FURNACE AT WHEEL BIRKS. 



285 



The land on which this ruin of a furnace stands was up to 

 the date of the Enclosure Act of 181 7 part of Broomley 

 Common, The award of this enclosure makes no mention of 

 a furnace. It must at that time have already lain a forgotten 

 ruinous heap for over a century. A stone built boundary wall 

 which runs close past it was built soon after this time, and 

 before 1826, when the adjoining woods were planted ; and the 

 ruins furnished the stone — burnt red by fire — for some distance 

 of this wall. 



Sketch showing probable design of the Old Iron Furnace 

 at Wheel Birks. 



That the works were not in operation very long — perhaps 

 not more than a year or two — may be inferred from the limited 

 quantity of slag — only 50 or 60 cart loads — spread about the 

 surface in front of the tap hole. The expenditure of capital on 

 it must have been considerable. The furnace stood on four 

 dressed stone piers and was probably some 30 feet high, so 

 that a level gangway of timber from the adjoining bank 

 reached its top for feeding in the fuel, ore and flux. To build 

 the furnace : dam up the stream, and form a mill race with 

 spouts and sluices : construct the water-wheel of 20 to 25 



