Wortley Top Forge
| Published: 20th January 2007 15:33 |
History of Wortley Top Forge
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. 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 'M.W.', likely to be for 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. This seems to be based on experiments carried out at Top Forge using a furnace and water powered blowing engine. It seems quite likely that he also made steel 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 Cockshutt's 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.
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 but was converted to produce railway axles and later Wortley became famous for them. 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.
Address:- Forge Lane, Thurgoland, Sheffield, S35 7DN Tel:- 0114 288 7576 www.topforge.co.uk
Opening Times:- Sundays & Bank Holiday Mondays 11.00am - 5.00pmWhat do you think?
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