Losh, Wilson and Bell
Losh, Wilson and Bell, later Bells, Goodman, then Bells, Lightfoot and finally Bell Brothers, was a leading Northeast England manufacturing company, founded in 1809 by the partners William Losh, Thomas Wilson, and Thomas Bell.
Watercolour painting by John Bell of the Bell Ironworks under construction at Port Clarence, c. 1853 | |
| Company type | Manufacturing company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1809 |
| Founder | William Losh, Thomas Wilson, Thomas Bell |
| Defunct | 1923 merged |
| Successor | Dorman Long |
| Headquarters | , England |
Key people | Lowthian Bell |
| Products | Iron, Soda |
The firm was founded at Newcastle-upon-Tyne with an ironworks and an alkali works nearby at Walker. The alkali works were the first in England to make soda using the Leblanc process; the ironworks was the first to use Cleveland Ironstone, presaging the 1850s boom in ironmaking on Teesside.
The so-called discoverer of Cleveland Ironstone, the mining engineer John Vaughan, ran a rolling mill for the company before leaving to found the major rival firm Bolckow Vaughan. The other key figure in the company was Lowthian Bell, son of Thomas Bell; he became perhaps the best known ironmaster in England.
As Bell Brothers, the firm continued until 1931, when it was taken over by rival Dorman Long.