https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5310-9681
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
This article provides a summary of the technological advances in the British iron industry. The major changes were the transition from the use of charcoal as fuel to mineral coal (or coke), first in blast furnace producing pig iron and then in producing (malleable) bar iron. Allied to this is the application of the reverberatory (or air) furnace first to foundry work and then to fining iron, ultimately in puddling furnaces. The ability to abandon charcoal as fuel in both sectors released the great expansion in iron production of the industrial revolution. Article History Received 27 September 2023; Accepted 20 December 2023
Acknowledgements
Richard Williams and anonymous referees have pointed out mistakes in drafts of this article, while Ruth Brown mentioned a reference to Shadrach Fox that I had previously missed. I also owe a debt of gratitude to many other friends in the Historical Metallurgy Society, some no longer alive, from whom I have learnt much over many years. I am grateful to the late Andrew Foley and his son Rupert for access to their family archive over many years; to the trustees of the Lonsdale estates for access to the correspondence in the Lonsdale collection; to Lord Lumley for access to his estate archive at Sandbeck; and to numerous other persons who have made archives available. Archivists and librarians at more repositories than I care to remember have produced and helped me identify archives.
Disclosure statement
The author’s great-grandmother was a granddaughter of Joseph Firmstone.
Notes
1 P. Deane, and W.A. Cole, British Industrial Growth, 1688-1959 (2nd edn, Cambridge: University Press 1967). 221-9; N.F.R Crafts, ‘British Economic Growth, 1700-1831: A Review of the Evidence,’ Economic History Review, 36 (1983), 180-2; N.F.R. Crafts and C.K. Harley, ‘Output growth and the British economic revolution: a restatement of the Crafts-Harley view,’ Economic History Review, 45 (1992), 703-30.
2 P.W. King, ‘Early Statistics for the iron industry: a vindication,’ Historical Metallurgy, 30 (1996), 37; P.W. King, ‘Iron in 1790: production statistics 1787-96 and the arrival of puddling,’ Historical Metallurgy, 45 (2012 for 2011), 104.
3 P.W. King, ‘The zenith of iron and the transition to mild steel in Great Britain,’ Historical Metallurgy, 50 (2018 for 2016), 109-22.
4 P.W. King, ‘The production and consumption of bar iron in early modern England and Wales,’ Economic History Review, 58(1) (2005), 6-8; note also corrigendum 59(1) (2006), 264.
5 E.A. Wrigley, Continuity, change and chance: the character of the industrial revolution in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1988); Energy and the English Industrial Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010); and The Path to Sustainable Growth: England’s Transition from an Organic Economy to an Industrial Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016).
6 Dud Dudley, Metallum Martis or iron made with pitcoale seacoale etc. (1665: reprinted Wolverhampton: Bagnall, 1854), 5; cf. 9.
7 Ashton, Iron and steel in the industrial revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1924; 3rd edn 1963), 13-17; A. & N.L. Clow, ‘The timber famine and the development of technology,’ Annals of Science, 12 (1956) 85-101.
8 R.G. Albion, Forests and sea power: the timber problem of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press 1926), 116-8.
9 G. Hammersley, ‘Crown Woodlands and their exploitation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’. Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research 30 (1957), 149-51; and ‘The charcoal iron industry and its fuel 1540-1750,’ Economic History Review, ser. II, 26 (1973), 597.
10 M.W. Flinn, ‘Timber and the advance of technology: a reconsideration,’ Annals of Science, 15 (1959), 109-20; and ‘The growth of the English iron industry 1660-1760,’ Economic History Review, ser. II, 11 (1958), 144-53; Hammersley, ‘The charcoal iron industry and its fuel,’ 594-7; P. Riden, ‘The output of the British iron industry before 1870,’ Economic History Review, ser. II, 30 (1977), 442-9.
11 King, ‘Production and consumption,’ 23.
12 See note 1; P. Hudson, The Industrial Revolution (London: Arnold, 1992), 21-5 115-21; Emma Griffin, A short history of the industrial revolution (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2010), 88-98.
