GKN has come a very long way from the Dowlais Iron Co., formed on 19 September 1759 in Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The venture was capitalised at £4,000. Eight years later, John Guest became works manager and the Guests’ involvement in the business began.

Under John Guest and his grandson, Josiah John, Dowlais rose to pre-eminence in Britain’s booming iron industry. Josiah John – later Sir John Guest – formed close relationships with the great Victorian engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, creator of the Great Western Railway. Soon, Dowlais was supplying iron rails to rail companies throughout Britain, and exporting rails to America, mainland Europe and Russia.

By the 1840s, Dowlais had more than 7,300 employees manning 18 blast furnaces producing almost 90,000 tons of iron a year. But even as Dowlais prospered, a giant shadow loomed over the company. Dowlais’s founding fathers had leased the site for a period of 99 years. The lease was due to expire on 1 May 1848 and Lord Bute, who had inherited ownership of the land, was determined that Guest should have to pay a heavy price for continuing his business.

So severe were the terms demanded by Bute for renewal of the lease that Guest and his wife, Lady Charlotte, judged that they would make the company unviable. The Guests resigned themselves to losing the business. They began the agonising process of running down the works.

And then Bute died suddenly at his home in Cardiff Castle. The trustees who took over administration of his affairs entered new talks with Guest. On 21 April 1848, 10 days before the lease expired, a new lease was agreed. Dowlais was saved. GKN and its antecedent companies have endured their share of crises, but never in its long history has the company come closer to extinction than in those dramatic weeks and days.

Guest rebuilt Dowlais, but died in 1852 before he could capitalise on its new foundations. At this crucial stage in the revival of the business, Lady Charlotte took the reins and led the business through three critical years.

< Introduction 1852-1902 >