This film is one of several made of the Newton Chambers works at Thorncliffe made in the early 1950s. Three others were made in 1951 and 1952 of works events and outings to places like Sheffield, Whitby and Scarborough.   There is then a long gap until a further film of Thorncliffe Cricket Club Centenary Match, from1970. It isn’t known who made the earlier films, which are clearly amateur, but this professional film is credited. At least one of those involved in making the film, the...

This film is one of several made of the Newton Chambers works at Thorncliffe made in the early 1950s. Three others were made in 1951 and 1952 of works events and outings to places like Sheffield, Whitby and Scarborough.   There is then a long gap until a further film of Thorncliffe Cricket Club Centenary Match, from1970. It isn’t known who made the earlier films, which are clearly amateur, but this professional film is credited. At least one of those involved in making the film, the cinematographer J.M Burgoyne-Johnson, has a long list of films to his credit, with perhaps the best known being Insomnia is good for you, a 1957 film with Peter Sellers.  

The YFA has a number of films made in the post-war period promoting businesses, often showing the manufacturing processes, or taking a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at a particular enterprise. Others made around this time include Parker’s Mill (1946-47), which similarly provides a history of the origins of the firm; and Wimsol Bleach Factory (1951), from Keighley, which also made cleaning products. Closer still is Made In Sheffield, made by Sheffield steel maker George Ibberson the following year. 

As can be seen, it was written and directed by Fred Moore. However, the idea for the film may well have come fom the Managing Director, Sir Harold West. At this time he had been busy refurbishing the company and developing staff based programs of the kind seen in the film. In fact there were many more than those that are mentioned in the film, mainly run through the Thorncliffe Social and Recreational Society which had been set up in 1951 – see Elliot who provides an extensive list (References, p 22).   Sir Harold West was also County Commissioner of the Scout Movement for South Yorkshire, Chairman of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a Justice of the Peace, and at the time of this film was Sheffield Master Cutler. He set up a Charitable Trust to fund an award made by the Engineering Department at Sheffield University.

The film was made at a crucial time in the company’s history. It was operating in four distinct areas: houshold consumables; crane and excavation manufacturing; engineering and fabrication. In the following year to when the films was made the Tories re-privatised the iron and steel industry, and it may be that the films were made as part of a propaganda effort in favour of this policy. This may sound a little cynical, but the old owners had tried desperately to block nationalisation in 1948 – see the Context for Nationalisation- Take It Away (1948). Newton Chambers used to mine their own coal from several pits in the area, until coal nationalisation in 1948; but interestingly this was not re-privatised – not until what was left was sold to UK COAL in 1994 – and there is little mention of this in the film.

It was alo in 1954, in March, that Sir Peter Roberts took over from his father to became Chairman.   This signalled a change in perspective towards rationalisation and prioritisation of the most profitable part: the Izal chemicals. This process was helped on by natural gas replacing coal gas, causing serious problems for their oil-fired central heating boilers. The group failed to expand into new areas and was stagnating. Sir Peter Roberts tried to reverse this process, especailly expanding into excavator construction, but despite some growth – they acquired other businesses, such as Ransomes and Rapier in 1958 –  the group failed to make major steps forward, and it was taken over by Central and Sherwood in 1972. The authors Peter Grinyer and J C Spender argue that the eventual decline of the group was down to several factors grouped around managerial structure, strategy and decision making (References).

The firm traces its origins back to the year of the French Revolution, in 1789, when the businessman George Newton met up with the iron craftsman Thomas Chambers, both of the Phoenix Foundry in Sheffield, to form a partnership. In 1792 they bought the mining rights to the Thorncliffe valley from the Earl Fitzwilliam, and built an ironworks on the site between the Blackburn Brook and Thorncliffe Wood to take advantage of the immediate availability of coal, iron and wood. Next, to quote the excellent website South Yorkshire Historic Environment Characterisation, “blast furnaces were built on the meadow beside the brook and coal and ironstone mines were sunk deep into the wooded slopes of Thorncliffe Wood.” Hence arose Newton, Chambers and Co.. By 1900 the Ironworks employed over 8000 and was making heavy iron founding for construction like Tower bridge and Eddystone Lighthouse.

When the plant was taken over for munitions work during the Second World War, as most heavy industry was, they produced 1160 Churchill tanks. According to Grace’s guide’s, “The infamous traitor, William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), in one of his radio broadcasts threatened to "dot the I" on the Izal name with a bomb.” Fortunately German bombs missed the factory.  One of these tanks used to stand at the end of Warren Lane, Chapeltown, near the site of the former factory. That is, until in 2007 when it mysteriously vanished. At the time of writing (June 2010) it is still difficult to ascertain exactly what happened to the tank: various rumours abound – see the blogs listed in References, especially on Sheffield Forum, some of which are quite funny.  For a fuller account of the history of the company, with photographs and personal testimonies, see "A Most Enterprising Thing" (References).

