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Date: 10th November 2017 Author and Editor: CAW Publications Contributors: Terry Chandler, S. Crump (Surveyor), Rollo Gillespie, F. Llewellyn (Researcher and report sections), F. D. Sproat, Tina Virr CAD Drawings: Rod Sproat Bphil. MIED. Illustrations and Colour. Rollo Gillespie. Project reference: Astley Forge Mill. Trench 9. WHAS reference: WSM 41736 Location: SO 806 668 52degs. 17’58.30” N, 2degs. 17’20.44” W
ASTLEY MILL FORGE PUDDLING FURNACE
1 Contents Summary...... Page 4
Report...... Page 4 • Background.... • Aims • Methods • Conservation • Personnel
Excavation... ASTLEY MILL FURNACE ...... Page 6
Puddling area Floor 1. General introduction to to trench area ...... ,...... Page 7 2. Excavation, overview, definitions, Methods ...... Page 8
West section/Flooring...... Page 10 1. Objects 2. West area brick work in zones,
East section ...... Page 12 1. Objects 2. Brickwork description., Conclusion. .
Rising Brickwork ...... Page 13 1. Construction. in General 2. Slag pan 3. Chimney 4. Western Edge 5. Firebox 6. Ash Layer 7. Metal Object.
South Boundary Wall...... Page 20 Description.
Closure of site and conservation...... Page 20
Metal finds...... Page 21
Documentary Evidence for Iron Working at the Forge/Mill Site... Page 25
Historical Weather reports ...... Page 30
Final Demise...... Page 33
2 Geology...... Page 35
Confirmed date when still used for Grinding Porcelain materials...... Page 36
Description of the Grinding works...... Page 38
Plans, Photos...... Page 39
Appendices ...... Page 51
Iron works References...... Page 51
1. Trench description 2. Appendix 2 ...... Page 52 Brick Table and joined site plan
Plans form a different publication in association with this report. A3 SITE PLANS. PUDDLING.pdf
3 Summary An excavation was undertaken at Astley Forge Mill, Astley, Worcestershire (NGR SO 806 668) in April to September 2009. Outline of results. Identification of structure. The complete lower brick courses, furnace slag pan, chimney base and fire pit was uncovered. This was resting on the factory floor. Evidence of construction phases were identified. Research gives possible dates of use.
Report. This report is not intended to be an authoritative discourse on various iron working methods. Methods are discussed for general guidance. The idea is to place the furnace into a wider industrial landscape.
1. Background A community archaeology group had been aware of the presence of industrial workings associated with Andrew Yarranton along Dick Brook. Yarranton was a canal builder and industrial entrepreneur who was probably a century before his time with his thinking and achievements. Regardless of his impressive history he had supposedly set up an iron smelting furnace at Astley ( WSM 41736 ) A community archaeology group were invited by the owners, Chris and Jo Evans, to undertake an investigation of the site as a whole. Trench 9 forms part of the wider project and is published as a separate report due to its importance in the history of the area. The project conforms to the Standard and guidance for archaeological field evaluation (IfA 2008) The event reference for this project, given by the HER is 41736
2. Aims The aims of the project were to uncover and record the structure and to attempt to assess its position in the site history.
3. Methods The primary method used was with hand trowel and bucket. In parts of the excavation distal to the structure, wheel barrow and shovel was used. Brickwork was carefully cleaned with hand brushes. Initially the structure was unknown and the trench only exposed the West end . The trench was then extended in stages. Over the years the site had become regularly flooded and so this resulted in the accumulations of silt. The silt was not regarded as important. However at floor level some samples were retained for the possibility of finding hammer scale from processes associated with the furnace should funding become available at a later stage. Magnetic sorting produced a negative result. It is likely that flood events had washed any traces of particles away. Years of post industrial use and demolition have also played a considerable part in removal of evidence No structure was removed or disturbed. Site plans were drawn at a scale of 1:50. Context sheets were completed if needed. A full digital photographic record was made.
4 4. Conservation Methodology for preservation of this unique site was discussed with WAS, and their recommendations were followed as far as possible. A community archaeology group were indebted to the generosity of the landowners Chris and Jo Evans who donated the Terram Rootguard that was used to cover the key areas of the site when backfilled. It was felt that the silt had already proved itself to be an excellent preservation material. Prior to excavation soil cover had been minimal over the slag pan so this was substantially deepened. At the same time, due to the closeness of the brook to the structure, heavy block work was emplaced along the bank in the hope this would restrict further lateral erosion. Site monitoring is carried out on an occasional basis.
5. Personnel F. D. Sproat(CAD/excavator), Rollo Gillespie,(Geologist/ excavator) S. Crump (Surveyor), Terry Chandler (Site director/excavator/ recording). F. Llewellyn (Researcher/excavator), David Parker (Deceased/excavator). Tina Virr (Recording /excavator), Diana Huston (Drawing), Photography. Members of a community archaeology group.
5 Astley Mill Furnace
Introduction. The presence of a Puddling furnace had been mentioned in papers regarding the mill site over 50 years or so. This will be covered in the historical review and submitted by other authors. In spite of this very little was known about the location and the discovery of it was almost accidental. Really it began with the finding of the bolster chisel and crumbling brickwork at the West end. A wider look at the immediate area revealed a solid lump of slag poking above ground in part and even where covered, this was minimal and supported some small plants and mosses and little else. With the proximity to the brook this area becomes the part most affected by flooding. The sediment load of a channel is dependant on the speed of current and hence the transport energy. This reduces when water flows over the land surface and often results in the formation of levees. Here though the site is subjected to erosion and deposition resulting in stasis and continued recycling of the top layers. There is very little in the way of binding agents like roots due to the thin sandy soil cover and very little moisture in dry periods for plants to take hold. Even more so the West end is subjected to full force of the current in the channel and the erosive period had begun and could only result in the whole furnace collapsing into the brook. The excavation then was essential and the post excavation work done should ensure protection for a considerable period longer. The term “Rising Brickwork”(RB) describes all that is above floor level and includes the slag pan.
Reverbatory Furnaces were the main way to convert cast iron/pig iron which was the main output of 17th Century Iron Technology into wrought iron. Wrought Iron is the material used by Blacksmiths and is what can be heated, hammered and bent at will. The idea was not new and it had existed since medieval times, and pre-dating the process, had been carried out in open hearths. The approaching Industrial Revolution caused a rapid increase in demand and spurred a continual review of the Iron Production Processes and a greater scientific understanding of the chemistry underpinning it. The Iron Mines of the Forest of Dean were in full production at this time and fortunes were being made there. Riverside docks such as Lydney, Blakeney, Westbury were enjoying an upsurge also supported later on by the deep coal mines and the technical advances in machines and pumps that would keep the water out. That is not to say that there was any improvement in the working conditions of the miners. Elsewhere similar demands were being fulfilled in the West Midlands and the Industrial Towns of the North. The details of the history of metal working at Astley Forge Mill will probably remain hazy. It is not known when the first furnace was constructed, and in part this would depend on the “shelf life” of these machines, machines constructed from Brick and Mortar but still very much machines. It is suspected that there was a further furnace at Astley but the limited scope of excavation only gives an idea about this with no positive proof or details. Details of this type of furnace are widely known from patents and illustrations but the advances in the metal industry meant that the physical entity of them was swept away and
6 the former industrial sites became Victorian Terraces which in turn became redevelopment land and enabled investigation into the workings. In practice all that remained of these was a footprint and nothing else about the building of them. This means that nobody had actually seen one even if they knew all about it. This discovery at Astley was therefore extremely rare and possibly unique. It is thought this may be a Cort Furnace, patented in 1784. The method was not particularly popular and had serious drawbacks, which included the necessity to pre-melt the charge. The technical details can be found everywhere but are not given here in this report. It is known that in 1796 the mill was a porcelain grinding factory and not a forge so this process came afterwards. In brief this gives the Forge period a relatively short life, Puddling is a process to heat metal to melting point separated from the fire by a wall. The rising heat is directed by the roof shape down onto the bed hence the “reverbatory“ aspect of the name. The Puddler stirs the melt and the wrought iron separates out into a ball since it has a slightly higher melting point compared with the rest of the melt. A good puddler will succeed in converting most of the iron in a melt into a ball weighing around 35 kg, or the size of a football, for extraction and further processes including rolling and hammering. Rolling was another process patented by Henry Cort, to meet Admiralty demands for such rolled out material. The remaining melt will be slag with most of the iron content removed and the mode of work will direct this down the furnace bed where it can be drained off in what is a continuous operating cycle. It is stated by author that this furnace is far smaller than the ones commonly illustrated in the literature.
Cort's process (as patented) only worked for white cast iron, not grey cast iron, which was the usual feedstock for forges of the period. This problem was resolved probably at Merthyr Tydfil by combining puddling with one element of a slightly earlier process. This involved another kind of hearth known as a 'refinery' or 'running out fire'. The pig iron was melted in this and run out into a trough. The slag separated, and floated on the molten iron, and was removed by lowering a dam at the end of the trough. The effect of this process was to desiliconise the metal, leaving a white brittle metal, known as 'finers metal'. This was the ideal material to charge to the puddling furnace. This version of the process was known as 'dry puddling' and continued in use in some places as late as 1890. Available online. Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddling_%28metallurgy%29 (Accessed 9.3.2013)
7 Trench 9: Puddling Furnace Floor.
Floor area zonal markup with Z1 to the West.
