WEEK 42

Rother Boiler Company, Rotherham

William Charles

William Charles, born in 1880 in Masbrough, Rotherham, married my second great aunt, Winifred Pinder, in 1908.

William co-founded both the Rotherham Steel Strip Company and the Rother Boiler Company.

Below are three articles pertaining to the Rother Boiler Company.

THE ADVERTISER, FRI., FEB. 16th, 1973

Rotherham in high places

Rother Boiler Company (advert)

DID YOU know there is a little bit of Rotherham in Windsor Castle and the House of Commons, and most probably up your street, too?

No, well neither did I, but we have and it belongs to a small firm with a big reputation…the Rother Boiler Company Ltd., celebrating this month 50 years of business since they became a limited company.

it was in 1919 that two Rotherham men, the late Mr. A. A. Charles and Mr. A. Milnes (father of a present day company director, Mr. Arthur Milnes), laid the foundations for the company’s existence.

They concentrated on the production of kitchen range boilers, and a pretty laborious process it was, too, in those days. Output of two men was limited to seven or eight boilers a day.

Rother Boiler Company, Rotherham

Within a few years, Mr. H. Sowden joined them and introduced copper back boilers and cylinders – still a feature of their work today.

Into new premises

in 1923 they became a Limited Company and four years later they had outgrown their premises in Westgate. The search for new headquarters ended at a nine acre site on Meadow Bank Road.

Rother Boiler Company (advert)

There they are to-day and the staff has increased now to over 130.

They are specialists in calorifiers or heat exchangers, if you prefer it that way.

This means equipment of all kinds for many important uses. In hospitals, schools, flats, public buildings and hotels, not to mention their products used in industry.

Expansion is still the order of the day and the firm maintain they “have never been busier”. Busy or not, you can be sure that all their work is built with the care and thought that has made them a top name in the heating engineering world.

THE ADVERTISER, FRI., MAR. 30th, 1973

Rother Boiler Company, Rotherham

Heating Mr. Heath’s prize pool and lots of other V.I.P.s

MADE IN ROTHERHAM

The Sultan of Oman’s army barracks and the Russian Embassy in Tehran are just two exotic destinations of products from a Rotherham factory.

Every day, boilers and calorifiers (heat exchange units used to heat very large buildings) start out from the Rother Boiler Company’s factory in Meadowbank Road on journeys all over the world.

Rother Boiler Company (advert)

The Falkland Isles’ Radio Station, hospitals and the Radio Station in Singapore, hotels in Malta, factories in Russia and Thailand…these are just some of the faraway places where Rother Boiler products are installed.

Nearer home, they’ve an equally impressive list of famous public buildings to their credit.

Windsor Castle, the Houses of Parliament, French Embassy in London, British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Durham Cathedral, Palace of Westminster, Royal yacht Brittaina , National Theatre…the list is endless.

Prisoners up and down the country (including Dartmoor) have reason to be thankful for the company – they keep warm by means of Rother Boiler calorifiers.

Rother Boiler Company (advert)

All R.A.F. camps are supplied by the firm, as well as many hospitals and holiday camps.

The Prime Minister and diplomats from all over the world are going to enjoy the benefits of some of Rother Boiler’s latest products.

Specially designed calorifiers are to be installed in a new swimming pool at Chequers.

How does this local firm manage to carry off all these major contracts?

Rother Boiler Company, Rotherham

“I think we’re the only people who make calorifiers in both steel and copper, and we also make a reasonable job at the right price,” explained Works Director Mr. Arthur Milnes.

To keep up with demand, they turn out more than 200 tons of steel a month and about £16,000 worth of copper every week.

The company, which employs 120 people, was founded in 1918, and last month celebrated 50 years as a limited company.

THE ADVERTISER, FRIDAY, AUG 5, 1988

Rother Boiler Company (advert)

15 ‘new’ jobs?

The Rother Boiler Company has taken over its subsidiary Roebuck and Clarke (Galvanising), with plans for a £500,000 plant in Rotherham.

