Blacksmiths and Foundry Building
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18th Century Oil Painting of Top Forge
This Edition was First Published 1983
The preservation of our history is something vital and important to all of us. It could almost be termed a national characteristic and is in no small measure due to a justifiable pride in that history.
It is not surprising, therefore that our industrial history is of particular interest and will be to succeeding generations as showing the origins or our present industrial structure and activity and the ingenuity of our forebears.
The Sheffield Trades Historical Society celebrated in the year of 1983, its Golden Jubilee, being formed originally as the Society for The preservation of old Sheffield Tools in 1933. As its name implies, its very foundation was based on the desire to preserve our industrial history in a tangible form and its members are bonded together by this mutual interest and desire and thus perform a most important service to the community particularly in the Sheffield and surrounding areas.
This brochure is all about Wortley Top Forge and I am sure it will be an interest and delight to ail who are interested in our industrial origins and in particular those who wish to learn more about this unique site.
It was purchased by the Society which undertook its restoration and the South Yorkshire Trades Historical Trust Ltd. was set up to raise and hold funds to enable the work to be carried out Money is vital to achieve the ultimate objective of complete restoration but nothing could he done without the enthusiasm and hard, skilled work carried out by those volunteers who spend virtually all their spare time in this endeavour. No praise is too high for what they do and we all owe them a debt for what they are doing on our behalf. I have no doubt that Wortley Top Forge will become a Mecca for people from all over the world who are interested in this live exhibit of early iron-making and forging.
I cannot conclude this foreword without thanking all those bodies such as the Department of Environment, South Yorkshire County Council, many Charitable Trusts and individuals who, by their financial support, have enabled the restoration work to reach its present stage.
I am sure the reader will enjoy this booklet and I hope you will continue to visit the Forge on open Days, Special Events, and indeed in organised parties. I am sure You will feel the sense of history and realise what was achieved by those early industrial pioneers.
S.L. Speight OBE
(Late) Chairman
South Yorkshire Trades Historical Trust Ltd.
The first forges for making malleable wrought iron from brittle cast iron, such as the Wortley Forges in the seventeenth century, were built by or on behalf of a landowner who wished to raise money from the natural resources of his land. So sometime between 1602 and 1625 Sir Francis Wortley chose a site on the banks of the Don, near to a place where he had worked a Bloomery successfully so that he had confidence that even in summer the water would be available to turn his wheels; indeed, this portion of the river carried several other water powered sites during the eighteenth century.
The forge owner needed to be sure of supplies of three other materials. In the first place, the furnace stone probably came from the Greenmoor quarries just up the hill. The pig iron was available from the furnaces at Barnby and Bank, up towards Silkstone; these were owned by a business associate. The charcoal required as fuel was available for the price of labour and transport, made from trees growing on his own land. The shorter the distance between the charcoal burners' fires and the hearths of the forge, the less loss there was through the inevitable damage through breakage when all the charcoal had to be carried in baskets or sacks by horses over rough tracks.
With the works established in this location, when the newer techniques of the later eighteenth century arrived the charcoal was gradually replaced by pit coal, this presented little difficulty. It was easier to transport coal from Deepcar or Tankersley than to go to the trouble of coppicing the woods and preparing the charcoal. Here in this remoter area water power continued to be used although in the nearby town there was a move to steam power - as indeed was partly the case at the nearby Low Forge. There was still a need for the Greenmoor sandstone and, of course, for pig iron. The production of the latter was, at the same time, undergoing change and the older group of charcoal-fired furnaces set along the outcrop of the Tankersley coal seam, the coal being associated with deposits of iron ore, went out of operation one by one between 1750 and 1800, being replaced by larger coke-fired furnaces, the most notable ones being at Chapeltown and Elsecar. There was, in any case, a widespread increase in the production of pig iron in the nineteenth century and with better transport after the introduction of the railways (a line linking Wortley was opened in 1845) many sources of scrap iron or pig iron were available; in view of the high reputation of "Wortley" iron, the forgemaster would naturally choose his raw materials with great care.
The Wortley Ironworks, probably the oldest of its type in Yorkshire, originally comprised the Low Forge, lower down the river and now derelict, and the Top Forge, now in the care of the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society and currently being restored so that something will remain on this historic site for future generations.
