Guide to the Miscellaneous Collections held by the Doncaster Archives Department (as filmed by the AJCP)
M2980-M2982
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Doncaster Archives Department
- Title
- Collections held by the Doncaster Archives Department (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1821 - 1971
- Collection Number
- M2980-M2982
- Extent
- 24 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Records 1842-1968 of Bridon Plc, formerly British Ropes Ltd, including history of the company, financial records and photographic albums, with references to branches in Australia and New Zealand.
Records 1872-1876 of solicitors Somerville and Baxter, including annual report and accounts of Bank of South Australia.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
For Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Material selectively filmed at the Doncaster Archives Department, England, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1993 (AJCP Reels: M2980-M2982). Original microfilm digitised as part of the AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Doncaster Archives Department, King Edward Road, Balby, Doncaster,England
For more information see Doncaster Archives Department catalogue (http://www.calmview.eu/Doncaster/CalmView/Default.aspx?).
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1720124] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding Aid Note
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Pieces that were not filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project have not been included in this Finding Aid.
Subjects
Australia; Bank of South Australia; Bridon PLC (British Ropes Ltd); British Ropes Ltd; Business records; New Zealand; Photographs; Solicitors; Somerville and Baxter, solicitors
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 140, p. 151
Item Descriptions
Fonds DD/CL. Clark Family of Doncaster, 1881
1 itemArchival History
Originally filmed on AJCP reel M2980.
Fonds DD/DC. Davies-Cooke of Owston, 1821
1 itemArchival History
Originally filmed on AJCP reel M2980.
Biographical / Historical
The Cooke Family owned the Owston estate and Owston Hall in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1698 to 1980. In 1829 Philip Davies-Cooke (1793-1853) married Lady Helena King, the daughter of George King (1771-1839), 3rd Earl of Kingston in the Irish peerage. He built Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork, the largest Gothic house in Ireland.
Fonds DX/BAX. Sommerville and Baxter, 1872 - 1876
2 itemsGeneral
Originally filmed on AJCP reel M2980.
Fonds DY/BRI. Bridon PLC, 1887 - 1971
8 itemsPapers of British Ropes Ltd and companies acquired.
Filmed selectively.
Archival History
Originally filmed on AJCP reels M2980-M2982.
Biographical / Historical
British Ropes Ltd was founded in 1924 as a result of a merger of eight companies. It took over many other steel wire and rope companies in subsequent years. Its name was changed to Bridon Ltd in 1974.
Series 1. Bridon PLC, 1950 - 1968
2 itemsSeries 7. William Cooke Co Ltd, 1961
1 itemBiographical / Historical
William Cooke & Company was established at Tinsley, Sheffield, in 1873. It produced steel, iron, wire rope and horse shoes, as well as channel steel for rubber tyres. British Ropes Ltd acquired an interest in the company in 1948 and took over the remainder in 1954.
Series 18. Gourock Ropework Co, 1934 - 1971
3 itemsRelated Materials
For other material on the company in Australia and New Zealand see M2638-M2639 Records of Gourock Ropework & Company (https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2589537).
Biographical / Historical
The Gourock Rope Company was founded in 1777 and merged with the Port Glasgow Rope and Duct Company in 1797. It manufactured ropes, canvas and sailcloth. Henry Birkmyre (1762-1844) became a partner in the firm in 1814 and his son William Byrkmire (1802-1862) and grandsons Henry Byrkmire (1832-1900) and John Byrkmire (1834-1910) controlled the company for the next century. In 1903 the firm was incorporated as Gourock Ropes Company Ltd following an amalgamation with New Lanark Mills, which had been founded by David Dale and Richard Arkwright in 1784. By 1954 it had a large overseas operation, with subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, Canada and Argentina. The company became part of British Ropes Ltd in 1970. The Port Glasgow works closed in 1974.
Series 28. Thomas and William Smith, 1887 - 1926
2 itemsBiographical / Historical
The ropemaking business of William Smith & Company was founded by in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1782. In 1810 Thomas Smith and his sons Thomas Smith (c. 1784-1856) and William Smith (1787-1860) expanded the company by starting a shipbuilding business in Newcastle. It moved to North Shields in 1851. It eventually became Smith's Dock Company, one of the largest ship repairing businesses in the world. Thomas and William Smith became part of British Ropes Ltd in 1924.
Fonds DZMD. Miscellaneous Deposits, 1842
1 itemArchival History
Originally filmed on AJCP reel M2982.
Letter from Miss Bella Ashkam of Melbourne, Australia, c. 29 May 1842 (File 364)
Anna Bella Ashkam (Brighton) to her sister Elizabeth Askham (Doncaster) re life in Melbourne; weather; furnishing the house; "the servants have what is called damper... the old prisoners made the best"; convicts are better servants than emigrants. (4p., crossed, faint.)
Fonds NF1. Society of friends, Doncaster, 1832
2 itemsArchival History
Originally filmed on AJCP reel M2982.
Biographical / Historical
Daniel Wheeler (1771-1840) was accepted as a Quaker minister in 1816. In 1832-35 he undertook 'a voyage of concern' to the Pacific Islands, New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.
Thomas Backhouse (1792-1845), the son of the banker James Backhouse, managed a nursery in York from 1815 onwards. His brother James Backhouse (1794-1869), together with George Washington Walker, visited Australia from 1832 to 1838, visiting Quakers and investigating convict establishments.