Furnace Bank

Furnace Bank is a very long furnace bank, retained to form the lower two-thirds of the charging bank for a later 19th-century blast furnace complex. It is constructed primarily of Pennant stone and extends for approximately 250 metres.

The northwest end of the furnace bank features a high retaining wall, set back from the main central section. This retaining wall incorporates three inserted coal shutes with cast iron lintels. Further northwest is a ruinous, elevated single-story, three-bay building constructed of rock-faced rubble, with polychrome brick surrounds to the windows, set on a moulded brick stringcourse. A central segmental window is set within a round-arched recess, flanked by round-arched windows.

The long central section of the bank is higher and includes three buttresses towards its southeast end. This section likely incorporates the earliest remains of the furnaces, although any surviving casting arches – probably two – at the northwest end may be hidden due to the height of deposited spoil. The northwest third of this section was rebuilt in the late 19th century using rock-faced Pennant stone, including the first buttress. Lower portions of the central section are hidden by spoil, but a blocked, broad, semi-circular casting arch, with a yellow reverbatory brick arch-ring, is still visible. Adjacent to this is a late 19th-century partial rebuilding of the retaining wall, brought out to a battered profile and constructed of large sandstone blocks. At the same time, the arch was infilled with stone surrounding a new inner brick arch.

The wall continues to the southeast on a slightly recessed plane, incorporating significant late 19th-century rebuilding. A high and narrow, round-headed doorway, with a yellow brick surround, is set high up on the taller section. A straight joint is followed by a second large casting arch. A high segmental arch of yellow brick, blocked with squared stonework, includes a blocked brick-framed access oculus; the keystone’s inscription is eroded and illegible. Further east, the height of the spoil increases, including overgrowth. To the right of the second arch is a third casting arch: a segmental yellow brick arch with an inscription to the keystone reading ‘E.V. 18(5?)8’ or possibly 1838, a date contemporary with the known construction of the fourth furnace at Ebbw Vale. An oculus is situated above the arch, framed in brick. To the southeast, the top of a fourth casting arch is visible, also of brick, with a keystone dated ‘E.V. 1862’. Another straight joint in the masonry is followed by a second joint, and then the start of a fifth casting arch, also of brick. This furnace was either never completed or significantly reduced in height before the late 19th-century charging bank was completed and is built of rock-faced stone, terminating above the arch with a horizontal crease. To the southeast is a further, obscured, semi-circular brick arch, perhaps too narrow for a casting arch. The retaining wall continues at a lower level for some distance before splaying out and terminating to the south.

In total, up to six furnaces are visible, with a possible two more concealed behind spoil at the northwest end of the taller central section of the bank.