760 REPORT— 1863. 
produced by all those bloomeries mentioned in a previous section of this 
paper, as is indicated by the heaps of scoriz found near Roman stations, 
monastic establishments, and other places. Coming down to more recent 
times, it is obvious that in a country where, comparatively speaking, there 
would be a considerable consumption of wrought iron, there was necessarily 
thrown into the market a corresponding quantity of old or scrap iron. With 
cheap fuel and water-power in sufficient quantity to drive small hammers, 
forges were erected at various suitable localities, such as Swalwell, by 
Crowley and Co.; Beamish and Lumley, by Hawks; Bedlington, and at 
various other places. It is needless to say the weight of metal so manu- 
factured was small. The next stage in the manufacture of malleable iron 
was the erection of slitting--mills in different places commanding water- 
power; but when or where first established the writer can scarcely deter- 
mine. By the kindness of Mr, Stephen Hawks, who has searched through 
the books at the Gateshead Iron Works, he has ascertained that the slit- 
rods used there in 1772 appeared to be all brought from London, and pro- 
bably were manufactured in Wales or the Midland Counties*, Slit-rods 
were first made in this neighbourhood from hammered bars; indeed, the 
writer was informed by the late William Losh, one of the founders of the 
firm of Losh, Wilson, and Bell, that he erected a slitting-mill near Newcastle, 
and the iron he used was bars brought from Sweden. This would probably 
be about the year 1800. Cort patented the rolling of bar iron in the year 
1783, and Mr. Stephen Hawks, in an old letter-beok of 1799, finds Mr. 
William Hawks writing, “ We will certainly roll the iron to the dimensions 
you mention ;”’ so that probably rolling-mills were introduced in the neigh- 
bourhood of Neweastle a very short time after their invention by Cort. In 
the year 1800, according to information received from Mr. G, C. Atkinson, a 
small mill was erected at Lemington. 
Mr. William Longridge states that his father commenced the Bedlington 
works in 1809, the river Blyth supplying the motive power. At that time a 
plate of 150 to 200 Ibs. was considered, he observes, something wonderful to 
produce. It was here that, in 1820, they rolled the first malleable iron rails, 
an invention of Mr. Birkenshaw. 
In 1827, Messrs. Losh, Wilson, and Bell. erected what at that time was 
considered in the North a powerful mill, at Walker, capable of rolling 80 to 
100 tons of bars a week. Here, as at all the other works, old scrap iron, or 
common Welsh bars, cut up for re-rolling, were the raw materials used. 
This firm led the way in extending the operation to the “ puddling” of pig 
iron, a process adopted by them in the year 1833. 
The rapid progress in Scotland of the manufacture of pig iron from black- 
band by means of the hot blast, and the cheapness of coal on the Tyne, 
induced Losh, Wilson, and Bell to increase their rolling power. <A second 
mill was erected in 1838, where rails of the largest dimensions, and tyre-bars 
for the wrought-iron wheels, invented by Mr. Losh, were manufactured. 
The old house of Hawks and Company soon after added largely to their 
means of producing wrought iron. In this they were speedily followed by 
the Derwent Iron Company, who erected immense rolling-mills at Consett, 
near Shotley Bridge, and increased largely the capabilities of the Bishop- 
wearmouth Iron Works, which they had previously purchased. There would 
* From information communicated by Mr. 8. Hurrell, it would appear that, in all pro- 
bability, the slit-rods imported to the Gateshead Works were from the mills of a Mr, Rey- 
nolds, in Shropshire. 
