Excavations at Rockley Smithies, a water-powered bloomery of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Abstract

Between about 1500 and 1640 iron was smelted by the direct, bloomery, process on the lands of the Rockley family at (N.G.R.) SE/340023, to the south-west of Barnsley, Yorkshire, using charcoal and ore from the well-wooded outcrops of the Tankersley ironstone, adjacent to the site. Evidence for operation early in the 16th century was limited to accumulations of hearth-cinder and of debris from ore-roasting, minor structures and traces of a dam. About 1600 a major rebuilding involved the construction of a bloom-hearth and probably two stringhearths, with bellows powered by waterwheels, and an unpowered hammer. Minor rebuilding took place early in the 17th century, and archaeological and documentary evidence combine to place abandonment at about 1640. Demolition and stone-robbing could well have provided material for the blast-furnace built a short distance away in 1652. The bloomery site was abandoned to pasture and perhaps a cottage, and at some time early in the 19th century was occupied by two houses and a workshop for an adjacent colliery tramway. It was covered by a road embankment in 1966.Evidence was found of techniques at a comparatively advanced bloomery, in operation at a time when English ironmasters were, however, increasingly favouring the use of the blast furnace.

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