Farnley Smithies, Leeds: An Elizabethan Iron Works and its Sources of Ironstone and Charcoal

Abstract

Farnley Smithies, a charcoal iron works, has been located using documents, geophysical and map evidence. The evolution of the site is readily traced from 1449, showing an early use of water power. Whilst the production data on the smithies are clear, production methods are less easily understood. The links between Farnley Smithies, iron mining, and charcoal production, inside and especially outside the manor, show a dynamic relationship between natural resources, enclosure, small landowners and miners. The smithies have been linked by documentary evidence to ironstone mining in Farnley, Tong, Gildersome, and Morley, where shallow workings were made in the coal measure ironstones. The area of available woodland, its management and proximity to the ironworks were critical to charcoal production. Wider economic changes in the late sixteenth century, and the scarcity of fuel, would eventually contribute to the decline of the ironworks.

Keywords:

• iron
• smithies
• woods
• iron mining
• charcoal
• ironstone
• enclosure
• Tong
• Farnley
• Gildersome

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Chris Gaffney, Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Geophysics, University of Bradford, for allowing me to use his magnetometer data to consider the distribution of iron residues at Farnley. Also Dr Amanda Jones of the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, for her kind assistance in making probate inventories available for my work. Finally, thanks to Gill Cookson for her knowledgeable help and advice in the preparation of this work.

Notes

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2. H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry from c. 450 B.C. to A.D.1775 (London, 1957), pp. 342–3.

3. D. Cranstone, ‘Industrial Archaeology, Manufacturing a New Society’, in R. Newman ed., The Historical Archaeology of Britain 1540–1900 (Gloucester, 2001), p. 186.

4. University of Leeds, Brotherton Library, Special Collections, Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society Collection [hereafter YAS], YAS/MD 279/B8/1 – Farnley Smithy Accounts [hereafter Smithy Accounts].

5. Nottinghamshire Archives, Deed 1500/1. DD/SR/28/1/56; West Yorkshire Archives Service [hereafter WYAS], Leeds, Tithe map RD RT 83, 1844; YAS, YAS/MD279 – estate map, Armitage of Farnley.

6. M. L. Faull and S. A Moorhouse, eds., West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey to A.D. 1500, Vol. 3 (Wakefield, 1981), p. 774.

7. WYAS, Bradford, Tempest Family of Tong Hall, Family & Estate Records, Final Concord, Tong/3/51 (Apr. 1572–3).

8. W. Brown, ed., Yorkshire Inquisitions of the reigns of Henry 111 and Edward 1 (YAS Record Series, 12, 1981), p. 43.

9. M. J. S. Price, ed., Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X (YAS Record Series, vol. 120, 1955), no 177, pp. 63–4.

10. Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X, p. 63–4.

11. Nottinghamshire Archives, 1500/1, DD/SR/28/1/56.

12. WYAS, Bradford, Spencer Stanhope, Sp.St./5/10/4 – boundary of the manor of Tong. 1668.

13. Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X, pp. 67–8, nos 1520 and 1526.

14. Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X, p. 68, No. 1558.

15. J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), pp. 63, 369.

16. P. King, ‘The Iron Trade in England and Wales 1500–1815: The Charcoal Industry and its Transition to Coke’ (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wolverhampton, 2003), pp. 44, 193.

17. H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London, 1957), p. 362.

18. C. Collinson, ‘Enterprise and Experiment in the Elizabethan Iron Industry: The career of Thomas Proctor’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 68 (1966), pp.191–208. North Yorkshire County Record Office [NYCRO], MIC.2087/200 Oct. 1569.

19. Schubert, History, p. 243.

20. YAS Smithy Accounts, 21 Jun. 1567.

21. NYCRO, MIC. 2087/609, Memoranda (year estimated).

22. YAS Smithy Accounts, YAS/MD 279/B8/1, 2 Aug. and 13 Sep. 1567.

23. R. A. Mott, Early Iron Making in the Sheffield Area. Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 27 (1949/51), p. 233.

24. NYCRO, MIC 2087/609, 26 Oct. 1579.

25. Leeds Library, Thoresby Society Collection, MSS SD 26 – transcripts of parts of the Farnley Smithy Accounts, made in the first half twentieth century, and here used when the originals are illegible or missing.

