Hollow Sword Blade Co

Notes:

Established at Shotley Bridge by a group of merchants in c1688 to erect a mill and use Huguenot craftsmen to make blades for swords. 1691 incorporated by charter as a joint stock company when led by Sir Stephen Evance, London merchant, and Sir Francis Child, London goldsmith banker. In return for the charter the Company made a £50,000 loan to the government. Around 1703 control of the Company passed to another group of London financiers who focused on financial services and leased the Works to German sword manufacturers - 'swapping its own shares for public debt and, in turn, cashing this in with the government for Irish estates confiscated from Jacobite sympathisers'. Backed by its new assets the Company made several attempts to launch itself as a bank in competition with the Bank of England only to be thwarted by the Bank's political influences Subsequently became a financial vehicle with interests in banking, landownership in Ireland and involvement with the South Sea Co. Shotley Works passed into control of Herman Mohll (later Mole) trading as Herman Mohll & Son and were acquired by Wilkinson Sword in 1920s