THE WORTLEY IRONWORKS, of which this Top Forge is part, have long been famous as probably the oldest ironworks in Yorkshire and their products were greatly esteemed during centuries of useful production for their high quality and sound workmanship. Production ceased in 1929, since when much of the old equipment, and even of the buildings themselves, has disappeared or fallen into decay. The recent acquisition of this old Top Forge, however, by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society ensures the preservation of what remains and also the restoration, in due course, of the working efficiency of this famous 18th century Forge, with its two old water-driven Tilt Hammers, and the water wheel of its blower, along with as many items of the old equipment of the forge as can be collected from various sources, or possibly rediscovered by excavation on the site.

This building has now been declared an Ancient Monument by the Ministry of Works, as indicated on the plaques on its walls, so that its existence is assured, at least in its present condition. It is thanks to the generosity of industrial friends of the Sheffield Trades Historical Society that the building, with its land, has now been acquired and that the most urgent measures of preservation and protection have been so handsomely carried out by its nearest neighbouring great modern steelworks. Further improvements, particularly the restoration to working capacity of the waterwheels and helve hammers, are definitely scheduled by the Society, but the progress of these will be contingent on the further generous financial support of our visitors and of the industrial magnates of Sheffield and district.

The various existing items of historical interest in this most interesting building are plainly described on the notice-boards attached to them, as are other items belonging to the Society from other sources of historical interest, stored here for safety and exhibition pending the construction of an industrial museum. Indicating boards are also fixed showing the emplacement and the nature of other items of equipment, no longer existing, but necessary to complete the full working equipment of the Forge in its active days.

Although this Forge is essentially an 18th century building, the existing records of Wortley Forge go back to the days of Charles 1, the mid-seventeenth century, but it is known that the beginnings of iron making in the Wortley district stretch back for three or four hundred years further even than that. It may well be true, and it is indeed pleasant to conjecture, that the Cistercian monks of Ecclesfield, Rockley, Pilley and Bretton, all places within a few miles of Wortley, may have begun the making of iron at Wortley Low Forge, half a mile lower down the Don from this Top Forge, away back in the years 1160-1200.

In 1379, the Poll Tax Roll for Wortley contains the names of four "smyths" and of their master, evidence of a forge, or bloomery, if only a small one, here at that date. The more material evidence of large beds of bloomery cinder near the Forges shows that smelting must have been continued over a long period. There is documentary evidence of a "finery" where pigs of iron were heated and hammered into half blooms and then into ankonies (flat bars with a square knob at each end), at Wortley in the 17th century, and this work was continued at Top Forge until puddling was introduced there by Cockshutt about the end of the 18th century.

By the middle of the 17th century, the times of Charles I and the Civil War, Wortley Forges are well established. Iron cannon balls, dug up at Low Forge, were proved to have been made during the Civil War period, these being now in Wortley Church, probably the earliest specimens of Sheffield's armament productions. The names of the Wortley Forges, Slitting Mill and Wire Mills appear in many records of the 17th century, in the families of Cotton, Heyford, Fell, Wood and, especially, Wilson of Broomhead.

Reports of the Wortley Ironworks for the years 1695-6 to 1701-2 are preserved in the records of the famous Spencer family of Cannon Hall, near Barnsley, for Wortley was a member of the Spencer Syndicate. An interesting list of equipment and tools for the year 1696 for Wortley Top and Lower Forges also appears in the Spencer records.

However, the existing Top Forge buildings are of the early 18th century, as can be seen from the stone built into one of the walls bearing the date 1713, with the letters M.W., these being the initials of Matthew Wilson, the then proprietor. A more elaborate stone from the Low Forge, with the date 1713 and a carving of a typical tilt hammer, is now in the possession of Thos. Andrews & Co. Ltd., Sheffield.

In 1739, Matthew Wilson "of Wortley Forge, Gent." died, and his nephew John Cockshutt took over the Works, to be followed by his sons, John and James. In 1771, John Cockshutt took out a Patent for refining malleable iron direct from the ore in a finery, no doubt the result of experiments at Wortley.

James Cockshutt was one of the first to appreciate the value of the invention of Cort for puddling and rolling iron, and, soon after 1787, he put down at Wortley the first bar mill with grooved rolls to be erected in Yorkshire. An old Rolling Mill of this type from Wortley Low Forge has been preserved by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society and it can now be seen in this Top Forge at Wortley.

At the end of the 18th century Wortley was producing some 300 to 400 tons of high quality iron and business boomed during the Napoleonic Wars. Mr. Corbett took over the works and it was in his time, probably about 1838, that forged railway axles were first made at Wortley, a production on which the later fame of these Works was based.

In 1839, Mr. Thos. Andrews, Sen., took over the Works, with his half-brothers, Samuel and John Burrows, under the title Andrews, Burrow & Co. Within a few years the works were enlarged and modernized. A beam engine was installed at Low Forge but the hammers at Top Forge were still driven by water power. Shortage of water was sometimes a problem.

Thomas Andrews, Jun., succeeded his father in 1871, at the age of 24, and he gained international fame as a scientist and metallurgist. The Works became famous for the manufacture of railway axles of the highest quality. It was claimed that no "Wortley" axle ever broke in service. Large quantities of bar iron for railway couplings, and for textile machinery, were also produced. On his death in 1907, the Works were taken over by the Wortley Iron Co. Ltd., under Messrs. J. & B. Birdsell, but they were finally closed in 1929. Wortley was one of the very last to haul down its iron flag before the onslaught of its rival steel.

The valley through which the sound of the hammers echoed for so many centuries is now silent, but it is fitting that we should preserve as our inheritance the Old Forge, with its water wheels and its old equipment, as a memorial of the ancient ways of the making of iron, and of the generations of honest workmen of Wortley, whose watchword was ever loyalty and quality.

It is one of the aims and objects of the Sheffield Trades Historical Society to see that such monuments as this old Top Forge of Wortley are preserved from further ruin and decay, and we count on the help of our members, present and future, of our visitors and of the local industrialists to make it certain that this can be done.

R. W. A.

Sheffield Trades Historical Society,

Brookhill, Sheffield 3.

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