pint at the pub outside main gate (dont know how I got away with that). One of the men working as a rammer near to me was a Jobson and I think he lived in Thornaby – can anyone remember this man? Not a tall man but very powerfully built, I think I might have been related to him.
Some references I have seen describe it as the Egglescliffe foundry but it was definately in Eaglescliffe. I’m fairly certain it stood on Yarm Road behind where the Eaglescliffe pub (affectionally known as the Cliffe!) is and opposite the Visqueen polythene factory.
Eaglescliffe is a relativily new town (or area on the outskirts of Stockton) and is thought to be derived from a miss-spelling of the name of the nearby village of Egglescliffe.
Egglescliffe is the village that sits on top of a hill overlooking, and across the River Tees, from Yarm.
Thanks for that Jacqui you may also find this interesting.
Taken from the book “The Annuls of Stockton on Tees” Henry Heavysides 1865.
Mill Field Iron Works — In 1864 these works were commenced under the firm of “Smith, Hardy, & Co.” They are now carried on by Smith, Thompson, & Co, who do a considerable business in iron chairs and general castings. A small brass foundry is also connected with these works, which are situate close to the Leeds Northern Railway, a short distance from the station at Stockton. About 160 hands are employed at these works.
Brian Swales Thanks for your comment re the spelling of Eaglescliffe, on the letterhead it is clearly spelt Eaglescliffe but on a copy of a plan I now have of the foundry it is spelt Egglescliffe.
I am also a GG Granddaughter of Henry Smith. My Grandfather Eric Charlton Smith was a son of Richard Smith who lived in Beechwood Road Eaglescliffe. Eric was the youngest of nine children, two girls named Annie and Sarah (are either of these the grandmother of Judith Pratt?)and seven sons William, Richard, Sydney, Francis, Harry, Eric and 1 more?
Henry Smith left his estate to Mary Howard and Louise Cowley (definitely a Cowley). They had apparently cared for Henry and his wife in their old age. According to Henry’s Will non of his sons inherited anything. My grandfather Eric Smith told how Aunt Louise used to come to Beechwood Road in a Rolls Royce to deliver an allowance every week to Richards wife, Mary Anne Smith nee Jones.
In 1864 Henry Smith was presented with a silver tea service inscribed:
‘Presented to Henry Smith as a tribute of esteem by the masters and workmen of Messers Head Ashby and Co, Iron Founders, on the occasion of his leaving their employment, 25th June 1864.’
I believe Henry worked for Head Ashby and left their employ to start Eaglescliffe foundry. We had not realised he was in a partnership!
I believe the name of Northall Street adjacent to the above iron foundry, and in the name of one of Henry (senior) sons named above, originated from the surname of Henry senior`s grandmother Mary Ann Lloyd Northall who was born in Tipton, Staffs 1796. I also believe Smiths Yard in Yarm was also named after the founder of the foundry. I would appreciate contact from Judith above as we share Henry as a gg grandfather. I have given Picture Stockton permission to pass my email address on to you.
Mike, I have tried to contact you by email several times but must have the wrong address. You will see from my post on this site 23 Jan 2005 that we have a common connection. I have lots of info to share if you’re interested. I think you can help me too. Please email pictures@stockton.gov.uk and the team will give you my email address. Looking forward to hearing from you
Mike
I am the GG granddaughter of Henry Smith. My Grandmother was the daughter of Richard Northall Smith a son of Henry Smith. I believe he was the black sheep of the family. My Grandmother told me many tales about her childhood and mentioned that Cleveland House had an observatory in the grounds.
Reay Brass Foundry was in Ross Rd, Portrack and was a lovely place to work. Very family oriented and friendly.
I believe my father Robert Baillie worked at the Reay Brass Foundry in the early 1960″s but I have no idea where it was or any other information about it – he then went on to work for South Durham Iron and Steel.
