Iron Making in the Olden Times Part 6

"The Forge will make Coibus Annis 150 Tunn wch will yield genrally 16li 10s p Tunn, although now debased by the late mispending of the Stock.

"Charges to make a Tunn of Barr Iron.

"Three Load of Coales will make a Tunn of Barr Iron, whereof one may be bra.s.ses, but sett it at three Loade,

_li._ _s._ _d._ The Cutting, 02 02 00 Cording, Coaling, and Carriage will amount unto And 2650 weight 08 12 00 of Sow Iron will make one Tunn of Barr Iron, wch said 2650 weight of Sow Iron at 6li 10s p Tun amounts unto And to the 01 00 00 Workmen (viz.) Raffiners and Hammermen 11 14 00

Produce 150 2475 0 0 Tunn at 16li 10s 0d p Tun amounts p an.

to Charges at 11li 1740 0 0 14s 0d p Tun as aforesaid amounts to Remaynes cleare 735 0 0

"Other Charges to be allowed out of the yearly pfitts of the Forge.

_li._ _s._ _d._ To a Clerk p 25 0 0 Ann.

To a Stock 16 0 0 taker To a Carpinter 09 13 4 For other 20 0 0 Reprs, as Oyle, Greese, &c., Coibus Annis 64 13 4

_li._ _s._ _d._ Totall of the 5609 18 8 Furnace, deducting the Officers' Fees, &c., is Totall of the 0667 06 8 Forge, deducting the Officers' Fees, &c., p An. is 6277 5 4

So considerable a balance each year, from one furnace and a single forge, admits of comparison with the profits made by ironmasters now.

The Commissioners further report that all necessary appliances existed on the spot:--

"One excellent Furnace called the Park Furnace, and one Forge called Whitecros Forge. The later is in good repre, but the Furnace wants a Roofe to ye Cole hous, and some other Reprs, wch we compute may cost us circa 40li, and care must be taken whensoever his Maty shall take them into his own handes, that all the Implemts the late psons intrusted wth the managemt thereof had deliv'd to them by inventory or otherwise, be forthcoming, or else it will be a great prjudice to his Maty."

It was also pointed out that, besides "the greate yearely pfitt" likely to accrue to the King, should he take the Iron Works into his own hands, they were "capable to serve his Navey both wth beter Iron and at much Easier Rates then now he payes for all sorts, and wee conceive that Iron Ordinance might be cast here for ye Service of ye Navey also at ye same rates." Some of the Forest iron, in the form of iron hoops, had already found its way to the navy store at Woolwich. {46}

Even the last winter's great storm (18th of February, 1662) is made to support their counsels, for the Commissioners affirmed that--"500li, together with the young beechen timber lately blowne downe in the Lea Bayley, will sett the workes a goeing."

Lastly, the same officials suggested that a check should be put to the practice of sending iron ore and cinder out of the Forest, lest the supply to the king's works, as proposed, should run short. They suggest a tax "6d. at first, for fifteen bush.e.l.ls," adding "that they were informed that there is carryed out yearly at least 4000 dozen; and there is now lying at Newnham a small vessell to transport some for Ireland.

There must needs be a Prohibition to carry out of the Forrest any cinders, least his Maty's owne works should need them in tyme." {47a}

Reasons so carefully a.n.a.lyzed for inducing the Crown to take in hand iron making at Park End, deserved a better fate. But the king had irons enough in the fire, without becoming a manufacturer of iron in the Forest of Dean. Its timber was rather wanted for the navy, which the Duke of York longed to render more effective. Besides, places more convenient of access, in Surrey and Suss.e.x, were supplying the iron trade. Hence, when in 1683 the above-named proposal was renewed by Sir John Erule, the Forest supervisor, it was rejected, although he promised a profit of 5390 pounds per annum. {47b}

The authorities went further than this, in refusing, as they thought, to sacrifice the timber for the iron. They even directed, about this time, the demolition of the Forest furnaces, thus reducing its iron works to such a degree as almost to annihilate them for the next hundred years.

