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View Full Version : The Orb Steelworks, Newport - 22 Feb 09



sinnerman
22-02-2009, 10:18 PM
In 1895 John Lysaght decided to relocate his Iron works for wolverhampton to South Wales to meet rapidly increasing demands from the Australian market he was supplying. He bought the 100 acre Pill farm on the east bank of the river usk as the future sight of his new Orb Iron works its name was taken from the company's trademark of a blue Orb. The works opened in 1898 with a large part of its workforce following the company and moving from wolverhampton.

By 1901 the iron works were producing 140,000 tons a year which wer shipped across the channel to Bristol for glavanising, its and its workforce had grown to 3,000. The company was taking its first steps into the production of electrical Steels a market the company hoped to corner. The first world war had a major impact on the factory's plans it's production was redirected into the prodcution of armour trence plate steel, helmets and shell cartridge brass, which severly impacted on the Orb's export market to Australia. Between the wars the works found a new market in the car industry and its demand for sheet steel the Orbs 72" mills were ablet to produce the thickest rolled steels in the world which were in great demand. When the second world war broke out in 39 the mill was back in war production producing rolled dualumin and stanless steel for aircraft airframes and cartridge brass shells for RAF fighter's . After the war the the Orb became part of The Steel Company of Wales Ltd. which was nationalised 1951 ending the Lysaght Family's involvement with their steelworks, It went on to become part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain which was privatised, Only to be renationalised as part of British Steel in 1967. By production at the now the Orb was was concentrated on Electrical Steels. British Steel was privatised in 1988 with the Orb emerging as a stand alone company Orb Electric Steel LTD, but it was soon bought up by the expanding European Electrical Steel group which itself was bought out by Cogent a wholly owned subsiduary of Corus which reunited the Orb with the rest of british steel.

In 2008 corus embarked on a major modernisation plan for the Orb which included the sale of the oldest parts of the factory known as monkey island including the administration building's which were housed in Pill farm house which had survived since 1895, the training center and steel packaging plant. The remainder of the production buildings are in the midst of refit leaving the disused parts fenced off and awaiting the results of a planning application which would see them replaced by 500 houses.

Visited with Immortal Owl while the site is being cleared, in the last of the cleared offices we found a copy of the Sport from the 20th of this month. Didnt think it was actually going to be that good but in a caged off area hidden away at the back of the offices we found an archive room which contained records some going back to the 1920's.

The Admin offices in Pill farm shows the general condition of all the offices.
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb01.jpg

HR office archives.
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb02.jpg

The archive's
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb03.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb04.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb05.jpg

The "Bruce Peebles" pipe detector
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb06.jpg

The holy grail a flushing toilet with paper
http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb07.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb08.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb09.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb10.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb11.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb12.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb13.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb14.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb15.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb16.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/orb/orb17.jpg

boxfrenzy
22-02-2009, 10:54 PM
That's great mate, a good report with excellent pictures. I like the filing cabinet shot. :thumb

industry
22-02-2009, 11:30 PM
Mate, that's fecking awsome!! I am loving the detail on the bottom of the bog doors and the mains switchgear - some serious dial porn there :laugh Did you have a look through the records at all, they look fantastic! Top drawer stuff!

sinnerman
22-02-2009, 11:40 PM
There were so many it would have taken weeks to go through i had a quick flick through one or two but it was mostly chemistry reports and while i have a basic grasp of the steel making process it was just gobbidly gook to me.

The best bits were the archive photo's and company history we found, full of little jems like I never knew that the Orb works football team went on to become Newport County FC.

Or it was the first industrial site that the Queen (then princess Elizabeth) made an official visit to.

industry
22-02-2009, 11:43 PM
That's great isn't it when you find out little bits like that! Some of the best slides and personal stuff I have is from the Templeborough steel works and it as all rescued from the skip!!

Is there any chance of any of the pictures and stuff being saved by anyone for the record in this case?

sinnerman
22-02-2009, 11:46 PM
That's great isn't it when you find out little bits like that! Some of the best slides and personal stuff I have is from the Templeborough steel works and it as all rescued from the skip!!

Is there any chance of any of the pictures and stuff being saved by anyone for the record in this case?

There might very well be :),

oh and the various bits of porn hidden in lockers and tool draws was top notch as well

Dr.Doo
23-02-2009, 09:17 PM
what a fab place...great report and pictures mate :thumb

BB
23-02-2009, 10:41 PM
Cool pics there :D

sqwasher
24-02-2009, 09:23 AM
Great pics of a great looking site! That archive room is an ace find! I hope some of the stuff in there can be saved! ;)

coops
24-02-2009, 09:45 AM
Nice pics mate

Gorecki
24-02-2009, 10:13 AM
Look at all that stuff!!!!
Cool place & cool name. Orb =]

Immortalowl
24-02-2009, 12:49 PM
That was a good little outing. I'm liking how that bog shot came out!

