IRONSTONE FORMATION OF THE FOREST OF DEAN. 
221 
or works granted to them by her Majesty's officer, called the gavellcr 
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 already 
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 Eoi'est, 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 Forest of Dean, but, in fact, in all England. " Far 
more important," says Lord Macaulay, 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 bccu 
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 