What their recent state of prosperity had been, Andrew Yarranton, in his book of novel suggestions for the "Improvement of England by Sea and Land," printed in 1677, describes as follows:--

"And first, I will begin in Monmouthshire, and go through the Forest of Dean, and there take notice what infinite quant.i.ties of raw iron is there made, with bar iron and wire; and consider the infinite number of men, horses, and carriages which are to supply these works, and also digging of ironstone, providing of cinders, carrying to the works, making it into sows and bars, cutting of wood and converting into charcoal. Consider also, in all these parts, the woods are not worth the cutting and bringing home by the owner to burn in their houses; and it is because in all these places there are pit coal very cheap. . . . If these advantages were not there, it would be little less than a howling wilderness. I believe if this comes to the hands of Sir Baynom Frogmorton and Sir Duncomb Colchester, they will be on my side. Moreover, there is yet a most great benefit to the kingdom in general by the sow iron made of the ironstone and Roman cinders in the Forest of Dean, for that metal is of a most gentle, pliable, soft nature, easily and quickly to be wrought into manufacture, over what any other iron is, and it is the best in the known world; and the greatest part of this sow iron is sent up Severne to the forges into Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Cheshire, and there it's made into bar iron: and because of its kind and gentle nature to work, it is now at Sturbridge, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Sedgley, Wasall and Burmingham, and there bent, wrought, and manufactured into all small commodities, and diffused all England over, and thereby a great trade made of it; and, when manufactured, into most parts of the world. And I can very easily make it appear, that in the Forest of Dean and thereabouts, and about the material that comes from thence, there are employed and have their subsistence therefrom no less than 60,000 persons. And certainly, if this be true, then it is certain it is better these iron works were up and in being than that there were none. And it were well if there were an Act of Parliament for enclosing all common fit or any way likely to bear wood in the Forest of Dean and six miles round the Forest; and that great quant.i.ties of timber might by the same law be there preserved, for to supply in future ages timber for shipping and building. And I dare say the Forest of Dean is, as to the iron, to be compared to the sheep's back as to the woollen; nothing being of more advantage to England than these two are. . . .

"In the Forest of Dean and thereabouts, the iron is made at this day of cinders, being the rough and offal thrown by in the Romans' time; they then having only foot blasts to melt the iron stone; but now, by the force of a great wheel that drives a pair of bellows twenty feet long, all that iron is extracted out of the cinders, which could not be forced from it by the Roman foot blast. And in the Forest of Dean and thereabouts, and as high as Worcester, there are great and infinite quant.i.ties of these cinders, some in vast mounts above ground, some underground, which will supply the iron works some hundreds of years, and these cinders are they which make the prime and best iron, and with much less charcoal than doth the ironstone. .

. . Let there be one ton of this bar-iron made of Forest iron, and 20 pounds will be given for it."

The 4th "Order" of the Mine Law Court, dated 27th April, 1680, fixes the prices at which twelve Winchester bushels of iron mine should be delivered at the following places:--St. Wonnarth's furnace, 10s.; Whitechurch, 7s.; Linton, 9s.; Bishopswood, 9s.; Longhope, 9s.; Flaxley, 8s.; Gunnsmills (if rebuilt), 7s.; Blakeney, 6s.; Lydney, 6s.; at those within the Forest (if rebuilt), the same as in 1668; Redbrooke, 4s. 6d.; the Abbey (Tintern), 9s.; Brochweare, 6s. 6d.; Redbrooke Pa.s.sage, 5s.

6d.; Gunnpill, 7s.; or ore (intended for inland) shipped on the Severn, 6s. 6d.

Most of these localities present traces of long continued iron manufacture, especially St. Wonnarth's, Whitchurch, Bishopswood, and Flaxley, where the energetic proprietress, Mrs. Boevey, is said by Sir R.

Atkyns to have had (c. A.D. 1712) "a furnace for casting of iron, and three forges." Charcoal is the only fuel of which any indications remain, the coppice woods being in several instances preserved from which it used to be obtained, and the furnaces are shown to have been invariably situated where waterpower was at command.

The prices affixed to the ore, including delivery, indicate a discontinuance, in a measure, of the mines on the north-east edge of the Forest. Those adjoining Newland and in Noxon Park, both on the opposite side of the Forest, appear to have formed the princ.i.p.al sources of supply. The records of the Court of Mine Law, belonging to this date, allude oftener to these works than to others, for the same reason.

Its "order," dated 8th December, 1685, in providing that "the one-half of the jury of 48 should be iron-miners, and the other half colliers,"

manifests considerable decay in the influence and number of the former operatives, once so much otherwise. It is remarkable that the later orders are silent as regards iron, owing to the suppression of the Forest furnaces.

With respect to the mode now in use of reducing the mine ore, there is preserved so explicit an account, from the pen of Dr. Parsons, the county antiquary and naturalist of that age, as to call for its verbatim insertion here:--

"The ore and cinder, wherewith they make their iron (which is the great employment of the poorer sort of inhabitants), 'tis dug in most parts of the Forest, one in the bowells, and the other towards the surface of the earth.

