Staveley Coal and Iron Company

During the First World War the company began producing sulphuric, nitric and picric acids, TNT and guncotton.

After the war the company developed a range of chlorinated organics, purchasing salt-bearing land near Sandbach, Cheshire.

In 1967, Stewarts and Lloyds became part of the nationalised British Steel Corporation, Stanton and Staveley were also incorporated.

By 1980, BSC sold off sections of the site as they divested themselves of non-core activities and by 2007 most of the former works at Staveley has been shut down and cleared.

Eric Varley, a former Chesterfield Labour MP and cabinet minister, was an apprentice with the company after leaving school before becoming a trade union official and, much later, Chairman of another local firm Coalite.