The foundation of the Hall-Mark company dates back to 1767 when the Halls, a wealthy ship-owning family from Hull, first became involved in rope making in Barton. The town already had a workforce of skilled dressers, spinners and rope makers. In 1800, the Hall family bought the site to establish a permanent rope works in Barton.
The whaling and fishing fleets of Hull and the shipbuilding yards provided a rich and diverse market for Hall’s products, including ropes, sailcloth, twine and tarpaulins. Imported hemps, flax and other fibres from around the world rapidly replaced local materials. By 1851, the factory was powered by steam and lit by gas.

The company expanded further and overcame difficulties such as the flooding of the works in 1868. The economic depression of the 1880s nearly closed the works. As part of efforts to save it, wire rope production began in the 1890s at a separate site in Beverley.

The works were extended in the early twentieth century, in time to meet the war-time demands between 1914 and 1918. There was a greater involvement of women workers at the factory to meet these demands.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company’s export trade was vigorously pursued with “Hall-Mark” ropes being supplied around the world. The company was steered through a fall-off in demand and the National Strike in 1926, resisting the pressure to amalgamate with other firms. During the Second World War production again shifted to supplying the military and essential industries at home.

With the advance of new technology in plastics in the 1950s, the works began producing ropes from synthetic fibres. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the Barton Works continued to make both synthetic and natural fibre ropes.

Despite its successes, the company was faced with growing competition from larger firms. In 1986, Hall’s Barton Ropery was bought by Bridport Gundry who continued making rope here for the following three years. The site was sold to Bridon plc who soon announced immediate closure of the site in 1989. Plant and equipment were stripped out, and two hundred years of rope making in Barton came to an end.