Hopskotch Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 My great grandfather was recorded as working for a Sheffield wire mill in the 1939 census. Despite research on Google I’m unable to find any information on the names of any wire mills in Sheffield around that time. Any information would be much appreciated. NB My great grandfather lived in Owlerton at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tozzin Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 8 hours ago, Hopskotch said: My great grandfather was recorded as working for a Sheffield wire mill in the 1939 census. Despite research on Google I’m unable to find any information on the names of any wire mills in Sheffield around that time. Any information would be much appreciated. NB My great grandfather lived in Owlerton at the time. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Special:Search?search=Wire+mills+sheffield+&fulltext= try this link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLongden Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Hi Hopskotch. I’m afraid you might be looking for a (wire 😆) needle in a haystack here, as you probably have discovered by now that during this period, Sheffield and in particular the Don Valley had a huge number of steel works & steel mills. We weren’t known as Steel City for nothing! Working on the premise that wire mills would generally process billets or bars, drawing them into wire rod or coil and maybe not actually producing the steel itself, that might narrow your search a little? Also, it’s worth noting that in these times of full employment and limited mobility, workers didn’t need to travel far to their workplace and in many cases, the factory would be within a short walking distance. I’ve included a link below to a map of the area in 1935 and some images of sections of this map, showing some wire mills. Using the home address of your GGF from your census, maybe you can search around that immediate area and using the road names of where they are, use these to search for the company names? https://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html#/Map/433500/389500/12/100747 Good luck and hope you find this useful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lysandernovo Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Steel rod ( around 5.5 mm dia) was the feedstock for most wire drawing. This involved pulling the rod through a series of dies ( latterly made of tungsten carbide) which reduced the rods diameter . Sometimes an intermediate annealing process was involved to reduce the effects of work hardening This carried on until the required size was produced. Latterly, by far rhe biggest manufacturer of wire in the area ,was Tinsley Wire Industries...who may have been known by another name in 1939. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopskotch Posted January 9, 2021 Author Share Posted January 9, 2021 Many thanks for the fabulous replies! Very interesting and informative. Gives me plenty to research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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