General introduction.
For ease of description the trench orientation is taken as being West to East rather than the true orientation of North West to South East. In effect this means that the chimney is referred to as being at the West End and the Firebox as being at the East End. Description is therefore as above on the floor plan diagram. In general this is a brick construction laid horizontally with no obvious bond or pattern. Brick sizes are approximately 22 cms long and 6 cms wide but there is a slight variation of size due to the local manufacturing of the material. “Horizontal” is a loose description since various areas are sunken or subsided, and where areas are missing it is interpolated as having been a continuous run of flooring of similar construction. It is not known if floor areas have been pounded lower by heavy use or if the laying was somewhat arbitrary, but is suspected the latter is a more accurate description. The trench line was intended to be cut 50 cms north of the furnace but in practice this is more like 65 cms. At the West end the floor exposure is 110 cms wide where unauthorised visitors caused a trench side collapse and this was cut back until ground stability was achieved. The North side excavation represents the deepest buried part of the furnace, at around 1 metre depth, due to the proximity of the bank of Dick Brook to the South side and West end. At the East end no floor area was exposed and a trench extension here was intended to conjoin with an adjacent small trench and prove the Eastern sandstone boundary wall. To the North of the Firebox access steps were cut to prevent the tendency to enter the site from the West and cause degradation of the exposed and crumbling floor edge.
Excavation.
The trench area was covered by a mix of Ransomes (Allium ursinum), Stinging Nettle (Urticaria diorica), Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis ), Indian Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), and Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicara) to name a typical selection growing in the silt. With an ever changing ground surface there is no topsoil as such and only a surface with more plant roots in it than below, Ransomes being the most obviously penetrative plant. It is also a major indicator of a calcareous soil and it will not grow anywhere else. To the south side which is the bank slope, soil cover was minimal or absent over the wall sandstones, which were also somewhat disturbed by erosion. Again, soil cover on the slag pan was also minimal or absent and it is only beyond the Northern margins
8 of this were there any depths of cover. Soil refers to over bank deposits of sand and silt, with some darker organic horizons. These horizons are somewhat discreet and probably disturbed by bioturbidation. While clay particles are present actually these are in a relatively small proportion of up to 20%, sufficient to maintain a reasonable cut edge but insufficient to support any weight at the edges as was previously mentioned. Sand particles are Quartzitic and from local Bromsgrove Sandstone and pale coloured to Orangey red, poorly sorted and up to medium grain size. Gravel sized stones up to a cm in size are extremely rare, showing that the bed load carrying capacity in floods is greatly diminished at bank top height. This soil is referred to as “Dick Brook Standard Silt” or DBS in short. Initially the soil to the north side was removed to a depth of around 25 cms with spade and wheelbarrow. It was obvious that these deposits were archaeologically sterile. Once the Upper courses of brickwork were encountered then the method was switched to bucket and trowel, but once again, the only interest found here was the successive exposure of the brickwork. There were indications from the thinness of the soil at the west end that a floor did exist so it was more painstakingly done as that horizon was approached. The emergence of a slag mound was initially puzzling but was not yet meaningfully connected to the rest of the furnace. At floor level finds were expected but again were absent explained later by the results of demolition of which the 15 cms of broken bricks and mortar lying there testified. Bottom silt layers produced nothing in the way of metal debris and flakes from metal working, using a magnet, which can be explained by a period of roofless dereliction and flood water sweeping through. Roof materials here were also absent which could indicate the furnace had no cover at all. At best the reasons and interpretation is almost impossible. Samples of silt and scrapes from between bricks were retained for possible use in future. After the initial trench cleaning had been done for photography and recording a wet period commenced. A plastic roof had been made to keep visitors off the excavation but this did not prevent the entry of flood water and it took several days for the pond to drain, leaving everything coated with extremely adherent clay. The problem was not over bank flooding but upward percolation through the DBS due to the rise in the water table. Cleaning was a very different matter after this. The collapse of the corner of the trench was of some benefit with the recovery of a long metal bar and exposure of some floor, “The Collapse Extension”, that had escaped demolition robbing. This area is of significance because none of the floor brickwork was coated with slag which may mean it was an original floor area and not part of the rebuild/second furnace era. The floor area is actually one of the most important aspects of the site history which is going to be covered in more detail below. Some of the matters pertaining to the floor will be covered in the section on the “Rising Brickwork” and furnace construction. Of the 8 metal objects or tools discovered 7 are covered in this section and the remaining one on the subsequent sections. Any description of the floor can only be done with references back to the site survey mapping and photography. For the sake of description the floor area is divided into halves. Please don't get too involved with counting bricks when the detail of primary or secondary use and type is needed most.
9 The West Section. The East Section. The defining boundary is a vertical line, on the reorientated plan above, which cuts the furnace at 90o. This can be marked by the extreme East edge of the “Slag Drainage Chute”. The sections are subdivided descriptively from West to East numerically and somewhat loosely. In fact the area is only in the order of 3.5 sq m.
West Section. (See the site plan.) Iron objects inserted into floor or lying on floor surface. 1. Metal object. A bolster chisel. This was found outside the floor area to the West at a point where the stream bank is being cut away by erosion at the junction of the tail race and the brook. Although it was possibly placed into the ground vertically it is equally possible it was a result of slippage. It may have been a discarded or lost demolition tool. Some construction for iron working was noted and could have been a stone crucible, coated with slag such as a small bloomery hearth. This was included into the post excavation restoration work. No investigation was carried out and it is added as future reference. It is possible this is part of a refinery furnace or “running out fire” referred to later. 2. A rusting vertical iron object 1cm x 4cms possibly cut off at floor level and immediately adjacent to the rising brickwork. Function unknown. This could have been a reinforcing strap to the brickwork and up to a tie bar across the Furnace. Although loose it was keyed into something under the floor. There is no other evidence for other reinforcing straps in the construction, although such straps are frequently used in reverbatory furnaces and illustrated in contemporary literature. This is probably the best interpretation that can be made. 3. A metal wrought iron bar found at the North base of the slag mound just inside the Collapse Extension. Function unknown. Possible latterly used as a demolition tool and may have been recovered from the Furnace brickwork. 4. An iron metal “button” affixed to a Firebrick (FB used henceforth) 20 cms from the rising brickwork. Function unknown. It is not known if this a blob of metal accidentally attached, or if it was an object such as a cut bolt and tethered something to the floor. 5. A vertical metal object slightly protruding above floor level. This may have been a retaining spike driven in to hold the curved metal sheet of the slag spout. This object was missing on 17.9.09 and had been stolen, presumably by an unauthorised visitor.
Brick work.
Zone 1. This area contains 28 whole or half bricks. 18 are FBs and the remainder are standard brick. A sandstone block probably abandoned from stone wall demolition is also present. The most part of the floor area has been robbed out. The bricks to the North edge appear to be laid in an West /East orientation and there is little effort to overlap bricks They butt up together as a space dictates. None of the 9 bricks here have any slag coating on them. In the South the bricks are disorganised and disturbed. There is a suggestion that
10 orientation was North /South. 11 are half FBs. The remainder are red whole or half bricks. To the South East corner of the zone two FBs that were probably laid in the same plane have been pushed sideways and seem to be originally from Zone 2. These are coated with slag. The bricks appear to have been laid onto DBS, but on the surface was the presence of lime mortar. Policy on the excavation has been not to dig further down, but to only expose, clean, and record so no verification of depth to the lime mortar was obtained.
Zone 2. This zone comprises 16 red bricks or half bricks. None of the bricks have a slag coating. The North edge is laid N/S. The main area of note is the slag mound, where runny slag has escaped and formed a cone. The main floor area here has been robbed out and the bricks appear to have been laid onto DBS as before. The presence of the slag mound means that the furnace was working at the time it escaped. However had there been continued operation post dating this, the slag would have been quickly cleared away. The slag does not appear to have been injected into water, which would have caused boiling and disturbed the flow pattern present on the surface. The suggestion here is that the huge flood of May 27th 1811 was rising fast enough to promote a fast exit by the workers and subsequently the mill works were destroyed. The possibility of a water ingress to the south side causing a semi explosive furnace rupture due to steam pressure can be considered . The molten slag rapidly drained through the gaps but did not completely empty the main slag pan. While water was entering the furnace it still had not worked through the brickwork into the Northern side and so slag was draining through any associated rupture. If hot bricks and steam pressure did inhibit the water it would only be a matter of minutes before there was enough cooling and allow flooding to the North side. It should be noted that the melt has the consistency of whitewash and in modern terms this would be emulsion paint.
Zone 3. There are a total of about 30 bricks in this zone, either red or FBs in halves or whole. The laying orientation seems to be N/S. Some of the floor area has been robbed out but this shows the underlying layers is DBS. Of these 20 are FBs, 17 of these are slag coated and no red bricks are slag coated. In the west side of the zone an area of 8 bricks of mixed type shows a single row of slag coated FB. None of the surrounding bricks of this row of 3 have any trace of slag on the surface demonstrating conclusively that they are recycled from an earlier furnace. There are 3 other bricks so coated with slag that it is not possible to tell type but in all likelihood these are also FBs. In only very isolated areas do slag covered bricks become conjoined (as noted), and in this case due to furnace operation of the first furnace, showing again that the bricks have been reused from the inner walls of a previous furnace. This previous furnace is discussed fully in the later Rising Brickwork report.