For most people, at least those of a certain age, the most recognisable products coming out of the three divisions of Newton Chambers will be the famous brand of Izal. These originated from the by-products – the gases, tars and oils – of coke coming out of the blast furnaces.  These were turned into a germicidal disinfectant that was patented as Izal in 1893.  As Joan and Mel Jones relate it: “The product was soon available not only in liquid form, but also as powder, soap, cream and ointment." This famous disinfectant was said, in its early years, to be effective in combating cholera, typhoid fever, chicken pox, whooping cough and as a cure for worms, malaria, perspiring feet and baldness!” (References)

Most famous, or infamous, was the medicated toilet paper, Izal. Apparently, these toilet rolls were distributed freely to authorities throughout the Empire to advertise the company disinfectant with the same name.   Anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of using these toilet rolls will perhaps have wished that they had developed some alternative promotional ploy!   Some had nursery rhymes printed on the toilet papers, and during the war they had the idea of printing a caricature of Hitler on them.  Still, the toilet rolls kept going through the 1960s, and could still be found in public conveniences everywhere into the 1980s. Another of their well-known product was Pine fluid disinfectant, which might also prompt memories of certain institutions with its distinctive smell.

But perhaps the most fascinating feature of the film is the way that it presents Newton Chambers as a family firm. This for a site with a 4,000 strong workforces, and a mile and a half from one side to the other. Yet this presentation seems to have some justification if the many postings on Thorncliffe on Sheffield Forum are anything to go by. Lots of ex-workers have sent in their memories of the company and of those who worked there, including of parents and grandparents, some of whom can doubtless be seen in this film. One contributor to this notes that, “It was a family thing that son followed father in the work place to start the next generation.” Another, Bri Bloomer, writes that, “it’s remarkable how many of them [NC employees] worked into their mid-70’s, doing 60yrs plus, and many of them are 4th and 5th generations”; mentioning in particular William Cliffe who worked at Thorncliffe for 67yrs. Not all was peace and harmony though: in 1870 Newton Chambers’ miners attacked the houses of non-union workers who continued to work during a strike (see Mel Jones, References)..

Rather like the 19th century business philanthropists, such as Titus Salt and Joseph Rowntree, Newton Chambers tried to provide a total living environment for its workforce. This included, as well as houses (most surprising, cast iron houses in 1930, with a few still standing on Mortomley Close), a bank (later TSB), a shop,  sports fields including three football fields, developed in 1949, and its own health scheme with workers paying 3d a week. Added to this are the works newspaper, the Thorncliffe News, and its own recreation magazine. With the decline of such large dominating workplaces, more dispersed and mobile workforces, and an emphases on competition in all aspects of life, this phenomenon has all but disappeared.

However, in the wake of George Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949, there is something perhaps a bit disturbing in the picture that is happily painted of such an all encompassing project. The commentary states that, “the children who belong to this family have in turn become a part of it.” It goes on: “in the delicate moulding of tomorrows Thorncliffe, every boy and girl who enters the service of Newton Chambers is given vocational training based on psychological preparation for a career in service in industry.” This is reinforced by the images of young men, or “boys”, in the gym that are almost reminiscent of Stalin’s Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. Even the posters dotted around, like the large picture looking down on ‘the girls’ in their training class, look like nothing if not socialist realism.   

It is a moot point whether the emphasis on vocational training is much different today, but the company itself, despite taking over Ransomes and Rapier in 1958, finally came to an end in 1973. The site has been redeveloped into a trading estate, and some of the older stone buildings have been retained. South Yorkshire Forest Partnership offices now occupy part of the original office block of the company. Again according to Joan and Mel Jones, “The site of the Thorncliffe Works is now a modern industrial estate, the Izal factory site is a housing estate and the collieries and coke ovens in the surrounding countryside have completely disappeared.”


One aspect of the works not mentioned in the film is the effect of the huge factories and mines on the old wood. Although there was some re-planting and management of the woods in the 19th century, the environmental impact was large. Fortunately the site of Thorncliffe Wood is now a semi-natural ancient woodland, managed as heritage woods under the Fuelling a Revolution project.   The founders of Newton Chambers are described as “enterprising and courageous”, but perhaps what the film shows more than anything is the hard work and dedication of a workforce whose skills have probably been lost in time.

(with thanks to Debbie Kemp, Community Development Librarian, Chapeltown Library)


References

Elliot, B.,Thorncliffe: A Short History of Newton Chambers and Co. Ltd. and its People,Newton Chambers and Co., Chapeltown c.1958. (a reference copy is held at Chapeltown Library)


Peter H Grinyer and T J.C. Spender, Turnaround: Managerial Recipes for Strategic Success the Fall and Rise of the Newton Chambers Group, Associated Business Press, 1979.

"A Most Enterprising Thing . . .": An illustrated history to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Newton Cahmbers at Thorncliffe, compiled and edited by Joan Jones and Mel Jones, A Chapeltown and High Green Archive Publication, 1993.

Mel Jones, ‘Thorncliffe Riots’, in Brian Elliot (ed.),  Aspects of Barnsley, Wharncliffe Books, reprinted, 2003.

 


Grace’s guide, Newton, Chambers and Co

Newton Chambers thread on Sheffield Forum

Newton Chambers thread on Sheffield History

BFI Filmography, BURGOYNE-JOHNSON, J.M.

South Yorkshire Historic Environment Characterisation

Thorncliffe Wood

Durham Mining Museum entry on Thorncliffe mines

Joan & Mel Jones, A History Of Ecclesfield Parish