Many Iron Foundries in the early days did a bit of Brass molding along with Iron moulding but the only Brass Foundry I ever came across in Stockton was the Reay Brass Foundry which was situated in West Row just along from the back door into the Corporation Hall. A very small foundry who didn”t make very heavy castings. There was a Brass Foundry in Middlesbrough who used to make heavier castings which Pickerings lifts used all the time I worked there along with Reay Brass Foundry. I understand, years before I started to work there in about 1947, Pickerings had their own small foundry so Charlie Dryden could have worked at either Pickerings or Reay”s or even Dickie Downings who may have cast Brass when needed. A moulder was a very skilled craftsman who made a shape in special sand with a wood pattern and then poured either molten Brass, Iron or Steel into that mould and got the shape required. A Formen moulder would tell the moulders how he wanted the casting to be made, how many to make and then give the moulder the price for the mould. He would have been a good moulder himself with a good education for calculating the weight of metal to go into the mould and the price to give to the moulder so that the firm made a profit and the moulder was happy with the price he had been given for his mould. I hope this long winded tale gives Laura Orrick an idea of what her ancester did for a living years ago. It was a very dirty job, well before showers, and wasn”t very well paid, although all the moulders I knew and worked with always liked a pint before going home.
I also worked for Reay Brass foundry which was taken over by James Brown and Sons of lower commercial St Middlesbrough. The foundry was moved to Portrack into quite modern premesis and concentrated on long runs of small non ferrous items. James Browns closed in the 1980s I think and I have no idea what happend to Reay Brass foundry. I left in 1972. Chris Johnson
James Brown & Sons did a lot of work for British Steel, as it was then known, making blast furnace components for many of the steelworks around the UK. Normanby Park, Appleby Frodingham, Corby, Port Talbot, Consett, these are long gone. They also supplied to companies on the continent, such as Hoogovens in Holland. Presumably James Brown’s closure coincided with the downturn in British Steel, although I believe the company still exists in some form.
I have an ancestor called Charles Dryden who, in the 1891 census, was listed as a moulder living in Stockton. In 1901 he was a foreman brass moulder still living in Stockton. Does anyone know if it is possible to find out where he would have worked? Also, any more information available about the work of a moulder, specifically foreman, would be appreciated. Was this a relatively well paid job at that time?
Edwin Cowley, the jeweller, was my great-grandfather, but he didn”t marry a Smith. He was married twice: his first wife was an Elizabeth Booth and his second wife, Mary Jane Hall, was my great-grandmother. She died in 1934 in Scotland (Dunbar) and is buried at Oxbridge Lane Cemetery.
I have just won an auction on ebay for a pocket watch movement made by your great-grandfather Edwin Cowley. I’m hoping to get it working again.
Charles John Bagley had three sons one of them was Percy Bagley. Is this the same Mr P Bagley to whom you refer?
With regard to Charles John Bagley, the Great Grandfather of Simon John Bagley, is he any relation to a Mr P Bagley who established the Stockton Steel Foundry in 1910? This foundry was situated along Light Pipe Hall Road in Oxbridge which later on became part of Head Wrightson.
I”m researching my G Grandfather Charles John Bagley and Grandfather Charles Henry Frost Bagley who were in the iron and steel business in Stockton-on-Tees. I have several patents on record that they have, one being from 1918 where their address is Cleveland House, Hatburn. Could this be the same address referred to? If you google their names you will find the patents and other details.
There is a lot of information on here re Edwin Cowley. Edwin is one of my Grandads decendents and we would appreciate further information on Edwin or any other Cowley family members in the stockton area.
I have a pocket watch movement made by E. Cowley Stockton-on-Tees. I’m hoping to get it into working order.
ANON – I requested your email from Picture Stockton but they say they dont hold it. so please inform them and ask then to forward it to me if you would please as I would like to be able to contact you. Your information is very interesting. I note that you mention Edwin Cowley he married Henry Smith Senior`s youngest daughter, another daughter the eldest married a Wilson Howard who owned an Ironmongers shop at 95 High Street Stockton. They were later to lose 3 sons two in the war and the third was lost at sea.
The occasionally continuing confusion between Egglescliffe (possibly Saxon for Egci”s Cliff or the hill belonging to Ecgi) and Eaglescliffe seen on this posting and elsewhere may have been due to the misnaming of the present Eaglescliffe railway station in 1878. Prior to this it had been called Preston Junction. It was renamed as Eaglescliffe, probably the result of a mistake on someone”s part due to misplaced letters and the placename stuck.
