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World War One created a huge demand for steel which was good news for companies in South Yorkshire.

Steel, Peech and Tozer’s site at Ickles was proving too small to handle production.
The new Melting Shop and Rolling Mills were built over the site of the old Roman fort at Templeborough.

The Templeborough Melting Shop, when opened, was the largest melting shop of its type in Europe and contained 14 open hearth furnaces where steel scrap was melted down. It was considered so important the site was chosen for one of a series of paintings commissioned by the British War Memorial Committee in 1918.

The painting is now in the Imperial War Museum’s collection entitled ‘A Two Year Old Steel Works, 1918: Erected during the War for Messrs. Steel, Peech and Tozer Ltd, Phoenix Works, Sheffield’.

Location: Phoenix Works, Rotherham S60 1DX
Image: Painting of Steel, Peech and Tozer Ltd, courtesy of IWM
Presented by Kate Linderholm