sinnerman
04-01-2010, 09:29 PM
All of this has now been completely flattened so heres a few archive photos to show it in its better years,


http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb00.jpg
John Lysaght Esq 1832 - 1895

Founder of John Lysaghts Ltd who passed away shortly after the site of the Orb Steelworks was purchased, His company went on to become a major feature in the life of Newport.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb01.jpg

Steelworks Gates in 1935

The Steelworks main gates each gate featured the works Orb logo which was painted gold to make it stand out from the black painted gate.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb06.jpg

Aerial View of the Steelworks in 1935

The gatehouse is located top right, Pill Farm house is located in the top left with the sports field and training school in front. The mid left is the Race which was the steelworks main factory floor during the works early years. The whole area shown in the photograph was cleared by July 2009 and is set to become the site of 550 homes.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb02.jpg

Pill Farm House

the 100 Acre Pill Farm on the banks of the river Usk was bought by Lysaght's in 1895 from Col Lockwood. The Farm house was converted into the site offices.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb03.jpg

Pill Farm House

The offices remained in use until the upper half of the steel works site was sold off for development in 2008, the offices were burnt out in a fire during march of 2009 just on month after my visit to the Orb Steelworks

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb07.jpg

The Race 1936

The stock of rolled sheet on the right is waiting for Annealing or coating the mills are located on the left of the building and the Annealers on the right in the background.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb08.jpg

Hand Sheet Rolling 1936

Hand sheet rollers seen in the race during 1936.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb09.jpg

Mechanisation of the Sheet Mills

To meet increasing demand for their sheet products several mills were improved during the early 1930's with chain driven sheet feeds and elevated returns greatly improving the production with fewer men required to run the machine.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb10.jpg

Chemistry Lab 1920

The chemistry lab tested all incoming materials including coal, oils and steels using wet chemistry methods.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb11.jpg

Calendar Room 1914

The calendar room monitored conditions in the annealing furnace 40 clockwork powered thermocouple recorders were installed the first installation of its type in the world.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb12.jpg

Royal Visit of 1944

Mr RP Perry MBE General Manager and Mr Tom Crowther Mayor of Newport 1930/31 escort Queen Elizabeth and explain some of the details of the works.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb04.jpg

The Lysaghts Excelsior's Amateur Football Club 1909

The works 1909-1910 football team became known as the Ironsides and went on to become Newport County AFC in 1912.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb05.jpg

Lysaght's Amateur Football Club 1947 - 1948

South Wales League Champions, G Johnson, W Rogers, A Jordan, G Pitt, F Bough, A Hinton, M Lynch, A Jones, A Studley, D Lewis, G Gripton, J McLoughlan, W Screen, K Brown, H Priestnal, A Bell, K Priest, K Hughes, A Dando, Mr E C Lysaght, L Thorpe, Mr Way, T Smith, K Smith, H Walton, G Hill, J Carvell, J Lewis, T Allcock.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb13.jpg

The Orb Cricket Team 1911

The Orb cricket team photographed in 1911 at the opening of the new Lysaght Cricket Pavilion on May 16th.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb14.jpg

Lysaght's Amateur dramatic society 1958

The amateur dramatic society's production of trial and error in 1958 the cast includes Bill Clissold, Mr and Mrs Parry and Jean Phillips.

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/archive/orb15.jpg

Ladies Tennis Team 1973

Sue Reed, Margaret Taylor, Karen Simms, Jennifer Beardmore.

judderman62
04-01-2010, 10:37 PM
nice report and pics. Looks a good explore too does that :thumb

SilentHill
04-01-2010, 11:24 PM
I was smiling all the way through that :) Awesome stuff :thumb

industry
05-01-2010, 12:30 AM
Mate, I remember being blown away by your first report on this and it's sad to hear it's all gone now but the historical stuff you have just posted is simply awesome!

It show's the real human side of the works which as common all over the country in factories at the time. Brilliant stuff and many, many thanks for posing!!!

sinnerman
05-01-2010, 09:11 PM
Cracking stuff. Interesting read too.

Gotta say, the racks with the hard hats is too good to be true, you didn't did you?


no posing at all, exactly as we found them

TK421
07-01-2010, 12:17 AM
Sinnerman, here I am reading your first report, having not read the date it was posted, like a divvie:D then I get your report with all the photos of past times! What a shame it has all gone, but well done on capturing some blinkin cracking shots, and sharing some of the old photos, it really brings the place to life.

sinnerman
25-01-2010, 11:42 PM
for those who are interested ive written a bit of a history of "The Orb" for my website first update in ages.



http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/orb/orb39.jpg (http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/orb.php)

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/orb.php

sinnerman
26-01-2010, 12:13 AM
yes the Lysaght Institute was the Steelworks Working mansclub, but the disused parts were demolished during the summer of last year apart from the gatehouse. The rest of the site is slowly being rebuilt to give the works a modern image. The transporter bridge was originally built to attract Lysaghts to build in newport.