13 Simon Sturtevant, Metallica (London: G. Eld, 1612; reprinted Wolverhampton: Bagnall 1854).
14 William H. Sherman, ‘Simon Sturtevant and the death of the Renaissance inventor’ Huntingdon Library Quarterly 72(2) (2009), 239-56; ‘Sturtevant Genealogy website’: www.sturtivant.org/simon.html (accessed September 2023).
15 John Rovenson, Treatise of Metallica (London, 1613; reprinted Wolverhampton: Bagnall 1854).
16 R.F. Tylecote, A History of Metallurgy (2 edition, London: Institute of Materials, 1992), 84.
17 V. Biringuccio (trans. and ed. C.S. Smith and M.T. Gnudi), The Pirotechnica (New York, 1959 repr. 1990), 281-8.
18 R. Peacock, Seventeenth century Foleys (Kingswinford: Black Country Society, 2011), 8-35.
19 P.W. King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution to metallurgy,’ Historical Metallurgy, 36(1) (2002), 45-6; Dud Dudley, Metallum Martis; English Patent, no. 18. Dudley’s work has been much discussed, often giving too much credence to his own (partial) account, without reference to contemporary records of litigation. These do not support the assertion by Samuel Smiles that the charcoal ironmasters instigated the riot: Industrial Biography: iron-workers and tool-makers (London 1863), 51. The cutting of the dam (not mentioned in King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution’) comes from TNA, C 22/50/11, m.7, answer of Oliver Hodge and John Dudley to interrogatory 22.
20 R. Williams, ‘A question of grey or white: why Abraham Darby I chose to smelt with coke,’ Historical Metallurgy, 46 (2015 for 2013), 125-37; ‘The performance of Abraham Darby I’s coke furnace revisited, part 1: temperature of operation,’ Ibid, 51 (2019 for 2017), 22-33; ‘part 2: output and efficiency,’ Ibid, 51(2) (2019 for 2017), 87-98; and ‘Grey or white pig? The importance of the starting material whether fining iron in charcoal hearths, clay pots or puddling furnaces,’ Ibid, 53 (2021 for 2019), 84-103.
21 P.W. King, ‘Dudley, Dud (1600?–1684),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8146, accessed 21 March 2017]; King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution’, 46-7.
22 M. White, ‘Yet another side of Dud Dudley,’ The Blackcountryman, 39(3) (2006), 70-2 from Bishop’s register in Worcs. RO.
23 P.W. King, ‘The Cupola near Bristol,’ Somerset Archaeology and Natural History, 140 (1999 for 1996),37-51; P.W. King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke and the adoption of coal in metallurgy,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 73(1) (2001-2), 35-6.
24 P.W. King, ‘18th-century ironfounding: coke iron, air furnaces and cupolas,’ Historical Metallurgy, 47 (2015 for 2013), 138-45
25 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1660-1, 523; 1673, 173-4; Gibbs, ‘Rise of the tinplate industry: II tinplate manufacture to 1700,’ Annals of Science, 7(1) (1951), 34-6; P.J. Brown, ‘Andrew Yarranton and the British tinplate industry,’ Historical Metallurgy, 22(1) (1988), 43-4.
26 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke,’ 34-5; King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution,’ 47; foreclosure: Shropshire Archives, 6000/14265-82 14799
27 King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution’, 49-50; and P.W. King, ‘Management, finance and cost control in the Midlands charcoal iron industry,’ Accounting, Financial and Business History, 20 (2010), 389-90; Herefs. RO, E12/KE/30 31 50.
28 C. Higgs, ‘Dud Dudley and Abraham Darby; forging new links,’ The Blackcountryman, 38(3) (2005), 73-6.
29 Nancy Cox, ‘Imagination and innovation of an industrial pioneer: The first Abraham Darby,’ Industrial Archaeology Review, 12(2) (1990), 131. Her source for this is not clear. However Richard Reynolds had a copy of Dud Dudley’s work (referred to as a pamphlet): Diary of Samuel More: British Library, Add. MS. 89126/3, p. 21–21 Aug. [1783]. I owe this reference to Anton Howe.