"There are two sorts of ore: the best ore is your Brush ore, of blewish colour, very ponderous, and full of shiny specks, like grains of silver; this affordeth the greatest quant.i.ty of iron, but being melted alone, produceth a metal very short and brittle. To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material, which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore, after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quant.i.ty, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts.

"After they have provided their ore, their first work is to calcine it, which is done in kilns, much after the fashion of our ordinary lime kilns; these they fill up to the top with coal and ore untill it be full, and so, putting fire to the bottom, they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew the kilnes with fresh ore and coal. This is done without any infusion of mettal, and serves to consume the more drossy part of the ore, and to make it fryable, supplying the beating and washing, which are to no other mettals; from hence they carry it to their furnaces, which are built of brick and stone, about 24 foot square on the outside, and near 30 foot in hight within, and not above 8 or 10 foot over where it is widest, which is about the middle, the top and bottom having a narrow compa.s.s, much like the form of an egg. Behind the furnace are placed two high pair of bellows, whose noses meet at a little hole near the bottom: these are compressed together by certain b.u.t.tons placed on the axis of a very large wheel, which is turned round by water, in the manner of an over-shot mill. As soon as these b.u.t.tons are slid off, the bellows are raised again by a counterpoise of weights, whereby they are made to play alternately, the one giving its blast whilst the other is rising.

"At first they fill these furnaces with ore and cinder intermixt with fuel, which in these works is always charcoal, laying them hollow at the bottom, that they may the more easily take fire; but after they are once kindled, the materials run together into an hard cake or lump, which is sustained by the furnace, and through this the mettal as it runs trickles down the receivers, which are placed at the bottom, where there is a pa.s.sage open, by which they take away the sc.u.m and dross, and let out their mettal as they see occasion.

"Before the mouth of the furnace lyeth a great bed of sand, where they make furrows of the fashion they desire to cast their iron: into these, when the receivers are full, they let in their mettal, which is made so very fluid by the violence of the fire that it not only runs to a considerable distance, but stands afterwards boiling a great while.

"After these furnaces are once at work, they keep them constantly employed for many months together, never suffering the fire to slacken night or day, but still supplying the waste of fuel and other materials with fresh, poured in at the top.

"Several attempts have been made to bring in the use of the sea coal in these works instead of charcoal; the former being to be had at an easy rate, the latter not without a great expence; but hitherto they have proved ineffectual, the workmen finding by experience that a sea-coal fire, how vehement soever, will not penetrate the most fixed parts of the ore, by which means they leave much of the mettal behind them unmelted.

"From these furnaces they bring the sows and piggs of iron, as they call them, to their forges; these are two sorts, though they stood together under the same roof; one they call their finery, and the other chafers: both of them are upon hearths, upon which they place great heaps of sea coal, and behind them bellows like those of the furnaces, but nothing near so large.

"In such finerys they first put their piggs of iron, placing three or four of them together behind the fire, with a little of one end thrust into it, where softening by degrees they stir and work them with long barrs of iron till the mettal runs together in a round ma.s.se or lump, which they call an half bloome: this they take out, and giving it a few strokes with their sledges, they carry it to a great weighty hammer, raised likewise by the motion of a water wheel, where, applying it dexterously to the blows, they presently beat it into a thick short square; this they put into the finery again, and heating it red hot, they work it under the same hammer till it comes to the shape of a bar in the middle, with two square k.n.o.bs in the ends; last of all they give it other heatings in the chaffers, and more workings under the hammer, till they have brought their iron into barrs of several shapes, in which fashion they expose them to sale.

"All their princ.i.p.al iron undergoes the aforementioned preparations, yet for several other purposes, as for backs of chimneys, hearths of ovens, and the like, they have a sort of cast iron which they take out of the receivers of the furnace, so soon as it is melted, in great ladles, and pour it into the moulds of fine sand in like manner as they do cast bra.s.s and softer mettals; but this sort of iron is so very brittle, that, being heated with one blow of the hammer, it breaks all to pieces."

As an instance of the considerable extent to which the old cinders continued to be used in the iron furnaces round the Forest, the following abstract of an indenture, found in Mr. Wyrrall's collection, and dated 20th October, 1692, may be quoted:--

"Jephthah Wyrall, Gent., to Rd Avenant, Gent., and John Wheeler, Gent.

