Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow (1806-1878) was born in the town of Sülte, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, near Schwerin in northern present-day Germany. While apprenticed in the city of Rostock, Bolckow met chemical manufacturer Christian Allhusen (1806-1890). After Allhusen moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to work with his brother, he invited Bolckow to join them in 1827 where they worked as corn and general commission merchants.

Bolckow quickly amassed a small fortune in assets, and was naturalized as a British citizen by an act of Parliament in 1841. Around this time, Bolckow was persuaded to invest in the iron trade by John Vaughan, iron master of the Walkergate works, and the pair set up their first foundry at Vulcan Street in Middlesbrough, followed by the Witton Park Ironworks in 1846.

In 1850, Vaughan and geologist John Marley discovered the iron ore seams at Easton in the Cleveland Hills, leading to a boom in mining, the building of a railway to transport the ore to Middlesbrough, and the rapid expansion of Vaughan and Bolckow's operations in mines, quarries, brickworks, gasworks, and machine works. The pair's firm was formed into a limited liability company in 1864 with capital of £2,500,000 and Bolckow as the first chairman. With the rise in the importance of Middlesbrough as an iron producing center, and the boom in population, the town received a charter of incorporation in 1853, with Bolckow named the first mayor of the new municipal corporation. He was later elected as the town's first member of parliament when they were granted parliamentary representation in 1867.