30 Dudley, Metallum Martis, 8 60.
31 King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution’, 50.
32 King, ‘Dud Dudley’s contribution’, 48-50.
33 King, ‘Cupola at Bristol’; King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 35-7.
34 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 37-9.
35 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 37-9.
36 C.E. Hart, The Industrial History of the Forest of Dean (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), 105-9.
37 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 39-41; Cleator: TNA, C 6/319/80.
38 TNA, C 7/312/5. The bill gives Fox’s address as ‘Cowdrakedale in Shropshire’ [Coalbrookdale] but this address may refer to 1695, the date of the bill, not 1690, the date of the sale of coal.
39 TNA, WO 51/38, ff.39 156 (original foliation).
40 Calendar of Treasury Books, VIII (1685-9), 1610.
41 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 40.
42 TNA, C 6/413/47.
43 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 45.
44 H.W. Dickinson, Sir Samuel Morland: diplomat and inventor 1625-95 (London: Newcomen Society, extra publication 6, 1970), 53-4; W.H. Thorpe, ‘Marquis of Worcester and Vauxhall,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 13 (1931-2), 75-88.
45 Dudley, Metallum Martis, 3-4.
46 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke,’ 40; for the history of Coalbrookdale in this period, see also P.W. King, ‘Technological advance in the Severn Gorge’ in P. Belford et al. eds, Footprints of industry (BAR British Ser. 523, 2010), 55-6.
47 TNA, WO 51/48, f.3. Despite the difference of name, the company must be the same one.
48 B.G. Awty, Adventure in Iron: the blast furnace and its spread …, ed. J.S. Hodgkinson and C.H.C. Whittick (Hildenborough, Kent: Wealden Iron Research Group, 2019), 348.
49 TNA, C 11/1726/18.
50 Williams, ‘A question of grey or white’.
51 TNA, C 7/351/41.
52 TNA, C 6/526/15. The furnace had previously been used by Philip Foley until 1672: Shropshire Archives, 625/15, rentals; Herefs RO, E12/VI/KBf/16-19.
53 King, ‘Sir Clement Clerke’, 40 from (inter alia) TNA, E 112/833/957.
54 TNA, C 11/1726/18. The date was about 10 years since in January 1710. Cf. TNA, C 6/94/69 (concerning an execution levied on Shadrach’s goods in 1699).
55 This is deduced from dealings with the Coalbrookdale lease, which was apparently assigned for less than Fox owed on it: TNA, C 11/1379/19.
56 TNA, C 11/1726/18, answer; for the furnace see M.C.S. Evans, ‘Pioneers of the Carmarthenshire iron industry,’ Carmarthen Historian, 4 (1967), 30-32.
57 P.W. King, ‘Black Country mining before the Industrial Revolution,’ Mining History: Bulletin of Peak District Mining History Society, 16(6) (2007), 39.
58 Library of Birmingham, Archives, 571053; TNA, C 66/3381, no. 15; H.R. Schubert, ‘Abraham Darby and the beginnings of the coke-iron industry,’ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 193 (1959), 3. The patent (noticed by Schubert) is omitted from the 19th century compilation by Woodcroft for the UK Patent Office. It and two others on the same roll ought to be listed between English Patents 338 and 339.
59 B.L.C. Johnson, ‘Stour valley iron industry in the late seventeenth century,’ Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, n.s. 27 (1950), 37-8 from Herefs. RO, E12/VI/DEf/1-13; Dudley Archives, DE/4/7/11/79; DE/6/4/7/6. The closure of Cradley Furnace in 1662 is indicated by the sale of the bellows in 1662, though the forge remained in use: DE/4/7/11/43; for the Cradley works generally see also DE 4/7/11, passim; DE/4/7/8/70; DE/1/6/6-33; National Library of Wales, Hawarden MSS, 919; cf. P.W. King, ‘Lye Forge,’ The Blackcountryman, 30(4) (1997), 61-63.
