Steelos 1883 to 1918

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Steelos 1883 to 1918: In the early days Steel, Peech and Tozer (known locally as ‘Steelos’) made products for the railway industry. They were shipped all over the world.

1877 brought orders worth over £20,000 for steel for construction of the Moscow to Brest-Litovsk railway line.

During the 1880s Steelos expanded and shipped steel to Russia, Germany, Eastern Europe, USA and Canada. The Steelos company is recording very little profit at this time as continual investment in the steelworks expansion grows the company’s capacity and range of products. As the steel industry grew so it needed more workers. The pay was good and people travelled from all over Britain to South Yorkshire.

During the early years of World War One, Britain was desperately short of steel for artillery shells. During 1915 Colonel Hanson of the 49th Division, Sheffield Gunners reported that his 18lb guns were rationed to one shell per day until 1916!

In 1915 Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions to solve the Great Shell Crisis. What Britain needed was more steel, and who better to help out than Steelos. James Peech, son of the original owner, was brought in to increase steel production. He convinced the government that a massive, new steelworks should be built right here at Templeborough, owned and operated by Jim’s very own company Steel, Peech and Tozer.

By the end of the First World War Steelos had become the largest steelworks in Europe casting billets from 11 huge open hearth furnaces.

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