John Brown

Who was John Brown?

Sir John Brown, British industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade.

Brown was the son of a Fargate slater and was educated in the Portobello area of Sheffield at Robert Thompson's School. While there he met Mary Schofield, a daughter of a local auctioneer who was a year older than he was and whom he would later marry. He finished his studies at Mr. Wilkinson's School in Broomhall. Upon leaving school at 14 years old his father wanted him to become a linen draper, Brown however wanted to enter the emerging Sheffield steel industry and accepted an apprenticeship at Earl, Horton & Co earning six shillings a week. In 1837 Brown was offered a share in the firm by the senior partner Mr. Earl but was unable to accept it because of lack of finances. Nonetheless he did take over the company's factoring business with the help of a loan for £500 thanks to the backing of his father and uncle and for several years travelled the country selling goods.

He started his own company John Brown & company in 1844 manufacturing Steel at a small foundry on a site at what is the now Orchard Square Shopping centre. The business prospered so well that he sold his factoring firm and moved to larger premises on Furnival Street. In 1848 Brown invented the conical steel spring buffer for railway carriages which he sold to the London and North Western Railway as well as other railways throughout the UK. On 1 January 1856 Brown opened his new Atlas Works in Brightside in an effort to centralise his workshops and workforce in one place, the works originally were on a 3-acre site but within three years had grown to 30 acres. By 1859 Brown was producing rails for the quickly expanding railway industry using the Bessemer process.