60 TNA, C 11/1729/18, answer.
61 TNA, C 54/5428, no. 9.
62 Williams, ‘A question of grey or white’.
63 Dudley Archives, DE/4/7/4/70.
64 Dud’s elder brother Robert was given a property near Dudley called Netherton (as freehold): TNA, C 6/42/4. Dud had a lease for lives of a substantial farm called Greens Lodge at Greensforge, Staffs: Dudley Archives, DE 2/142-7; TNA, C 5/420/77.
65 A. Raistrick, Dynasty of Ironfounders: The Darbys of Coalbrookdale (1953; 3rd edn, York: Sessions Book Trust, 1989), 17-21.
66 J. Day, Bristol Brass: a history of the industry (Newton Abbott: David & Charles, 1973), 35-8.
67 TNA, C 7/89/4, answer of William Whitehead, Charles Axford, and others.
68 Raistrick, Dynasty of Ironfounders, 21-2.
69 Williams, ‘A question of grey or white’.
70 Herefs. RO, E12/VI/DEf/13; E12/VI/DFf/1-3 and 7-8. Dates in the form 1704/5 refer to an accounting year.
71 D. Bick, ‘Early iron ore production from the Forest of Dean,’ Historical Metallurgy, 24(1) (1990), 39-40.
72 £650 (mentioned in TNA, C 11/1726/18) seems to be £50 per year for the remaining 13 years of the patent. Such a salary appears in the Coalbrookdale accounts for 1708/9: Shropshire Archives, 6001/328, f.7.
73 TNA, C 11/1726/18.
74 Shropshire Archives RO, 6001/328, including rent paid for half year to Ladyday (f.12) and references to Roger Downes, passim.
75 Downes is not named in Shropshire Archives, 6001/329-30.
76 B. Trinder and N. Cox, Miners & Mariners of the Severn Gorge: probate inventories of Benthall. Broseley, Little Wenlock, and Madeley, 1660-1764 (Chichester: Phillimore 2000), 302-3.
77 Friends Meeting House, S.200 [Norris MSS viii], 82 86.
78 TNA, C 7/89/4, answer of Rea and Legas; K. Dannehl, ‘Life cycle study of eighteenth-century metal cooking vessels: a reflexive approach’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Wolverhampton University, 2004), 107-12. For Rea’s position, see Herefs. RO, E12/VI/DEc/14-14 38; and King, ‘Early Statistics,’ 27-29.
79 TNA, C 7/89/4, answer of Whitehead, Axford, and others.
80 TNA, C 11/1721/15; C 11/1726/16.
81 Bristol RO, 09458/26; 4658/6a-6b; 21782/XIV/159/B; PR/StP&J.
82 A. Raistrick, Quakers in Science and Industry (1950; repr. York: Sessions 1993), 148-51; P.W. King, A Gazetteer of the British Iron Industry 1490-1815 (2 vols., Oxford: BAR British Series 652, 2020), 514-5.
83 Herefs. RO, E12/VI/DFf/5-13.
84 P.W. King, ‘Vale Royal Company and its rivals,’ Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 142 (1993), 8-13.
85 ‘Local partnership deeds from ms. in collection of Richard Welford,’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 3rd ser., 3 (1907-8), 169-71.
86 King, ‘Lye Forge’; and ‘Management, finance and cost control’, 400 407 from Staffs RO, D 661/3/2/1, depositions for defendant, Edward Kendall to interrogatories 14 and 15.
87 D. Cranstone, ‘Isaac Wilkinson at Backbarrow,’ Historical Metallurgy, 25(2) (1991), 87-91; A Fell, Early iron industry of Furness and District (Ulverston 1908; repr. London: Frank Cass 1968), 233-4 240-3.
88 B. Trinder, Industrial Revolution in Shropshire (3rd edn, Chichester: Phillimore 2000), 29.
89 P.W. King, ‘Choice of Fuel in the 18th century iron industry: The Coalbrookdale accounts reconsidered,’ Economic History Review 64 (1) (2011),’ 137-42; confirming the conclusions of Hyde, Technological Change and the British iron industry 1700-1870 (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977), 23-41; cf. Raistrick, Dynasty, 108-13. For the metallurgical explanation of this, see Williams, ‘Performance of Abraham Darby I’s coke furnace revisited, part 2: output and efficiency.’
