IRONSTONE FORMATION OF THE FOREST OF DEAN. 221 



or works granted to them by her Majesty's officer, called the gaveller 

 or deputy-gaveller, and to open mines within the Hundred of St. 

 Briavels and in the Forest. But to return — 



The three blast-furnaces alluded to as belonging to the Crown were 

 situated at Park End, Cannop, and Sewdely. They were planted on 

 the sites of ancient bloomeries, probably from the ample supplies they 

 could command of the rich slags in their immediate vicinity, which are 

 sparingly to be found even to this day. At both Sewdely and Park 

 End, blast-furnaces still exist, and are in operation ; but Cannop works 

 have long since been destroyed. About 1635, James demised all his 

 iron-works to two persons named Harris and Challoner, with the condi- 

 tion that the free miners should furnish the furnaces with ore on the 

 same terms that they had formerly been compelled to supply the 

 King, as contained in the loth and 16th clauses. I have alread}'- 

 quoted from the ''miners' customs." With this demise or grant, although 

 there is no positive documentary evidence to back the conclusion, 

 the Crown, in all probability, ceased to be concerned in the 

 manufacture of iron in the Eorest, and contented itself with 

 receiving its royalties on the ores raised. Eew vestiges of these 

 royal furnaces remain, and beyond the traces of the slag-heaps, the 

 ruined embankments of reservoirs, and the nearly obliterated water- 

 courses, but little else exists to indicate the localities they once occu- 

 pied. But this period in the history of the district is particularly 

 interesting, inasmuch as it forms not only the history of the iron trade 

 at that time in the Eorest of Dean, but, in fact, in all England. " Ear 

 more important," says Lord Macaulaj^, speaking of the state of England 

 in 1685, ''has been the improvement of our iron-works. Such works 

 had long existed in our island, but had not prospered, and had been 

 regarded with no favourable eye by the Government and by the public. 

 It was not then the practice to employ coal for smelting the ore, and 

 the rapid consumption of wood excited the alarm of politicians. As 

 early as the reign of Elizabeth there had been loud complaints, that 

 whole forests had been cut down for the purpose of feeding the furnaces ; 

 and the Parliament had interfered to prohibit the manufacturers from 

 burning timber. The manufacture consequently languished. At the 

 close of the reign of Charles II. great part of the iron which was used 

 in this country was imported from abroad ; and the whole quantity cast 

 here seems not to have exceeded ten thousand tons. At present the 



