Hid View de po n i I n n t s d u s t r y Hill Rive Fo r C rt o s n The Angidy n e c t i o n Trail s A walk along Tintern’s Angidy Valley 3 HOUR, 5 MILE CIRCULAR WALK Follow the Angidy Trail and discover Tintern’s hidden industry – the furnace, forge and wireworks, the workers’ cottages, limekilns, tidal dock and church where generations of metal workers were baptised, married and buried. t s d u s t r y Discover the heritage of the Wye Valley through our four themes Hill Rive Fo Hillforts r C rt o s n The brooding presencen of e c t massive hillfortsi built by Iron o n Age tribes, commandings wide vistas high above the Wye, reinforces the feeling that this area has been border country for millennia. Vie Hidd wp e Hidden industry Angidy timeline o n i I n n t s d With fiery furnaces belching out u s t fumes and smoke the Wye Valley H r id y View de 1568 1821 po n was one of the earliest places in i I n n t z z d Company of Mineral 20 water wheels, s the UK to industrialise. Today u s and Battery Works including a tide-powered t the woodland and water which r starts wireworks at wheel operating along y powered this industry provide a Tintern the Angidy picturesque backdrop for this z Hill F River hidden industrial heritage. First brass made in 1826 o C rt o Britain at Tintern s n z n Abbey Tintern e c t i 1600 Furnace closes Hil Riv o l F er n o Cs River connections rt o z Blast Furnace built s n 1876 n e beside the Angidy, c Think of the Wye as a watery z t Lower Wireworks i o the first place in n highway linking the riverside Bridge constructed s Wales to industrialise villages with the wider world to provide a rail link on such a large scale. and you’ll begin to understand 1878 its importance in earlier times 1780s z when boatmen navigated trows z New Tongs Mill closes Abbey Tintern after 75 years operation laden with cargo between the Furnace first in UK Wyeside wharves. to use cylinders 1880 rather than bellows. z Tinplate manufacture Vie Hidd wp Viewpointse z starts at the Lower o n Cannon making at i I n n t Abbey Tintern Furnace Wireworks site. s Tourists discoveredd the beauty u s t of the Wye in ther 18th century 1803 1895 when it becamey fashionable to z New Tongs (Upper z Tinplate works take the Wye Tour and find Wireworks) built at close – 300 years of inspiration in the picturesque Pontysaison metal working in the viewpoints. The views have Angidy ends changed as woods and farmland Hill are managedRive differently today, but Fo r C rt o s you'll still find inspirationn here! n Tintern Abbey, George Rowe. (© Chepstow Museum) n e c t i o n s The Angidy’s Hidden Industries The sound of the babbling Angidy river is the sound of distressed and sick persons being then visited with energy – the water power which turned the wheels of the plague’. Before long the complex of connected iron industry in this valley for hundreds of years. Flourishing and wire works stretched for two miles up the valley. from the 1560s the Angidy was one of the earliest By the early 19th century there were at least 20 places in the UK to industrialise. waterwheels along the Angidy. Wire making dominated daily life here. Making Britain less dependent on imported goods was government policy during Elizabeth l’s reign. They set All this industrial activity was well established by the up The Company of Mineral and Battery Works and time fashion conscious travellers began flocking to gave it a monopoly to produce wire, which was a Tintern on The Wye Tour. Although the romantic ruins highly valuable commodity. of Tintern Abbey were the highlight, the nearby ‘great iron-works, which introduce noise and bustle unto these The first brass produced in Britain was made in regions of tranquillity’ offered inspiration and excitement Tintern in 1568, but beset by problems, attention to many tourists. Far from viewing industry as a blot on turned to iron wire making, which the Angidy became the landscape, these visitors loved the sounds of the huge famous for. Tintern was soon producing some of the forge hammers hitting metal, the heat of the furnaces best wire in the country and by 1600 the wireworks and the thick smoke which hung over the Valley! were the largest industrial enterprise in Wales, employing hundreds of people. A job at the wireworks ‘Its proximity to the Forest of Dean afforded a cheap was much sought after – wireworkers were the local and easy supply of ore…. while the woods that spread elite. They enjoyed voting rights, tax concessions, sick themselves over the face of the country, offered an pay and pensions which were paid to those too old to unceasing quantity of a not less valuable material, work. A priest and a school teacher were funded by charcoal. With a navigable river flowing at its feet, – the company who also supplied ale and tobacco at open to every part of the kingdom, united to these the annual wireworks feast. When the plague arrived advantages we wonder not that such a manufactory in the village the company ‘did relieve divers should be here establised.’ (Heath 1803) n Watermill with Tintern Abbey in the distance, n Loaded trow passing Tintern Abbey. F. Calvert, 1815. (© Chepstow Museum) (© Private collection) z Front cover: Waterwheel at Tintern, Joseph Powell, 1805. (© Trustees of the British Museum) Pont y Saeson Forge The Angidy’s Storage pond Upper Wireworks Hidden Industries (New Tongs Mill) The wireworks needed supplies of a special type of iron Leat which was often difficult to source. When Abbey Tintern Furnace was built around 1672 it supplied cast iron (too brittle to be made into wire) to the forge at Pont-y- Abbey Tintern Furnace Saeson, where it was transformed into osmond iron (which could be made into wire) by hammering and heating. The sound of heavy hammers would have Storage pond echoed throughout the valley and the night sky would Tilting Mill have been lit up with the glow from the furnace and the flying sparks as the hammers hit the iron. The furnace and forges burnt charcoal which was made Leat locally and brought in by pack horse. Spring was the charcoal making season; huge amounts were needed to produce osmond iron. Iron ore from the Forest of Dean and Lancashire was shipped along the Wye to the tidal Chapel Mill Wireworks dock at Abbey Mill. Pack horses carried the ore up to Middle Wireworks Abbey Tintern Furnace. Pig iron cast at the furnace, and finished goods such as fire backs and cannons, were shipped out from the dock. Pig iron was also taken to the forge. Here it was reheated and beaten to make wrought iron, which could be crafted into more complicated shaped tools. It was also at the forge that the pig iron was made into bars of osmond iron. These bars then went to the tilting mill, where they were hammered out and cut by shears Hammer House into finger-sized rods. Before the rods could be drawn Storage pond into wire they had to be heated to red heat for about 12 Block House (Gig or Jigger Mill) hours in a special furnace. This was called annealing. They were then soaked in water for several weeks. Lower Wireworks As you can see making wire was a skilled and slow process. Next stop was the wire drawing mill, where the rods were heated and drawn through holes of decreasing size, in a metal sheet called a die. To make the finest grades of wire this was repeated over and over. The sites along the Angidy were part of a continuous industrial process – one of the earliest in the country. Storage pond Abbey Mill j The industrial sites of the Angidy Valley Limekilns Tidal dock This drawing gives an impression of where the main industrial sites were located. Although they didn't all operate at the same time each of these Quayside River Wye sites has an industrial past. The Wireworks Bridge was the last development in 1876. (Phil Kenning) Tintern Abbey Hid View de n This is one of the few images we have showing the po n i I START n n t d buildings on the Lower Wireworks site c. 1905. s u s Lower Wireworks car park t r Can you spot the tall chimney and the three storey OS OL Map 14 Grid Reference: 526002 y building to its left, both of which stood here? Follow the Angidy Trail way markers. (© Neil Parkhouse Collection) (Numbers in the text also appear on the map.) pins and numerous other useful items! Wire was used Hill Rive Fo r C in fashionable Elizabethan clothing, providing the rt o s n n structure for farthingales (which held skirts out) and 1 The Lower Wireworks e c t i stomachers (which pulled stomachs in). Across Britain o n The wall running the length of this car park is all thats thousands of people were employed making wire into remains of one of the most important industrial sites carding combs for the woollen industry (wool was in the Wye Valley.