Firth Company

Dates: 1885 to circa 1977

Location: Nora Street, Howley, Warrington

Specialities: manufacturing and supply of steel wire and wire products, zinc-coated wire, “firco” galvanised wire, heat-treated wire for mattresses etc.

Founded by Thomas Smith in 1885 the Firth Company was named after Firth Place, off Froghall Lane in Warrington.

In 1895 the company acquired the Florence wire mills at Howley where they produced a wide range of wire goods including wire gauzes, wire cloth and wire screens. One of their specialities was corsetry and the company sold zinc-coated wire to the major corset makers in the United States – they had to be quite sure the “bones” from the wire remained silent when the wearer bent over as if the corsets creaked, the wire manufacturers were blamed.

Later on the Firth Company sold their zinc-coated wire for use in American bathing costumes, having to put a thicker coat of zinc on the wire for their California customers as the sea was saltier on the West Coast of the US and so rusting was more of a problem!

In the early 1920s, following visits to America, the Firth Company developed a special heat-treated steel wire for use in inner sprung mattresses. This type of wire became one of their chief products and they supplied wire for bedsprings to most of the bed manufacturers in the United Kingdom, India, Central America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The company was soon able to establish an office in London.

During the Second World War the company spent 95% of their time on “Government Approved Work” and after the end of the war in 1947 they were acquired by British Lead Mills Limited who later changed the company name to Firth Cleveland.

Although the Firth Company had remained relatively successful up until that point – employing 500 staff and producing wire 24 hours a day 5 and a half days a week – they were hit hard by the crisis in the British steel industry of the 1960s. They were taken over, along with the remainder of Firth Cleveland, by the engineering company GKN (Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds) of Birmingham in 1972.

The Firth Company carried on as a subsidiary of GKN until it closed sometime after 1977. The former Firth Company wire works in Howley was eventually demolished in the 1980s to make way for sheltered housing.

A display of Firth Company wire products on Stand 1103 at the British Empire Exhibition of 1926

Advert for the Firth Company’s trademarked “Fircone” and “Firco” steel wire.

This article was written for the Wire Works Project 2020-2021, a National Lottery Heritage funded project aiming to highlight and celebrate the legacy left by the wire industry, which dominated Warrington’s employment structure for over 170 years, putting the town at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution.