tarboat's photos with the keyword: ironworks

Steam hammer in action in the forge at the 'Red by Night' event at the Black Country Living Museum.

The safety valve lifts on the boiler powering the steam hammer at the Black Country Living Museum.

In 1881 Carl Röchling began construction of an ironworks at Völklingen. Production began two years later and whilst improvements were made for a number of years the works remains as an example of pig iron production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The plant closed in 1986 and is now a world heritage site and museum.

This enginehouse once formed part of the Albion Ironworks at Aspull, Wigan. It clearly housed a large beam engine, with the bob wall on the other side, but its purpose has never been satisfactorily explained.

Stanton Ironworks was founded in 1787 and was closed down by Saint Gobain in 2007. High quality spun pipes were the speciality of this works but in spite of operating very efficiently, production was transferred elsewhere and the plant has now been demolished.

Fussell's Lower Ironworks, Mells was abandoned in 1894 after a long history of producing edge tools since at least 1744. The works was largely stripped at that time and has since been left to decay.

In the second half of the nineteenth century a coke-fired ironworks was established at Creevelea in Leitrim. Operations began in 1852 with two large and one smaller blast furnace. Ironstone was obtained locally and coal for coking on site was brought from the Arigna coalfield a few miles away.The cost of transporting the coal is thought to have led to the closure of the works in the mid-1850s. This was followed by a number of attempts to work the furnaces using charcoal made from compressed peat. Intermittent activity using coke continued from the mid-1860s and at the final closure in 1896 there was just one furnace remaining on the site. Although most of the structures at this remote site have been demolished, the last blast furnace remains as a reminder of nineteenth century ironworks practice.

Fussell's Lower Ironworks, Mells was abandoned in 1894 after a long history of producing edge tools since at least 1744. The works was largely stripped at that time and has since been left to decay. The water power systems on the site are complex and difficult to unravel and this is not helped by the fact that later use was made to provide electricity for a nearby property by the installation of a waterwheel and then a turbine. The feed to this later turbine can be seen in the centre of this image.

Plateway track still in place 100+ years after the closure of Fussell's Lower Ironworks at Mells.