CHAPTER XXI 
BIRMINGHAM AND THE WEST MIDLANDS 
Or all the limited companies originating from, and 
connected with, the South Staffordshire and Birmingham 
district, the firm of Guest Keen &. Nettlefolds is the 
largest. Its name is the result of the amalgamation in 
1902 of two old businesses, each of which had previously 
absorbed other smaller firms trading on similar lines. The 
first firm was Guest Keen & Co. It was registered in 
1900 on the amalgamation of Guest & Co. with the Patent 
Nut & Bolt Co., and carried on a large business in pig 
iron, heavy steel materials, ship and boiler plates, steel 
rails and bolts and nuts, having besides considerable 
colliery interests. At the Dowlais Ironworks of the 
Guest firm in the year 1865 the first Bessemer acid steel 
rails were rolled in this country, but some of the Welsh 
works under its control date back to 1758 and 1800. 
The other firm was Nettlefolds, which has passed through 
many phases. Founded in 1854, it became Nettlefolds 
& Chamberlain, absorbing during the period to 1874 
many smaller firms. In 1874 it became Nettlefolds, Ltd., 
and it is interesting as being the business with which the 
Chamberlain family, which has produced so many states- 
men, has been long connected. 
More recently the united firm has secured controlling 
interests in John Lysaght of Bristol, Joseph Sankey & Sons 
of Bilston, Bayliss Jones & Bayliss of Wolverhampton, 
and four firms at Darlaston making bolts and nuts, besides 
other local industries. In South Wales the Meiros Col- 
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