26. Schubert, History, pp. 134 and 137.

27. YAS Smithy Accounts, various dates and 11 Oct. 1567.

28. G. D. Newton, ‘Early Coal Mining in Leeds 1560–1700’, Thoresby Society Miscellany, second series, vol. 24 (2013), pp.1–23. For shallow mining see G. D. Newton, ‘Surface Coal Mining and Graving in Leeds, West Yorkshire’ in Folklife (forthcoming).

29. WYAS Wakefield, Westerman Deeds, C360 1&4 1574/1593; WYAS Bradford, Tong Deeds, 3/80 (1581).

30. D. Hey, The Making of South Yorkshire. (Ashbourne, 1979), passim.

31. S. M. Jack, Trade and Industry in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1977), p. 68.

32. Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X, p. 64.

33. E. S. George, ‘On the Yorkshire Coalfield’, Transactions of the Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds, vol.1, part1, (1837), pp.152–7.

34. WYAS Leeds, WYL 59/930, 1883, field observations.

35. Leeds Library, Thoresby Society Collection, MSS SD 26 – 1583.

36. Yorkshire Deeds Vol. X, p. 65 – ‘Le Morefield,’ (1465); Wellhome Cottage, c.16C cruck cottage, Listed Building Register, 1375103.

37. British Geological Survey, Spatial Data, www.bgs.ac.uk-borehole scans: SE 23/SW 353/SW187.

38. NYCRO, MIC. 2087/179 – Agreement (1577), Farnley Estate Papers.

39. YAS Smithy Accounts, YAS/MD 279/B8/1, Indenture, 24, 1558. He paid 19s 9d. The smithy accounts note him as a ‘graver’.

40. YAS Smithy Accounts, YAS/MD. 279/B8/2, 13 Sept. 1567 and Apr. (day not given) 1568.

41. G. D. Lumb, ed., Leeds Parish Church Registers: First and Second Books, 1572–1612 (Publications of the Thoresby Society, Volume I, 1891), p. 65 - Wimbles noted in 1578.

42. University of York, Borthwick Institute for Archives – a sample of 85 probate inventories 1688–1731 for Leeds.

43. M. E. Francoise, ‘The Social and Economic Development of Halifax 1558–1640’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, vol.11 part 8 (1966). p. 255.

44. Barnard’s Survey of the Duchy of Lancaster, Aug. 1577, cited P. H. Booth, History of Gildersome and the Booth Family (Bradford, 1920), p. 6.

45. The National Archives. DL3/43/f1 [hereafter TNA].

46. J. J. Cartwright, Subsidy Rolls for the Wapentakes of Agbrigg and Morley, (1545), YAJ., Vol. 2, (1873), p. 47. He would be considered to be modest by national standards, the only person taxed in Gildersome.

47. YAS Smithy Accounts, 9 Nov. 1567.

48. Northamptonshire Record Office, Brudenell Estate Map No. 32 (1711); A. H. Green, The Geology of the Yorkshire Coalfield (London, 1878), p. 684.

49. WYAS Leeds, Milnes Coates Deeds, WYL 323/173/18 1568 (Latin).

50. WYAS Leeds, Milnes Coates Deeds, WYL 323/176/42 1587, and 323/177/77 1608. Nottingham University, Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, G.A. 10/642 1585 (Latin).

51. WYAS, Bradford, Abstract of deeds Sp.St. 4/11/88, 2&3 1653–1721. YAS Smithy Accounts, 1 Jul. 1567.

52. WYAS, Bradford. DB5/C15/6, 1752. Albion Brickworks is now the site of a public house.

53. Green, Geology of the Yorkshire Coalfield, p. 684.

54. WYAS Wakefield, WYL/760 map,1739.

55. Sheffield Archives, Tibbits Collection, TC/65 1608 notes Stonegate. Stoney Gate Lane, see WYAS Leeds, Milnes Coates Deeds, WYL 323/181/210.

56. NYCRO, MIC. 2087/1374, 1634, Steward’s letter to Lord Danby.

57. The Parish Register of Birstall: 1, 1558–1635 (YAS Parish Register Section, Vol. 146, 1983), p. 175.

58. C. T. Clay, ed., Yorkshire Deeds Volume V (YAS Record Series, Vol. 69, 1926), p.172.

59. British Geological Survey, Spatial Data, Boreholes, e.g. SE22NW54/21.

60. Borthwick Institute, John Croft of ‘Shawfield in Tong’ will, Jun. 3 (1558); YAS, YAS/DD 70/5,1568.

61. WYAS Calderdale Deeds SH:4/VL/Jun. 5 1605, (Latin). BIA., Will 20 March 1613, mentions closes. Collier here would mean a miner rather than a charcoal burner.