Top Forge building itself is largely eighteenth century in date. Records of iron making in this area go back to 1621 when a Bloomery is mentioned; it could well be, however, that the Cistercian monks worked iron in this part of the Don Valley three or four hundred years earlier. Certainly there were four "smyths" and a "master" in Wortley in 1379. The first evidence of the present Forge seems to date from the 1620's and the iron cannon balls dug up at Low Forge some years ago could well have been made during the Civil War. By 1695 we have firm records of the production of wrought iron at Wortley and account books for the next seven years can be consulted in the Local History Section of the Sheffield City Libraries. Wortley Forge at this time was administered by the Spencer partnership, which operated a group of eight blast furnaces and eleven iron forges in South Yorkshire.
Extensive alterations are known to have been made to both Wortley Forges in 1713; there is still a stone with this date at Top Forge and the more elaborate date stone from Low Forge, with the date 1713 and a carving of a typical water powered hammer. The stone at Top Forge also carries the initials of Matthew Wilson who was manager at that time. He died in 1739 and his place was taken by his nephew, John Cockshutt, to be followed in due course by his two sons, John II and James. John Cockshutt II was a great innovator; in 1771 he took out a patent for making iron direct from ore and it is quite likely that he made steel also at Wortley; in any case, he worked steel to produce drawing plates for the making of wire from his iron at the Wire Mill further up the valley.
James Cockshutt inaugurated a new era at Wortley, since he introduced the process for refining cast iron to wrought iron. This had been patented by Henry Cort in 1784 and, possible, as early as 1787 the necessary furnaces were erected at Wortley, together with a bar rolling mill, the first with grooved rolls to be installed in Yorkshire. An old mill, of later date but similar type, was rescued from Low Forge and can now be inspected at Top Forge. During the Napoleonic Wars, Wortley under James Cockshutt was producing between 300 and 400 tons of wrought iron per annum, this being at least double the output of one hundred years earlier. The last of the Cockshutts died in 1819 and it is possible that operations reached a low ebb shortly afterwards since the Earl of Wharncliffe confessed he was worried about the Ironworks in 1826 and put in Vincent Corbett, his agent, as Manager. It was during his term of office that Top Forge turned to the production of railway axles. The first of many thousands was probably made in the early 1840's, after which railway axles became the main product and Wortley became famous for them.
In 1850 Thomas Andrews, Senior, took over the works, in conjunction with his half-brothers, Samuel and John Burrows, under the title Andrews, Burrows and Co. The works were enlarged and modernised, a beam type steam engine being installed at Low Forge to assist the waterwheels. Top Forge, however, still remained solely water-powered. Thomas Andrews, junior, succeeded his father in 1871. He was to gain international repute as a scientist and metallurgist and under him Wortley became renowned for the quality of its products. Along with railway axles large quantities of high-quality bar-iron were made for use in engineering.
This was the peak of the Forge's long history. When Thomas Andrews died in 1907 the works was taken over by the Wortley Iron Company under J. and B. Birdsell. Within five years, however, Top Forge had closed down; Low Forge continued to produce wrought iron until 1929. Since then, this part of the valley has been silent and nature has virtually taken over again at Low Forge. Top Forge, with its water wheels and its old forging equipment, is being preserved as a memorial to the ancient ways of making iron and to the generations of honest workmen of Wortley who strove after quality and integrity in their craft, now part of history.
Top Forge in its present state represents an axle forge which required a supply of wrought iron billet from Low Forge. For the method of forging, please refer to the section on Products.
The production of wrought iron was the major task at Wortley. Historically there were two different ways in which this was done: prior to the last few years of the eighteenth century it employed "finery" and "chafery" whilst subsequent "puddling" was employed. In simple terms, however, whilst economically and practically there were considerable advantages in the more modern method, both can be looked upon as being but variants of a single theme.
The starting point in each case was pig iron or cast iron - the product of the blast furnace.
