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Marefold and the Furnace
The Dark Hill foundry site is where the age of IRON ended
and the STEEL age began
MAREFOLD AND THE FURNACE. Forging the Links
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it later when you are not on-line.)
by Keith Webb
The dry stone boundary walls round our home, Marefold, south-east
of Coleford, in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire are built
with stone and slag from the nearby Dark Hill furnace by Forest
miners who had been out of work in the 1920's.
David Mushet senior had built the foundry in 1819, with
the intention of producing iron direct from the blast furnace.
His son Robert had subsequently carried out many experiments
there. He had been the first to use spiegeleisn, a compound
of iron, manganese and carbon, alloyed with steel in various
ways. This resulted in smoother and stronger tinplate. His
experimentation with tungsten, chrome, manganese and titanium
brought about the birth of high speed steel given the name
R. Mushet's Special Steel which, without doubt, was the first
alloy steel ever made commercially; self (or air) hardening
steel. One of the many steel alloys that went on to be used
world-wide in everything from mine drilling bits to lathe
tools and turbine blades.
It was apparent that Marefold has always held tantalising
secrets which the years have slowly revealed. Because of a
lifetime with horses, many of our friends assumed we had given
the house its name, but not so. The word means a sheltered
place with good views where a mare would feel safe enough
to give birth to her foal. Dr. Cyril Hart's book "The Industrial
History of the Forest of Dean" makes reference to a quarry
named Marefold in 1680 and is the earliest mention of the
name that we have found. It was evident the property had been
well established before the coming of the tramroad in 1812
for its course skirted the property's boundaries.
The making of the steel for the first steel railway rail
was carried out by Robert Mushet at Dark Hill. The double
headed rail was rolled at the Ebbw Vale Iron Company. In 1857
the rail was laid in Derby Station where the Midland Railway
had experienced problems with the iron rails then being used.
They had needed replacing every three to six months. For ten
years the new rail showed no signs of wear despite it being
assessed that seven hundred train movements a day passed over
it. It was removed and scrapped in 1873 despite repeated requests
by Robert Mushet to have it returned when removed, because
of its historic importance. By 1873 steel rails were in common
use and the world had no time either for Mushet or his piece
of rail. Others were too busy making money from his inventions
to care. It is hoped that a tribute to this achievement will
be erected by the Forestry Commission at their Beechenhurst
site.
By 1866 Robert Forester Mushet was in ill-health and destitute.
His young daughter, Mary, took her courage in both hands and
travelled to London with grim determination. She confronted
Henry Bessemer in his office where she claimed that Mr. Bessemer's
success was based on the results of her father's discoveries.
She made it quite clear that although her father might not
have any legal claim upon Bessemer she felt he had a justifiable
moral one. This was quite an undertaking when seen against
the background of the difficulties of travel and the customs
and etiquette of her day.
Evidently Bessemer was moved enough, to give her a cheque
for £377.14s. 10d. at once. A great deal of money in
those days. This sum covered her father's debts and thus safe-guarded
her parents from losing their home. Bessemer subsequently
made Robert Mushet an annual allowance of £300, explaining
that he did so to make Robert Mushet his debtor, rather than
the reverse; which sounds to me like someone either trying
to hide a conscience or a kinder heart than he would have
us believe. He is described as a proud and assertive man.
There is a frozen moment in time I would like to see immortalised
in the centre of Coleford town. When Bessemer was having difficulty
with his own process, and he heard that Mushet was succeeding
where he had failed, he hastened to Coleford where he attempted
to see Robert Mushet several times but to no avail. On calling
yet again at Forest House, he was inadvertently told that
Mushet was out somewhere in the town.
Bessemer went looking for him but Mushet must have spotted
him and avoided him by hiding behind his umbrella as they
passed each other. I would like to imagine that incident occurred
somewhere close by the Angel Hotel, where Bessemer might have
stayed. A tableaux of two distinctively dressed Victorian
figures passing one another, with one hiding behind an umbrella,
would immortalise a moment, when history held its breath.
