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Stanton: Staff Handbook
In addition to publishing The Stanton News, an in-house magazine for employees, Stanton
also gave each new recruit a hardback book called "The Iron Dale" detailing the company, history and its products. The
covering letter, and the section mentioning street lighting is given below:
...lining applied by centrifugal force, which expels the water and forms the lining in a few minutes.
In this new field of concrete, research has been ceaseless. One of its early results was
the decision, in 1937, to apply the spinning process ot the making of lighting columns. A new plant was
built and Stanton became the first people in the world to produce spun concrete lighting
columns. Street lighting in many parts of the world today is the better for that 1937 decision.
The spinning shop, storage hoppers and elevators of the prestressed concrete pressure pipe plant
The concrete plant, like the rest of Stanton, 'went to war' in 1939. It built thousands
of pre-cast concrete air-raid shelters, and many other things. But one product in particular, occasioned by
war, staryed on to play an important part in world transport in time of peace. During the war the lack of
timber for railway sleeers became serious. Stanton examined the possibility of making
concrete sleepers. They were a great success and well over a million were made. It is not an exaggeration
to say that but for those concrete sleepers many of hte specially built war munitions factories could not
have operated. The war over, the concrete sleeper stayed. Though they are more costly than timber sleepers,
their life is five tiems as long and they are still today among the products of Stanton.
Prestressed concrete pressure pipes in one of the works stockgrounds
From concrete to spun concrete to prestressed spun concrete; that has been the steady pattern of progress.
And always these progressive steps have been backed by searching experiment. Tests and experiments were carried
out for a long time on the use of prestressed concrete before the company began making spun concrete lighting
columns by prestressed methods. One more 'first in the world' was chalked up to Stanton. These
lighting columns, capable of carrying the same load as a normal reinforced column, contain only about
half the quantity of steel.
It soon became apparent that, in addition to the normal centrifugally spun concrete pipe, there
was a need by industry generally for an alternative type of pipe - particularly in the larger
diameters - for the conveyance of water at high pressure. Prestressed concrete pipes were the
answer. A completley new self-contained plant, the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom,
was put down specifically for their manufacture. One again Stanton had met with
outstanding success [meeting] another of industry's needs. These pressure pipes made an immediate
appeal to British engineers and they have been installed by many of the country's Water Boards.
Although they were developed initially for high pressure water supply, they have proved suitable
for other purposes, including the conveying of gas.
Behind all this production, whether it is iron or concrete, are two groups who might perhaps
forgive the label of 'backroom boys'. In the general sense there is no end-product to their
highly skilled work; but end-products would not be possible without them. Firstly there is the
Engineering Department - the team of designers, draughtsmen, civil, mechanical, electrical and
fuel engineers and all manner of technicians who have an all-the-year-around double-barrelled
job on their hands. They are the men who keep the whole of the plant at
Stanton working; they are also the men responsible for the installation of new
plant, one of their biggest jobs being the design and installation of the Ore Preparation Plant
which started in 1956 and was completed in 1959. Their Wagon repair shops and road vehicle servicing
workshops keep this endless chain moving. Considerable additional tonnage is handled by outside
road service vehicles for which Stanton has hring arrangements. The department,
through its Liverpool office, also controls and arranges shipping through...
Many thanks to Duncan Maguire for the scans.
A typical street at Kirk Hallam where, on the company's estate, houses have been built for those who work at nearby Stanton
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