The expansion move will hopefully create 15 new jobs at Roebuck and Clarke’s Meadowbank Road site where the new galvanising plant is being built.

Rother Boiler, which has been established in the town since 1925 and employs 110 people, now wholly owns Roebuck and Clarke – a subsidiary company setup just two years ago.

William Charles

William Charles, born in 1880 in Masbrough, Rotherham, married my second great aunt, Winifred Pinder, in 1908.

William co-founded both the Rotherham Steel Strip Company and the Rother Boiler Company.

Below are a couple of articles pertaining to the Rotherham Steel Strip Company.

The 1937 Rotherham and District Annual

The Rotherham Steel Strip Co., Ltd., are manufacturers of cold rolled steel strip, and they works are at Westgate, Rotherham. The firm bought the Baths Foundry, which had been standing idle many years, and installed a cold rolling mill, work commencing in January, 1917.

Rotherham Steel Strip Company Limited (left-hand side)

The business was founded by Mr. John Beever, the late Mr. Arthur Beever, Mr. Alfred Charles, and Mr. William Charles. Mr. John Beever and the late Mr. Arthur Beever had had experience in this trade during the whole of their lives, and saw it grow from very small beginnings. For many years they were managers of a local cold rolling mill.

The members of the firm are all local men hailing from the Kimberworth district. From the commencement to December, 1920, things went very slowly, but in January, 1921, Mr. Beever gathered together several men who had worked with him before and who were fully experienced, and began to extend. There are now 24 pairs of cold rolls, six annealing furnaces, and ten slitting and pairing machine, and 160 men are employed.

Rotherham Steel Strip Company (advert)

The firm are doing a large business with the cycle and motor trades, and can keep the present mills in employment. There is room to extend, and as trade improves, more plant will be installed and the output increased. The present capacity of the works is about 200 tons per week.

The firm’s specialities are bright cold rolled strip steel for cycle rims, mudguards, etc., annealed steel for stamping and presswork, black hooping for packing cases and cable tape, corset steel, cold rolled strip steel for driving chains, etc., cold rolled steel for clock springs, and all classes of hardened and tempered steel; stainless steel, rustless iron, cutlery steel, goffing square, aircraft steel, including stainless, nickel, nickel chrome, in bars, sheets, and strips, flyer and spindle steel, and razor steel strip.

The firm have now installed plant for the manufacture of safety razor blades, and have one of the most up to date factories in the country. All the firm’s blades are manufactured at their works from the billet to the finished blade and from guaranteed Sheffield steel. They make blades to fit all types of holders at popular prices.

Rotherham Steel Strip Classic Blade – 1937

THE ADVERTISER, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1923.

LOCAL WORKS FIRE.

DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £5000.

It is estimated that £5000 damage was caused on Saturday night by a fire at the works occupied by the Rotherham Steel Strip Company Ltd., and the Rother Boiler Company, Ltd., Baths Foundry, Westgate, Rotherham.

After receiving the call at 8.35 p.m., the Corporation Fire Brigade, under Sergt. Briddon, found on their arrival that a two-storey building at the bottom of the yard was blazing fiercely, the roof being in jeopardy. Four jets from the street mains were directed on to the blazing building, and the fire was got under control in about half an hour.

It is fortunate that the flames were prevented from spreading to the adjoining shops, among which are oil and paint stores belonging to another firm.

Rotherham Steel Strip Company Limited (site of)

The manufacture of steel strips was carried on on the ground floor of the works involved, and the rooms above were devoted to boiler making in copper, etc. Damage was done to the plant and machinery, and about 20 men will be temporarily thrown out of employment.

It is thought that a defective flue was the cause of the outbreak.

In another part of the same works on Saturday morning a slight fire was caused by a quantity of oil becoming alight near a furnace.

The same evening the severing of a 2.5 inch gas main caused considerable trouble, a big blaze having to be dealt with before the supply could be cut off.