Iron does not occur as the metal in nature; this is not unexpected, of course, since iron exposed to the elements will "rust" or turn to a brown powder. The chemist will tell you that the metal has turned to oxide; to turn it back to metal the oxygen which it has taken up from the air during the rusting process has to be removed. Now the naturally occurring iron ores are essentially similar to the rust - they are oxides of iron, together with other minerals of a clayey or sandy nature. If they are heated together with carbon in a suitable furnace, part of the carbon will burn to provide the necessary heat; this requires a supply of air to burn it, however, so that a blast of air must be blown in from bellows and the furnace must have the required height to act like a chimney and provide the strong draught. So we get to the blast furnace, a tall cylindrical tower (the seventeenth century structure at Rockley was originally almost 30 feet high), with a massive stonework surround for support, built from high quality sandstone, with air blown in at the bottom and a mixture of iron ore and either charcoal (in our area, prior to about 1760) or coke being fed in from the top. Note that both charcoal and coke are forms of carbon. Some of the carbon will react with the bulk of the iron oxide present in the ore and take away its oxygen, giving an oxide of carbon which goes off up the stack in the form of a gas, whilst the rest of the carbon combines with the particles of metallic iron to produce a liquid alloy of iron with carbon, which flows down into the bottom of the furnace, which is known as the hearth, and collects there. Meanwhile the other part of the iron oxide combines with the clayey and sandy matter from the iron ore, forming a liquid slag which also flows down and collects in the bottom of the furnace but, being less dense than the liquid metal, it floats on top of it. When the whole of the receptacle at the base of the furnace below the point at which the air is blown in becomes full of metal and slag, it is time to "tap" the furnace, so a taphole is pricked open at the base and the liquid metal is allowed to run out down prepared channels made in a bed of sand where it solidifies into rectangular blocks to produce pig iron (or it may be collected in a ladle and poured into moulds to make castings in cast iron). When all the metal has run out, the stream can be diverted and the slag run out into suitable pans for disposal. The taphole is then made up again and the process repeated time and again.
The cast iron or pig iron, however, has very limited use; it is too brittle to be hammered and the only way in which it can be shaped is, in fact, to cast it to shape. To make the more useful wrought iron, the carbon which it absorbed in the hearth of the blast furnace has to be removed; almost 4% of carbon can be present in the cast iron. This can be removed by a process of burning out, but first it has to be remelted. Charcoal or coke again is the fuel and again a blast of air is blown in; but the conditions are different from those in the blast furnace. The furnace is open to the air, rather than having a tall chimney; there is more air and less carbon and the situation is such that the carbon in the metal will burn out rather than be absorbed by the metal and this burning out (what the chemist would call "oxidation") occurs slowly. Now it is a fact of life that the addition of carbon lowers the melting point of iron; cast iron will melt at 1200 deg C but wrought iron, without carbon, does not melt until it reaches 1500 deg C. As the carbon begins to burn out of the liquefied cast iron in either the finery or the puddling furnace, unless more fuel is supplied to raise the temperature, it gradually becomes less liquid, and becomes pasty. On stirring this pasty mass around to encourage it to lose more carbon, it eventually comes to a stage where the metallic portion congeals into a more or less solid mass, which can be lifted out with a pair of tongs and carried to the water powered hammer or helve, where it can be hammered into a bloom and the bulk of the slaggy matter it has picked up in the process can be forced out. A small quantity of slag remains in the metal; this gives it the fibrous structure which is characteristic of wrought iron. Each lump of wrought iron must not be too big to be manhandled in the first place. But wrought iron has another interesting characteristic - something in its make-up renders easy the forge-welding together of separate pieces. Massive forgings and plates of wrought iron were produced elsewhere in the nineteenth century and the 6 Ton section of a crankshaft on display at Top Forge is a fine example of this.
The initial product of either the earlier finery process or the later puddling process is the bloom.
In the finery the bloom is forged to a smaller section at the middle portion of its length, with "knobby" ends, this particular piece being known as an ancony. After this, it goes from the finery to the chafery where the ancony is reheated and reforged, each end in turn, to give a bar, usually of square cross section. This bar may then be transferred to the slitting mill where it is again reheated, rolled through a pair of flat rollers into a long thin plate, and then passed through the slitting rolls to cut the plate into diamond section rods suitable for passing to the nail makers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In later times, the puddled bloom passed to the rolling train for rolling down to billets for forging purposes or to bars and rods - the puddling operations and the rolling would all take place at Low Forge.
Between about 1840 and 1912 when Top Forge ceased production, the main product was wrought iron railway axles. Wortley soon made a firm reputation for these axles and could make the proud boast that no Wortley axles ever failed in service.
