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true, then it is certain it is better these iron works were up and in being
than that there were none. And it were well if there were an Act of
Parliament for enclosing all common fit or any way likely to bear wood in the
Forest of Dean and six miles round the Forest; and that great quantities of
timber might by the same law be there preserved, for to supply in future ages
timber for shipping and building. And I dare say the Forest of Dean is, as to
the iron, to be compared to the sheep s back as to the p. 49woollen; nothing
being of more advantage to England than these two are. . . .
 In the Forest of Dean and thereabouts, the iron is made at this day of
cinders, being the rough and offal thrown by in the Romans time; they then
having only foot blasts to melt the iron stone; but now, by the force of a
great wheel that drives a pair of bellows twenty feet long, all that iron is
extracted out of the cinders, which could not be forced from it by the Roman
foot blast. And in the Forest of Dean and thereabouts, and as high as
Worcester, there are great and infinite quantities of these cinders, some in
vast mounts above ground, some underground, which will supply the iron works
some hundreds of years, and these cinders are they which make the prime and
best iron, and with much less charcoal than doth the ironstone. . . . Let
there be one ton of this bar-iron made of Forest iron, and £20 will be given
for it.
The 4th  Order of the Mine Law Court, dated 27th April, 1680, fixes the
prices at which twelve Winchester bushels of iron mine should be delivered at
the following places: St. Wonnarth s furnace, 10s.; Whitechurch, 7s.; Linton,
9s.; Bishopswood, 9s.; Longhope, 9s.; Flaxley, 8s.; Gunnsmills (if rebuilt),
7s.; Blakeney, 6s.; Lydney, 6s.; at those within the Forest (if rebuilt), the
same as in 1668; Redbrooke, 4s. 6d.; the Abbey (Tintern), 9s.; Brochweare, 6s.
6d.; Redbrooke Passage, 5s. 6d.; Gunnpill, 7s.; or ore (intended for inland)
shipped on the Severn, 6s. 6d.
Most of these localities present traces of long continued iron manufacture,
especially St. Wonnarth s, Whitchurch, Bishopswood, and Flaxley, where the
energetic proprietress, Mrs. Boevey, is said by Sir R. Atkyns to have had (c.
A.D. 1712)  a furnace for casting of iron, and three forges. Charcoal is the
only fuel of which any indications remain, the coppice woods being in several
instances preserved from p. 50which it used to be obtained, and the furnaces
are shown to have been invariably situated where waterpower was at command.
The prices affixed to the ore, including delivery, indicate a discontinuance,
in a measure, of the mines on the north-east edge of the Forest. Those
adjoining Newland and in Noxon Park, both on the opposite side of the Forest,
appear to have formed the principal sources of supply. The records of the
Court of Mine Law, belonging to this date, allude oftener to these works than
to others, for the same reason.
Its  order, dated 8th December, 1685, in providing that  the one-half of the
jury of 48 should be iron-miners, and the other half colliers, manifests
considerable decay in the influence and number of the former operatives, once
so much otherwise. It is remarkable that the later orders are silent as
regards iron, owing to the suppression of the Forest furnaces.
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With respect to the mode now in use of reducing the mine ore, there is
preserved so explicit an account, from the pen of Dr. Parsons, the county
antiquary and naturalist of that age, as to call for its verbatim insertion
here:
 The ore and cinder, wherewith they make their iron (which is the great
employment of the poorer sort of inhabitants),  tis dug in most parts of the
Forest, one in the bowells, and the other towards the surface of the earth.
 There are two sorts of ore: the best ore is your Brush ore, of blewish
colour, very ponderous, and full of shiny specks, like grains of silver; this
affordeth the greatest quantity of iron, but being melted alone, produceth a
metal very short and brittle. To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of
another material, which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse
of p. 51the ore, after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted
with the other in due quantity, gives it that excellent temper of toughness
for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign
parts.
 After they have provided their ore, their first work is to calcine it, which
is done in kilns, much after the fashion of our ordinary lime kilns; these
they fill up to the top with coal and ore untill it be full, and so, putting
fire to the bottom, they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew
the kilnes with fresh ore and coal. This is done without any infusion of
mettal, and serves to consume the more drossy part of the ore, and to make it
fryable, supplying the beating and washing, which are to no other mettals;
from hence they carry it to their furnaces, which are built of brick and
stone, about 24 foot square on the outside, and near 30 foot in hight within, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]