Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow
Encyclopedia
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow [Bölckow], MP
(8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian
industrialist, acknowledged as being one of the 'fathers' of modern Middlesbrough
.
Bolckow, the son of Heinrich Bölckow of Varchow, in the region of Western Pomerania, and his wife, Caroline Dussher, was born at Sulten, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg
. His parents placed 15 year old Henry in a merchant's office in nearby Rostock
in order to learn about commerce. There he made the acquaintance of Christian Allhusen, who, in 1827, invited him to move to Newcastle-on-Tyne to become his business partner in the corn trade.
He became a naturalised British subject in 1841 and was persuaded by the ironmaster of the Walkergate works in Newcastle, John Vaughan
, to invest in the burgeoning iron trade. At the suggestion of Joseph Pease they set up their first iron foundry and rolling mill at Vulcan Street, Middlesbrough, where they processed pig iron
imported from Scotland. In 1846 the pair opened ironworks
at Witton Park, 20 miles (32.2 km) to the west of the town, where ironstone
from Grosmont, could be smelted in blast furnaces to produce the pig iron for the Vulcan Street works.
Excessive transport costs arising from this operation led them to start looking closer to home for their raw materials. In the end they found what they were looking for on their own doorstep. In 1850, Vaughan and his geologist, John Marley, discovered large seams of iron ore at Eston
, in the nearby Cleveland Hills
. A year later they commenced mining and a branch railway line was built to transport the raw iron to Middlesbrough.
The rapid success of their business enabled them to expand their operations, acquiring coal mines, limestone
quarries
, brickworks
, gasworks
and a machine works. By 1868, Middlesbrough was producing four million tons of iron per year and the town's population had risen to 40,000. It became a centre of such importance that, in 1853, the town received a charter of incorporation, Bolckow becoming its first elected Mayor
, with Vaughan following two years later.
Bolckow was aware that the townsfolk worked long hours and lived in cramped conditions. He spent £20,000 purchasing and landscaping 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) of land near the town centre in order to create a free public park for them. Albert Park
was opened on 11 August 1868 and named in memory of Prince Albert
, the Prince Consort, who, like Bolckow, was a Prussian. The following year he also spent £7,000 of his own money on the erection of a school in the St Hilda's district of the town.
When the town was granted parliamentary representation under the Representation of the People Act 1867
, Bolckow stood as a Liberal Party
candidate. Bolckow was elected unopposed as its first Member of Parliament
(MP) on 16 November 1868
, and he held that position for 10 years until his death. In 1871, the firm of Bolckow & Vaughan was formed into a limited liability company with a capital of £3,500,000, Bolckow becoming its first chairman.
The introduction of the Bessemer process
in the 1850s and the subsequent mass production of both mild steel and hardened tooling steel impacted greatly on the iron manufacturers. The new process could produce metals for 10% of the cost of the old methods. The firm of Bolckow & Vaughan were slow to adapt, mainly because the local iron ore had a high phosphorus content detrimental to steel production, and by the late 1870s the town was suffering a major economic downtown with unemployment running very high. In 1875 a rival firm, Dorman Long
, was setup in the Middlesbrough area, producing steel from imported iron.
In 1877 Bolckow became ill, suffering from kidney disease. In May 1878 he was taken to Ramsgate
, where it was thought the sea air would do him good. He made a temporary recovery but had a relapse and died on June 18 at the Granville Hotel in the resort. He was 71. He was buried at St Cuthbert's Church, Marton
, near to where his friend and partner Vaughan had been buried ten years before (9 September 1868). Their gravestones can still be seen in St Cuthbert's graveyard and, after falling into disrepair after a number of years of neglect, were restored in early 2009.
Henry was twice married. In 1841, he married a widow Miriam Hay, whose sister was married to Vaughan (indeed it's thought the men met while they were courting the sisters). Miriam died the following year and Henry remarried in 1851, when he wed Harriet, only daughter of James Farrar, of Halifax
.
In his lifetime, Bolckow collected paintings, nearly all of them by living French and English artists. A statue commemorating Henry Bolckow stands in Middlesbrough's Exchange Square diagonally opposite the railway station (see picture above).
During his spell as Mayor, Bolklow erected a granite urn dedicated to Captain James Cook in the grounds of his residence, Marton Hall, near to the reputed former site of the cottage in which Cook was born. The Hall burnt down in 1960, but the urn remains in what is now Stewart Park
, which also contains the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum
. Bolckow's Mastiff
, Lady Marton (former resident of the estate, but sold because of her hunting proclivities to breeder George Cook) became one of the foundation bitches of the modern breed.
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
industrialist, acknowledged as being one of the 'fathers' of modern Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
.
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
. His parents placed 15 year old Henry in a merchant's office in nearby Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
in order to learn about commerce. There he made the acquaintance of Christian Allhusen, who, in 1827, invited him to move to Newcastle-on-Tyne to become his business partner in the corn trade.
He became a naturalised British subject in 1841 and was persuaded by the ironmaster of the Walkergate works in Newcastle, John Vaughan
John Vaughan (Middlesbrough)
John Vaughan was born in Worcester, he worked as a foreman at Dowlais Ironworks in South Wales. Later he moved to Walker-on-Tyne near Newcastle and became a manager for Losh, Wilson and Bell Ironworks....