Through the kind offices of the Forestry Commission's Deputy
Gaveller, Mr. Albert Howell, I was privileged to examine the
Commission's maps and records. Marefold is shown as number
440 of Parkend Walk and it evidently has a chequered history.
The major part is shown shaded in red, denoting an encroachment
upon the Forest before 1787. A second small area is shaded
in blue as an encroachment between 1787 and 1812. A third
section of the property is shown in yellow, thus showing it
was an encroachment after 1812. It is said that the Forest
of Dean is known for its creeping hedges and walking walls!
An Indenture made the seventeenth day of October 1866 between
the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty of the first part, the
Honourable James Kenneth Howard, the Commissioner for Her
Majesty's Woods and Land Revenues to whom the management of
the Royal Forest of Dean has been assigned of the second part,
and Robert Mushet of Belgrave House, Cheltenham in the County
of Gloucester, Iron Master, and Goodrich Langham of Coleford
in the County of Gloucester of the third part, goes on to
complain that these two gentlemen claim to be proprietors
of certain premises and buildings now used as a smith's shop,
situated at Dark Hill in Parkend or York Walk, and that at
some time they laid down certain pipes for the purpose of
conveying water to the said smith's shop, under certain wastelands
of the said forest, without any license or authority from
Her Majesty or Commissioner, etc.
The Indenture then calls upon and requests the said Robert
Mushet and Goodrich Langham to accept and take a license to
use, etc. This beautifully written record is accompanied by
an equally detailed map, scale 3 chains to 1 inch, showing
both property No. 440 (Marefold) and No. 351 (Dark Hill furnaces).
The offending pipes are shown in red, running from well to
smith's shop. There are members of a family who used to live
at Marefold who remember that as children their first task
after coming home from Ellwood school, was to get fresh water
from that same well.
The next reference to both Marefold and Dark Hill furnace
both appear in a ledger with the grand title of "The Original
Directory to the Royal Forest of Dean 1870". The book is,
in fact, a diary kept by James Thompson, aged 18, who was
born at Lords Hill House, Coleford. Entry 505 states, in clear
copperplate handwriting -
"Dark Hill Furnaces are not worked at present. There is
a large pond of water, one on one side and also one on the
lower side. Blacksmiths are employed in some parts to make
hammers. There is a most beautiful spring of well water which
is useful. Some parts of it was used for a fight between the
Liberals and the Blues, namely KINGSCOT and MARLIN and old
Blue Somerset, he lost a grand day that time. The Foresters
do not want for any herrings to eat for supper in the place
of a lump of beef. There is an old road that leads into the
turnpike road, we will follow it."
Make of that entry what you will, but entry 516 is brief
and to the point.
"Mr AMOS POWELL lives at a place called MAREFOLD. He has
a large garden with fruit trees around it to set it." It still
has!
Amongst the Local History Society's
records is to be found a "REGISTER OF COW KEEPERS, DAIRYMEN
AND PURVEYORS OF MILK, for the West Dean Rural District Council."
An entry for Feb. 14th 1887 shows Ann Powell of Marefold as
being registered as a "Cow Keeper and Purveyor of Milk".
The two properties are so nearby, but there never seemed
to be any link between them. There must have been. We were
yet to find it.
In the mid 1960's, Alec Pope, a committed and lifelong local
historian, undertook a trial dig at the Dark Hill site with
a number of friends, which made some interesting discoveries
of slag bosses and a space below the charging bridge to the
furnace. They were also told of an "iron" road, and a trial
trench found a wide access road made up of iron slag. Although
their exploratory dig showed great promise it was evident
that a much bigger undertaking was needed.
In 1976, the Forest of Dean Rotary Club sponsored a job
creation scheme and about two-thirds of the site was cleared.
In 1978 the Forestry Commission set up a second scheme, but
regrettably the archaeologist who had been in charge of both
schemes failed to follow up the work with any detailed reports.
