Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company Ellesmere Port

[Cath Hy]

Hi,
I am looking for information on families who moved from Wolverhampton in about 1905 or soon afterwards to work for the WCICo which relocated to Ellesmere Port.
Did the men come first? How did workers come? Was it walking the towpath? By boat? By train? or a mixture of all.
All information about the company would be welcome.
Thanks

[olive paton]

Hi Cath,
I am Looking for the same information what I can tell you The Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company came about after the expansion of the canal system in the Ellesmere Port Area.
The Company also had a name change to Burnells Iron/Steel Company closed in 1948.
The company built house for their employees many came up from the steel works in Staffordshire such as Wednesbury .
There was many house built on the Whitby Road these house seem to have a connection as they where named villas .
My Great Grandfather came up from Wednesbury and lived in Pooltown Villa's there is further information at the Cheshire Archives also google the company name .
My family name is Byrnes good luck

[hanes teulu]

The report that the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company have resolved to erect new works at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, at accost of £50,000, to meet foreign competition has been confirmed - Leamington Spa Courier, 11 Nov 1904

The Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company, Ellesmere Port, have provided a horse and specially equipped lorry for the collection and conveyance of the workmen's meals from their homes to the mills - Evening Telegraph, 2 Dec 1910.

[cati]

There's a little more about the Company here, which states that  some of the families walked from Wolverhampton to Ellesmere Port along the towpath of the Shropshire Union Canal:

www.scars.org.uk/cuttings/volume6/issue6-12/corrugated.html

Cati

[Cath Hy]

After my first post, I have done considerable research into the WCICo of Ellesmere Port and published my research into the history of the company in the Boat Museum Society's Waterways Journal, Vol 14. ISSN 1466-3732.
Company minutes are held at TATA steel archive at Shotton, Flintshire and details of their boats on the Liverpool Shipping Register at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool as well as the Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden. There is a list of employees at their Mersey Iron Works in Sept 1939 at the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, ref D7161.

[Jodantess]

My Grandparents came from Tipton/Dudley to Ellesmere Port by Canal Barges...1911 census William Jones (My Grandad) lived in Ashfield Road, Ellesmere Port...I know he worked at Burnells because he used to talk about the heat in there....My Nan Julia (Maiden name Tolley) also settled in Ashfield Road...members of her family also worked in the Iron works/Burnells....

[moleydee]

My lot the Taylors and Darbeys where from Tipton,Coseley, Sedgley and Dudley moved up around 1912. They came from a long line of iron workers. Some of the other Darbeys moved to the nearby foundries at Shotton and surrounding areas. Anyone with Darbey information please contact me as I am constructing a one name study.
DEE REILLY ELLESMERE PORT

[TuiBird]

I've just read this exchange and it has given me a wonderful break through in understanding why my grandfather John P Concannon moved from Wolverhampton to Ellesmere Port.  He was an iron worker and moved from Bilston to Wolverhampton, living in digs on St Matthews Street next to the Shrubbery works in 1901, after serving in the Boer War.  I had never understood why he moved to Ellesmere Port, there being only some references to looking for work handed down through the family.  My mother's family grew up on Princes Road (No 11) close to the junction with Whitby Road. 

If anyone has further information on what must have been a huge event, shifting 2000 workers from Wolverhampton, I would be very grateful if they can share it. 

[garth fletcher]

Thank you all for the information regarding the corrugated iron company in Ellesmere Port. you may have given me a hint as to why my grandfather-- an iron worker--moved with family to Ellesmere Port from Willenhall about 1907-08. Their first child died in 1909 at the age of two and a half. The family next moved to Glasgow about 1914.
I should add that I have no idea whether or not he worked for the company. Were there other companies recruiting steel workers at this time.
regards to all