Thos W Ward


Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire steel, engineering and cement business which began as coal and coke merchants then expanded to recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, engineering and the supply of machinery.
In 1894 as part of the scrap metal operation Ward's began to set up substantial shipbreaking yards in different parts of England and in Scotland and Wales. By 1953 Thos W Ward employed 11,500 people.
Ward's business was reorganised at the end of the 1970s when it moved from being an engineering group with a motley assortment of subsidiaries to being principally dependent on cement. In 1982 it was bought by RTZ.

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, brother of Thomas Ward. 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:
Freehold Premises:
Leasehold Premises:
Subsidiaries:
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:
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 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. Thos W Ward also dismantled The Crystal Palace.

List of ships broken up at [Barrow-in-Furness]

List of ships broken up at [Pembroke Dock]

List of ships broken up at Lelant or Hayle">Lelant">Lelant or Hayle

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, 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 . 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