The steel industry

Crewe was home to a plant which used the revolutionary Bessemer process for manufacturing steel.

The Bessemer process, named after Sir Henry Bessemer who patented the process in 1856, meant that steel could be mass-produced quickly and easily in a reliable fashion.

This led to a large volume of inexpensive steel being produced which revolutionised building construction and allowed iron to be replaced, in many cases, by the new steel process including the use of steel for railway rails.

Though Bessemer's achievements were reproduced by others and later superseded by more efficient methods, this remains an important part of the revolutionary process in Britain's industries of the 18th Century.