A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



for 1796 gives the make of Newland and 

 Backbarrow as 700 tons each, and that of Leigh- 

 ton as 780 tons, that is, an aggregate of 2,180 

 tons.^' In 1839 the charcoal iron made in 

 Lancashire at the Newland and Backbarrow 

 furnaces of Messrs. Harrison, Ainslie & Co.'' 

 did not exceed 800 tons. In 1857 Lancashire 

 produced 1,233 '°"^ °^ charcoal pig-iron.'^ In 

 1880 these three furnaces were still in opera- 

 tion, though only at intervals.'' In 1898 con- 

 siderable alterations were made at Backbarrow, 

 but the old hearth still remains, with a lintel 

 inscribed 't.m.w.r.c.s. 1711 » h.a. & CO. 

 1870.' The earlier date is doubtless that on 

 which it was first put in blast. The first initials 

 are those of T. Machell, William Rawlinson, 

 and C. Sandys, and the latter refer to Harrison, 

 Ainslie & Co.'° In 1903 there was only the 

 one furnace at Backbarrow, about three miles 

 to the south of the Windermere lake, on the 

 banks of the Leven.'' This furnace is fed with 

 a good quality of native ores and with charcoal 

 supplied from the various woods which abound 

 in the Furness district. The supply of charcoal 

 is too small to keep even this one furnace in 

 constant blast. The reason it continues to exist 

 is that a good price can be obtained for charcoal 

 pig-iron, which is demanded for the more delicate 

 work of parts of sewing machines, and of the 

 mechanism of gun mountings.^ 



Although so little pig-iron was made in Fur- 

 ness at the end of the eighteenth century, a 

 certain amount of ore was exported to be worked 

 up elsewhere. At the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century, the ore exported was probably 

 less than 3,000 tons.'^ It was about 1830, when 

 the demand for iron for railway construction 

 purposes was beginning to increase, that people 

 in the iron trade became more interested in the 

 Furness haematite deposits. At this time want of 

 transport facilities retarded the development of the 

 Furness mines. Nevertheless in 1844, two years 

 before the opening of the first part of the Furness 

 Railway, the export of ore had increased to 

 50,000 tons.*" 



It was not until after the discovery of the Park 

 Mine, near Barrow, by the late Mr. H. W. 



Schneider, that he conceived the idea"of smelling 

 the ore on the spot. For this purpose the firm 

 of Schneider, Hannay & Co. was started in 1859. 

 In that year there were twenty-two iron mines 

 in the district, which yielded 464,853 tons of 

 metal, the whole of which was sent away. The 

 iron-smelting industry of the locality rapidly 

 increased after it had once commenced. In 1 864 

 the yield of the iron mines had risen to 691,421 

 tons, but of this no less than 239,523 tons were 

 used at the Barrow furnaces." In 1866 Messrs. 

 Schneider, Hannay & Co. transferred their works 

 to the Barrow Haematite Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. 

 The works of this company are of considerable 

 interest because they were among the first put 

 down for the manufacture of steel on anything 

 like a comprehensive scale by the Bessemer 

 process. In 1901, 1,765 men were employed 

 in the manufacture of iron and steel at 

 Barrow. 



The second site of the iron industry in modern 

 Lancashire is Wigan. In 1858 four blast fur- 

 naces were erected at Kirkless, near Wigan, and 

 in 1863 one more was added, all with open tops. 

 In 1864 the movement for utilizing the enor- 

 mous amount of heat was making headway, and 

 blast furnaces were erected with closed tops, 

 with the object of collecting the gases, which 

 were used for generating steam. In 1865 the 

 Wigan Coal and Iron Co. was founded by a 

 union of the Haigh Collieries of Lord Crawford, 

 the Standish and Shevington Collieries, the 

 Broomfield Collieries, the collieries of Mr. John 

 Taylor, and the ironworks and collieries of the 

 Kirkless Hall Co. Immediately five new blast 

 furnaces, 80 ft. high, were erected. More re- 

 cently a steel plant on the open-hearth system 

 (basic process) has been laid down. 



At the present time in Lancashire, besides the 

 ironworks at Wigan and Barrow, there are others 

 at Carnforth (founded 1864), Warrington, and 

 Darwen. 



The number of ironstone miners in the county 

 has decreased of recent years. In 188 1 there 

 were 3,742. In 189 1 there were only 3,066, 

 and ten years later the numbers had further fallen 

 to 2,296. 



HARDWARE AND ALLIED TRADES 



The earliest seat of the metal industries in 

 Lancashire appears to have been at Wigan. Here 

 for more than two centuries pewterers and bra- 

 ziers carried on their trade. During the course 

 of the eighteenth century brass and iron foundries 

 were established in this place. In the seventeenth 

 century it was famous for its bell-founders. 



" R. Meade, Coal and Iron Industries of the United 

 Kingiiom, 448. ^ Ibid. 449. 



'* Fairbairn, Iron, its Hist, and Manufacture, 225. 

 " R. Meade, op. cit. 449. 



364 



The first reference to these industries which 

 we can find is the will of Adam Banke, of 

 Wigan, brazier, dated 19 July, 1557 ;! 



I give to my son Humphrey Banke all my pewter 

 moulds, with the condition and provision that he 



^ Cowper, op. cit. 286. 



" Iron, Steel and Allied Trades, Barrow-in-Furness 

 1903, 16. 

 '^ Ibid. 18. 'Mbid. 23. 



*" Ibid. 23. " Ibid. 28. 



' Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. yax, 183. 



