Walker
An English family of entrepreneurs from Rotherham.
The brothers Jonathan (1711–1778), Samuel (1715–1782) and Aaron Walker (1718–1777), sons of Joseph Walker (1673–1729), a farmer and nailor, started experimenting with iron production in 1741. Their first attempts at smelting iron in crucibles used in the nail-making forge failed, and their experiments only succeeded with the construction of a reverberatory furnace. When their business began to grow, they moved production from the original site at Grenoside to Masbrough to take advantage of the more favourable conditions of transport. In 1748, Samuel Walker founded a separate steel manufactory, also in Masbrough, together with John Booth.
From the 1750s onwards, the brothers gradually shifted their activities to Holmes Estate, an area to the west of Masborough and adjacent to Holmes Cut. This navigable canal, constructed in 1727, connected Jordan to Eastwood, thereby circumventing the numerous water mills on the banks of the Don around Rotherham](https://archives.georgfischer.com/places/1786). A water-powered slitting mill as well as two blast furnaces are documented for this site as early as 1598. A third furnace entered into operation in 1770. In 1782, a Watt steam engine was installed.
During the last decades of the eighteenth century, as well as during the time of Johann Conrad Fischer’s visit in 1814, the Walker-works – “large beyond all imagining” – were concentrated there. By the 1850s the site and the factory were known as “Holmes Works”. The older production site at Masborough became the location of their steel manufacturing operations (Walker & Booth Steelworks).
The Walkers began casting cannons in 1774 in a specially built casting foundry and two boring facilities. It is estimated that the Walkers’ works produced about 13,000 tons of cannon between 1774 and 1815. Johann Conrad Fischer was present on 6 September 1814 when one of their cannon was cast.
The Walkers of Masbrough were also known for having cast the world’s second iron bridge in Sunderland on the plans of Thomas Paine. They also cast the iron for London’s first Southwark Bridge, built in 1814.
Following the death of the brothers, the business was continued as Samuel Walker & Co. and from 1792 under the name Joshua Walker & Co. The brothers’ descendants remained partners in the business, which was closely intermeshed with that of the steel company Walker & Booth. The business ran into financial difficulties in the 1820s and was gradually dissolved.
See location: Walker Ironworks.
Traveljournal 1814
- Clifton Park and Museum: Museum. The Walkers of Clifton House. (Clifton Park and Museum, Stand 4.7.2023).
- John, A. H. (Hg.): Minutes relating to Messrs. Samuel Walker & Co., Rotherham, iron founders and steel refiners 1741–1829 and Messrs. Walkers, Parker & Co., lead maufacturers 1788–1893. London 1951 (Eisenbibliothek: Bb 368).
- Munford, Anthony Peter: Iron & Steel Town: An Industrial History of Rotherham. Gloucestershire 2003, S. 20, 40, 159 (Internet Archive, Stand 28.9.2022).