Zone 4. This area also includes the slag spout to floor level. Of the 34 bricks or part bricks in this area only 2 bricks are free of slag one of which is a red brick. These are to the South edge and West of the slag spout. Half of the floor to the North of this spout has been robbed. Once again these are laid down on DBS but slag fragments are present in this mix and it could be a demolition feature. It should be noted that an area of brick shows 1½ or possibly 3 half bricks of unknown type,that may be conjoined but these would be easy to handle together, 3 slag covered red bricks are identified at the North West margin. It is at this point Eastwards that the floor is entirely made of FB. There may be reasons for this given
11 that this is the working area of the furnace where the iron ball is extracted and possibly manipulated. However it could also be coincidental and depended on what was available following the Furnace rebuild. East Section Iron objects inserted into floor. 6. A vertical rectangle, cut off at floor level and orientated W/E. The material size is 7cms wide and 2cms thick. It is located 15 cms from the Rising Brickwork and cannot be a strapping for the brickwork.
7. A vertical rectangle, cut off at floor level and orientated NW/SE. Material size is 12 cms wide and 2 cms thick. It is set in the floor 2 cms to the South and 12 cms Eastwards of the first item above.
The interpretation for this may be that these are the legs of a crane/hoist cross braced into the furnace wall. Since it seems that the furnace was not roofed, due to a lack of slate or tile debris, there must be a method of raising the door into the inside. Pictures of the process in larger furnaces show such a mechanism mounted from roofing timbers. It would also allow the loading of heavy objects into the furnace and a possible suggestion is made elsewhere that ships ballast blocks are being melted as part of a subcontract with West Midland suppliers to the Admiralty. These weigh about 175 kgs. Merely adding barrel hoops and sundry small items does not seem to be an economical practice. This idea is expanded upon later. The puddling master would find this located to one side as he worked. The puddler is always moving his melt sideways, in this case Westerly, and so slag is off loaded towards the chimney end. The furnace reconstruction later in the report shows the bottle shape as rather pot bellied to the North side.
This area is not divided into zones because the flooring is most robbed out and so in effect the bricks are actually in what would be in Zone 1E with an overlap to Zone 2E. There are 42 FBs of which only 3 located to the North of the gap of the metal objects have a slag coating. On the South side by the Rising Brickwork is a string of 7 red bricks. Essentially there is a metre wide gap across the robbed area to 4 red bricks in isolation. This would be North of the separating barrier between the iron melting area and the furnace box and close to the trench wall. The only other fragment of brick is a single FB, with 2 sides at 90O of 17 cms, that seems to be a quarter of a dished hearth, and coated with slag, located directly under the stoke hole to the Firebox. Aside from a small patchwork area all the bricks are orientated N/S. The underlying medium is once again, the ubiquitous DBS. Finally it should be noted that in the DBS is a cut for the foundation bricks for the Firebox extension, to East side. This would pre-date the Firebox build and the floor was then laid over the top as a final build phase. Slightly paler material to the local silt and about 15 cms in width. Conclusion . The flooring post dates the final furnace build phase but was probably the final touches to the work. Most of the flooring material is recycled from the earlier furnace and some leftover material was also used. Section report by Rollo Gillespie.
12 The Rising Brickwork.
Puddling Construction. The footprint and remains give a clear view of the furnace as it was in the final day of use which would seem to be May 27th 1811. (Turberville, T. C. Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century. 1852)
The predominant material is red bricks of local production. In general these are of size 225 x115x 51mm.These are cemented with a lime based mortar with coal, charcoal, and limestone fragments as inclusions from the roasting processes. Sources for the limestone and lime would include Malvern area and also the Suckley Hills. Outcrops of Silurian Limestone especially the Wenlock Limestone were the most popular type used. Outcrops of Bishops Frome Limestone from Shelsley Walsh/Rock Coppice are also popular for lime making. The brickwork externally is well coursed horizontal and properly laid. Internally this is somewhat haphazard but higher up is dictated by the eventual construction of the furnace itself. Up to 9 courses of brickwork remain but a further 4 courses can be reliably included even if during demolition they were taken away. The actual height of the furnace may have been 3 metres or the height of the stone wall to the South of the site along Dick Brook. An indication of this wall height is mentioned in literature. It is mentioned as a wall and not as a building with a roof. The difference is unclear. However the current remains are of a structure measuring 96 cms in height, sufficient to arrive at the key elements and enable it to be accurately reconstructed. The 1:50 site survey produced in A3 sections x 4 showed an overall inaccuracy of only 1 cm, 1 mm on the actual recording sheet of 1:10 and was produced by 3 people.
Both furnaces were constructed on the same footprint and it seems that the first was dismantled down to 9 courses. As far as is known the upper two courses are the only ones that do not have an internal brick structure and although of red brick serve as the floor pan for the sand bed. These match internally the
upper shape of the furnace but the brickwork often intrudes into the sand and it seems as if this was not so critical in design. Several places show FB work has impinged into the area under the slag pan. At the eastern end of the slag pan two sand layers were revealed (the grey area to the immediate left of the East FB string) and in the upper layer had shown colour alteration due to considerable heat. The lower sand layer also showed this however
13 this is difficult to quantify accurately because both layers were loose and friable and the slightest touch would destroy the structure that was visible(see later). Courses 9, 10, and 11 that are mostly removed are of FB and these are horizontally laid. Course 12 is, it seems, also laid in this manner. Course 9 is somewhat enigmatic in that part of it is of FB but only where there is a need for this to be used in the furnace lining. This mix actually gives a good view of the shape. A scan of this upper course layout is shown. Colours are not given in a key and are realistic and slag is shown as purple for no other reason than it looks nice. Scale is 1:50 in the original colour sheet. The slag pan is of a dark Grey glassy material and contains rusting iron globules. To the west end there seems to be a tapping point and slag has moulded to the shape of the object there, probably a metal sheet or spout. If the furnace was a remelting furnace this would have been done regularly and into a container for separation of melt. (Plate 2.)
The thermo dynamics of puddling. The fire is separated from the melt by the vertical wall.
Suggested shape of Astley Iron Furnace. This is intended as a guide.
14 The above picture, although of a bread oven interior, serves to illustrate the internal construction method of the forge furnace. Of course this oven shown is rectangular and has a curved ceiling but it is possible to see how the FBs were set around the slag pan. There would likely to have been two or even three courses of vertical bricks forming the skirting to allow depth to the slag pan. The FBs were double skin and backed externally by courses of red brick. FBs (found with slag coating on the ends) would have been used in the building of the curved ceiling. FBs with face coating would have been used in forming the sides. During demolition most FBs were taken for re-use, probably because they were expensive and relatively easy to dispose of and although the slag pan was mostly left intact at several points, the imprint of the risers and material in the brick remains where they were pulled off. Reconstruction is only a matter of joining the dots and putting FBs in the right places. The whole furnace is butted up closely to the South stone wall and there seem to be no gaps, 4 small slag seepages have occurred between the fire bricks angled NW/ SE and into the brickwork there and although the bricks are robbed out it is more than likely from mortar fragments that they and stonework were close by and integrated with the furnace. Referring to the Eastern side of the slag pan with the imprint of the separating wall it is necessary to mention what is beneath this. Two layers are noted with the lower one having on the surface slag and brick fragments. However by far the most important discovery is the metal object, Number 8, on top of the two layers. This is briefly described here and at the bottom but has it's own section in the report.
8. Metal object. Probably a spade. Dimensions 21.5 cms x 18cms. Coated with slag and bubbled and distorted by heat. This was flat on the the later sand bed layer. Notes on sand. The sand used seemed to be marine /beach sand of medium to medium coarse grade. It would be described as sub mature with a good proportion of rounded and sub-rounded grains. It is possible that sieved brook sand had been used or it had been brought in specially. Silica sand is needed. DBS might have had a tendency to turn to pottery or vitrify perhaps but it is not known if this is undesirable. Silica (SiO2) sand is the sand found on a beach and is also the most commonly used sand. It is made by either crushing sandstone or taken from natural occurring locations, such as beaches and river beds. The fusion point of pure silica is 1,760 °C (3,200°F), however the sands used have a lower melting point due to impurities. For high melting point casting, such as steels, a minimum of 98% pure silica sand must be used but for lower melting point
15 metals, such as cast iron and non-ferrous metals, a lower purity sand can be used (between 94 and 98% pure). The inclusion of the metal object resulted in adhesion of clasts into the melt coating. If these are sieved gravels then all clasts are below 7mm size suggesting the sieve had a mesh that size. One clast had a length of 9mm but a diameter of only 5mm and this would have passed through. The clasts are of well rounded to sub-rounded quartz with around 20% being angular. (Wentworth Classification) Fusion point does not seem to have reached in the sand bed. Ref. https://www.researchgate.net/Chanaka_Madurapperuma/publication 216693198_Determination_active_clay_percentage_of_moulding_sand_by_using_methylen e_blue/ (etc) Slag Pan. Use as described. Area of multi hued grey to black slag revealing the outline of the furnace inside . It contains rusting patches of metal and slag drainage runnels flowing Westwards. Thickness about 2400 mm. Width up to 5900 mm. It is solidified melt from the last operation of the furnace .
