Noah Hingley started making cable chain for ships at
Cradley in the
Black Country in 1820 after receiving an order from a Liverpool shipowner. Anchor production commenced in 1848. In 1850 it was stated that "Messrs. Noah Hingley & Sons are extensively engaged in the manufacturing of anchors, anvils, and chain and chain cables" at Cradley. Around 1852 the firm acquired an additional site near the village of
Netherton where a large scale chain and anchor works was created on the banks of the
Dudley No. 2 canal. The firm subsequently acquired coal mines such as at Old Hill, Dudley Wood and Coombs Hill and blast furnaces including: the Netherton Ironworks, The Harts Hill Iron Works and the Old Hill Furnaces. The firm was stated to have been in the process of making a chain cable for the , with even more substantial links. In 1863, the firm had 4 blast furnaces in the Dudley District. After Noah Hingley's death, the firm was run by his son
Benjamin Hingley (1830–1905) before passing to Benjamin's nephew
George Benjamin Hingley (1850–1918). The writer William Curzon gave a detailed description of the company's works in the early 1880s. He stated that the company had the facilities to produce over 36,000 tons of
pig iron per year as well as 60,000 tons of finished bar iron and 10,000 tons of anchors and chain per annum. The firm was reported as employing around 3,000 people in 1885. In 1890, the family firm N. Hingley and Sons became incorporated, becoming a limited company trading as N. Hingley and Sons Limited. The firm entered into an agreement in 1891 to become the sole manufacturer of the
Hall's patent anchor. At the end of 1907, the firm took the first step towards loosening family ownership when George Frederick Simms (who owned the chainmaker George Hartshorn & Co was brought into the business. In the following month Cyril Edward Lloyd entered the firm as a director. It was claimed that the anchor was the biggest ever produced, weighing 15 tons cwt, with length 19 ft and width 10 ft. In 1911, the company manufactured the anchors and chain for the ocean liner . The largest of the anchors weighed 15.5 tons and on completion was drawn through the streets of Netherton on a wagon drawn by 20 shire horses. The chain and fittings for the anchors weighed around 100 tons. In 1918, control of the firm moved away from the Hingley family, when
Cyril Lloyd became chairman of the board. Lloyd served as chairman until 1958. On 31 December 1960, Cyril Lloyd stepped down from the Board of the company after 53 years of service. The company was bought out by F. H. Lloyd & Co. in 1966. In 1967, it was stated that N. Hingley & Sons (Netherton) Ltd was making components for the Bristol Siddeley
Olympus 593 engine, which was intended to power the supersonic passenger aircraft, Concorde. The Netherton works continued in production for around 20 more years. However, after a number of company reorganisations, take overs and sell-offs, the Netherton part of the business, then called Wright Hingley, finally closed in 1986 and was demolished three years later. The site was then redeveloped as an industrial estate called the Washington Centre. ==See also==