62. WYAS Bradford, Tong Deeds 3/20, 3/26–35, 3/39. Gt Urefield (sic) orefield 3/36, Estate Map 1725 Tong 9/2, TNA C3/176/5 – Quarry Field; Land rents, see J. T. Cliffe (1969).

63. Nottinghamshire Archives, Christopher Saxton’s plan of Hunsworth. DD/SR/1/6/45, 1599, ‘cole pitts’ noted.

64. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain: Iron ores of Great Britain, part 1 (London, 1856). p. 31. WYAS Bradford, Tong Deeds, Tong 3/78 1581 Tong 8b/1 1584.

65. J. L. Cruickshank, ‘Headingley-cum-Burley c1540-c.1784’, (unpublished PhD., University of Leeds, 2003), p. 36.

66. YAS Smithy Accounts 27 Sept. 1567 and 12 Sept. 1584.

67. WYAS Leeds, WYL 115/FOR – Survey of Woodland; TNA. C/43/9/124 – 1580–2. NYCRO, MIC 2087/227 and 284.

68. J. Parker, ed., Feet of Fines for the County of York from 1246 to 1272 (YAS Record Series, vol. 82, 1932), p.15 and Yorkshire Deeds vol. X, p. 64.

69. Northamptonshire Record Office, Brudenell estate maps. Nos 32, 33, 34. 1711.

70. YAS, YAS/MD 279/B7/8,1625, Westwood today covers Nan Whins and Sykes Woods.

71. YAS, YAS/MD279/B7/2 Court Rolls 1563 and 1634/1618 MD 279/B7/9, Stewards Accts, B5/2. A ‘‘bote’’ was a liberty given to a tenant to take wood for a particular purpose. See also note 77.

72. See Schubert (1957) p.123.

73. University of Leeds, Brotherton Library, Special Collections, Whitaker Collection: Christopher Saxton, An atlas of the counties of England and Wales (1579).

74. WYAS, Bradford, Tempest papers, Final Concord, Tong/3/51.

75. WYAS Bradford, Tong Deeds 3/2 (1516) to Tong 3/119 (1595), (29 in total).

76. WYAS Bradford. Tong Estate Map 9/2 (1725).

77. G. Redmonds, Names in History, People, Places and Things (London, 2004), pp. 211–8.

78. J. Wheeler, ‘The Environmental impact of Iron Working on the Woodlands of Rievaux and Bilsdale’, in M. A. Atherden and T. Milsome, eds., Yorkshire Landscapes Past and Present (York, 2008), pp. 61–76.

79. WYAS Bradford, Tong Court Book, MS 8c/17 – unfortunately the earliest entries here are for 1630.

80. YAS/MD/279/B7/2 1553 Watson, Bollyt by copy of Court Roll; YAS/MD 279/B8/1 No. 31.

81. Leeds Library, Thoresby Society Collection, MSS SD 26 – 1584.

82. WYAS Leeds, WYL 115/FOR (1552). A John Casson was a smith at Farnley in 1558, this could be the same man, but there is no evidence. I am quoting this as an example of a lease.

83. TNA. E178/2709 (1588/9) – in South Yorkshire.

84. W. K. Jordan. The Charities of Rural England 1480–1700 (London, 1961), p. 215.

85. Northamptonshire Record Office, Brudenell estate maps. Nos 32, 33, 34. 1711.

86. P. King, ‘The Iron Trade in England and Wales 1500–1815’, p. 288.

87. C. M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution, European Society and Economy 1000–1700 (London, 1976), p. 266.

88. Newton, ‘Early Coal Mining in Leeds 1560–1700’.

89. G. Hammersley, ‘The Charcoal Iron Industry and its Fuel 1540–1750’, Economic History Review, series 2, 26 (1973), p. 593.

90. H. Cleere cited in G. Foard, ‘Medieval Woodland, Agriculture and Industry in the Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire’, Medieval Archaeology, 45 (Jun. 2001), p. 86. This estimate is very approximate.

91. P. King, ‘The Iron Trade of England and Wales, 1500–1815’, p. 44.

92. J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969), pp. 369–70.