The Chimney. The chimney and associated red bricks are at the West side, only two courses high above floor level to the North. It is 4 bricks high at the south due to the slope and no wall is seen to the south side. It is however well constructed and is 3 bricks wide at the base. This foundation plinth may be an indication that the chimney had some height and was not short and fat. Since the furnace was already 3 metres high, another 3 metres would seem to be inadequate so 5 metres would seem possible although there is no real evidence. It would justify a larger base. Several large stones were inside the base and there is no South side wall remaining. The stones and missing brickwork, which also include part of the South boundary wall were resting on and in DBS. The chimney is important in the working of the furnace, not only to let gasses out, but also has the furnace damper incorporated into it. Most diagrams show this as a metal capping that can be lifted as required using a mechanism such as a chain. As is common with contemporary solid fuel cooking ovens this adjustment regulates the heat output when combined with the airflow allowed into the opening below the grate. It is not known if the airflow is forced by the use of water driven or manual bellows but by regulating the chimney output the heat flow in the iron melting pan can be fine tuned. This is needed to keep the melt inside the parameters needed to ensure the separation of the iron component. The questions for the master puddler must be, Does the colour of the melt seem to be right? Is the consistency of the melt correct? Regardless of what we know now regarding melting points which the puddler could not, both White and Grey cast iron melt at between 2000-2,350O C , and wrought iron at 2700- 2750O C. Thus by getting a temperature in between the two ranges, the puddling process can separate the wrought iron from the melt.
16 Western Edge.
9. Metal object .A rectangular section iron bar cut off at brick level and inserted vertically into the brickwork, in a West/East orientation. Size 40mm x 20 mm. Function unknown.
This area rises to a maximum of 3 courses above the floor level and is puzzling. Of course demolition has removed most of the features of this brickwork and the function can not be ascertained with any degree of certainty. It is adjoined with the chimney wall to the East side but is built as part of the furnace. The external brick string of the first course on the North side, which is all that remains, shows it is definitely constructed as part of the furnace and chimney so can't be taken in isolation even if it otherwise seems to be so. It is impossible to decide if this is part of the first build or is in the second phase. The difficulty is compounded by this area being in danger of sliding into the brook and may have been partly lost due to this. The colour diagram shows the main elements of the structure and removes the need for a more verbose report. Immediately of note are the two FB inclusions. This suggests a rebuild using some material from the first phase but makes very little suggestion of what was above. Further interpretation on this is not attempted. What is mentioned is the solidity of this base
17 structure and the unlikelihood (?) of it being connected directly to the chimney, e.g. as a refinery furnace with venting into the chimney. That would only, it seems, affect the furnace controllability however it is an unknown parameter. A possibility remains that this was part of a refinery furnace. It is important to note the proximity of the slag mound to the injection of slag into the brickwork here, which is more widespread than recorded. There seems to be a connection between the two but no sign of the connection across the chimney brickwork but it may have been obliterated by demolition. This seems to be an unanswerable problem with no information as to what is going on further West. Getting an answer to this question may be a useful guide to conducting any future excavations.
The Firebox.
The firebox is a rectangular shaped ,well coursed/bonded and levelled, and is 9 courses of brick high. Brick sizes are 225x115x61mm. The 9th course is of FB. A further 10th course of FB laid end on and side to side can be inferred from rip off, post demolition traces, that are left on the east side of the slag pan. The single half FB may not mean a rebuild of the Southern wall but is a brick that came to hand in the the first phase.
Brick layout of the West separator wall. All are red bricks. Except the top courses as indicated 1 to 3. 31/2 bricks laid in a North /South orientation. Forms a step out for the fire grate. 4. Course of 7 laid side by side, E/W orientation. 5. 3 1/2 bricks laid in a North /South orientation. 6. Course of 7 laid side by side, E/W orientation. 7. Course of 7 laid side by side, E/W orientation. 8. Course of 7 FBs laid side by side, E/W orientation. 9. Course of 7 FBs laid side by side, E/W orientation. Only ¼ of a brick visible at south edge. Bricks at North edge absent 10. Course of FBs (absent )laid on end with thin edge side by side. These continue round the slag pan edge and form the skirt. These can be seen in a mould of the positioning
18 in the slag with FB remnants at points around the slag pan.
The brickwork of the North and South walls is not described in detail here. The Ash was only partially removed to expose the floor. The conjunction of the two phases is clearly shown.
The Ash Layer. This comprised a well compacted layer of coal fragments, partly burnt coal, clinker, and fine ash The ash profile was recorded. It is deeper adjacent to the North and South walls and curves down to the centre line. It is 9.4 cms deep at the West wall and over a width of 90 cms tapers to a minimal layer to the East. The surface did not contain any linear height changes that may have indicated the spacing or construction of the grate. The fuel appears to have been a fairly standard grade of Bituminous coal. There is no way of telling the source of this given the possibilities of the supply chain. The Metal Spade. This is not described in detail in this section. However the location raises some possibilities, being tucked into the North East corner and lying flat on the sand pan. The author feels that this really is a spade. It is an iron item thrown in among the metal scrap to provide the melt for the first firing. There is an analysis of the positioning later but somehow it lay in the lee of the dividing wall for the pan and fire pit, in a cold spot, and while it suffered partial melt it was not introduced to the hot spot by the Rabbler, being flat and partly buried in sand at one edge. This single item speaks more about the operation of the furnace than the various ideas that are mooted. The suggestion of it being a rabble iron is completely debunked and indeed most references (not quoted) refer to a rabbling bar or iron.
The Southern Boundary Wall. This is a mortared wall built of locally quarried Bromsgrove Sandstone. This is covered in the Geology report.
19 Acts as a flood defence and enclosure to the works. Reports suggest that this was 3 metres in height. (Ref. not known.) Recorded length is 3890 cms with a corner turn at the East end of 750 cms. Thickness is varied but in the order of 40 cms. It is not known if this was a pre-existing building wall nor if it was continuous to the West and formed a part of, or conjoined with, the tail race wall. In all probability it did, but it has slid into Dick Brook so it can never be certain. The wall profile seems somewhat irregular outside but may have weathered and been eroded by flooding prior to being finally silted up with the Southern migration of the brook by half a metre or so. Inside it is very irregular in plan. The furnace and presumably other unknown works to the West, have been built tightly into it and completely integrated. Presumably, and it is not certain, this also functioned as flood protection, but given the apparent problems of rising water table through the DBS as suggested before, something will always be seriously wrong here. (Plate 14.)
Site closure and conservation. Give that the construction is probably of national importance, the community archaeology group was very concerned about preservation should there be the will to open the site in future. Professional advice from County Council Archaeologists was sought. The guidelines were followed on the whole, however it was suggested that gravel was used as a cover for the membrane and this was not done. It was felt that DBS was itself a very fine protective medium and had worked well for several centuries. Thanks to the owners Chris and Jo Evans, sufficient Terram Rootguard was given to encapsulate the furnace. Bank erosion at the West end was also seen to be a major problem. The solution carried out was to wrap the furnace in the membrane and “tie” the edges down with stone blocks. A dry stone protective wall at the West end, to act as a break water was also laid. Substantially sized blocks were used, many weighing over75 kg, and these were recovered from various parts of the site. A community archaeology group was fortunate to have the availability of a machine. The walling was back filled as was the excavation, and a minimum depth of 25 cms of soil cover placed on the surface. Condition monitoring is regularly carried out. Natural regeneration was allowed rather than seeding the site and the regrowth and root development has resulted in excellent binding of the top soil. Currently the site is almost invisible. Given the volatility of Dick Brook in wet periods it is never certain what will happen next, but it must be said that the furnace has a better chance of surviving another century than it did before. (Plates 9, 10, 11.)
Section report by Rollo Gillespie.
20 Furnace reconstructed.
The diagram gives some idea about the furnace construction based on what is found.
METAL FINDS.
Metal Object No. 1. A bolster chisel.
General description. Blade diameter 50 mm. Commonly called a “2 inch bolster”. Blade length. 68 mm. This tapers out from an octagonal shaft over a distance of 30mm. The flattening begins on the shaft and with the blade is 130 mm. Shaft width at blade taper 17 mm. Top end width 20 mm. Length overall. 298 mm. The blade shows signs of having had a curved end presumably due to wear, however the top end shows only mild spreading from being hammered with a tool and no splitting and curl over. Part of the blade is missing due to rusting. The hammering appears to have been across the corner of the top edge which may show a preferred angle of use at about 25o. Corrosion is fairly heavy but the fibrous nature of the wrought iron can be seen. This may have been an abandoned demolition tool used for splitting brick courses apart. It might have also been used for surface dressing of sandstone blocks. Equally possible is that this is the type of item that could be remelted in the furnace. It was found just outside the recorded area in the bank
21 Metal Object No. 3. A tapering wrought iron bar.
General description. Length 701 mm. Square section 28mm. This bar tapers to a rounded point. Square section. 18 mm. Considerable rust is present. The lower 390 mm is in poor condition and the fibrous nature of the metal can be seen. The remaining upper length is is good condition. The head of the bar has been hammered and a tang and curl over is present as a result. A lime based mortar adheres to the upper 255 mm in patches and contains lime and coal fragments. The location of the find is on the survey sheet. The mortar is not associated with the resting location on the brick floor and no DBS has become cemented to the surface. It therefore seems to have been built or driven into a wall at some stage. While the primary use is not known it is reasonable, judging by the point wear, to associate this with the demolition and it could be called “A wrecking bar”. It was abandoned as of being of no further use.