90 Graffin Prankard’s letter book, Somerset RO, DD/DN/424, 17 June 1730.
91 King, ‘The choice of fuel’, 139; Hyde, Technological Change, 35; R.A. Mott, ‘Abraham Darby I & II,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 31 (1957-9), 69.
92 R.A. Mott, ‘Coalbrookdale Horsehay Works (part I)’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 31 (1957-9), 282.
93 King, ‘Choice of Fuel,’ 138 149-50. The original text quoted, about the context of this, is Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Labouchère collection, Lab/Abi/4/2; quoted Raistrick, Dynasty of Ironfounders, 68-9.
94 Williams, ‘The performance of Abraham Darby I’s coke furnace revisited, part 1: temperature of operation’.
95 King, ‘Choice of Fuel’, 146-9. The figures in this article are not quite right as a small amount of purchased charcoal pig iron was inadvertently omitted from my calculations.
96 King, ‘Iron in 1712’, 115; Williams, ‘Grey or White pig?’, 89-91.
97 Knight Stour Works accounts: Worcs RO, b899:310 BA 10470/3; summarised in L. Ince, Knight family and the British iron industry, 1695-1902 (Solihull: Ferric Publications 1991), 119-20; cf. Horsehay accounts: Shropshire Archives, 6001/332; 6001/333; 245/3.
98 B. Trinder, Industrial Revolution in Shropshire (1st edn, Chichester: Phillimore 1973), 403-4; King, Gazetteer, 266 297.
99 Jones, History of GKN, I. Innovation and Enterprise, 1759-1918 (London: Macmillan, 1987), 3-4; E.L. Chappell, Historic Melin Griffith (1940; 2nd edn, Cardiff: Merton Priory Press 1995), 24-7; L. Ince, South Wales iron industry, 1750-1885 (Solihull: Ferric Publications 1993), 145; King, Gazetteer, 509-10 519 522-3.
100 Bedlington: accounts appended to TNA, E 112/1895/20; for the others this is an argument from the silence of the Knight accounts (cited in note 97); King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 110; P.W. King, ‘John Wilkinson (1728-1808) and the Bradley Ironworks’, Transactions of the Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, 54 (2023), 49-71.
101 English patent, no. 565. The blowing aspect of the patent appears in the list in Woodcroft, Titles of Patents of Invention, chronologically arranged, but no specification needed enrollment.
102 Cranstone, ‘Isaac Wilkinson at Backbarrow’, 88; T. Berg and P. Berg trans. R.R. Angerstein’s illustrated travel diary 1753-1755 (London: Science Museum, 2001), 260.
103 English Patent, 713; Dawson, John Wilkinson: king of the ironmasters (Stroud: History Press), 2012, 31-2.
104 John Lloyd, The Early history of the old South Wales Iron Works, 1760 to 1840 (London: Bedford Press 1906; repr. Kessinger n.d.), 23-30; L. Ince, ‘Water power and cylinder blowing in early South Wales coke ironworks,’ Historical Metallurgy 23(2) (1989), 108-9.
105 ‘The icnography of Merthir Furnace’ (sic), frontispiece in M. Elsas ed., Iron in the making: Dowlais Iron Company Letters, 1782-1860 ([Cardiff?]: Glamorgan County Records Committee 1960): reproduced as .
106 E. Jones, History of GKN: 1, 3-11; L. Ince, South Wales iron industry, 53; Ince, ‘Water power and cylinder blowing,’ 109-110.
107 London Gazette, no. 11609, 7 (28 Oct. 1775); 11658, 2 (16 Apr. 1776); 11941, 3 (28 Sep. 1779); Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, 15 Mar. 1779; St. James Chronicle, 1 Jul. 1779.