The axles were made from 16 wrought bars built up into a 'faggott' and forge welded together. The bars came from Wortley Low Forge and were of between 1¾" & 2" square in section. Two lengths of bar were used to make up a faggott. The four bars in the centre were 45" to 51" long and these were then surrounded by twelve bars of 33" to 36" long . These 16 bars were assemble in to a square of 4 by 4 and flush at one end leaving the longer centre bars sticking out at the other, where these bars protruded was know as the Staff. The bars were placed in an iron hoop with wedges driven down the side to hold the bars tightly together. A smaller hoop was secured to the four centre bars on the staff. This smaller hoop had two handles on it and was known as 'Horns'. The Faggott was then ready for heating in the furnaces.
The flush end of the Faggott was heated first and then it was lifted and swung over to the hammer using the crane. The faggott suspended by an endless chain hung from a pulley on the crane hook. This combined with the horns on the cold end allowed the forge men to move and turn the faggott under the hammer while it was being forged.
Axle forging started with the bars in the faggott being consolidated by careful forging followed by forge welding using the full force of the hammer. Liberal amounts of sand were used to help bring out the impurities during the forging process. As the forging progressed, the hoop and the horns were removed and the work piece, now starting to resemble an axle, was turned and manipulated using tongs with curved jaws and a loop of iron that help the handles together, in the gripping position.
It is thought that one end of the axle would be completed before the other end was started, as this would reduce the time taken to heat the axle. It is also highly likely that each hammer would be forging several axles at once, with axles being alternately heated and hammered.
The final part of the process, at least for a time, was to cut the rough ends of the forging. Many of these distinctive ends have been found and are on display, while two have been professionally cleaned and polished to show that quality of the forge welding process. How the ends were cut off is currently a mystery other than it must have been powered by either human effort or more likely off a waterwheel.
It took fire men to produce the axle at the hammer, with various other auxiliary workers in the Forge. The FIRST HAND and his SECOND HAND would be using the tongs and the horns, turning the white-hot faggott between the swages. The THIRD HAND was the Furnaceman; the FOURTH HAND, the Craneman. The FIFTH HAND was the ‘pole lad' whose job it was to operate the shuttle pole to control the flow of water to the wheel and thus the speed of the rotation of the wheel and hence the beat of the hammer.
The work of these forgemen was dirty, noisy and dangerous. They wore face masks of wire mesh and were covered from neck to ankle by leather aprons. To protect their legs and feet they wore boots with iron feet and shin guards which almost reached up to their knees. There are still encrustations on the walls near the hammers; these were formed from slaggy matter which literally flew off the faggott in the early stages of forge welding and minor injuries due to burns from the hot metal and slag must have been a daily event in this terrible environment.
The forge worked two eleven hour shifts - 6 am to 5 pm and 6 pm to 5 am, probably 5½ or 6 days a week when the water was available. The average output towards the end of the nineteenth century was in the order of 250 axles per week but at the start of the railway era (c 1835) it had been an achievement to make two or three axles per day under the old hammer. The men were paid on a piece work basis.
A representative sample of axles would have been tested. This was done by dropping a one ton weight from a tripod erected over a bed on which the axle was supported at each end. The deflection of the axle after each blow was measured. This tripod stood in the Forge yard, now a private garden, between the forge and the blacksmiths shop. The adjacent blower wheel was used to raise the one ton weight. Later a hydraulic press was used and the last forge master, Thomas Andrews, did much research into the strength of iron, using Wortley Axles.
Photograph of the Front of the Forge
The Forge Building is mainly eighteenth century. That extensive alterations were made in 1713 to an already existing building is indicated by the date-stone which can be seen on the right at the entrance to the Forge. The stone marked "M 1713 W" also suggests that it was Matthew Wilson, who died in 1739 and was resident partner in the Forge for several years in the early eighteenth century who was responsible for the changes. As a result, although we know iron has been forged on this site since the early seventeenth century, we are left with a mainly eighteenth century building containing the remains of a nineteenth century forge operation. The stone for the building would in all probability have come from one of the several local quarries.
Evidence of subsequent alterations in the Forge is clearly visible. The gable end has plaster on it, whilst a doorway together with the housing for floor joists, are discernible in the wall. There is a small room with an old Yorkshire range, which was the Foreman's office.
The building includes some unusual combinations of building materials such as iron columns and wooden beams supporting the stonework and one wall being totally of brick.
On the roof of the forge both slate and stone have been used. Originally there would probably have been an all stone roof, but during alterations around 1880, only the best stone was kept while the railway allowed cheap slate to be brought to make up the difference. The 'lack Roof' (raised portion) was to allow greater ventilation over an area containing furnaces capable of reaching temperatures in excess of 1300 deg C.