Metal Object No. 8. A spade like blade
General description. A flattish metal object made of wrought iron. Dimensions are 212 mm across x187mm deep. Thickness at edges are 5 mm at the top tapering down to .75mm at bottom edge. It appears to be made from a cylinder that would have had a diameter of 224 mm. This has been flattened to form the flat and bulges out symmetrically to form a handle socket. The socket is pierced by 3 flush rivets of 8mm thickness, the centre of the orifice is 24mm wide and the middle rivet is 21 mm from the slightly curved top edge where the handle fixing flanges, now broken off, would have been. Two lateral rivets are 18 mm to the side and 20mm from the edge for the left, and 22 mm to the side and 12mm from the edge so they are asymmetrical. For the sake of description “the front” is the side with gravel particles adhering and “the back” with few. Because the tool is double skinned the depth of socket is around 80mm.
22 The drawing above shows the main features. About 35mm of the right half bottom edge is bent upwards aileron like at about 10 degrees. This part was buried in sand and has complete particle coverage. A side view reveals a horizon compatible with this explanation. The left corner is worn away almost to a circle and the right corner has a rounded off square edge. This is better explained by looking at the photographs published later. The object appears to have been in a state of partial melt. It is coated with slag all over including rivets and orifice and peppered with adherent sand and gravel over 100% of the front. Two areas of layer separation have occurred with associated bubbling, and on the left one cracking. A 55mm crack is present down the socket. The obverse side has only about 20% area of adherent gravel and sand, best explained by the top diagrams above which show it partly embedded in the sand pan. The socket has slumped while in the semi molten state and forms a slight concavity. Inside the the socket where the flanges have broken away, slag thickness is estimated at about .25mm. The breakage also reveals the wrought iron fibrous structure. Various ideas have been put forward as to the purpose of the tool including that it is a rabble. This idea is impossible. A rabble is like a long metal rod. No trace of a metal handle is found in the socket. This must mean that it had a wooden handle as shown in the reconstruction. A wooden handle in the furnace would have had no useful life. Indications
23 are that the handle widens to fit the socket and would somewhat resemble the manner in which axe handles are made. Any wood present would have been burnt away. So why is it present in the furnace? Surely the answer is that it was an item introduced for the first firing. However it settled into a corner, in the lee of the separating wall and was in a furnace cold spot. Being flat it was also not disturbed and pushed into the main area of heating. See photos in Appendix 3.
Interpretation. The simple idea is the best. It is a spade! This raises an important aspect of the furnace usage. It was remelting scrap iron, so is this now a refinery furnace processing grey iron into white iron? This pre-dates the Cort process. Is there a Cort furnace associated with the metal work?
NOTE: The drawback with a Cort furnace was that grey iron would contaminate the melt and metal separation would not be possible. For continued use only white iron could be used. The later (1814) Hall process which involved using rusty iron was developed to overcome this problem. The rusty iron added oxygen to the melt. This caused a boiling of the melt and impurities were oxidised away. Haematite also had the same desirable effect and some furnaces were internally painted with ochre/iron oxides. The Hall process was also called “pig boiling”. In the process the melt was tapped off into a container vessel and the floating slag was skimmed off. The refined iron could be poured into moulds to make bars and these were then added to the puddling furnace. The tapping of the slag from this furnace, as we thought, could be an indicator of its purpose.
Immoveable metal is not included here.
Section report by R.R.Gillespie.
24 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE FOR IRON WORKING AT THE FORGE/MILL SITE ON THE DICK BROOK, ASTLEY, WORCESTERSHIRE
INTRODUCTION The Astley Forge/Mill site on the Dick Brook was excavated by A community archaeology group over two seasons 2008-9. The site has for most of the last century been known as the forge, but this is incorrect. The site Access to Archives was searched for documentary sources for the sites. Quite a lot of references came up and several record offices were visited. Needless to say, most information was found in Worcestershire Records Office.
THE SITE The earliest reference to this site was found in a document dated 26 June 1665, and refers to the recent marriage, in 1663, between Higgons James, son of John James of Astley, and Elizabeth Brabazon, daughter of Wallop Brabazon of Leominster. “And All that Messuage called The Woodend and All those Three Water Corn Mills to ye sd messuage called ye Woodend & all rents & all Annuities to ye sd messuage & Miles belonging ...”1. John James’s family had a long association with Astley. He married Jane Higgins, daughter of William Higgins of Trippleton, Leintwardine on 24th June 1630 at Downton, Herefordshire 2 and had at least two sons - Higgons and James. John James had moved to Trippleton by 1665 and was buried in Leintwardine Parish church on 10th May 1681. According to his will dated 21 April 1681 John left all his property, “except the Messuage or tenemt. and lands called the wood end in worcstershire”3 to his son William. Woodend had of course been granted to Higgon James’s use under the 1665 document. In 1698 a Marriage Licence was granted to Higgon James of the parish of Astley to marry Mercy Pytt which duly took place on 21 February 1698/9 at St John Bedwardine Church.4 Mercy Pytt was the sister of Samuel Pytts, of Kyre Park, Worcestershire. Higgon James died on 10 May 1709 and was buried at Astley5. There is a tablet to him and his two wives on the wall of Astley church6. Mercy James remarried in 1713 by Licence at Great Witley to Bromwich Pope of Wolsaston, Shropshire7. They had one daughter Catherine who never married and died in 1754. Mercy Pope died in 1729 and in her will she refers to “And all that Messuage Tenement and farm with all the Lands Meadows Pastures and hereditaments thereunto belonging or therewith used or enjoyed situate and being in Astley aforesaid and called the Woodend and then or late in the possession of John Godshaw And also all that Messuage and all those fulling Mills and one meadow to or with the said Messuage held or enjoyed situate in Astley aforesaid then or late in the Tenure of William Brewer”. She decided in her will to use the estate to maintain a free school in Astley “I do hereby give and bequeath out of the rents Issues and profits of my Estate called the Woodend and the Mills thereunto belonging situate in the parish of Astley aforesaid the Yearly Sum of Twenty pounds of lawfully Money of Great Britain to be paid yearly and every year for ever hereafter towards the keeping and maintaining a free school within the parish of Astley”8. The school was not in fact founded until 1743 and the accounts start in 1744. In 1750 the accounts state that “Mr Lea and Fra Fitzer Tenants to the Woodend Farm and Paper Mills thereto belonging” paid “the sum of £20 and due the 16th of May last past”. This arrangement continued until 1755. Between 1756 and 1760 Francis Fitzer, Mr Joseph Glover and Joseph Whitty paid the money9.
25 IRON WORKING Berrow’s Worcester Journal of 13 November 1760 has an advert for “Freehold Farm called Wood End, in the parish of Astley, consisting of about 40 Acres, 20 whereof are Arable, and 20 Pasture and Hop Land, now let at the Yearly Rent of 34L; and also a Scythe Mill and two Acres of Land, let on a Lease for a Term of 14 Years, ..... The Farm and Mill are subject to a School Rent of 20L per Annum, and another of 2L per Annum. N.B. On the Stream there are Conveniencies for Building and Water enough to support other Mills. Enquire of Mr Rowland Hill, Attorney in Bewdley” An Indenture dates 25th March 1761 refers to “to all those mills heretofore used as Walkmills or Fulling mills and now converted into a Scyth Mill under one roof situate lying and being upon Glasshampton Brook in the parish of Astley in the said County of Worcester late in the tenure of Richard Pinches and now of Francis Hill and all Dams Heads Wears Mill Pounds and the soil thereof to the said Mill belonging. And also all that messuage or tenement called or known by the Name of Woodend situate and being in the said Parish of Astley”10. By 1763 the property was being used as a grinding mill for the Worcester Porcelain Factory. The use of the property as a scythe mill is confirmed by two settlement certificates - 19 December 1740 William Tector was removed from Chaddesley Corbett to Astley where he gained a settlement by serving an apprenticeship to Francis Lea, scythesmith for 6¾ years. And 23 November 1780 Richard Rowley was removed from St Nicholas, Worcester to Astley, where he gained a settlement by hiring for a year to Francis Lea of Astley, Scythesmith11. In 1806, the heirs of Thomas Flight, who had purchased the factory in 1783, decided to sell the freehold Mill and the farm called Woodend to Richard Shinton and Richard Cooke Lowe “for forging & manfactg of Iron”12. This is the first mention of a forge on this site however it did not last for many years. In the edition of 18th July 1811 of Berrow’s Worcester Journal are two adverts - “Notice is hereby given, that the PARTNERSHIP lately subsisting between RICHARD SHINTON, RICHARD COOKE LOWE and WILLIAM SALKELD, in the business of Iron Masters, carried on by them at Astley, in the county of Worcester, and also in the city of Worcester, was on the 29th day of May last, Dissolved by mutual consent .....” And “A Capital Water Mill and Farm To be SOLD by PRIVATE CONTRACT, for an unexpired term of 17 years from the 2d of February 1811 a capital WATER MILL, now used as a Forge for manufacturing of Iron, together with two DWELLING HOUSES, Outbuildings, and about 34 acres of Arable, Meadow and Orchard Land, situate near to the river Severn, in the parish of Astley, in the county of Worcester, and of which immediate possession may be had by a Purchaser. For further particulars apply to Mr Richard Cooke Lowe, of Astley aforesaid, or to Mr Richard Shinton, on the Premises (One Concern)”. When the Reverend Denham James Joseph Cookes bought the estate in 1812 the deed refers to “All those Mills theretofore used as Walk Mills or Fulling Mills then late as a Scythe Mill but then as a Porcelain Mill or in grinding down and preparing materials for porcelain ware situate lying and being on Glasshampton Brook in the Parish of Astley in the County of Worcester aforesd then late in the tenure of Francis Hill and then occupied by the Porcelain Company of Worcester” and further on “All those Mills theretofore used as Walk Mills or
26 fulling Mills aftwds converted into a Scythe Mill & under one Roof & then used for forging & manfactg of Iron situate lying & being on Glasshampton Brook in the parish of Astley afsd in the Coy of Worcester togr with the Dams heads Wears Mill Ponds & the soil thereto belong formerly in the occupon of Francis Hill, but then of Richard Shinton & Richd Cooke Lowe” and also “The Meadow above the Forge, The forge buildings tenements yard garden & forge pool & the Meadow below the forge ...”13. In 1813 it is recorded that “the Rev D J J Cookes now the owner of the Woodend Estate”14 and all commercial use of the site ceased. Certainly on a map dated 1817, the lower site on the Dick Brook is shown as “Two dwellings”15.
