Bringewood Ironworks was a

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

in north

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

. It was powered by the

river Teme The River Teme (pronounced ; ) rises in Mid Wales, south of Newtown, and flows southeast roughly forming the border between England and Wales for several miles through Knighton before entering England in the vicinity of Bucknell and continu ...

, with a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

, a

finery forge A finery forge is a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and decarburization, removing carbon from the molten cast iron through Redo ...

and latterly a

rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simi ...

for

blackplate Blackplate is hot rolled or cold rolled,DIN 55405:2006-11 ''Verpackung - Terminologie - Begriffe'', Berlin: Beuth Verlag. non- descaled sheet steel or sheet iron.tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

ned into

tinplate Tinplate consists of sheet metal, sheets of steel coated with a thin layer of tin to impede rust, rusting. Before the advent of cheap mild steel, the backing metal (known as "") was wrought iron. While once more widely used, the primary use of tinp ...

It was probably built for

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ove ...

in the 1590s, but reverted to the Crown on his attainder, and was then let to Sir Henry Wallop. However, he evidently sublet it to working

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a larg ...

s. By 1623, it was run by Francis Walker, and continued to be operated by his descendants until the bankruptcy of Job Walker in 1695. They were also concerned in a number of other ironworks in southern and central

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. About 1695, the ironworks, consisting of a

and a

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the ...

, was acquired by Richard Knight (1659–1745). He and then his sons gradually expanded their activities, acquiring ironworks in the valley of the River Stour. Richard Knight retired in about 1733, after which the works were managed by his son Ralph Knight for a family partnership with his brother Edward (1699–1780). After his death, the works passed to Edward, who ran them in partnership with his sons John (1740–1795) and James, managed by the latter. Their interest in the works ceased on Edward's death in 1778. Richard Knight had two other sons another Richard Knight (1693–1765) and Thomas Knight (1697–1764), the latter being the father of

Richard Payne Knight Richard Payne Knight (11 February 1751 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square,History of Parliament biography London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best k ...

MP (1750–1824) and

Thomas Andrew Knight Thomas Andrew Knight (1759–1838), FRS, of Elton Hall in the parish of Elton in Herefordshire (4 miles south-west of Ludlow) and later of Downton Castle (3 miles north-west of Elton), was a British horticulturalist and botanist. He served as ...

FRS (1759–1838). John Knight was father of Thomas Knight (1775–1853), who was active in publishing on mathematics, notably in ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'' (seven papers, something of a record for an otherwise quiet period). None of these descendants were directly concerned in the iron industry. However, because of the settlement of inheritance within the Knight family, Richard Payne Knight had a pecuniary interest that influenced the development of the family's ironworks; decisions were made in the interests of securing income that might not always have secured the iron industry. The works were put into repair in 1782 and run by William Downing of

Pembridge Pembridge is a village and civil parish in the Arrow valley in Herefordshire, England. The village is on the A44 road about east of Kington and west of Leominster. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Bearwood, Lower Bearwood, Lower Bro ...

with a various partners, passing to ultimately Samuel George. The 1782 lease expired in 1815. This coincided with a depression in the iron industry at the end of the

Napoleonic War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. This seems to mark its closure. The furnace had probably closed in the 1790s, when Samuel George built at furnace at Knowbury close to

Titterstone Clee Hill Titterstone Clee Hill, sometimes referred to as Titterstone Clee or Clee Hill, is a prominent hill in the rural English county of Shropshire, rising at the summit to above sea level. It is one of the Clee Hills, in the Shropshire Hills Are ...

. From about 1740, in addition to the furnace and forge, there was a rolling mill further downstream, which produced blackplate, which was sent to a tinmill at Mitton (now in

Stourport Stourport-on-Severn, often shortened to Stourport, is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of North Worcestershire, England, 4 miles to the south of Kidderminster and downstream on the River Severn from Bewdley. At the 2021 cens ...

) to be made into tinplate. The name of a nearby wood suggests that tinplate may have been produced at Bringewood. However, this can only have been after period of the Knights' occupation of the works, as the surviving accounts (for 1733–78) show only blackplate being produced. Wood (for charcoal) came from the nearby chases of Bringewood, Mocktree and Darvel. Though the possibility of mining locally is mentioned in some leases, it is probable that the main source of ore was Titterstone Clee Hill.

Pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...

bar iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

and blackplate, made in the works were carried by land to

Bewdley Bewdley ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley, and is west of Kidderminster, north of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham. It ...

for sale, so far as not sold locally. Bringewood bar iron enjoyed a high reputation as being tough.

References

* Dr Bull, 'Some account of Bringewood furnace and forge' ''Trans. Woolhope Nat. Field Club'' 1869, 54–60. *Maj. Stewart Robinson, 'The forests and woodland areas of Herefordshire' ''Trans. Woolhope Nat. Fld Club 1921-3'' (1925), 193–220. *Robert Page, 'Richard and Edward Knight: ironmasters of Bringewood and Wolverley' ''Trans. Woolhope Nat. Field Club'' 43(1) (1979), 7–17. *L. Ince, ''The Knight Family and the British iron industry'' (1991). * *''The Knight family and the British iron industry: the Bringewood partnership''; Herefordshire Through Time, published by Herefordshire Council

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