Mike Smith – I have done some research into some of the large Victorian built houses in Hartburn, including a little bit on Cleveland House which was built in 1875 for your G G Grandfather. I got the name Egglescliffe from newspaper reports on the foundry. The Gazette obviously got the spelling wrong! Henry Smith came to Stockton around 1857 and by 1867 he was in partnership with a Mr Thompson as “Smith & Thompson”, iron founders on Yarm Road. By 1879 his new partner was FW Stoker. Did you know about the severe gale, in October 1881, that struck the foundry demolishing the roof and some of the walls killing six men and injuring many more. One of the dead was Henry Smith”s son, also called Henry, a manager at the foundry. In 1897 the foundry was taken over by Head Wrighton & Co. Henry Smith sold Cleveland House to Edwin Cowley a jeweller and watchmaker with permisis on the corner of Dovecot Street. In 1929 the Cowley family sold the property to Ashmore Benson Pease & Co. and they used the house for their managing directors, one of which was Dr. Niels Edward Rambusch. Ashmores sold Cleveland House in 1955 and it was converted into two large flats. If you want to contact me Picture Stockton will give you my e-mail address.
Bob.Im sorry I dont know the moulder you have mentioned, but it was the usual practice for the moulders to give young apprentices pocket money for all the help they got during the week and if a moulder worked on a moulding machine he always had a labourer who helped him to complete his moulds, he also got pocket money. As you rightly say Sir John always paid a visit once a year at Xmas to wish everybody a merry Xmas and always kept his gloves on so not to dirty his hands when shaking hands with the Staff members and men he worked with during his training. John Eccles did the same but he wasnt frightened to get his hands dirty beacause when he did his training in the steel foundry he did every dirty job he was given to do. He became Steel foundry manager at Stockton Steel foundry and was well liked. I only worked at the Cliffe for a couple of hours a day changing dates and cast numbers on the Segmet patterns.
Hi Ken, It is spelt Eaglescliffe on the 1890 letter head which also states that Smith & Stoker were Engineers, Iron Steel & Brass Founders. Manufacturers of Chilled and Grain Rolls,Patent Machine Made Wheels and Pinions & General Castings of All Descriptions. They had London Agents G.Bailey Toms & Co. I also understand that Smith and Stoker held the patent for the manufacture of Railway Line Chairs. Most of Henry Smiths family lived and worked at the Foundry but died at a young age possibly due to the awful working conditions, I have to thank Michael Corner (Hartburn)for some of this information he worked at Head Wrightson for I believe most of his life.
Hi Mike, I am tracing my daughter in laws family. Louise’s grannie is the daughter of Emily Smith – Henry’s granddaughter through his son Francis.
Betty or Barbara as her adopted name is would love to know about her birth family.
Would you be able to get in touch?
I WORKED AT HEADS AS IT WAS KNOWN . WHEN SIR JOHN CAME AT XMAS TO SHAKE OUR HAND AND WISH US WELL HE ALWAYS WORE A PAIR OF WHITE GLOVES.
Ken Rhodes. There was a Moulder at Eaglescliffe. He was small. He worked piece work and was always the one who finished 1st, starting at 7.30am and would go home about 1.30pm. If an Apprentice School lad worked with him they had to stay till 5pm but he always gave them pocket money at the end of the week. He was well known to Sir John Wrightson because when Sir John 1st started at HW he had to do the same training as the Apprentices and worked with this Moulder. There is a story that when Sir John went round the works at Christmas time wishing workers a Merry Christmas he jumped out of the hole where the moulding was being made and shook hands with Sir John. The Moulders hands were all black with the oily sand being used. Would you know this Moulder?
Head Wrightsons Eaglescliffe Foundry was well known throughout the world for iron segments. These cast iron segments were used on quite a number of Londons Underground lines and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel.I believe a number of segments were used at Boulby mines when they sunk the deep shafts. Head Wrightsons, engineers designed a machine to machine both ends and sides of the segment at the same time saving a lot of time and money. If they were still open now they would have been in the running for the segment to be used in the new Underground just announced by the London Transport.
I might be wrong but I”m sure the foundry was known as the Egglescliffe foundry and not Eaglescliffe.
My GG Grandfather was a Henry Smith who lived at Cleveland House, Hartburn. (it is still there and used as a nursery) Henry was co owner of The Eaglescliffe Iron Works along with a man named Stoker. I am trying to find out as much as I can about the man, his family and of the said Iron Works, of which I do have lots of further information. I understand the Iron Works were sold on to the firm of Head Ashby later to be known as Head Wrightson The works were located on Yarm Road where Northall Street once was. It is now a housing estate but I believe the sign post for the street is still there next to the hotel on the corner. The site covered approx 4.5 acres and was situated between the railway lines from Eaglescliffe junction to Stockton and the branch off to Thornaby.