108 TNA, C 12/1331/31; cf. C 12/53/14.
109 British Library, Egerton MS 1941, 5–20.
110 R.H. Campbell, Carron Company (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd 1961), 36-7; J. Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil 1766-1769. (Cardiff: Merton Priory Press, 2001), 171.
111 Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood 16-20 36 66; cf. Jones, History of GKN, 16.
112 A.T. Arnott & M. Sayer, ‘Beam engines in blast furnace blowing,’ Industrial Archaeology Review, 3(1) (1978), 30; Ince, ‘Water power and cylinder blowing’.
113 Arnott & M. Sayer, ‘Beam engines in blast furnace blowing’, 31-3.
114 Campbell, Carron Company, 37-8.
115 L. Ince, ‘The Boulton and Watt engine and the British iron industry,’ Wilkinson Studies 2 (London: Merton Priory Press 1992), 81-9.
116 W.K.V. Gale, The Black Country iron industry: a technical history (London: The Iron & Steel Institute, 1966), 41-2.
117 C. Evans ed., Letterbook of Richard Crawshay, 1788-1797 (Cardiff: South Wales Record Society, 1990), nos. 329 385; C. Evans, The Labyrinth of Flames: work and social conflict in early industrial Merthyr Tydfil. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press: Studies in Welsh History 7), 28.
118 Cf. Gale, Black Country iron industry, 56-7.
119 L. Ince, Neath Abbey and the Industrial Revolution (Tempus, Stroud 2001), 28ff; R.A. Mott, ‘Coalbrookdale Horsehay Works (Part II)’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 32 (1959-60), 46-7.
120 P.W. King, ‘History of the Tern Company,’ Transactions of Shropshire Archaeological Society 83 (2011 for 2008), 69-76.
121 English Patents, nos. 489 502 553; P.W. King, ‘Frizington Fraud: William Wood’s patent iron process,’ Transactions of Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 3rd series, 14 (2014), 164-5.
122 King, ‘Frizington Fraud’, 164-77.
123 J.M. Treadwell, ‘Swift, William Wood, and the factual basis of satire,’ Journal of British Studies 15(2) (1976), 76-91; for background: R. Hatton, George I: Elector and King. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 153-5.
124 King, ‘Frizington Fraud’, 164-77. That account supersedes previous (less complete) ones: Treadwell, ‘William Wood and the Company of Ironmasters of Great Britain’ and Flinn, ‘William Wood and the coke smelting process’.
125 Dilworth, Tame mills of Staffordshire, 108-9. Its date is indicated by Carlisle RO, D/Lons/W2/1/101, 4 Nov. 1740; D/Lons/W2/1/102, 8 Jan. 1741/2; cf. Lichfield RO, D15/12/73. Its operations are described in Berg ed. Angerstein’s Diary, 47 348; Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood, 220. Contrary to Margaret Howitt ed. Autobiography of Mary Howitt. (2 vols, London: Wm Isbister Ltd, 1889-91), 23, he probably did probably not inherit the forge from his father, with whom he was latterly on bad terms: cf. King, ‘Frizington Fraud’, 173.
126 Worcs. RO, b899:310 BA 10470/3, no. 142, 1746/7, p.6.
127 Oliver Wood, West Cumberland coal 1600-1982 (Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, extra series, 24, 1988), 36 49; Angerstein, Diary, 286-9; Cumbria RO, Whitehaven, D/Lec/60/26; cf. D/Lec/16/240/mines, 14 Oct. 1749; D/Lec/16/50-6.
128 Newcastle Courant, 20 Oct. 1764; 29 Sep. 1770.
129 English Patents, nos. 759 794; Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood, 199-219.
130 Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 94-6; cf. Tim Young and Rowena Hart. ‘The refining process, part 1: a review of its origins and development,’ Historical Metallurgy, 50 (2018 for 2016), 98.
131 TNA, C 54/6160, nos. 3-5; Newcastle Courant, 20 Oct. 1764.
132 P. Cracknell, ‘Report on an archaeological watching brief at Low Mill, Egremont’ (Unpublished Report 2008: copy at Cumbria HER); citing J. Donald, Map of Cumberland, 1774. Ford Forge: Northumb. RO, 2/DE/2/64-5 and 2/DE/16.
