Description:Shelton Bar, or Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company, was begun in the 1830s by the 4th Earl of Granville and William Roden MP.
It was a roughly 400 acre site that, at its peak, employed 10,000 people, had five coalmines and a complete railway system that ran all the way between Hanley and Middleport.
Over the course of its life, Shelton Bar was developed from an ironworks and colliery to a steelworks then a cast production mill and finally into a supplies depot. It was targeted by German bombs during World War Two, nationalised then privatised and renationalised again during the 1950s and 60s and pioneered several revolutions in steelworks and rail making. The most significant contribution was the production of a 'T' section of guide rail used in railway lines. The guide rail was produced as an 'H' shape and snapped in half to make a 'T' shape, doubling their output.
Iron and steel stopped in 1978. Part of the site was used for the National Garden Festival Site for Stoke-on-Trent in 1986. The workforce continued to roll steel blooms until it was fully closed in June 2000 and the remaining buildings were torn down in 2005.