Thos W Ward

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.

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.

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. 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."

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). 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

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

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.

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)

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. Two years later Laycock Engineering was sold to some investors.

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.

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)

Within a short time RTZ began to buy a substantial shareholding and this takeover was completed in early 1982. 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. The Railway Engineers department of Thos. W Ward was bought by Henry Boot. RTZ sold Thos. W. Ward (Roadstone) to Ready Mixed Concrete in June 1988.

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.

HMS Akbar HMS Benbow (1885) HMS Boadicea (1875) HMS Centurion (1892) HMS Colossus (1882) HMS Devastation (1871) HMS Edinburgh (1882) HMS Narcissus (1886) HMS Nile (1888) HMS Prince Albert (1864) HMS Sans Pareil (1887) HMS Warspite (1884) SS Adriatic (1871) SS Alaska (1881) SS Arabic (1881) SS Britannia (1887) SS Cleopatra Cordoba (Ship) RMS Etruria SS Furnessia 1880 SS Leviathan RMS Lucania SS Majestic (1890) SS Munchen SS Servia SS Syrian Terec SS Vancouver RMS Saragossa RMS Cherbourg

List of ships broken up at Inverkeithing

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 (Sept.1945)

HMS/M Uproar (Feb.1946)

HMS/M Unruly (Feb.1946)

HMS/M Unsparing (14th.Feb.1946)

HMS Revenge (1948)

HMS Royal Sovereign (1948)

HMS Nelson (1949)

HMS Rodney (1949)

RMS Empress of Australia (1952)

RMS Maloja (1954)

HMS Implacable (1955)

RMS Scythia (1958) ((Cunard Line))

HMS Glory (1961)

MV Britannic III (1961)

HMS/M Thule (14th.Sept.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 (D22) (1970)

HMS Maidstone (May 1978)

List of ships broken up at Briton Ferry

HMS Adventure (M23) HMS Bellona (63) HMS Bermuda (52) HMS Cambrian (R85) HMS Croome (L62) HMS Crossbow (D96) HMS Cumberland (1902) HMS Dee (1903) HMS Druid (1911) HMS Fury (H76) HMS Gloucester (1909) HMS Hardy (1912) HMS Howe (1885) HMS Loch Dunvegan (K425) HMS Mutine (1900) HMS Revenge (1892) HMS Rother (1904) HMS Royal Oak (1892) HMS Shakespeare (P221) HMS Taciturn (P314) HMS Tally-Ho (P317) HMS Tempest (H71) HMS Tenby (F65) HMS Thrasher (N37) HMS Tonbridge (1918) HMS Tuna (N94) HMS Venus (R50) HMS Zambesi (R66) Town-class cruiser (1910) RFA Salvestor (A499) SS Empire Rest ST Sea Alarm HMCS Nene (K270) HMAS Brisbane (1915) HMAS Napier (G97)

List of ships broken up at Grays

D-class destroyer (1913) HMS Ark Royal (1914) HMS Berkeley Castle (K387) HMS Bicester (L34) HMS Carstairs (1919) HMS Contest (R12) HMS Foylebank HMS Hydra (J275) HMS L2 HMS Lance (G87) HMS Laverock (1913) HMS Liffey (1904) HMS Spirit (P245) HMS Tiverton (1918) HMS Walpole (D41) List of Empire ships (D) List of Empire ships (F) List of Empire ships (N) MV Sand Star RFA Robert Dundas (A204) RFA Sea Salvor (A503) SS Holdernith Cutty Sark (yacht)

List of ships broken up at Preston

HMS Dominion (1903) RMS Etruria HMS Hind (1911) HMS Hindustan (1903) HMS Holderness (L48) HMS Jed (1904) HMS Nith (1905) HMS Ribble (1904) HMS Skirmisher (1905) HMS Starfish (1895) HMS Sutlej (1899) HMS Swale (1905) HMS Welland (1904) SS Aleppo SS Staveley (1891)

List of ships broken up at Barrow-in-Furness

HMS Blencathra (L24) HMS Dido (37) HMS Garth (L20) HMS Meteorite HMS Scylla (98) HMS Southdown (L25) HMS Whitehall RFA Abbeydale (A109) SS Baxtergate TSS Duke of Clarence HMS Explorer (submarine) HMS Excalibur HMS London (69) HMAS Australia RMS Empress of Russia SS Bendigo HMT/HMHS Dongola

List of ships broken up at Morecambe

HMS Diadem (1896) HMS Glasgow (1909) HMS Imperieuse (1883) HMS Northampton (1876) HMS Orlando (1886) HMS Raleigh (1873) HMS Repulse (1892) RMS Majestic (1889) SS Ben-my-Chree (1875) SS Ionic (1883)

List of ships broken up at Pembroke Dock

HMS Birmingham (1913) HMS Chatham (1911) HMS Leamington (1918) HMS Southampton (1912) HMT Richard Bacon RFA Salvestor (A499)

List of ships broken up at Milford Haven

HMS Kangaroo (1900) HMS Opportune (G80) HMS Prince of Wales (1902) HMS Tetcott (L99) HMS Watchman (D26) D-class destroyer (1913)

List of ships broken up at Lelant or Hayle

HMS Aberdeen (L97) HMS Acasta (1912) HMS Bellona (1909) HMS Bristol (1910) HMS Chelmer (1904) HMS Cockatrice (1912) HMS Fareham (J89) HMS Newcastle (1909) HMS Tartar (1907) SS Lyonesse (1889)

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.

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). 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. 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.

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.