John Lysaght Ltd is listed in the National Archives as 'iron ore proprietors, ironmasters, steel manufacturers and constructional engineers'. The register of archives shows that Lysaght company records for the period 1904-1969 are held in the Corus regional records centre at Shotton Works, Deeside. (NRA catalogue reference NRA 35549 Lysaght). The companies engineering order book and other records for the period 1905-1966 are held in the North East Lincolnshire Archives.
(see
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=B2633 for more details)
The company was founded by John Lysaght who was born in 1832 in Ireland . (John Lysaght died in 1895.)
The Bristol local history website (
www.bristolinformation.co.uk) records that John Lysaght was born in Ireland. In 1857 he purchased a busines in Bristol and began manufacturing galvanised buckets - employing 6 men and a boy! He expanded into the production of bathtubs and the process of galvanising and corrugating steel sheeting. He later acquired a works at Netham where he expanded into structural engineering and by 1878 employed 400 men. He was clearly a very astute and ambitious businessman and began buying land and premises further afield - including an iron rolling mill in Wolverhampton and a sheet mill in Newport.
Following John's death at the age of 63 the business was continued by other members of the family, unitl it was sold on in 1918.
In 1918 John Lysaght Ltd was acquired by Henry Berry, 1st Baron of Buckland, and his brother William Berry. At that time Lysaghts owned steelworks, rolling mills, plants manufacturing galvanised sheeting and collieries. The acquisition cost £5 million pounds - a massive sum for the period - but in 1920 Lysaghts was sold on to Guest, Keen and Nettlefold (GKN) with Berry joining the board of GKN. He became chairman of GKN in 1927. (National Library of Wales - Dictionary of Welsh Biography.)
By 1938 trade directories were showing that Lysaghts had moved into the aviation sector, producing 'Constructional steelwork for the aircraft industry, hangars etc' from their Bristol works. (
www.flightglobal.com)
Searching the internet can throw up some odd references! In 1903 John Lysaght Ltd was recorded as the architect for a temporary church to seat 100 people to be built of galvanised iron and to be sited on the Weston Mill Estate in Devonport in the area of the Bridwell Road, Eliot Street and Scott Street. Planning approval was granted! (
www.plymouth.gov.uk/text/architecturalsearch)
