John Corbett (industrialist)

John Corbett sold his share of the family canal business and, in 1853, purchased disused salt workings in Stoke Prior from the British Alkali Company.

Corbett brought all the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to mechanise and commercialise the business, soon making his salt workings the largest in Europe and built a great fortune.

Corbett did not use his fortune only for himself: he chose to reinvest profits into his business, innovating, improving his workforce's working conditions, raising wages.

In December 1891, Corbett bought a rundown house near his birthplace, The Hill in Amblecote, which he repaired and refurbished, changing its use into a hospital, endowed it to the local people on 31 July 1893 as Corbett Hospital, with a sum of £2,000 for endowment (increased by public subscription to £5,000) and two sums of £500 towards the repairs fund and furnishing.

[4] He spent much of the proceeds in philanthropic work in and around Droitwich Spa, buying St. Andrew's House and turning it into the Raven Hotel.

John Corbett is remembered with an inscription on the front of the Literary Institute in Aberdyfi , Gwynedd
Stoke Prior, Worcestershire: Graves of Thomas and John Corbett in the churchyard of St Michael's Church