United Structural Steel Company Limited : catalogue : Scunthorpe : The United Steel Companies Ltd. : nd [ca.1955] : Marks & Spencer Ltd : Swansea store

A stylish hardback book illustrating the work of the United Steel Construction Co. Ltd., a branch of the United Steel Companies Ltd. that had been set up as an independent entity from the Constructional Department of the Appleby-Frodingham Iron & Steel Company of Scunthorpe. This had grown from its origins in 1903 and had evolved into a plant capable of fabricating, supplying and erecting steelwork for almost any branch of construction from domestic properties, through commercial buildings and up to and including complete factories, power stations and bridges. The Structural Company had a speciality in the form of the patent "Castella" beam, a form of lightweight structural unit.

 

The United Steel Companies, based in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire area, were formed in 1918 by the amalgamation of Samuel Fox and Company of Stocksbridge; Steel, Peech and Tozer of Templeborough and Ickles in Rotherham and the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company of Scunthorpe. The company were also integrated in that they owned various collieries and traded in coal and coke by-products. The company was Nationalised in 1951 but rapidly returned to private ownership in 1954.

 

The book looks at a range of building types and illustrates them with drawings and photographs showing specific projects the United Structural Steel Co. Ltd. had been involved in. It is not dated but there is what is possibly a print code dating this to 1955.

 

This page shows another post-war reconstruction of a store most likely lost in the Blitz. This is of the Marks and Spencer's branch in Swansea, South Wales and shows the framework being erected alongside the finished shop. Again this is in a very '50s architectural style but although the consulting engineer is shown, one Donovan H. Lee, and the contractors, Bovis Ltd. again, no architect is shown.

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