As well as Engines and Machine Tools we have a number interesting items well worth including in the on-line details.
Ornate Date Stone from Wortley Low Forge
Horse Gin - For turning machine using horse power
Meltham Footbridge - A big example of Victorian Ironwork
Mirfield Station Yard Crane - Once upon a time, every station had one
Nine Mens Morris Stone - The Viking equivalant of Chess ?
Iron Rolling Mill - another surviver from Wortley Low Forge
Stone Balance Wheel - How to turn a wooden wheel into a heavy flywheel
This Date Stone is now on display at Top Forge
Major work was done at both Top Forge and Low Forge in 1713. The date stone for Top Forge is simply as stone with the date (1713) and the initials 'M.W.' (thought to be Mathew Wilson). but at Low Forge the stone included an illustration of the hammer.
Interestingly, this hammer shown includes a spring beam, just as can be seen on the No.1 hammer at Top Forge.
So ornate was this stone, that its design was used on the business cards of 'Thomas Andrews & Co'.
The Base and Ironwork of the Horse Gin in Storage at Top Forge
Everybody knows that the horse (and ox) have long been used to pull loads on carts, or farm implements such as ploughs, and indeed the National Trust still uses horses to remove logs from protected woodlands. What many people don't know is that horses could also be used as stationary power source. Mines probably used horses first to wind coal or ore out of shafts, but horses were also used on farms to drive machine in farmyards.
The name given to the machines that turned the horse walking into a rotary motion was 'horse gin' which is a corruption of 'horse engine'.
Our example came from an outbuilding at the 'Black Bull' Shepley, nr Huddersfield and has a large stone base with iron gears inside the vertical cylinder. This type is known as 'Safety Gear', as all the gearing is contained within the centre casing. This gin was probably made by the Reading Ironworks, sometime after 1???. The horse was harnessed to a wooden shaft that was fastened to the large turntable. As the horse walked round the gin, a gear on the large turntable turned as small pinion on the output shaft. A long shaft with flexible coupling (like a prop shaft on a car) ran outside the path that the horse walked. On the end of the shaft is a belt pulley that could drive any machine that the horse was strong enough to power.
It is worth pointing out that the unit of power 'horse power' (1hp = 0.75kw) cannot be related to the number of horses need to do the job., especially as a horse cannot be used continuously. The Douglas Horse Trams (Isle of Man) need three horses for each tramcar and they only operate a day shift. A figure of 10 horses per tramcar has been quoted in the past for full 'Commercial' operation.
The bridge was cut in two for transport. It is currently stored close to the Forge Gates
The railway to Meltham was opened in 1861, as a branch off the Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction Railway. The last train ran in 1964, after which the line was lifted and the land sold off. Jumping ahead to 1999, a new supermarket was planned on the old railway at Meltham. For the supermarket to be built the old footbridge had to come down, but the planners put a restriction on saying that the bridge had to go to a good home. Wortley Top Forge has become that good home.
The crane is very difficult to photograph, so here are the most interesting bits!
This 5 ton capacity hand crane is installed at the edge of the carpark. It is an example of the type of crane used at almost every railway station and canal wharf in Britain. This example was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and was collected from Mirfield Station, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Although it is working order, it is not used.
The crane has two gears and each of which can have two handles mounted on the shaft (four people working at once is not really practical). The wooden jib is a replacement as is the lifting rope, originally the crane would have had a chain.
For some time this stone was included in the garden wall at Top Forge and was generally forgotten about. During 2002, the wall was partially demolished and the stone moved under cover.
The Rolling Mill sat behind the No.2 furnace in the Forge Building
This is two connected 'Two High stands' used at Wortley Low Forge. It would have been located in the main rolling area to the west of the beam engine, and would turned part finished bars in to the final profile ready for sale. It was powered by the beam engine. Very few, if any other rolling mills of this age and type have survived.
The description 'Two High' refers to the mill (or stand for an individual unit) having two rollers. When the hot iron had been passed through one roll, it would be passed back over the top on the upper roller and then passed through again. Some stands were 'three high' and the iron was rolled on each pass in both directions.
Along with the Rolling Mill are two sets of spare rolls. When there were worn, the rolls were machined on a special lathe in the fitting shop, adjacent to the rolling mill.
The last two sections of the Balance wheel to retain some ironwork, seen at Wortley Low Forge. Note the sections are sat on another two separate sections, while more are in the foreground.
This wheel came to Top Forge from Low Forge. It may have been originally made for Wortley Tin Mill but was definitely used at Low Forge. The 12 sections of the wheel are carved from stone and were held together with an iron frame, all this then formed a wooden spoked wheel. If it was used at Wortley Tin Mill, its purpose was to act as a flywheel on a wooden water wheel that drove a rolling mill. There were in fact two stone rings used at Wortley Tin Mill and so the surviving parts may have be a mixture of both. It was used as a fly wheel on a rolling mill at Low Forge. The story goes that between Low Forge closing and the stones being moved to Top Forge they were used as a garden wall.
The wheel has been displayed at Top Forge at various times. After bening used (again) as a wall, it is now on display outside the Smithy building.
The Stone sections of the Balance Wheel as displayed at Top Forge. A Grind Stone is positioned where the shaft would have been.
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