REFERENCES. 1. Worcestershire Archive Service (WAS) ref 705:255 BA1545/67 2. Herefordshire Family History Society Marriage Index 1538-1837. 3. At Herefordshire Archives. 4. Diocese of Worcester Marriage Licence Index Vol 3 1686 - 1707 & St John Bedwardine Parish Registers. Marriages 1698 5. Astley Parish Registers. Burials 1709 May ye 10th was Buried Higgins James Esq. 6. Dingley, P. D The Parish Church of St. Peter Astley, Worcestershire: record of all monuments and their inscriptions inside and outside the church, also of those in burial ground across the road opposite the south entrance to the church 7. Diocese of Worcester Marriage Licence Index Vol. 4, 1707-1714 & Great Witley Parish Registers Marriages 1713 8. TNA PROB 11/631. Will of Mercy Pope, Wife of Wollaston, Shropshire 04 July 1729 9. WAS ref 468. BA 8378/1/ii. Volume containing: Accounts and signed minutes of meetings of the Trustees of Mrs Mercy Pope’s Charity otherwise known as Astley School Charity. 10. WAS ref 705:550 BA 4600/31. Deeds, bonds, copy wills and other papers relating to property in Astley. 11. Everett, David. (1994) Worcestershire Watermills: References in Settlement Examinations in Studies in Worcestershire Local History Vol 7 12. WAS ref 705:550 BA 4600/708 13. Ibid 14. WAS ref 468. BA 8378/1/ii. 15. WAS ref. s260·51 BA 1565/5
Section report by Francesca Llewellyn
27 The conclusion must be that Yarranton had no association with the use of the forge. It is also impossible to tell from the remains of the furnace, which process was being used. do not know if it was either a reverbatory/remelting furnace or a puddling furnace, and the design is almost identical. Further date information is given below. Henry Cort was an iron master who had a rocky relationship with a Naval Clerk called Jellicoe, who ended up owing a considerable amount to the Admiralty after he “borrowed” it out of funds to pay seamen. Subsequently Cort was liable for the debt incurred. He patented 2 processes, the puddling furnace in 1784, and an iron rolling system that was better than using tilt hammers. His promotion of the puddling furnace was largely unsuccessful. Although they seem to be impressed at first, only one company, at Rotherhithe, got involved at this stage. There is a snag in the process when freshly-smelted iron is used, caused by impurities which accumulate in the puddling furnace over time. Cort never appreciated this, because he always worked with recycled iron, which does not contain these impurities. Apparently a lot of iron products from the West Midlands were being used by the Navy. Anchors and chains however were made in Gosport. In around, and before, 1812 scrap iron and materials were readily sold by the Admiralty. Equally so there were tenders requested for the provision of iron ballast.
Available online from. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/16605/pages/955/page.pdf. (Accessed 9.3.2013) As shown below oxide coated iron was popular. For iron oxide can read “rusty”. “In an improvement, discovered by Joseph Hall in 1816 and introduced after his Tipton works were set up. iron coated with oxide was added to the charge. The presence of oxide helped to purify the charge, and Hall found he did not need to refine the iron first. This variant of Cort's process was called wet puddling, but the shape of the furnace remained the same.” “Wet puddling” was also called “pig boiling” because of the violent reaction that occurred in the melt when the materials were added. This method removed the problems of the Cort process. However we have no evidence that the Furnace was in use after 1812
28 Here is an interesting quote about the iron ballast used in ships. “found next to one of the docks at Deptford a very great quantity of kentledge which they [Royal Navy] use to ballast their ships. The iron pigs are about 36 inches long and 6 inches square, and with these dimensions they must weight 350 pounds. I will say nothing about this sort of ballast: its usefulness is sufficiently well-known; I wish that no other were employed in the King’s ships. The pigs which I saw at Deptford are pierced diagonally by several holes along the edges.” Dobson. M.C. and Kingsley.S. (2009) HMS Victory, a First-Rate Royal Navy Warship Lost in the English Channel, 1744. Preliminary Survey & Identification. p.11. Odyssey Marine Exploration. Tampa, USA. Available online from: http://www.colossus- scilly.co.uk/wreckofcolossus/HMS_victory%5B1%5D.pdf . (Accessed 8.3.2013)
It was in the excavation of another trench in the forge complex that 2 iron objects were found. It was thought that these could be bearing blocks however the possibility exists that these were ships ballast blocks being used for a secondary purpose. Unfortunately with the demise of Mr D Parker, both items are lost. From observation they may only loosely fit with the general description above. See photographs below- Plates 12 and 13. It is an attractive possibility that Admiralty scrap was recycled here and sent down river again as a subcontract for the large firms in the West Midlands.
29 Weather and Floods in the Worcestershire Area.
GAUT, R C. A History of Worcestershire Agriculture and rural evolution. 1939. Page 81 Three notable floods of the Severn occurred in this century. In the great inundations in January 1606 “many hundreds of men, women and children perished in the floods; cattle and sheep were swept away, together with houses, barns, ricks of corn ...” A curious note of the authentic flood of 1620, inscribed on an old tract read: “November ye 29, 1620. In the river Severn, was the greatest flood that ever was sinse the flood of Noah ; there was drowned at Homtone’s (Hampton) Loade 68 persons as they whare going to Bewdley Faire.” The third was the high flood of December 1672.
Page 135 Extension of Hop-growing August rains in 1735 destroyed about one-third of the crop (137) and the gale of 7 September " with such heavy rain at Droitwich that men, horses, sheep and bridges were carried away by the flood," added to the devastation in certain yards.
Page 144 The Canal Era In November 1770 occurred the greatest flood of the rivers Severn, Teme and Avon, since 1672. Much material damage was done. At Tenbury the inundation reduced the greater part of the parish church to a “heap of rubbish.” Along the Teme valley several ricks of hay and corn were for the most part spoilt, barns flooded half-way up, others carried away and several pigs, cattle and poultry drowned. At Worcester quay the water gained access to a large store of lime in a warehouse and set the premises on fire.
Page 199 Progress of water transport Floods in the winter 1794-5 did extensive damage to river bridges That at Bewdley, which had been patched up from time to time, was washed away in February 1795 by the great flood caused by melting snow; the bridge at Stourport had succumbed in the previous autumn The same flood also damaged Tenbury bridge and carried away Stanford bridge; in the Tenbury area, hop-poles (10,000 in one case) carts, ricks of hay and soil were carried considerable distances down the river.
Pages 219 - 20 Assize of bread Weather played no small part in raising prices:—1799: Severe frost and heavy falls of snow January and February; August very wet, Severn and Teme floods, roads inundated; 9 October “such floods as have occurred within the last three months are not in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant”; November, more floods. 1800: Drought from mid- June to mid-August, then wet. 1809: Wet from July to October; “much blight and mildew in wheat.” 1811: May very wet, severe hailstorm and torrential rains on 27th ; Severn rose 20 ft. in 24 hours and “every garden and field containing crops laid waste”; rainfall at Evesham, May 6.42, June 2.26, July 3.11, August 1.82, September 3.92, October 2.76, November 3.10 ; total for year 31.37 inches. 1812: Another wet year; May 5.9 inches and summer rainfall much above the average; total for year at Evesham 31.9 inches. 1813-4: The great frost of the century and probably the greatest since 1683; it began on 26 December 1813 and for 31 days the thermometer never rose above freezing point. 1816:
30 “One of the worst harvests known.” 1818: Between February and April, 5 Severn floods; intensely hot July and August, the warmest summer since 1779.
