[44798] Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet : Crucible Furnace & Tilt Forge

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, Sheffield.

Workshops - Left to Right - Crucible Furnace ; Fitting Shop ; Tilt Forge.

Grade l listed.

www.simt.co.uk/abbeydale-industrial-hamlet

 

The Crucible Furnace at Abbeydale is the only one of its kind in the world which still survives intact. It was built in around 1830, and supplied the works with quality steel for tool-making. The building also houses a Pot Shop, where clay crucible pots were made for the furnace, and a Charge Room where the ingredients for the steel were prepared and weighed. Temperatures in the crucible furnace reached 1600°C and the strength of the 'puller out', who lifted the weight of molten steel from the furnace was legendary. The 'teemer' was also a highly skilled worker, carefully pouring the steel into ingot moulds with strength and precision.

 

The Tilt Forge was built in 1785 and houses two massive tilt hammers. The hammers were driven by the site's main waterwheel, and the forgemaster and hammer man sat before them, making crown scythes. This was done by forge-welding a piece of crucible steel between two pieces of wrought iron, like a sandwich. The central Venetian window has a keystone inscribed GHG 1785.

 

Abbeydale Works is an integrated site for the production of steel tools. Dating from c1714, it was mainly built in the period 1785-1830, and remained in continuous use until 1933. It is of outstanding importance as an example of this type of industrial plant and its characteristic design.

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