, to invest in the burgeoning iron trade. At the suggestion of Joseph Pease they set up their first iron foundry and rolling mill at Vulcan Street, Middlesbrough, where they processed pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
imported from Scotland. In 1846 the pair opened ironworks
Ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
at Witton Park, 20 miles (32.2 km) to the west of the town, where ironstone
Ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
from Grosmont, could be smelted in blast furnaces to produce the pig iron for the Vulcan Street works.
Excessive transport costs arising from this operation led them to start looking closer to home for their raw materials. In the end they found what they were looking for on their own doorstep. In 1850, Vaughan and his geologist, John Marley, discovered large seams of iron ore at Eston
Eston
Eston is a town within the Unitary Authority of Redcar and Cleveland, England. Within the Middlesbrough agglomeration it falls inside the Greater Eston initiative...
, in the nearby Cleveland Hills
Cleveland Hills
The Cleveland Hills are a range of hills on the north-west edge of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking Cleveland and Teesside. They lie entirely within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. Part of the long Cleveland Way National Trail runs along the...
. A year later they commenced mining and a branch railway line was built to transport the raw iron to Middlesbrough.
The rapid success of their business enabled them to expand their operations, acquiring coal mines, limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
quarries
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
, brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
, gasworks
Gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
and a machine works. By 1868, Middlesbrough was producing four million tons of iron per year and the town's population had risen to 40,000. It became a centre of such importance that, in 1853, the town received a charter of incorporation, Bolckow becoming its first elected Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, with Vaughan following two years later.
Bolckow was aware that the townsfolk worked long hours and lived in cramped conditions. He spent £20,000 purchasing and landscaping 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) of land near the town centre in order to create a free public park for them. Albert Park
Albert Park, Middlesbrough
Albert Park is an open access, free public park, located in Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England....
was opened on 11 August 1868 and named in memory of Prince Albert
Prince Albert
Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...
, the Prince Consort, who, like Bolckow, was a Prussian. The following year he also spent £7,000 of his own money on the erection of a school in the St Hilda's district of the town.
When the town was granted parliamentary representation under the Representation of the People Act 1867
Reform Act 1867
The Representation of the People Act 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102 was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised the urban male working class in England and Wales....
, Bolckow stood as a Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
candidate. Bolckow was elected unopposed as its first Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) on 16 November 1868
United Kingdom general election, 1868
The 1868 United Kingdom general election was the first after passage of the Reform Act 1867, which enfranchised many male householders, thus greatly increasing the number of men who could vote in elections in the United Kingdom...
, and he held that position for 10 years until his death. In 1871, the firm of Bolckow & Vaughan was formed into a limited liability company with a capital of £3,500,000, Bolckow becoming its first chairman.
The introduction of the Bessemer process
Bessemer process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly...
in the 1850s and the subsequent mass production of both mild steel and hardened tooling steel impacted greatly on the iron manufacturers. The new process could produce metals for 10% of the cost of the old methods. The firm of Bolckow & Vaughan were slow to adapt, mainly because the local iron ore had a high phosphorus content detrimental to steel production, and by the late 1870s the town was suffering a major economic downtown with unemployment running very high. In 1875 a rival firm, Dorman Long
Dorman Long
Dorman Long, based in Middlesbrough, North East England, was a major steel producer, which diversified into bridge building, and is now a manufacturer of steel components and construction equipment for bridges and other structures...
, was setup in the Middlesbrough area, producing steel from imported iron.
In 1877 Bolckow became ill, suffering from kidney disease. In May 1878 he was taken to Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
, where it was thought the sea air would do him good. He made a temporary recovery but had a relapse and died on June 18 at the Granville Hotel in the resort. He was 71. He was buried at St Cuthbert's Church, Marton
Marton, Middlesbrough
Marton — officially Marton-in-Cleveland — was a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which is now within the town boundaries of Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Originally, the parish of Marton extended down to the River...
, near to where his friend and partner Vaughan had been buried ten years before (9 September 1868). Their gravestones can still be seen in St Cuthbert's graveyard and, after falling into disrepair after a number of years of neglect, were restored in early 2009.
Henry was twice married. In 1841, he married a widow Miriam Hay, whose sister was married to Vaughan (indeed it's thought the men met while they were courting the sisters). Miriam died the following year and Henry remarried in 1851, when he wed Harriet, only daughter of James Farrar, of Halifax
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
.
In his lifetime, Bolckow collected paintings, nearly all of them by living French and English artists. A statue commemorating Henry Bolckow stands in Middlesbrough's Exchange Square diagonally opposite the railway station (see picture above).
During his spell as Mayor, Bolklow erected a granite urn dedicated to Captain James Cook in the grounds of his residence, Marton Hall, near to the reputed former site of the cottage in which Cook was born. The Hall burnt down in 1960, but the urn remains in what is now Stewart Park
Stewart Park, Middlesbrough
Stewart Park is a park in Marton, a southern suburb of Middlesbrough, England, located at the corner of Ladgate Lane and Marton Road.- History :...
, which also contains the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is a free-entry public museum located in Stewart Park in Marton, Middlesbrough within the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England....
. Bolckow's Mastiff
English Mastiff
The English Mastiff, referred to by virtually all Kennel Clubs simply as the Mastiff, is a breed of large dog perhaps descended from the ancient Alaunt through the Pugnaces Britanniae. Distinguishable by enormous size, massive head, and a limited range of colors, but always displaying a black mask,...
, Lady Marton (former resident of the estate, but sold because of her hunting proclivities to breeder George Cook) became one of the foundation bitches of the modern breed.