Turner Brothers Asbestos Co was established in 1879 when an existing company, Turner Brothers, founded in 1871, added asbestos fibres to its cotton cloth. The original company manufactured cotton-cloth-based mechanical packaging, used to prevent leakage of fluid, such as water or steam, between sliding or turning parts of machine elements. The change to woven asbestos cloth added heat protection properties to their products.

Turner Brothers Asbestos Co was the first company to produce woven asbestos cloth in the UK, following an agreement with John Bell, founder of the United Asbestos Co, who brought crysotile asbestos from Canada and asked Turner Brothers to supply him with woven asbestos.

By 1887, the company manufactured asbestos yarn, cordage, and cloth and supplied mechanical packaging for locomotive, stationary and marine engines, jointing material for steam and hydraulic purposes, compound cement for steam and water joints, a non-conducting asbestos composition for covering boilers and steam-pipes, as well as asbestos belting and the Woven Seamless Hose for fire brigades.

The company incorporated in 1899, changing its name to Turner Brothers Asbestos Co Ltd.

In 1913, the business opened an asbestos cement plant at Trafford Park, Manchester, where it manufactured Trafford Tile asbestos cement sheets. This became a major product for the company, with the sheets widely used for roof and wall construction in industrial and agricultural buildings.

In 1920, the company was registered as a private company shortly before joining four other businesses in a merger that formed Turner and Newall plc.