Webster & Horsfall Limited

Collection of documents, photographs, maps, plans and drawings spanning the 300 year history Webster & Horsfall, manufacturers of steel wire.

Inventors of “Homogenous Steel Piano Wire” “Patent Steel Wire” and through its sister company, Latch & Batchelor Limited, “Locked Coil Steel Ropes.” The company manufactured all the wire for the first successful Trans Atlantic Telegraph Cable in 1866. Its innovations made possible the internal combustion engine, and deep cast mining.

The archive covers all activities of the company. It contains extensive records of personnel and the locations around the city of Birmingham where it has operated. Much of the material is lodged in the Wolfson Centre at the Library of Birmingham consisting of nearly 300 boxes. More material is available and undergoing cataloguing at its present location in Hay Mills, Birmingham 25.