Hope Iron Steel and Wire Company

Dates: before 1873 until around 1881

Location: Dallam Lane, Warrington

Specialities: iron and steel wire

Little is known about this short-lived wire works which was named after the neighbouring Hope cotton mills. It rented a private tramway across Dallam Lane from the railway at a cost of a shilling a year (about £3 today) which rose to £5 a year (about £300 today) after 1878. The works was once fined 10 shillings and sixpence (about £30 today) for issuing black smoke from the works chimney.

The Hope Iron Steel and Wire works was later taken over by another short-lived Warrington wire company – the Haybridge Wire and Iron Company – before the site was converted into a smallpox hospital.

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.