Photograph of Water Wheel No.1
The waterwheel is a fine example of the craftsmanship and ingenuity found within the early iron trades. The 12-foot 6-inches diameter wheel was made as a single casting and is probably a close copy of the wooden one which it replaced. Later the wooden drive shaft or axle was replaced by a smaller cast iron one and a collar had to be fitted on to the wheel to accommodate this. Timbers carrying the paddles were driven into the square holes around the outer edge of the wheel. These paddle-boards had no sides as the water was retained by the close-fitting masonry of the wheel-pit. By pulling down the shuttle-pole within the forge, the shuttle-gate would open, allowing water on the paddles approximately level with the centre-line of the wheel, hence the name "breastshot wheel". (If the water went on to the top of the wheel it was "overshot"; if below the middle of the wheel it was "under-shot"). The wheel rotated up to a maximum of 32 to 35 r.p.m. and as the water spilled out it returned to the river by means of a tail-goit, which runs under the culvert of the next wheel.
Photograph of Water Wheel No.2
This is the largest of the three waterwheels of the Forge being some 14 foot in diameter. Like No 1 wheel, it is a breast-shot wheel. Probably bought second hand and installed around the middle of the nineteenth century, the parts to make up the wheel (and of course the hammer) must have been brought to the Forge by wagon, a difficult task when one considers that the weight of the wheel, the shaft and its cam is estimated at 15 tonnes and one remembers the state of the roads at the time.
Between the two iron sections of the wheel are the wooden sole-boards and paddles. The wheel probably had a maximum speed of 25 to 30 r.p.m. The spent water from the wheel went via the culvert back to the river.
Photograph of the Blower Wheel
This wheel originally drove the bellows to provide the blast for the forge furnaces which were situated to the left of the wheel. The wheel is made of cast iron with wooden buckets. On the outside edge of the wheel can be seen a gear which drove a shaft running faster than the wheel. The wheel was used to drive various machines at various times included at least two types of axle testing machine, an electric generator and a pump that supplied 'spa' water from a spring across the river to the Grange on the other side of the road (this was the 'Gaffer's' house at the time).
Above the wheel is the pentrough which supplied the water to drive the wheel. The shuttlemouth beneath the pentrough directs the water back on to the top of the wheel and this arrangement gives the wheel the name of "pitch-back".
The date of 1850 is cast onto the pentrough and it is assumed that major work was done on the wheel at this time. The old bellows of the finery period could well have been removed, leaving only the stone beds with curved recesses. Some form of mechanical blower along with a draught drawn through chimney stacks would be required to supply the necessary air to give the welding heat to the iron charged to the early furnaces. This could well have been of the type described elsewhere at this period:
"The blower consisted of two large horizontal cylinders about two feet in diameter placed side by side, attached by pistons and connecting rods to a crankshaft driven by the water wheel. These cylinders were double-acting and provided with large leather flap valves".
The stone bed-plates, which could have been required for such an arrangement, can still be seen.
In more recent years, the wheel drove a blower that created a draught for the blacksmiths hearths.
Wortley Top Forge receives its water supply from the River Don. A weir has been constructed about half a mile upstream from the works and from this point water can be diverted down the head goit directly into the dam. For most of its journey the goit runs alongside the road and can easily be seen from the pavement.
Forge Dam is small in area and only six and a half feet deep at its maximum. The bottom is clay lined. Along the dam wall there are three culverts to regulate the supply of water to the three wheels. The first culvert - nearest the road - supplies the Blower Wheel; the middle one supplies No. 1 Hammer and the far one supplies No. 2 Hammer. The overflow allows any surplus water to return to the river; excess water could have been dangerous as it could damage the water wheels or flood the Forge itself.
The small size of the dam was recognised some time before 1746 and it was realised that insufficient water was available for the regular running of the works. Consequently a new "Back Dam" was built using the same head goit and the culvert through which water left Forge Dam to enter the new dam is still visible in use on the east wall.
There are two separate tail goits, one of which takes the water from the Blower Wheel back to the Don (this being by far the longer of the two) while the other takes the water from both the hammer wheels. It was, of course, essential for industry lower down the river that the water be returned when it had performed its work at Top Forge.
