Winterbottom's Wire Mill

Historical Notes
Winterbottom's wire mill in Oxspring has a long history but the business still continues to this day. Have a look at their website 'wintwire' for more details. The factory occupies a position low down in the valley and near to the River Don. It is also quite close to the clear waters of the spring referred to in the name of Oxspring. In modern times, other businesses have set up shop nearby.

The following notes were kindly supplied by Marcus Beasant, a former employee of the wire mill. The author is unknown. There might be small errors as the pages were scanned using Optical Character Recognition. My thanks go to Marcus for nearly all of the content of this page.

HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION 0F WINTERBOTTOM (WIREDRAWERS) LTD. (FORMERLY G. WINTERBOTTOM & CO)

GEORGE WINTERBOTTOM the founder of the firm of Winterbottom (Wiredrawers) Ltd. was the son of Daniel Winterbottom, who was born in 1793 and died in 1848. George Winterbottom was one of six children, and was born in Barnsley in 1828.

He commenced his working life at the age of 12 years as an apprentice Wiredrawer for a firm named Horsfalls, who, at that time, had a Mill between Market Hill and Graham's Orchard in Barnsley. Before reaching the age of 20 years, Mr. Horsfall left him in charge of the mill, whilst he paid a visit to America, and, on his return, Mr. Horafall gave him a letter commending him on looking after the Works; this letter is still in existence.

George Winterbottom was married at the age of 24 years, and about this time, left to work at a Wire mill on the other side of the town in the Dearne Valley, which was owned by a family called Cockers. Descendants of this firm are still in existence, running Works in Sheffield. His stay at Cockers must have been of short duration, due to the fact that his family of five children were all born at Ringinglow where he had become a Partner in a firm producing wire. Records show that he was in partnership with a Mr. Cook of Hathersage; this partnership was dissolved, and he took another partner by the name of Marsh. There are doubts as to how successful these associations were, as he finally left Ringinglow and came back to Barnsley to the previous firm of Horsfalls, where his sons WILLIAM JOLLEY and ARTHUR Winterbottom were also employed.

It was during this time that William Jolley married Martha Walmsley, who was living and working in a shop near to the Mill in Market Hill, Barnsley. They had five children, and these included all the recently retired Directors - George Arthur, Ernest William, Frank and Harry Austin Winterbottom.

Having had a friendly association with the founder of Samuel Fox & Co. of Stocksbridge over a number of years, and having discussed his problems with him, Mr. Fox offered to finance a new beginning, which was accepted, and a small Mill was taken at Dodworth. The only stipulations made were that all wire which was drawn would be bought fron Samuel Fox & Co.

George Winterbottom finally left Dodworth, and came to Oxspring in 1888, bringing with him his family, including his sons and grandsons. The premises at Oxspring were taken on a lease, and were rented. From this time, they set about gathering established Wiredrawers, and looking for outlets for wire, particularly in the Kedditch area. It was in the year 1895 that C. F. Milward of Redditoh were looking for a supply of wire for Making into needle blanks, and in 1896 the association which continued until 1955 was confirmed, and the agreement signed. The value of the fittings at the time owned by George Winterbotton was assessed at £900, and to this Milwards added another £900, bringing the share capital between the two equal, the firm to continue trading in the name of G. Winterbottom & Co.

The Mill was then quite small, and was driven entirely by water power. A strong-hand Steam Engine was purchased in 1896, and this was installed and worked successfully until 1954/5.

George Winterbotton died in 1905, and the control of the Mill was passed to his sons William Jolley and Arthur Winterbottom. It would seem that the business thrived, since the outlet of wire, due to the association with Milwards was assured. The firm increased in size very little from this time, due to the policy laid down by the Milward section of the Company.

William Jolley died in 1926, and the control of the Company was mainly in the hands of his sons and brother Arthur. It was at this period that Charles Milward (the son of the first partner) stipulated that the property should, if possible, be bought. Negotiations were conducted by George Wilby, Auctioneer and Valuer, who persuaded the Executors of Thornley Taylor (the owner of the buildings and surrounding area) to sell the property. The outcome of this was that the Mill was purchased outright, and became the sole property of Messrs. G. Winterbottom & Co. Following this, the firm passed through a difficult period during the depression years, and it was not until 1936/7 that things began to improve; but from then until 1950, the factory was extremely busy.

Arthur Winterbottom died in the year 1947 when management affairs passed completely into the hands of George Arthur, Ernest Wm. and Frank Winterbottom. This period saw a marked change in the Redditch Needle trade in that Hilwards Fish Hooks had previously changed their name to The English Needle & Fishing Tackle Co. Ltd., and had begun to absorb still more needle manufacturers in Redditch. They changed their name yet again to Needle Industries Ltd., built a factory in Studley, and incorporated a new Wiredrawing Hill. This had a catastrophic effect on Winterbottom (Wiredrawers) Ltd. in that, on the occasion of the first recession after the war, there was insufficient work to keep both Wire Manufacturers busy. The outcome was that the Winterbottom section was left completely without work.

In the year 1953, the Partnership was completely dissolved, whereupon three new Directors were incorporated - Harry Austin Winterbottom, S. Hinchliffe and Harold Harsh who, in addition to the three remaining brothers, G.A., E.W. and F. Winterbottom, began trading on a far more universal basis. Alterations in the processes of wire manufacturing were made, which increased the output, and lowered the cost of production. The steam engine was dismantled; electric power was installed; electric annealing took the place of the old bee-hive coal-fired annealing furnaces, and much progress was made.

By the year 1963, prosperity had returned to the firm; outlets for material had increased one-hundredfold: and the Winterbottom reputation for good material was again established.

1st March. 1971

Sid Hinchliffe
This is a leaving do which occurred at the now defunct Winterbottoms wire mill in Oxspring. Marcus Beasant says: "It's Sid Hinchcliffe's retirement from Winterbottoms, shown receiving his presentation from Dennis Eadie, who owned the parent company in Scotland. I believe the dog was called bitsa, as in 'Bitsa this bitsa that', I suppose. It gave its name to a dahlia that Sid bred on an island in the river down at Winterbottoms. Can't put a date to it but my guess would be mid to late 70's."

Sydney's daughter, Joan Kastendick, put a message in the guestbook to say that she was pleasantly surprised to find her dad's picture on this page. As regards the dog, Joan said: 'The dog in the Winterbottoms picture is Badger, not Bitsa. There were two Bitsas but they were gold and white. The second one was the niece of the first. Badger came from a farm behind Wortley, but I can’t remember the year.'

So there you have it. Many thanks to Joan for the message and to Marcus Beasant for the scan and other information. Marcus couldn't think of the names in the picture but his father was there and a certain Norman Marsh. I have edited Marcus's text for general consumption. The location now has industrial units, including Eskia Computers and John Donnachie's builder's depot.