A HISTORY OF ECCLESFIELD PARISH - Page 5

Compiled by Joan & Mel Jones of Chapeltown & High Green Archive

By-products of the making of coke for the blast furnaces at Thorncliffe were gases, tars and oils. By the beginning of the 1890s a germicidal disinfectant had been developed from the oils and in 1893 this was patented as Izal. The product was soon available not only in liquid form, but also as powder, soap, cream and ointment. This famous disinfectant was said, in its early years, to be effective in combating cholera, typhoid fever, chicken pox, whooping cough and as a cure for worms, malaria, perspiring feet and baldness! To this was also added the famous Izal medicated toilet paper. The Chemicals Division eventually became the most profitable part of the firm.

Newton Chambers was taken over by Central & Sheerwood in 1973, subsequently completely re-organised and the most valuable parts sold off. The site of the Thorncliffe Works is now a modern industrial estate, the Izal factory site is a housing estate and the collieries and coke ovens in the surrounding countryside have completely disappeared.
The tradition and expertise assembled in the area during the rise of Newton Chambers into an industrial giant must have been responsible to some degree for the creation of other small foundry, steel and engineering enterprises in the area, for example on Ecclesfield Common where Green’s Foundry (later Moorwood Vulcan) was located; Nether Lane, Ecclesfield, the site of the Hall & Pickles ‘Hydra Works’; Charlton Brrok, the home of Charlton Ironworks; and Chapeltown, the location of Greenside Founry and Parramore’s Foundry.

The history of the parish is well documented in a series of publications by Chapeltown & High Green Archive. For further details of publications and events please see their website on www.chgarchives.co.uk

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