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Wigan Coal & Iron Co.

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Blast furnaces at Wigan Coal & Iron Co Ltd
Blast furnaces at Wigan Coal & Iron Co Ltd
Photo: Allan Hughes
Views: 5,450
Item #: 10740
The blast furnaces at Wigan Coal & Iron Co Ltd, the target of the zeppelin raid in WW1.

Comment by: RON HUNT on 19th May 2009 at 22:58

Great post card never seen that view before.

Comment by: Eric Turner on 20th May 2009 at 15:26

Yes, but the Zepplin Commander thought he was bombing steel works at Sheffield.

Comment by: Bluesfan on 21st May 2009 at 19:31

The wife must have been directing them...

Comment by: Gerry on 23rd May 2009 at 09:36

now we know why the slag dumped on the Rabbit Rocks is circular the must have come from these

Comment by: irene roberts on 23rd May 2009 at 11:30

brilliant picture

Comment by: detritus21 on 23rd May 2009 at 12:57

One of the reasons why the slag is round would be due to the buckets used to pour the molten iron would be round. The slag would in all likelyhood be removed into round buckets also and then tipped once a bit cooler. It wouldn't really have much to do with the shape of the furnesses.

Comment by: Bluesfan on 23rd May 2009 at 17:16

When I was a kid my Dad used to take me for a walk down there and I always thought they were parts of a Roman column. Too much imagination, I put it down to comics...

Comment by: Dennis Miller on 25th May 2009 at 07:09

>>One of the reasons why the slag is round would be due to the buckets used to pour the molten iron would be round. The slag would in all likelyhood be removed into round buckets also and then tipped once a bit cooler. It wouldn't really have much to do with the shape of the furnesses.<<

I was led to believe that the furnaces would be capped with concrete (or a similar mix), and it is these caps that are littered across Rabbit Rocks. Mind you, i have been know to be wrong before! :-)

Comment by: Gareth Jones on 26th May 2009 at 16:17

Excellent pic.
Ive seen a few aerial pictures, but none from inside the 'factory?'..

Would love to see more.

P.s
I think the round slag came from the buckets and not the furnaces.

Comment by: cindy on 31st May 2009 at 23:00

I think piles of slag would have come from the steel plant not the Blast furnace, this would be the overflow from the ladle when the furnace was tapped & ran into it & overflowed into smaller ladles these were allowed to cool before being shunted by loco & then tipped out.

Comment by: Jim on 21st August 2010 at 21:57

I dont think these structures are possibly coke ovens.they are definitely not blast furnaces.Blast furnaces are much taller and cover a larger area.

Comment by: Bob G on 8th December 2010 at 19:53

"Zeppelin raid" is overstating, only one bomb was dropped, at the end of Vine Street 1.5 miles away. Thanks to net curtains flying glass injuries were minimal, though baby Clarice Wilcox was lucky - blown clean out of her pram, she landed two gardens away in a rosebush, without even a scratch.

Comment by: Nev Buchanan on 16th January 2011 at 14:54

Interesting video showing inside of a steelworks. Note the slag dumpind seqence - the slag tip was virtually on the beach!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTgTmdYuZbE&feature=related

Comment by: flaggy delf on 2nd September 2011 at 15:22

Bob you;ll find it was abit more than one bomb....Harper st. Whelley, and New Springs also got hit. Those are the blast furnaces. My grandad was furnace keeper on the one nearest canal. I always belived the ironworking area tipped slag by Hemfield Road and the steel plant on Rabbit Rocks.

Comment by: Bob G on 22nd February 2013 at 19:04

Thanks flaggy, I stand corrected. Doesn't sound like the other bombs got much nearer target though. Might add that my uncle did apprenticeship at Top Place, but although a good worker was sacked at its end - they couldn't afford to pay him full wages. Unsurprisingly, a couple of years later the works closed.

Comment by: Gary ...... on 29th May 2014 at 18:51

Dose anyone know what year the iron works closedown and the year it was demolished.

Comment by: YES on 4th December 2014 at 13:01

I LOVE BLAST FURNACES OMG CHEMISRY WOOOOOOOOO I LOVE IT SO MUCH I WISH I WAS A BLAST FURNACE SO I CAN REDUCE IRON ORE SUCH FUN MANY WOW

Comment by: Bill A on 8th December 2014 at 22:10

It closed in 1930 when the Wigan Coal and Iron Co amalgamated with the Pearson and Knowles group. Two new companies were formed out of the merger separating the coal and steel interests. The Coal Company became the Wigan Coal Corporation, and the iron and steel business became the Lancashire Steel Corporation. It was decided to move the iron and steel business to the Irlam which had easy access to the Manchester Ship Canal. Don’t know when the furnaces and steel works at Kirkless were demolished but they had all gone by the 1960’s.

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