Wortley Top Forge

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SK49NE 11/49

HUNSHELF FORGE LANE (east side) Wortley Top Forge

(Formerly listed as Wortley Top Forge, COTE LANE (east side))

18.3.68

GV I Forge. C17 origin, mid C18 mid C19 structure and form with mid C19 functional layout and alterations, re-roofed 1880, C20 restoration. Tooled, squared stone, rubble to rear, Welsh slate upper roof, stone slate lower roof.

Rectangular plan with continuous rear outshut with additional housing the blower wheel, and pits to front right and front centre for wheels 1 and 2 respectively. The front wall has a large round-arched opening for each wheel, each with a single, flanking square-headed smaller doorway. At high level are three square window openings. Set back to the left, built into the cottages (q.v), is a two bay arcade with brick voussoirs supported on two cast-iron round columns. On one pier is a re-set stone inscribed 'M 1713 W' (Mathew Wilson, manager). Central raised roof section.

Rear: the blower wheel to left works through a round arch with brick voussoirs.

Interior: the rear wall is opened-up by four large segmental arches with brick voussoirs. In situ machinery includes: Wheel 1: one-piece iron casting (wooden paddles missing) probably replacing an earler wooden wheel, 12 feet in diameter, breast-shot and with a cast-iron axle. Wheel 2: installed mid C19; cast-iron with separate felloes and later wooden paddles, 13½ feet in diameter, breast-shot. The blower wheel: cast-iron with wooden buckets, fed pitch-back by a cast-iron pentrough dated 1850; it was used to blow air to the furnaces for welding. Hammer 1, of C18 type: massive wooden construction, with cast-iron replacement parts, operated by a cam to the underside of the helve, fitted with wooden spring beam. Hammer 2, of mid C19 type: cast-iron, driven by a cam to the underside of the helve. Four wooden jib cranes one at each hammer and two at the entrance.

A bloomery existed on the site in the early C17 and a finery in the mid C17. A lease was granted in 1640; in 1658 John Spencer acquired the lease and from then until 1746 the forge was run by Spencer partnerships. Subsequent owners included the Cockshutts, 1746-1819, Thos Andrews II 1871-1907, and The Wortley Iron Co. The Sheffield Trades Historical Society purchased the forge in 1953.

From c1840 the forge successfully produced railway axles, forge-welded from nine wrought-iron bars; it was last used in 1912. A scheduled Ancient Monument.

D Crossley, "Wortley Top Froge", Archaeological Journal, Vol 137, 1980 p86. M P Johnson and P Worrall, Top Forge, Wortley, undated official guidebook.

Listing NGR: SK2944699872