Consett Iron Company

In 1840 a group of local businessmen led by Jonathan Richardson set up the first of several iron companies in Consett (County Durham), the Derwent Iron Company, to quarry and smelt ironstone around the town. The best local ironstone (with the highest iron content) was exhausted soon after, so the company arranged for extensions to the local railways, such as the Stockton and Darlington Railway. These allowed it to access new sources of ironstone, including, from 1851 onwards, ore from the Cleveland Ironstone Formation near Eston, Cleveland.

By 1857, Consett Iron Company owed the failed Northumberland and Durham District Bank almost a million pounds. It was put up for sale, but an attempted sale to the newly formed Derwent and Consett Iron Company fell through. On 4 April 1864, after operating for several years under the threat of bankruptcy, a new Consett Iron Company Ltd was formed with capital of £400,000. This was divided into 40,000 shares priced initially at £10 each, with Jonathan Priestman II as managing director. Two local members of parliament, Henry Fenwick and John Henderson, were among the directors. It became the owner of 18 blast furnaces. The company had the capacity to produce 80,000 tons of pig iron and 50,000 tons of finished iron per year. It also owned a thousand workers' cottages and 500 acres of land.