133 Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood, passim.
134 Cf. Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 94.
135 Young and Hart, ‘Origins of refining (part 1)’, 98-9.
136 English Patent, no. 1054.
137 W.H. Chaloner, ‘Smelting iron ore with coke and casting naval cannon in the year 1775,’ Edgar Allen News 27 (1948-9), 195 213; G.R. Morton and N. Mutton, ‘The Transition to Cort’s Puddling Process,’ Journal of the Iron & Steel Institute, 205(7) (1967), 725; Young and Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’, 98-9; Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 95-6.
138 Victoria County History, Shropshire x, 351-2.
139 King, ‘Iron in 1790,’ 111 from Birmingham City Archives, MS 3147/3/5/28 (formerly B&W, Box 36), letter, Matthew Boulton to James Watt, 28 July 1781: printed in J. Tann, ed. The selected papers of Boulton & Watt: I. The engine partnership, 1775–1825 (Cambridge, Mass 1981: Harvard University Press), 79–20.
140 King, ‘Iron in 1790,’ 110-11.
141 Young & Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’, 99.
142 C. Evans, ‘Global commerce and Industrial Organisation in an eighteenth-century Welsh enterprise: The Melingriffith Company,’ Welsh History Review, 20 (2001), 420.
143 H.W. Dickinson & R. Jenkins, James Watt and the steam engine: memorial volume (1927: 2nd edn. Ashbourne: Moorland, 1981), 162-4.
144 English Patent, no. 1396; King, ‘Production and Consumption’, 10.
145 King, ‘Production and Consumption’, 10-13 17-18.
146 King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 110-1; Young and Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’, 98-9; Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 95-6.
147 English Patent, no. 460; TNA, PC 1/4/106/33-39; P.W. King, ‘Experimental ironmaking in the 1720s: Thomas Tomkyns and his contemporaries,’ Historical Metallurgy, 48 (2015 for 2014), 79-85. My identification there of the works as Temple Mills at Bisham, rather than the mill at Taplow, is mistaken: King, Gazetteer, 93.
148 English Patent, no. 780; Morton and Mutton, ‘Transition’, 724.
149 Campbell, Carron Company, 31 52; R. Hayman, ‘Cranage Brothers and eighteenth-century forge technology,’ Historical Metallurgy, 38(2) (2004), 114.
150 English Patent and specification, no. 851; Hayman, ‘Cranage Brothers’; Young & Hart, ‘The refining process, part 1’, 99; Williams and De Haan, ‘A link between the 1780s blast furnaces at Coalbrookdale and Staveley: the note of Mr Chas. Hornblower, Industrial Archaeology Review, 41(2) (2019), 128-9.
151 King, ‘Iron in 1790,’ 111; see also Young & Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1).’ .
152 Gross ed., Diary of Charles Wood, 72-3.
153 R.A. Mott, Henry Cort: The great finer: creator of puddled iron, edited by P. Singer (London: The Metals Society, 1983), 22-6; no direct evidence of a Midlands source of Cort’s ironware has been found, but production of nails in quantity in or near Gosport is improbable, as Cort had no slitting mill until c.1781.
154 For Newcomen see TNA, C 7/360/17: described in J. Greener, ‘Stourbridge and steam,’ International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 87(2), (2017), 327-45.
155 Patrick Cadell, The Iron Mills of Cramond (Edinburgh: Bratton, 1973), 13.
156 Eric Alexander, ‘Henry Cort and the Black Country,’ The Blackcountryman, 35(4) (2002), 18.
157 English Patent, no. 1351; Mott, Henry Cort, 26-36. Mott was wrong in thinking the hoops were for masts: they would be for barrels, which were required in large quantities by the Victualling Commissioners: see TNA, ADM 112/168-9, s.v. ‘London iron hoops.’ For ballast see P.W. King, ‘Iron ballast for the Georgian navy for the Georgian navy and its producers,’ The Mariner’s Mirror, 81(1) (1995), 15-20; King, ‘Iron in 1790,’ 102-33. The main source on Cort is documents in Science Museum Library, Weale MSS, MS 371.
