56 



the Forge of Wolverley, and he lent his elder brother & large sum of money for 

 the purchnse of Croft. 



1742. — IMr. Richard Knight purchased from Jenks "all that mountain or 

 waste ground known by the name of the Glee Hill, heretofore the property of 

 Somerset Fox, with right of digging for minerals," and he lets it in 1744 to his son 

 Edward Knight, of Cokesley, for £12 per annum. Mr. Richard Knight has also 

 considerable property in Forges and Furnaces at Charlecote, ^yhittington, Wolver- 

 ley, INIitten, and Stourport, and several of these were managed by one or other of 

 his sons. 



1745. — Mr. Richard Knight died. He was an eccentric man, as industrious 

 as he was able and energetic. A characteristic anecdote is told of his first com- 

 petition for a Government contract. It was customary then for the Government 

 agent to meet the ironmasters at Bristol to let by tender the several contracts for 

 iron, and it had also become the custom for the masters to meet together the night 

 before and arrange amongst themselves for a division of the contracts. Mr. Knight 

 knew all this and resolved to compete himself, but he knew also that he should 

 have no chance at the private meeting. Two days before the appointed time, 

 dressed in his ordinary Forge-superintending attire, and mounted on a favourite 

 old mare, chosen rather for safety and endurance than for good looks, he set off 

 for Bristol. On the pommel of the saddle was fastened an old nail-bag with 

 various pattern nails outside, and behind him was the small valise of the period, 

 which in this instance had seen much service. At the hour fixed Mr. Knight 

 appeared, his tender was accepted, but when his sureties were demanded, he 

 said, "There was no one he could ask to be surety, but perhaps the deposit of the 

 money would do as weU." "Certainly," said the agent, and from the old naU-bag 

 Mr. Knight at once counted out the guineas on the table. 



Mr. Richard Knight at one time lived in the village of Downton, at a house 

 now the house of one of the farms. A silver punch-bowl which belonged to him 

 is preserved at the Castle. It will hold more than a gallon and has a very jovial 

 look with it. 



1783 is the next date found of information relating to Bringewood Forge 

 and Furnace. It was now let by Mr. Richard Payne Knight to "WiUiam Downing, 

 of Pembridge, and Richard Giles, of Hope, on a lease for 31 years, at £110 a year. 

 The descendants of Richard Giles held the Forge for many years until within a 

 short time of its being finally abandoned in the year 1814 or 1815. One of the 

 occupiers of this family {Mr. Benjamin Giles) met with a melanchoUy end. He 

 was returning from a yeomanry parade ; when on the bridge now before you his 

 horse suddenly shied and fell over into the river. Mr. Giles was drowned, and 

 what added very much to the horror of the accident was the fact that before the 

 body could be recovered it had been carried down by the mill-race and much 

 mutUated by the great wheel of his own mill. 



The real cause of the closing of the works was the discovery by Sir John 

 Winter more than 150 y«ars before (1656) of the means of making coke from coal 

 and the improvements afterwards made in its application to the smelting of coal, 