"Articles for the Sale of 10 thousand dozn of cinders, in certain grounds near Mr. Wyrall's house, called the Correggio, the Limekiln Patch, the Long Sevens, and the Ockwal Field, if so many could be found there. The Price, 10 Pence the dozen, or 12 Bushels; 6 to be heaped and the other 6 even with the top of the Bushel, or hand-weaved. Such of them as should be taken to Bishopswood or Parkend to be measured by the Bushel used at Bishop's wood Furnace; and such as should be carried to Blakeney Furnace by the Bushel used there. To be raised and fitted for carriage by Avenant and Whealer.

To employ no persons in raising the cinders but such as Mr. Wyrall approves of. Mr. Wyrall to carry yearly as many cinders as he should please, not exceeding 250 Dozens, to Parkend, at 4s a dozen. Should carry to the banks of the river Wye, at 13d a Dozen such as should be used at Bishop's Wood Furnace. Avenant and Whealer to get 800 dozn a year, and as many more as they shd please till the 10 Thousand Dozens should be raised: and pay for them yearly on the 1st day of May, and the 1st day of October; and should leave the ground as level and plain as usually is where cinders are gotten (which was promising nothing at all)."

According to a paper examined by Mr. Mushet, and referring probably to the year 1720 or 1730, the iron-making district of the Forest of Dean contained ten blast furnaces, viz., six in Gloucestershire, three in Herefordshire, and one at Tintern, making their total number just equal to that of the then iron-making district of Suss.e.x. In Mr. Taylor's map of Gloucestershire, published in 1777, iron furnaces, forges, or engines are indicated at Bishopswood, Lydbrook, the New Wear, Upper Red Brook, Park End, Bradley, and Flaxley. Yet only a small portion of the mineral used at these works was obtained from the Dean Forest mines, if we may judge from the statement made by Mr. Hopkinson, in 1788, before the Parliamentary Commissioners, to the effect that "there is no regular iron mine work now carried on in the said Forest, but there were about twenty-two poor men who, at times when they had no other work to do, employed themselves in searching for and getting iron mine or ore in the old holes and pits in the said Forest, which have been worked out many years." Such a practice is well remembered by the aged miners, the chief part of the ore used in the above-named furnaces having been brought by sea from Whitehaven. {54} Thus Mr. Mushet represents, "at Tintern the furnace charge for forge pig iron was generally composed of a mixture of seven-eighths of Lancashire iron ore and one-eighth part of a lean calcareous sparry iron ore, from the Forest of Dean, called flux, the average yield of which mixture was fifty per cent. of iron. When in full work, Tintern Abbey charcoal furnace made weekly from twenty-eight to thirty tons of charcoal forge pig iron, and consumed forty dozen sacks of charcoal; so that sixteen sacks of charcoal were consumed in making one ton of pigs." This furnace was, he believes, "the first charcoal furnace which in this country was blown with air compressed in iron cylinders."

Flaxley was one of the very last places where iron was made in the old way. The Rev. T. Budge, writing at the commencement of the present century, says of it:--

"The iron manufactory is still carried on, and the metal is esteemed peculiarly good; but its goodness does not arise from any extraordinary qualities in the ore, but from the practice of working the furnace and forges with charcoal wood, without any mixture of pit-coal.

"The quant.i.ty of charcoal required is so considerable that the furnace cannot be kept in blow or working more than nine months successively, the wheels which work the bellows and hammers being turned by a powerful stream of water. At this time (28th Oct. 1802) a cessation has taken place for nearly a year. Lancashire ore, which is brought to Newnham by sea, furnishes the princ.i.p.al supply; the mine found in the Forest being either too scanty to answer the expense of raising it, or when raised too difficult of fusion, and consequently too consumptive of fuel, to allow the common use of it.

"When the furnace is at work, about twenty tons a week are reduced to pig iron; in this state it is carried to the forges, where about eight tons a week are hammered out into bars, ploughshares, &c., ready for the smith."

Though these operations have been long given up, the furnace buildings removed, and the pools drained in which the water acc.u.mulated for driving the machinery, yet the old people of the neighbourhood still recollect when the Castiard's Vale, now wholly devoted to the picturesque, resounded with the noise of engines. A solitary heap of Lancashire iron mine alone remains to show what was once operated upon at this spot.

The year 1795 marks the period when the manufacture of iron was resumed in the Forest by means of pit-coal c.o.kes at Cinderford, the above date being preserved on an inscription stone in No. 1 furnace. "The conductors of the work succeeded," in the words of the late Mr. Bishop, communicated to the author,--