John Lysaght and Co.

John Lysaght and Co.
Company type	Private (before acquisition)
Industry	Iron and steel manufacturing
Founded	January 1, 1856; 170 years ago in Bristol, England
Founder	John Lysaght
Defunct	1920
Fate	Acquired by Guest Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN)
Successor	GKN
Headquarters	Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, Canada
Key people	John Lysaght (founder), William Royse Lysaght, Sidney Royse Lysaght, Daniel Connor Lysaght, Seymour Berry
Products	Galvanised iron sheets, rolled iron sheets, structural ironwork, steel products
Owner	Lysaght family (until 1919), then Seymour Berry (majority shareholder)
Number of employees	~3,500 (at Newport peak) (circa 1928)
Parent	GKN (from 1920)

John Lysaght and Co. was an iron and steel manufacturing firm originally established in Bristol, England, with subsequent facilities in Wolverhampton, Newport, and Scunthorpe. The business was taken over by GKN in 1920.

The founder

Born in 1832 in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, John Lysaght hailed from a wealthy landowning family connected to the Barons Lisle. After receiving his education in Bristol, he began his career as a civil engineer. In 1856, he purchased a modest hardware galvanising operation at Temple Back, Bristol, which utilized the Crawford hot-dip process.

The enterprise, renamed John Lysaght Ltd., started with a workforce of six men and one apprentice. Lysaght grew the business by sourcing iron sheets for galvanisation, focusing on supplying the expanding industrial sector. He marketed his product under the "Orb" brand, with Orb corrugated galvanised iron sheets becoming highly sought after. By 1869, he secured a larger facility at St Vincent's, Netham, Bristol. By 1878, this factory employed around 400 workers and produced approximately 1,000 tons of galvanised iron sheets each month. The company also branched into structural ironwork and exported products worldwide from Bristol.

In 1878, the firm purchased the idle Swan Garden Iron Works in Wolverhampton and added the adjacent Osier Beds Iron Works two years later. These locations enabled an annual production capacity of 40,000 tons of rolled iron sheets, much of which was shipped to Australia. In 1879, John Lysaght launched a subsidiary in Australia named Victoria Galvanised Iron and Wire Co. The company became a limited liability entity in England by 1881 and continued expanding its facilities in Bristol and Wolverhampton.

Expansion

In the late 1870s, John Lysaght’s nephews, Sidney Royse Lysaght (1856–1941) and William Royse Lysaght (1859–1945), joined the firm. While W.R. Lysaght took charge of business growth, S.R. Lysaght focused on his literary pursuits. Prior to John Lysaght’s passing in 1895, the company acquired land at Pill Farm near Newport in South Wales to establish a new rolling mill. The Orb Ironworks commenced operations in Newport in 1898, and by 1901 most machinery and many employees had transferred from Wolverhampton. The local works football team contributed to the creation of what eventually became Newport County AFC.

Under W.R. Lysaght’s leadership, the Newport works employed approximately 3,000 individuals—including around 600 women—and produced about 175,000 tons annually, predominantly for export markets. Daniel Connor Lysaght (1869–1940), serving as works manager, led diversification into electrical steels via collaboration with Joseph Sankey Company. In 1912, the company inaugurated its first steelworks facility—Normanby Iron Works at Scunthorpe—thereby reducing dependence on externally sourced steel. Weekly production reached 6,500 tons that were transported to Newport for rolling processes. By 1913, Newport ironworks operated 42 mills powered by six steam engines; meanwhile, Scunthorpe’s blast furnace count rose to four by 1917.

Merger and later developments

In 1919, the Lysaght family divested most of their shares to chairman Seymour Berry but maintained control over certain business segments. The company secured a controlling stake in Joseph Sankey and Sons Ltd. In 1920, Guest Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN) acquired John Lysaght along with its plants at Newport, Bristol, and Scunthorpe; Berry and another director subsequently joined GKN’s board of directors. The following year saw John Lysaght form an Australian subsidiary based in Newcastle, New South Wales; numerous workers from Newport emigrated to establish new mills there. Factories bearing the Lysaght name were also acquired or constructed in Argentina and Canada. The John Lysaght brand continued to be used by GKN as late as 1966 for operations at Newport and Scunthorpe.

An example of original John Lysaght craftsmanship can be seen in the platform canopy at Hounslow Central London Underground station.

W.R. Lysaght Institute

In Newport, where the workforce at the Orb steelworks reached its highest level of over 3,500 employees, the W.R. Lysaght Institute was inaugurated in December 1928 on Corporation Road. This establishment served as a tribute to the chairman's fifty years of service and recognized the dedication of the company's staff. Funded jointly by the corporation and its workers, the institute was situated on an 8-acre site near the entrance to the steelworks. It featured amenities such as a ballroom, tennis courts, a bowling green, and landscaped gardens. After its closure in 2001, the building fell into disuse until Linc-Cymru acquired it in 2008. Following extensive renovations, it reopened as a community facility in November 2012.

Main sites

St. Vincent's Iron Works, Bristol
Swan Garden Works and Osier Bed Works, Wolverhampton
Orb Iron Works, Newport
Normanby Park Steel Works, Scunthorpe

External links

Lysaght Institute, Newport