Gaut - Bad floods 1483; January 1606; November 1620; December 1672; August 1735; November 1770; Autumn 1794; February 1795; August 1799; October 1799; November 1799; January 29 1809; May 1811; 1812; April 1818; 1852; 1882; December 1886; December 1900; January 1901; December 1910; May 1924
Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer Saturday July 20 1728 Issue 165 Worcester July 11 On Saturday Night last two Corn-Mills, a Paper-Mill and a House were swept down Astley Brook into the River with great Trees and Part of a Hop-Yard, by Means of a sudden Inundation, occasioned by a most violent Thunder-storm, and bursting of the Clouds, from which the Water descended as if it had been poured out of Hogsheads, about Astley, near Bewdley. We hear some persons are missing suppos’d to be carry’d down and drowned in their Houses, the Goods and Provisions whereof came swimming the next Day down the River by this City. ....
JACKSON’S OXFORD JOURNAL. Saturday June 1st 1811 Dreadful and Destructive storm at Worcester. On Monday about half past four in the afternoon extremely dark clouds were observed in the S. E. quarter; shortly after a rumbling noise was heard, succeeded by a volley of hail- stones, or rather pieces of ice of various forms, measuring 5 and 6 inches in length. There is scarcely a window in this city, exposed to the S. E. which has not great part of its glass destroyed; wherever a green house or hot house presented itself, it was literally dashed to pieces. At the House of Industry 500 panes were broke; at the Infirmary nearly 150; the Bishop’s Palace has suffered greatly; at Messrs. Barr, Flight, and Barr’s China Manufactory,
1200 panes were destroyed. An elm tree, near the House of Industry was split in the middle: others have been thrown down in Sansom Fields. Nearly 150 rooks were killed in Mr. Ingram’s rookery at the White Ladies. A deluge of rain accompanied the hail, and the Severn rose nearly 20 feet in less than 24 hours! In one hour it rose six feet; the consequences this is of course a severe flood. Fragments of various descriptions are floating down the Severn; from some of them it would seem that mills have been destroyed, and barges foundered. At Birmingham about the same hour on Monday a dreadful storm of thunder, lighting, and rain caused one of the highest floods ever remembered. At Tenbury the thunder, lighting, and rain on the above evening were tremendous; Kyre Brook overflowed, and inundated the cellars, gardens etc near it. On the Rea, near the Newnham Bridge, a cart with two women and some goods were carried over a hedge, and upset; the women, however, got upon the bed of the cart, and remained in that situation all night; at length, however, they were extricated from it by the arrival of some people who hailed a boat from the Canal, and conveyed them to a place of safety. At Mordiford, near Hereford, a mill, a cottage, and a barn, were swept away by a land flood, and four persons lost their lives.
31 TURBERVILLE, T. C. Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century. 1852 1811 May 27 The famous Worcester hailstorm happened this day. It was indeed a tempest, such as had been scarcely ever known in this country before. Between four and five o’clock p.m., clouds of a horrible blackness came up from the S. E., accompanied by a hideous noise. Shortly hail began to fall, which almost immediately became a storm of ice, and fell furiously in flakes of about five or six inches in circumference. The windows of almost every house which faced the S.E. were wholly demolished in a few minutes - gardens were laid utterly waste - and fields, both of grass and corn sustained irreparable damage. The ice-storm was succeeded by heavy torrents of rain, with all the terrors of a tropical tempest. The river Severn in one hour rose six feet, and continued gradually to swell its torrent till it had reached the height of twenty feet; and the flood, rapid and wide-spreading, swept away in its impetuous career whole herds of cattle in adjacent fields. 1,200 panes of glass were broken in Messrs Barr’s china manufactory, 500 in the Workhouse and 2,000 in Messrs Chamberlain’s factory. Messrs. Freame’s cabinet warehouse, Goose Lane, lost 1,000 panes, and all the public buildings suffered severely. 150 rooks were killed in the rookery at the While Ladies, and a vast many other birds were also afterwards found dead. At Henwick and Hallow the crops were miserably injured. The cost of replacing the glass broken in the city, alone, was estimated at £5,000; and there being neither sufficient materials nor workpeople at hand to repair it, the inhabitants for weeks had to suffer the inconvenience of exposure to the weather.
Section research report by Francesca Llewellyn.
32 Final Demise. The weather reports above place one event at the forefront of the Forge history. The storm of Monday May 27th 1811.
“Notice is hereby given, that the PARTNERSHIP lately subsisting between RICHARD SHINTON, RICHARD COOKE LOWE and WILLIAM SALKELD, in the business of Iron Masters, carried on by them at Astley, in the county of Worcester, and also in the city of Worcester, was on the 29th day of May last, Dissolved by mutual consent .....” And “A Capital Water Mill and Farm To be SOLD by PRIVATE CONTRACT, for an unexpired term of 17 years from the 2d of February 1811 a capital WATER MILL, now used as a Forge for manufacturing of Iron, together with two DWELLING HOUSES, Outbuildings, and about 34 acres of Arable, Meadow and Orchard Land, situate near to the river Severn, in the parish of Astley, in the county of Worcester, and of which immediate possession may be had by a Purchaser. For further particulars apply to Mr Richard Cooke Lowe, of Astley aforesaid, or to Mr Richard Shinton, on the Premises (One Concern)”.
The scenario here can be given a high level of confidence in spite of the journalistic licence to be given to the two 19th Century reports of the May and June events, that the Severn “in one hour rose six feet”. It would appear the forge was already in trouble. It had been up for sale in February 1811 apparently as a going concern. It would seem significant that within 3 days of the storm in May both partners were in the legal office dissolving their partnership. They were left with a wreck and spending more money was not an option. All they could do was to cut their losses. The Reverend Denham James Joseph Cookes, who bought the site in 1812, was more likely to have been a land speculator/budding country gentry, and was not interested in factories because by 1813 all such use had ceased. It is possible to surmise that the recovery of expensive building materials such as fire bricks and mill machinery was financially rewarding, especially after the previous floods, when millwrights would have been searching for machinery to reuse.
Editor's summary by Rollo Gillespie.
33 Furnace event line. Southern wall is built. First Furnace is built tight against S. Wall. Furnace suffers a leak of slag into the chimney and beyond into West end Chimney is removed First Furnace is demolished down to sand pan, slag pan removed. Floor is stripped out. Second furnace is built. Trench is dug for firebox extension Firebox built. Furnace upper is rebuilt. Chimney rebuilt. Sand pan is topped up. Floor relaid. Furnace charged with scrap iron. Furnace firing is commenced. Flood event. Furnace cracks with water invasion. Major slag leakage over floor. Furnace is out of use and beyond economical repair. Site is sold. Furnace is demolished. South wall is demolished. Chimney is demolished Part of floor is removed. Site is derelict and floods regularly. Possible part excavation. A community archaeology group EXCAVATES SITE.
34 Geology Report. Report no. 102:3004 Dick Brook is the parish boundary between the parishes of Shrawley and Astley. Its sources are on the Upper Silurian Downton Group, Downton Castle Sandstone, but for almost all its length flows through valleys of the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group, Bromsgrove Sandstone Formation. At the lower end it enters the current River Severn terrace, The Eyemore Member. At Glasshampton Bridge are some small areas of the 1st Severn Terrace, the Power House Member. The Bromsgrove Sandstone (formerly Lower Triassic Keuper Sandstone), outcrops in certain places along the valley walls and has been extensively quarried. It is likely that these local exposures are of the Finstall Member, formerly the Building Stones Member. This rock is mainly made up of sandstone, with bands of mud stone, clay and conglomerates. The stream is highly active and liable to flash flooding with sediment transport. This has resulted in the site becoming buried in sand and silt from Dick Brook
Report by Rollo Gillespie. (Original research by R.Gillespie from field notes and verified using British Geological Survey mapping)
35 Confirmed date when still used for Grinding Porcelain materials.
Pages 46 - 48 A visit to the factory on 28th May 1796 by Charles Hatchett, a chemist, is recorded in his diary, published in an edition by Arthur Raistrick. This gives an interesting insight into the factory, which, although given by an outsider, is by a highly intelligent person and provides several valuable bits of information.
“Worcester - Went to see the Porcelain Manufactory belonging to Messrs Flight and Barr. I have observed that the Steatites of Cornwall is used as an ingredient but could not learn the other component parts of the paste or clay (perhaps it is the decomposed Feldtspar from St Stephen in Cornwall). When the steatite is reduced to powder in a mill at Worcester, it is sent to some place about 10 miles distant to be mixed and washed: it is then brought back to W-- and in a liquid state is passed through fine wire sieves, is dried and tempered with water for use. When the ware is moulded it is of a brownish white or a very pale brown; it is then gently unperfectly dried. The bottoms and edges are then turned on a laithe and the Ribs if required are formed by pressing it in a Mould, the edges are then scalloped with a knife. The ware is then perfectly dried and is baked in a kiln, inclosed in pans of coarse clay. It then comes out in the state called Biscuit. If it is to be painted Blue (with cobalt) this is then done and the ware is again baked and then dipped into the glazing liquid which is of a pale red (perhaps contains Millium). The ware is then baked again and the blue colour strikes through the glazing. If gold or any other colour than blue is to be used these are applied after the ware is glazed. The colours appear to be glazed with oil of Turpentine. The gold appears to be used in the state of Cassius’s Precipitate. When the ware is painted with this it is put into a small square brick furnace and is arranged in a square iron pan which has an iron cover with a Pipe. On this cover Kundled charcole is put till the top is full. The gold when the ware comes out of this furnace is of a dead buff colour and is burnished by women with Burnishers made of Agate or Haematite. The fuel used in the kilns is a light Pit Coal in large masses with the appearance of charred wood in many places. Sometimes instead of pencelling the ware they use engraved copper plates which they fill up with the colouring matter, then with rollers take off the impression on a sort of soft tissue paper which they then apply to the ware and rub with cushions of flannel.”
