Please excuse the shitty phone pics.......
Osier Bed works site was acquired by the Wolverhampton Steel and Iron Company. In 1935 Welsh industrialist Alfred Kieft and his son Cyril purchased the factory. They also owned Monmore Green Rolling Mills Limited in Wolverhampton, Haybridge Steel in Wellington, and the Shropshire Iron and Steel Company Limited. In 1946 the four companies were combined under the name of the Wolverhampton Steel and Iron Company (1946) Limited. Cyril Kieft became Managing Director but sold his interests in the company before the end of the year because he feared that he would become a civil servant when the industry was nationalised.
Nationalisation took place in 1949 with the formation of the British Iron and Steel Corporation. At the time the Wolverhampton Steel and Iron Company produced 1,000 tons of steel each week and had 2 rolling mills, a test house, and a laboratory. Products included steel bars for bright drawing, machining and forging.
In more recent years the Osier Bed factory became British Steel Tubes Division, Wolverhampton. The recession in the steel industry in the 1990s and the lack of demand for small seamless tubes resulted in 520 job losses in September 1995.
In October 1999 British Steel changed its name to Corus after being taken over by an Indian company.
The Wolverhampton factory became Corus Engineering Steels’ Midland Service Centre.
A final blow came in January 2009 when it was announced that Corus would close the Horseley Fields factory, which now has an uncertain future. This is a sad end to one of the area’s longest surviving steelworks.
The former British Steel site was a regional distribution and stockholding centre, which following the collapse of British Steel, has stood vacant and redundant. The site at Horseley Fields last employed 30 people.
The now vacant nine-acre brownfield site is , next to the Wyrley and Essington canal basin, and will form part of the Canalside Quarter, made up of new homes, public spaces and offices.
Canalside's first phase has seen council-owned land at Horseley Fields made ready for development, while the building of around 350 homes on the historic Union Mill site is expected to start in 2021.
Really enjoyed your photos