Hammers similar to those to be seen at Wortley have been in general use throughout Britain from the sixteenth century, there being a report of one as early as 1490. Unfortunately we have no record of when the present units were installed at Top Forge, but a date stone from Low Forge depicts a hammer similar to Hammer No. 1 and is dated 1713. We do know that Hammer No. 1 - in the corner of the building - is the older of the two. The way that the hammer has been constructed within the building is one indication of this fact.
Both hammers are of the belly-halve type. That is to say that the hammers are lifted by a cam operating upon the underside (or belly) of the hammer beam (or helve). But whereas Hammer No. 1 is provided with a spring beam (a naturally curved tree trunk) which acts as a spring to give a heavier blow, Hammer No.2 is free-fall. There are, of course, other differences.
Hammer No. 1 is supported on two cast iron legs which are clamped to a massive wooden beam for rigidity. Between the legs is swung a cast iron trunnion - the hirst -through which the helve is wedged. The hirst is the pivot point of the hammer. The cast iron hammer-head is fixed to the helve by a wedge, a system which allows the head to be replaced either when worn or to set up a new job. The anvil is also of cast iron and into it is let a pallet that mates with the hammer head.
When not in use, the hammer is supported clear of the lifting-cam by inserting a heavy, 18 inch, length of wood bound with hoops of iron, known as the "gag" -presumably to keep the mouth open! The whole hammer is set and built upon a raft of several layers of timber which act as a shock absorber. The lifting cam is connected directly to its own waterwheel and it, therefore, revolves at the same speed as the wheel. Inset into the cam-wheel are five lobes which do the actual job of lifting the helve. The hammer therefore strikes five blows per revolution; since it is estimated that the waterwheel was capable of running at 32 to 35 r.p.m. resulting in a possible 175 blows per minute. The force would probably have been similar to that of a 25 cwt. steam hammer.
Hammer No. 2 is supported on an independent rigid cast iron frame and is therefore a more compact unit than No. 1. However, size belies force, for this is a heavier hammer and can deliver a blow of some 3 tons weight.
The cast iron helve is lifted in a different manner from No.1 for here the cam turns parallel to the helve-line. The waterwheel gives a direct drive, the camwheel rotating at the same speed as the wheel. On this cam there are only four lifting points; if the wheel has a capability of 25 to 30 r.p.m, this results in a possible 120 blows per minute.
The four cranes found on the site played a vital role in the smooth working of the Forge. The two cranes close to the hammers were used to aid the furnacemen to place the faggotts into the furnaces and then to withdraw them after heating. The cranes also supported the white hot faggotts as they were being turned under the hammers. It is from these two cranes that the positions of the furnaces can be calculated, as the cranes must be able to reach them.
The two cranes at the entrance to the Forge were used to move the axles out of the Forge; the small crane loaded axles on to the weighing machine (the axle which is on view at the forge weighs approximately 300 lb.) while the yard crane loaded them on to the flatbed wagons known as "iron wains".
All the cranes are of a simple jib construction, made of wood, with iron used for the working parts. The lifting mechanism is worked from the base of the upright by simply turning the handle, which is geared to the winding drum. There is a traverse mechanism, operated by a chain that hangs down. By pulling one side of this continuous loop of chain, the hook moves along, whilst the other side moves it in the opposite direction.
The cranes can move loads anywhere within the circle of ground that they cover (except where they clash with the roof supports)
The early furnaces at Wortley would have been similar in size to the blacksmith's hearth of today. The forging of axles however demanded a larger capacity and a more continuous and even method of heating.
The furnaces now in the forge are not original. Unfortunately these were sold one for reuse when production ceased. Similar ones have been obtained and it is hoped that one of these can be rebuilt to working order in the future
Externally the furnace is an iron box but has a firebrick-lined interior consists of three inter-connected chambers. The First at the rear is the firebox, fitted with cast iron fire-grate bars upon which the coal fire burned. The firebox was charged through the fire door, which would normally be closed unless coal was being shovelled in. Below the grate was the open ashpit that allowed the air to feed the fire and the ash to be shovelled out (It was tipped on Cinder Hill, close to the entrance road). Forced air (from a blower) was not required for this type of furnace, the natural draught from the chimney-stack being sufficient and the actual amount of draught then being controlled by a damper on top of the chimney.
