IRON AND STEEL. 
63 
numerous furnaces sprang up, and there appears to have been a 
steady increase in the manufacture of iron and steel in England. 
In 1615, Dud Dudley informs us that there were 300 blast- 
furnaces in active operation, producing in that year 180,000 
tons of iron, for which 144,000 tons of charcoal were required ; 
to produce which, 1 7,310,000 cubic feet of timber were necessary. 
At the same time, according to the same authority, 500 Forges 
and mills for refining were at work. From this statement we 
learn that each furnace yielded somewhat less than twelve tons 
of iron a week. Dudley again informs us of his proceedings at 
Hascobridge, in the parish of Sedgley, after he began to smelt 
iron-ore with coal, “ in which work he made seven tuns of iron 
per week, the greatest quantity of pit-cole iron that ever yet was 
made in Great Britain.” The difference between the powers of 
production then and now, will be evident when we state that 
400 tons of pig-iron have been, on many occasions, made in one 
week from the best modern blast-furnaces. Even at the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, the rapid exhaustion of the 
forest trees, by the demands of the blast-furnace, was a subject 
of serious consideration. The amiable Evelyn, in the sixteenth 
century, regrets that Nature had placed her iron-ores near 
flourishing forests ; and, describing some of his loved trees, he 
exclaims ; “ What a pity such goodly creatures should be 
devoted to Vulcan ! ” At this time Essex appears to haye been 
the centre of our iron industries, and Thaxted — now known 
only for its beautiful church — was the emporium of our steel 
manufacture, and possessed many especial privileges in conse- 
quence. There were, however, several extensive, and then 
important, works in the Forest of Dean, in some of which Oliver 
Cromwell appears to have been an active partner. 
Wood was failing : then Simon Sturtevant and John Rovenzon 
made much noise about their experiments on smelting iron with 
pit-coal. They did not succeed. Dud Dudley followed them ; 
he obtained some patent rights mainly on the plea that “ if wood 
and timber should decay still and fail, the greatest strength 
of Great Britain, her ships, &c., and his Majesty’s navies and 
men-of-war, for our defence and offence, would fail us.” With 
much industry and irrepressible zeal, he pursued his experiments 
on “ making of iron with pit-cole or sea-cole,” and eventually 
succeeding in producing good metal. Dudley became the 
founder of the remarkable industry which distinguishes South 
Staffordshire. The forests were now allowed to grow, the 
demand for charcoal fell off, the iron manufacture of eastern 
England passed to the Midland counties, the steel trade left 
Thaxted and became the staple of Hallamshire, now better 
known by its chief town, Sheffield. 
In Dud Dudley’s time, 300 blast-furnaces produced 180,000 
