Durham County Record Office
Business Archives Council Cataloguing Grant 2012
Consett Iron Company (and associated company) archives
Durham County Record Office
We very much welcome the Business Archive Council's initiative to award an annual grant towards cataloguing significant business archives. It is very difficult now to source funding for cataloguing alone, yet it is only by cataloguing that these rich sources of business and social history can be made available for research.
Durham County Record Office (DCRO) identified Consett Iron Company records as a potential candidate for this grant. The archive is large, but comprises three discrete accessions. One had already been catalogued, and it was not feasible to include another in this project, but Acc: 3278 (D) seemed an ideal project, consisting of 150 volumes, 4 boxes and 4 rolls of plans. Following cataloguing, this became 776 items.
The archives are of international significance, providing evidence of all activities of this world-renowned business. Consett Iron Company was established in 1864, purchasing the assets of the failed Derwent Iron Company (founded 1840). The town of Consett owes its existence to their decision to locate there, in close proximity to the Durham coalfield and local iron ore. Although local supplies of iron ore were quickly depleted, the works remained and grew, necessitating the import of iron ore by rail. For over a century the company was virtually the town's sole employer, with over 6000 employees (an additional 10,000 were employed in the company's collieries), the town was wholly dependant on the industry. Works demolition on closure in 1980 left a huge hole in the town centre, and the community faced massive unemployment.
The Company was central to the British steel industry, innovative and crucial to a range of linked industries, like shipbuilding (a key product included steel angles for shipbuilding) and railways, making iron rails. Its name was synonymous with iron and steel, providing steel for Blackpool Tower, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Britain’s most famous nuclear submarines. Unique to the industry was the way the Company owned and managed centrally not only the iron works, but also collieries, quarries, mills, brickworks, coke ovens and all other associated works. It also had its own Locomotive Department with workshops for repairing and maintaining railways and its own fleet of engines, wagons and cranes. This made it one of the biggest employers and producers of steel in the UK, operating for over a hundred years (1864-1980).
We seconded our Cataloguing Archivist Gabriel Damaszk to lead on the cataloguing project, using the grant to backfill his post. His first task was to gain an overview of the collection and make links to related collections here and elsewhere, for example the British Steel Archive Project (Teesside University/Teesside Archives). He then compiled a detailed catalogue, using our newly redeveloped online database. This allowed identification of duplicates and a plan for integration of our other Consett Iron Company records.
As part of our grant application, we offered in-kind archive assistant time to assist with cataloguing, numbering and packaging. We were approached by The Shaw Trust to provide a work experience placement for an unemployed postgraduate. Mark Jervis originally carried out a 6 week placement, but we were then lucky to be offered the chance to keep Mark on for 6 months, with the Shaw Trust paying his wages as an archive assistant. Mark has assisted with data entry and manipulation, as well as numbering. I am also delighted to say that Mark has now obtained a place at Glasgow University to undertake postgraduate archive training. Together with Kerry Sweeten, who has been with us on a 3 month Teesside University graduate placement scheme, they have provided additional detail to Gabriel's catalogue, by indexing the pension records to make them more easily accessible. Our full time archive assistants Pete Bradshaw and Jonathan Weathers are also assisting with numbering and packaging, alongside volunteers. Members of one of the supporters of our grant application, the Consett and District Heritage Initiative, have assisted us with information to identify photographs. Although only a very small number of photos are in this accession, it has paved the way to involve their members in future cataloguing. A total of around 350 hours has been spent on the collection so far.
In our application we highlighted its conservation needs, and as a result of this project, our archive conservator Jenny Barnard has carried out a conservation survey and implemented some emergency conservation work. We intend to apply to the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust for a grant to address at least the most vulnerable documents.
We also linked the Consett archives with the Colin Mountford collection, a unique record of locomotives on the Durham coalfield 1947-1993, together with 6000+ images, collected by an internationally recognised expert in the field. Although unsuccessful in 2012 in our application to the National Cataloguing Grants Programme, we will resubmit in 2013.
When applying for a grant, we had identified certain records of interest in this collection. Detailed cataloguing has confirmed and expanded our view of their significance. Of particular interest are:
- Pension records back to 1921, including detailed applications, registers and accounts.
- Shareholding and financial records, providing evidence of Quaker involvement in the company from its origins.
- Locomotive Department records, from the specialist workshops that repaired its fleet of locomotives, crane locomotives and rail cranes, including registers of locomotive repairs recording types of locomotives and cranes used by the Company, and detailed descriptions of repair work done. It is very unfortunate that these records are also the most damaged
- Colliery records. In the 1920s/30s the company owned up to 16 collieries and fortunately correspondence has survived from that time, documenting its decision making processes, particularly focusing on Chopwell Colliery just after the General Strike. Records of events at Chopwell, and Communist influence there, provide fascinating and invaluable evidence and understanding as to why the situation at this particular colliery was so unusual.
There is still great pride and interest in the town in its steelmaking past. The 35th anniversary of the closure of the steelworks will occur in 2015. The town has started preparations to mark the anniversary, including potential arts/drama projects, education projects and displays in Consett and District Heritage Group's heritage centre. All of these groups will benefit from these records being made available.
The project has been successful in its primary aim of providing an ISAD (G) compliant catalogue of a discrete portion of Consett Iron Company's records, together with a collection level description to link related collections here and elsewhere. The catalogue will be available online by the end of March 2013. Additionally, it has facilitated a plan to integrate the constituent parts of the collection, the elimination of duplicate material, and has given us a greater understanding of the significance of the collection. Gabriel is currently writing an article about the Chopwell papers. It has offered valuable work experience to three graduates and one undergraduate, leading in one case to postgraduate archive training. Access will now be possible to specialist researchers and the community in Consett alike. The project's success will support linked funding applications.
Liz Bregazzi, County Archivist
Durham County Record Office
March 2013