Pascoe Grenfell and Sons
Copper smelters, of London and Swansea.
Pascoe Grenfell (1761 - 1838) acted as agent for the copper magnate Thomas Williams on a sales trip to France. He went on to become a shareholder in Williams' business
By the late 1780s, Grenfell was running Williams' new London office.
1794 Grenfell went into partnership with Owen Williams (son of Thomas), buying Cornish ores for the Williams' Middle and Upper Bank smelting works in Swansea.
1802 Following the death of Thomas Williams, Pascoe Grenfell and Owen Williams took over the Swansea works.
1814 Williams and Grenfell bought out the Greenfield manufacturing operation.
1828 Lease to Owen Williams of Temple House, Bisham, Berks, of building, furnaces and smelting houses called the Upper Bank Copper Works, in the occupation of Owen Williams, Pascoe Grenfell, Thomas Peers Williams and Charles Pascoe Grenfell, near River Tawe in Llansamlet, with refining and smelting rights, right to erect buildings and furnaces, right to lay down building materials and slag heaps, and railways and tramways, use of canals[1].
1828 Lease to Pascoe Grenfell and Charles Pascoe Grenfell of Upper Thames Street, London, merchants (co-partners in Pascoe Grenfell and Co.) of furnaces and buildings called the Middle Bank Copper works near River Tawe, in occupation of Owen Williams, Pascoe and Charles Pascoe Grenfell, Thomas Peers Williams in Llansamlet.
1829 Owen Williams withdrew from the business; as a result the family firm of Pascoe Grenfell and Sons was formed to continue the Middle and Upper Bank Copper Works in the Lower Swansea Valley; at their height these works employed 800 men.
They ran a line of ships between Swansea and their Flintshire works on the River Dee.
In 1837 George Frederick Muntz became a partner with Pascoe Grenfell and Sons; production of Muntz Metal transferred from Water Street, Birmingham[2].
c.1837 Muntz’s Patent Metal Company formed by the partnership of Pascoe Grenfell and Sons with George Frederick Muntz[3]. The price of Muntz Metal was set to undercut the price of copper for lining the hulls of ships.
1842 Production of Muntz Metal transferred to French Wall's near Birmingham[4].
1890 Became a limited company; the Grenfell family still held a substantial interest in the company.
1892 The Swansea works were sold to the neighbouring firm of Williams, Foster and Co in 1892.
1924 British Copper Manufacturers was formed by the amalgamation of the major copper smelting firms in Swansea, Vivian and Sons and Williams, Foster and Co and Pascoe Grenfell and Sons.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of the Grenfell Family, ODNB [5]