Pages 227 - 8 October 1789 A very disagreeable circumstance turned up which we coud no way find out. The white & fine blue glaze was spoiled by some blue being put into it; at least there was every reason to believe this had been the case, but coud not find out. Have had a place enclosed that the Glaze may always be kept locked up. I went to the Mills1 with Mr Whitwell & examined one of the men respecting what quantity he weighted up together. There is one article which he
36 coud not tell me what it was, but I brought a piece of it home & Kitchen thinks at is the St. Stephens Clay, the same my Father brot a sample of with him from Cornwall, & that Shaw has injured the body by putting some of this into it. I intend to take some method of examining into this. With respect to our Gilding & business have great cause for thankfullness that we have done very well. Chamberlain I believe does hurt us a little, but our Trade does not seem much diminished, if at all - I find the want of fortitude & perseverence. These are very essential requisits in such a situation as mine is. - I go on trying Bodys & Glazes with Kitchen & begin to get a tollerable insight into the process of the Manufactory, - but I much want to do more in this myself. I must contrive some method to do it. - I am fearfull of leaving the Many & that makes me not know what is best about going to France.
Lords Day 18th October 1789 6 pm Our Kiln of Bisct. ware yesterday Sevennight2 was so bad that I determined to examine it to know the cause. On Thursday I went again to the mills. Shaw had not been there but had sent them orders not to put in any more clay till he came again. They had therefore left it out. They said they had only put it in since the mills were finished; that they had some of the same clay a year and half since but had not used it since that time; that immediately the mills were finished he sent a Barrell of it & that since then they had always weighed it up with the Best Clay. When I returned the Kiln was burning & I saw Shaw very carefully attending to it. It was when drawn much better than the last because better fired but much inferior to what the ware used to be, & also to a proof which was in of the last best clay which was received from the Mills on Tuesday, & in which by the Mens account at the mills there was none of this Clay. Upon questioning Shaw what coud be the cause, he replied he supposed the men must have made some mistake in the weighing & left out some of the Glass. I asked him how the trial was; he said not very good, but it appeared to him to be owing to its not being sufficcntly fired. Unless I have been deceived by the other men he is guilty of infamous duplicity. I stated all these circumstances daily to my Father who in a letter recd this day says he is of my opinion, but that as I think of going to France had better keep the matter to myself till my return. I purpose going to the Mills again tomorrow or Tuesday to see wether I can get further insight into this matter. - With my Fr & Br advice have at last resolved to go to France & expect my Br here on Tuesday to supply my absence. Have wrote Lord Harcourt for his opinion wether it is safe & intend wait his reply before I go. On Wednesday I weighed up a Fritt which Kitchen got into the Glaze Kiln for me & yesterday I weighed up a Body & also another fritt. I intend to continue to make trials & shall be glad to do it entirely myself without having Kitchen see it, as its possible, tho I ought not to entertain the thought, he may put something else to it.
1. The Company's Grinding Mills were on the Dick Brook at Shrawley, some 7 miles from Worcester. 2. i.e. a week ago yesterday. Ref 1. SANDON, Henry. (1978) Flight and Barr Worcester porcelain, 1783-1840. Antique Collectors’ Club. (The Hive. Local Ref 738.27. )
Section report and research by Francesca Llewellyn.
37 This report above does put some severe strain on the idea that it is a Cort furnace. It must have been at least 12 years since Henry patented his process and adding a couple of years does not stretch the mind too far. By and large Henry had failed to make a success of his patent and it was not adopted universally as he hoped. Any puddler, or iron master and factory owner must surely have known of the drawbacks by then, even if in the early days it wasn't widely appreciated. It must therefore be considered the bigger possibility is that this is really an old established, old fashioned if you like, remelting furnace. Nothing ground breaking, nothing fancy, but just an effective technology of the time that was known about and which worked. However until it can be placed into the wider context of the mill works it is impossible to be completely certain.
Editor's comment by Rollo Gillespie.
38 Location Maps
OS Open Space. © Crown Copyright and Database rights 2013. Ordnance Survey EULA
Lidar image of the site from http://enfarchsoc.org/opendata/
39 40 Plates.
Plate 1. Overview of the site and the relationships
Here it can be seen that the Furnace is dangerously close to the North bank of Dick Brook. The whole corner close to camera is in an active erosive zone. Flooding was obviously a problem even if the mill works are behind a large retaining wall and the furnace is barely a metre above the current low water level. A 2 metre rise in water level is by no means unusual here. (See Plate 14 -South boundary wall.)
41 Plate 2. North East view of furnace.
Plate 3. Furnace looking North.
42 Plate 4. Furnace looking West.
43 Plate 5. More elevated overview looking Northwards.
The floor area to the north side can be seen. The West edge of the slag pan does hint at some sort of metal sheet containment but otherwise nothing remains to be found. There is a possibility that this could be a somewhat makeshift repair and the furnace was giving some trouble . This demonstrates the difficulty in explaining why there is slag leakage to the West of the chimney, at least in the second phase of the furnace build. The current excavation has not exposed anything to the Northern side so there just could be another furnace under the top left corner in the picture.
44 Plate 6. East edge of slag pan.
This shows the fire brick separating wall at the bottom and where the rising wall contained the melt. The containing fire bricks on the left side are gone, and on the right, early 19th century fire brick recovery efforts have broken away parts of the slag pan edges. Moulds of the missing fire bricks at the East edge of the slag pan show they were vertical.
45 Plate 7. North West corner of the fire pit with the ash bed at the bottom.
The second phase build is not shown here and starts at the extreme right edge of the photo.
46 Plate 8. Fire pit looking West.
The second phase is clearly shown along South/North line under the arrow.
47 Post Excavation Photos.
Plate 9. General view of site during covering.
Plate 10. Retaining blocks are beginning to be laid along brook edge.
48 Plate 11. Covering the slag pan in the centre of the picture.
Plate 12. Possible ships ballast or item of unknown use. Top view.
49 Plate 13. Possible ships ballast or item of unknown use. Side view.
Plate 14. South boundary wall
50 Appendix 1 Trench description Trench 9 WHAS reference: WSM 41736
Site area: 38.5 m2 Maximum dimensions: Length: 7.5m Width: 5m Depth: 1.5m Orientation: NW-SE Main deposit description Context 1 Standardised name as Dick Brook Silt. A brown to brown red silt with small proportions of clay representing over bank flood deposits. Medium Texture with poor sorting. No clasts present. Not obviously current bedded or varved, although some discreet dark horizons appear to be from inclusion of organic material and seem to be bioturbated. V-shaped Plant trace indications show where ransoms once grew and have since been covered over. Upper layers of about 15 cms depth are not easily described as a top soil in that they are sometimes of clean washed sand forming small banks as in current ripples, and other areas are supporting plant growth and formation of small roots . Ransomes is a deeper penetrating bulb that can occur at around 20 cms depth. That may be because they are more tolerant of burial in flood events. It should be noted that Ransomes is a lime loving plant and an indicator of calcareous soils and it will not grow in areas outside of this requirement. Bromsgrove Sandstone is an aquafer and its many local tributaries drain through fossil dessication horizons of evaporitic material. This silt cover lies on the bedrock at an unknown depth with may be around 3 metres below the surface. Various locations close to the site expose bedrock in the stream bed. This deposit may represent the upper part of a single fining up sequence with gravels at the base. Overall this material is of uniform type and has encased the remains and preserved them well. Context sheets. There are no context sheets. The process of silting shows no definite time scale or layers so all sand deposits are a single unit. There was no removal of brickwork or investigations under any brickwork
Iron works references. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reverberatory_furnace_diagram.png (Most internet references return to this webpage as a source, but it can not be regarded as verified or accurate. http://www.henrycort.net/fppuddle.htm http://www.henrycort.net/02iron.htm http://www.colossus-scilly.co.uk/wreckofcolossus/HMS_victory%5B1%5D.pdf P.11 FROM Roberts, D.H. (ed.), 18th Century Shipbuilding. Remarks on the Navies of the English & the Dutch from Observations Made at their Dockyards in 1737 by Blaise Ollivier, Master Shipwright to the King of France. P 55, (Jean Boudriot Publications, Rotherfield, 1992)
51 Appendix 2 The table summarises the floor brick types and highlights the differences across the zones. Brick counting is difficult from plans. ZONE 1 ZONE2 ZONE3 ZONE 4 EAST BRICK TOTAL 28 (N &S) 16 ~30 34 ~ 49 FB TOTAL 9 0 20 42 [email protected] bricks RB TOTAL 10 16 2 11 7 +1 FB SLAG 2 0 17+3 1+14 3 FB NO SLAG 9 0 1 5 0 RB SLAG 0 0 0 3 0 RB NO SLAG 10 16 2 3 0 NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES West of Slag Slag puddling The +1 may be a crucible chimney mound drain access FB. Firebox
52 Colours are realistic and natural, however slag is purple.
53 54 55 Appendix 3. Spade pictures
Spade surface showing side that was lying in sand.
56 Close up of clasts
Socket
57 Socket
58 © CAW Publications. November 2017.
59