Registered Office trade mark plaque for Whitecross wire works, part of Warrington's historic wire-making industry.

. Historic Registered Office and Trade Mark plaque associated with Whitecross, one of the major wire-manufacturing companies that helped make Warrington internationally known for wire production. The dark metal sign carries the Whitecross name and cross emblem in a restrained corporate style, surviving as a tangible reminder of an industry that once dominated large parts of the town. Frederick Monks, a former Rylands Brothers apprentice, founded Monks of Whitecross in 1864, and the enterprise later developed into the Whitecross Wire and Iron Company and then the Whitecross Company. The works expanded around Milner Street and Froghall Lane, producing iron and steel wire, wire rope, wire netting, barbed wire and nails for domestic and export markets. By the end of the nineteenth century Whitecross occupied a large industrial site and employed many local people, reflecting Warrington's importance as a British wire-making centre. Wire from Warrington served engineering, mining, shipping, fencing and many other trades, while wartime production included materials required for military and civil purposes. In 1973 Whitecross combined with its long-standing Warrington rival Rylands Brothers to form Rylands-Whitecross as the British steel industry consolidated production and older local works contracted. The Whitecross site subsequently closed, making surviving signs, buildings, gates and company material important evidence of the scale and identity of the former business. Warrington Museum and local heritage projects continue to document the town's wire industry because it shaped employment, neighbourhoods, skills and Warrington's industrial reputation for more than a century. Warrington heritage projects continue to document the wire industry because it shaped local employment, skills and the town's industrial reputation for more than a century. The surviving plaque is a compact piece of evidence for the company's former presence in the town.