A Sheffield heavy-engineering firm, owned by the Ministry of Defence, that makes some of the world's largest steel castings and forgings for defence, nuclear and energy.
Sheffield Forgemasters makes very large cast and forged steel parts. On one site, River Don Works on Brightside Lane in Sheffield, it melts steel, casts and forges it, heat-treats it, machines it and tests it. Its customers are in defence, civil nuclear, offshore, power generation, renewables and the steel industry itself. Its own page says that it produced a 350-tonne casting in 2015 which it describes as the world's largest, and that it made 12 cast nodes, the biggest weighing 117 tonnes, for the Aasta Hansteen offshore platform.
The history is unusually long. The company traces its roots to 1776, when George Naylor built a crucible steel furnace in the Attercliffe area of Sheffield, and its heritage includes names such as Vickers, Thomas Firth and John Brown. Its steel went into HMS Holland 1, the Royal Navy's first submarine, in 1901, and into components for the Calder Hall nuclear power station in 1954. The present company was formed in 1983 from Johnson and Firth Brown and British Steel's River Don Works. The Ministry of Defence acquired it in 2021.
In its own words the company sees its role as supporting the UK's national infrastructure through specialist engineering and manufacturing, and describes its legacy as craftsmanship, innovation and resilience. Chief executive Gary Nutter has called the company privileged custodians of a nationally important chapter of social and industrial history. In 2026 the company is marking 250 years, with events for staff, former staff and the local community.
Sheffield Forgemasters is a one-site UK business, and Sheffield is where the work happens. The company's own page says planning permission was secured in 2022 for a 13,000-tonne forging line, and describes a new machining hall with 24 machines under construction in 2026. The company says its investment programme is intended to strengthen the UK defence supply chain and create civil nuclear manufacturing roles. One page quotes a figure of over £400m and another £1.3bn, so we do not rely on either.
Jobs at a company like this cover the whole chain: melt shop and foundry operators, forge crews, heat treatment specialists, machinists, metallurgists, design and process engineers, testing and inspection staff, project managers, health and safety teams and office functions such as finance and HR. If you like physics, maths, design technology or history, this is a place where very old craft skills and modern machines meet.
Website: www.sheffieldforgemasters.com
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