St. Helens Cable and Rubber Company

Dates: circa 1900 to 1960

Location: Sankey Bridges, Warrington

Specialities: electric wires and cables, “Dialite” cables, rubber cables, rubber tyres, tubes and matting, ebonite

Despite the name the St Helens Cable Company was based at Sankey Bridges in Warrington from circa 1900. Shortly after completing the steel cables used for the transporter bridge across the Mersey in 1905 the company was incorporated as a limited company.

The company was taken over by B.I.C.C (British Insulated Callander’s Cables) around 1957 and the parent company shut down the Warrington sites in 1960 with the aim of concentrating production in Helsby. The majority of the company (including wire works and rubber manufacturing plant) was sold to the plastics and rubber manufacturing company B. Cow and Company.

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.