John Bradley & Co
Under James Foster, John Bradley's half brother, it was instrumental in bringing the first commercial steam locomotive into the Midlands area in 1829.
John Bradley founded his firm in 1800 in Stourbridge with the financial assistance of Thomas Jukes Collier,[1] a wine merchant from Wellington.
An agreement to construct a rail line to link the Shut End area to a purpose-built canal basin at Ashwood on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was signed in 1827 by James Foster and Francis Downing, the mineral agent of John William Ward, the 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward.
The Foster, Rastrick & Co business was wound up by mutual consent on 20 June 1831, its assets being absorbed into John Bradley & Co. A guide to Stourbridge and its vicinity published in 1832 gave the following description of the company: "on the left bank of the canal, occupying a space intervening between its channel and that of the Stour, being the south side of the wharf; stands the vast range of buildings denominated Stourbridge Iron Works, conducted under the firm of John Bradley and Co.
comprehends all the various parts of the iron processes with the exception of the incipient one of smelting the ore, the pigs being obtained from distant localities.
"[7] The same source reported: "every species of requisite machinery, from the potent Leviathan of the mechanic arts, to the minutest instrument, is here in full operation, and the multiform articles demanded by the artisan, are completely prepared and supplied.
Under the same firm, large works in the county of Salop and elsewhere are carried on; as also extensive collieries at Shutt-end, Kingswinford, and in the vicinity of Dudley."
[9] On 27 February 1836, Henry Bradley, John's only surviving son decided to leave the business (he had been involved in the company since 1827)[10][11] and sold his share to Foster.
The four daughters of John Bradley had already sold their own shares in the company and so James Foster became sole owner of John Bradley & Co. At this time the company was described as having premises at: Stourbridge, Eardington, Hampton's Load, Shutt End, Brettell Lane, Baptist End, Scott's Green, and Brockmoor in the counties of Worcestershire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire.
[14] The company continued to be a very large industrial concern under William, although its profits came under pressure as steel manufacturers competed with the traditional iron products of John Bradley & Co.[14] In the mid-1860s an agreement was reached between the company and the Earl of Dudley's estate to upgrade the railway track between Shut End and the Ashwood Basin and to re-align the steep incline at the canal end of the line such that it could be worked by a locomotive instead of a stationary engine.
In 1885 some of the original land leases obtained by James Foster in order to build the Kingswinford Railway were set to expire.
It was decided that the link to the Ashwood Basin was no longer necessary for Bradley's Shut End works, which were by then connected to the canal and mainline rail network.
[20] The main surviving building on the site is the New Foundry of 1821, originally built for the Foster, Rastrick and Company partnership but part of John Bradley & Co. after 1831.