Many valuable research opportunities were lost and the secrets
of the Mushets' work at Dark Hill remain a mystery, even today.
The Department of the Environment at that time had plans to
have the site listed as an Ancient Monument, but that has
come to nothing.
Since the clearing of the site much preservation work has
been carried out by the Forestry Commission. An interpretation
board has been erected on the disused railway track. The site
is now recognised as an Industrial Archaeological Site of
International Importance. Damage by vandals is a constant
source of concern.
The area round Dark Hill and Marefold might be peaceful
and quiet today but it was not always so. Robert Mushet and
his brother David quarrelled continuously after they took
over the affairs from their father. One or the other was always
complaining that whatever had gone wrong was due to the gross
negligence or incompetence of his brother. There are reports
of the explosive effect of water getting into the furnace,
and another of workmen with their clothes catching fire.
What of that link with Marefold? Alec Pope was to find it,
and only recently, after painstaking and patient research
in the Gloucester Local History library. It concerned a report
from the Gloucester Journal, dated August 1st 1846. The item
begins:-
"Frightful and fatal explosion. We deeply regret to state
that a steam engine at the ironworks of D. Mushet Esq. at
Darkhill, near Coleford, exploded on Tuesday last, causing
most frightful injuries and several deaths. A man named George
Powell, and an infant also named Powell, were killed instantaneously.
The child was at the time in the arms of its mother, who had
arrived at the works with her husband's breakfast. No less
than ten men were injured in the explosion, of whom 3 have
since died, making, as we have heard, 5 deaths altogether.
An inquest was to have been heard yesterday on the bodies,
before J.G. Ball Esq., Coroner; but we have not heard any
further particulars of this lamentable event."
A further entry in the Gloucester Journal, dated August
8th 1846, states:-
"The fatal explosion at Coleford. G.J. Ball Esq., held
an inquest yesterday (Friday) week, on the bodies of George
Powell, aged 26, Herbert Powell, aged 1 year and 10 months,
and William Powell, aged 31, the father of Herbert, who
were killed by the explosion of a steam boiler at the Dark
Hill Iron Furnace, near Parkend, the property of Messrs.
Mushet, which unhappy occurrence we briefly reported last
week. Powell's wife and another of his children and some
other persons, were dreadfully injured but expected to recover."
"The boiler was an old special one, but considered
quite safe, and it is feared the unhappy workmen brought
on the accident by negligence. According to calculations
made by Mr. Walkinshaw, the engineer, he arrived at the
conclusion that a force equal to 4260 tons or 9,542,400
lbs. would be requisite to have torn up the boiler, as it
appeared to have been done by one effort. This would give
a pressure of 656 lbs. per inch, far beyond any ever attempted,
except with Mr. Perkin's steam gun. The whole of the upper
part of the boiler had been torn from the bottom near the
junction, and although weighing about 3 tons, was projected
into the air perpendicularly, to a height of many feet,
some of the witnesses believing at least two to three hundred;
it came down precisely upside down on the very spot from
whence it had been torn. A verdict of accidental death was
given"
We are left with a clear picture of the harsh realities
experienced during the industrial revolutions on which our
world is built. Both David Mushet and his son Robert are not
acknowledged for what they achieved, at some considerable
cost and sacrifice.
I have described the Dark Hill foundry site as being where
the age of IRON ended and the STEEL age began. "Incorrect"
some will cry! "Over simplification or misleading", will say
others, but that simple lay statement goes right to the heart
of the matter.
It is a statement and concept that the general public will
understand and it is their interest and imagination that needs
awakening, and then perhaps the Mushets will get the credit
they deserve. David Mushet brought down the curtain on the
age of Iron and his son Robert raised the curtain on the world
stage of the Age of Steel Alloys. Dark Hill is where the Prelude
was performed. As a jet liner, high above, leaves its white
trail across the sky it would not be there but for what happened
here.
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