Separating the firebox from the second chamber (containing the hearth) is a "firebridge", a wall of firebrick which restricts the passageway, thereby concentrating the pull of the draught from the chimney and intensifying the draught through the fire. A similar bridge separates the hearth from the chimney throat.
All the heat and products of combustion (probably a lot of smoke) past from the firebox into the hearth chamber, with its domed firebrick roof helping to reflect the heat down onto the hearth and also allows the gases to pass into the chimney throat and hence up the stack.
The floor of the hearth was of firebrick and had slightly saucer-shaped with a small hole at its lowest point. The floor was covered with sand; the oxide scale, created when an iron bars was heating in this way, reacted with the sand and combined to form a fusible slag which then ran out through the hole, being collected in a pan at the far end of the furnace.
The workpiece was placed on the hearth through on of the main front doorways that included counter-balanced, firebrick-lined doors. These doors were suspended from weighted arms that allowed them to be lifted with only a little effort.
Because the uppermost surface of the workpiece received the most heat, it was necessary for the furnacemen to turn the piece over from time to time to ensure uniform heating.
In order to maintain the forge as a commercial enterprise, it was necessary to provide the back-up services of blacksmith, wheelwright and joiner. The buildings that housed these services are used today to exhibit various aspects of work and life during the time of the forge.
To the right of the entrance to these buildings is an area devoted to the crafts and skills of the blacksmith. One of the three hearths known to have been in the building has been reconstructed as a working exhibit. It can be seen in operation periodically throughout the year and items are sometimes made to order.
The remainder of this area has been given over to the reconstruction of a nineteenth century machine shop. The various lathes, drilling and shaping machines are driven by overhead line shafting, which in turn is driven by a paraffin engine (or electric motors), as all the machines in this workshop are used in the actual renovation of the forge and its exhibits.
There is an example of a very early metal centre-lathe made by Fox of Derby around 1820
Beyond the machine shop is a wide ranging collection of working engines. Many such as the inverted vertical compound steam engine made by Marshalls of Gainsborough and the horizontal paraffin engine made by Crossley Bros. of Manchester, depict the advance of engine technology. Amongst the exhibits is a vertical steam engine made for the Neepsend Gas Works in 1852 and used to drive a mortar mill. Mortar was much in demand to brick-up the fronts of early types of coke oven. You will also find a horizontal steam engine manufactured by Buxton and Thornley of Burton-upon-Trent and used to drive a saw mill at Baslow in Derbyshire. More detailed accounts of the exhibits in this area can be found on a separate printed sheet.
The area containing the working engines is referred to as the 'Foundry' because evidence has been unearthed to suggest that this was another aspect of the work of Wortley Top Forge.
Attached to the end of this building is a furnace site. It is believed that his was a very early steel making furnace. The method used was known as the cementation process. Wrought iron bars were packed in layers sandwiched by charcoal and sealed in a sandstone chest. This was then heated for a week during which time some carbon was absorbed by the wrought iron, leaving blister steel, so called because the bars had a blistered appearance.
Upstairs, in the former joiners workshop, is an exhibition centre displaying old handtools, gas and electric appliances and various other forms of early technology. This is a changing exhibition.
Adjoining the main forge building are two cottages once inhabited by workers. One of these provides the opportunity to step into the domestic world of the forgeman and his family, with household items and curios from a past age. It was typical to find workers cottages as an integral part of industrial sites such as this.
It is interesting to compare the size and style of these cottages with the managers house which is away from the forge on the other side of the main road. Please note the managers house is private property and not part of the museum. The cottages enable the visitor to appreciate what life was like living with stone floors, no bathroom or indoor sanitation.
One of the rooms of the cottage is an interpretation centre which explains some of the technical processes involved in forging, as well as tracing the making of iron from its raw material to the finished product. In an upper room there is an exhibition of iron products which played such a vital role in the day to day lives of people over 100 years ago.
Whilst in the cottages, imagine trying to sleep while both hammers were in operation in the adjoining Forge.
One of the attractions of Wortley Top Forge is its setting. To be found within the grounds are a variety of environments and habitats. Along the river side are elder and willow trees, and evidence of mammals of the river bank. The open grassland areas and verges contain a wealth of flowering plants, insects and mini beasts. There are areas of marsh and mixed woodland, both supporting a variety of animal, bird and plant life common to such areas. (A more detailed account of the environment of the forge can be followed on one of the worksheets available.)
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