About GKN
GKN plc is a British engineering company, formerly one of the world's largest manufacturers of fasteners. The group was formerly known as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds and can tracing its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the industrial revolution. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
Foundations: 1759 to 1899
The origins of GKN lie in the founding of the Dowlais Ironworks in the village of Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales by landowner Wyndham William Lewis. John Guest was appointed manager of the works in 1767. He discovered coal on Lewis's property and used it to replace charcoal for smelting. He became a partner in the business in 1782 with Lewis and salesman William Taitt who later became his son-in-law.
Thomas Guest succeeded his father in 1787. Though there have been claims of steam power at Dowlais as early as 1753, it is more likely that it was Thomas who introduced steam for blowing the furnaces with a Watt steam engine in 1795.
By the time John's grandson, John Josiah Guest became sole owner in 1815, the company was the largest iron and steel producer in the world, becoming the first organisation to license the Bessemer process for steel production. The first Bessemer steel was rolled at the works in 1865. John Josiah Guest was assisted in the management of the Dowlais Works by his wife Lady Charlotte Guest. On John Josiah Guest's death, the works was administered by his trustees, G. T. Clark and Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare. After the death of the former in 1898, John Josiah's son, Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne, became active but was distracted by other interests and responded to an approach in 1899 from Arthur Keen.