158 English Patent, no. 1420; Mott, Henry Cort, 37-46.
159 Science Museum Library, Weale MSS, 371/3, f.155. The content of this paragraph is also covered in King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 112-3.
160 This is contrary to what is claimed in J. Mokyr, Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 49 & note.
161 Science Museum Library, Weale MSS, 371/3, f.205v.
162 Sandbeck Park (Maltby, S. Yorks.), estate office archives, MTD/A27/2; EMS/16/2, 11.
163 Alexander, ‘Henry Cort and the Black Country’; King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 113-4 117.
164 Mott, Henry Cort, 47-50.
165 Science Museum Library, Weale MSS, 371/3, f.195v 202.
166 Mott, Henry Cort, 40-6; TNA, ADM 106/1286/456-62.
167 Science Museum Library, Weale MSS, 371/3, f.220; Mott, Henry Cort, 44-5; TNA, ADM 106/3621, 61 (a Navy Board Contract Book).
168 K.C. Barraclough. ‘Swedish iron and Sheffield Steel,’ History of Technology 12 (1990), 7-20; P.W. King, ‘Cartel in Oregrounds iron: trading relationships in the raw material for steel,’ Journal of Industrial History 6(1) (2003), 36-7; repr. in J.F. Wilson et al. eds, A Search for Competitive Advantage: Case Studies in Industrial History (London: Routledge 2021), 47-8.
169 King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 116-7; Gale, British iron and steel industry, 79-84.
170 Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 85 98-102; cf. Gale, Black Country iron industry, 44-50; and British iron and steel industry: a technical history (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1967), 76-7.
171 Quoted in H.W. Dickinson, ‘Henry Cort’s Bicentenary,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 21 (1940), 38, DOI: 10.1179/tns.1940.004
172 T.P. Smith, ‘Note sur the fabrication du fer et de l’acier avec houille des après les procédés de M. William Reynolds, practiqués à Coal-brook-dale en Angleterre,’ Journal des mines, 13 (1802-3), 58-9. I owe this reference to Richard Williams.
173 King, ‘Iron in 1790’, 113-6; Young & Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’. For ballast see King, ‘Iron ballast for the Georgian navy’.
174 Peter and Daniel Onions, who were baptised at Broseley, and Peter married Elizabeth Guest in 1741 in Madeley, the next parish (Parish registers).
175 Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 Jan. 1830, 3; Young and Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’, 101-2. John Guest married Penelope Firmstone, the widowed mother of Joseph, at Broseley in October 1774 (Parish register), but it is conceivable the husband was a different John Guest.
176 King, ‘Iron in 1790,’ 115; Young & Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1)’, 100-1.
177 Williams, ‘Grey or white pig?’, 99-102.
178 King, ‘Zenith of wrought iron’.
179 Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 Jan. 1830, 3; Staffs. RO, D 695/1/9/19 27 &c; Young & Hart, ‘The refining process (part 1),’ 101.
180 Percy, Metallurgy, II(3) Iron; steel (London: Murray 1864; repr, Eindoven, Netherlands: De Archaeologische Pers, c.1984), 652-4; Birch, Economic history of the British iron and steel industry, 1784-1879 (London: Cass 1967), 189-90.
181 W.K.V. Gale, British Iron and steel industry, 62-5; and Black Country Iron Industry, 66-79; R.A. Mott, ‘Dry and wet puddling,’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 49 (1977-8), 153-8, with addendum, ibid. 50 (1978-9), 231-2; Percy, Metallurgy, II(3), 669-71; Birch, Economic history, 191-2.
182 Hammersley, ‘Charcoal iron industry’, 604.
183 See notes 2-3.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Peter King
Peter King is an Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Birmingham. He has researched the history of the iron industry for many years, both before and after obtaining a doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton. He has published over 50 articles mostly on the iron industry and related subjects, culminating in A Gazetteer of the British Iron Industry 1490-1815 (2 vols., BAR British Series 652, 2020).