Iron works

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jim
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Re: Iron works

Post by jim »

I have sent you a personal message on this site Parksider.

rikj
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Re: Iron works

Post by rikj »

The Parksider wrote: The Leeds mining industry that mined coal, fireclay, Ironstone and ganister (any more?) spawned many other industries brick, glass, iron, pottery,etc and led to Leeds having a whole host of associated networks of railways and tramlines.
As the geological strata gently dip from the west to east the mining was roughly coal, coal and ironstone, interspersed with sandstones, especially the Elland flagstones. Then came clay and fireclay. Then more coal and fireclay; and surprisingly sand.

If you stand on Garforth Cliff you can look down on the signs of old coal bell pits in the fields around Kippax, black smudges in the fields. To your back are limestone quarries, not proved yet, but maybe mined underground as well. A hundred yards away are old sand mines. The coal powered the furnaces, the limestone provided the cement; the sand lined the moulds for the furnaces; and thus the industrial revolution was born. A happy chance of geology.

grumpytramp
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Re: Iron works

Post by grumpytramp »

The Parksider wrote:A narrow subject/topic but it only needs one in the know!!

Anyone have any reference sources for the Farnley Iron Works??!
Parkie ........ an excellent source of information on industrial sites such as the Farnley Iron Works is Graces Guide.

This is a free-content not-for-profit project which has been collating and publishing information extracted and collated from a wide range of original source material covering UK industrial history.

It is a fantastic resource

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/

Inevitably they can provide some useful information on the Farnley Iron Co, including some superb company adverts

Image

See http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Farnley_Iron_Co

Unfortunately they only have very limited information on the York Road Iron Co:

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/York_Road_Iron_Co

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Iron works

Post by jim »

Wow,some superb reference sources in there grumpytramp! I was particularly fascinated by the 1912 report of the Iron and Steel institute, containing as it does comprehensive details of the works contents of several of Leeds' foremost engineering etc firms of the period - including of course Farnley Ironworks, the subject of this thread.

The Parksider
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Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Re: Iron works

Post by The Parksider »

grumpytramp wrote:
The Parksider wrote:A narrow subject/topic but it only needs one in the know!!

Anyone have any reference sources for the Farnley Iron Works??!
Parkie ........ an excellent source of information on industrial sites such as the Farnley Iron Works is Graces Guide.

Image

See http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Farnley_Iron_Co

Unfortunately they only have very limited information on the York Road Iron Co:

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/York_Road_Iron_Co
What a massive wealth of knowledge you have access to! As Jim says "Wow"

I have to thank you so much for replying in the past and now on the subject, on the sublect of the York Road Works see below.....

The Parksider
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Re: Iron works

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote:I have sent you a personal message on this site Parksider.
That's so kind. I'm not too hot on this revamped set up but I clicked on the envelope icon and clicked inbox and there was nothing there Jim - am I looking in the right place?

The Parksider
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Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Re: Iron works

Post by The Parksider »

rikj wrote:
As the geological strata gently dip from the west to east the mining was roughly coal, coal and ironstone, interspersed with sandstones, especially the Elland flagstones. Then came clay and fireclay. Then more coal and fireclay; and surprisingly sand.

If you stand on Garforth Cliff you can look down on the signs of old coal bell pits in the fields around Kippax, black smudges in the fields. To your back are limestone quarries, not proved yet, but maybe mined underground as well. A hundred yards away are old sand mines. The coal powered the furnaces, the limestone provided the cement; the sand lined the moulds for the furnaces; and thus the industrial revolution was born. A happy chance of geology.
So well put. I'm yet to confirm but the "bloomeries" on wyke beck brought together the ironstone of bell pits at the seacroft "ironhills" at south parkway, the charcoal of roundhay park produced by Shadwell colliers and IIRC from one of Grumpytramps expert interventions. the magnesian limestone of lime pits wood up at seacroft ring road??

Thanks to GT for a start date of 1872 for a return to Iron smelting in East Leeds at York Road on the site of the "York Road Iron and coal" company. Last week I stood on the only pit heap of any note left in Leeds which I suspect is more "dross" (smelting waste) than coal pit waste??

I think the pit on the site was the White Horse colliery that is listed as mining coal and ironstone. Uncle Micks offering notes the company produces pig iron, the basic product of smelting that then needed to go on to the foundries of Leeds for purification & casting??. The ironstone would have been low iron content so great quantities of dross would have been produced??

Why the great dross/waste heap was never removed I just don't know? Any ideas??

For me York Road was probably looking at the success of the Low Moor company in Bradford and replicating that? 1872 may have been a time when demand was growing apace, the end of the company around the end of WW1 may have been due to demand collapsing?

The Railway Pit at Osmondthorpe was mining Ironstone in 1893 and their tramway is still there today. It runs from the accommodation tunnel that used to go on to Ross Pit by wyke beck up to and across Osmondthorpe lane to York Road. It's a pathway now but still of great interest.

The idea here was that the coal was hauled up the tramway to a coal depot on York Road, but it may have been the pit was also supplying Ironstone to York Road Ironworks.

This is the thing I have about coal dominating the picture of the extraction industries of Leeds, as though Ironstone mining and Iron smelting never existed!!!

Corrections, facts, snippets, thoughts, ideas and expert interventions welcome. Big question:-

Was York Road Ironworks as speculative and as short lived a venture as the foundry Mill at Seacroft? Was there any other Iron mining and smelting ventures in Leeds beyond Farnley?

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Iron works

Post by jim »

It looks like the messaging system isn't working Parksider. I have a set of the maps etc I mentioned that I prepared for a local researcher, which he returned to me when he had finished with them. If you would like them, we could arrange to meet to hand them over.

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liits
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Re: Iron works

Post by liits »

The Low Moor Coal & Iron Co. were the freeholders of the White Horse Inn, now the White Horse, on York Road.

The Parksider
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Re: Iron works

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote:It looks like the messaging system isn't working Parksider. I have a set of the maps etc I mentioned that I prepared for a local researcher, which he returned to me when he had finished with them. If you would like them, we could arrange to meet to hand them over.
Sounds great Jim, is Chameleon still about here? He once exchanged Emails for me?

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