IMG_3622 Wortley Top Forge - Joiners Shop
The history of the forge can be traced back to 1640, and it was still working until around 1910. The industrial site was abandoned in 1929 although the workers’ cottages were occupied until the late 1960s.
Top Forge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Grade I) and celebrates the history of iron-working in Britain and especially in South Yorkshire. The Forge is the only surviving water-powered heavy wrought iron forge with its water wheels and hammers (now restored) in situ. It is a site of national importance.
The Industrial Revolution is usually associated with steam power. Wortley Top Forge certainly made its contribution both in the technology of iron making and in supporting the early Railway Age, but only ever used the power of its three water wheels.
The Don valley was an ideal area for iron-making as it had access to ironstone from the Tankersley seam, coppiced timber for charcoal and, of course, water power. Iron has been worked in the valley since the 1300s. Top Forge was built before1640, deliberately in a loop of the river Don in order to shorten the course of the head goyt and to maximise the head of water available between the weir and the tail goyt.
The current layout of the building dates from the 1850s when the forge was turned over to the production of shafts and axles mainly for use on railway wagons. Some of the earliest metallurgical experiments in the world were conducted at the site by the engineer and metallurgist Thomas Andrews.
Railway axles of the highest quality were manufactured at the site in the nineteenth century and exported all over the world.
Axle production ceased at Top Forge by 1910 (the price of mild steel from Sheffield had undercut the cost of wrought iron).
The Top Forge workshops continued to service the works both upstream and downstream until 1929 when all activity ceased.
The older breast-shot water wheel and belly-helve hammer was probably installed in 1680s and would have been almost entirely of wood. As each generation updated this structure, we now have a cast iron wheel with a cast iron axle albeit with evidence of a previous wooden tree trunk shaft.
The larger breast-shot wheel and trip hammer was probably installed around 1840 when railway axle making was introduced. It has been calculated that the four-lobed cam running at 20 revolutions per minute would have a power output of about 8 HP and each hammer blow about half as effective as a 1 ton drop hammer.
The forge also houses a large collection of early industrial machinery
IMG_3622 Wortley Top Forge - Joiners Shop
The history of the forge can be traced back to 1640, and it was still working until around 1910. The industrial site was abandoned in 1929 although the workers’ cottages were occupied until the late 1960s.
Top Forge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Grade I) and celebrates the history of iron-working in Britain and especially in South Yorkshire. The Forge is the only surviving water-powered heavy wrought iron forge with its water wheels and hammers (now restored) in situ. It is a site of national importance.
The Industrial Revolution is usually associated with steam power. Wortley Top Forge certainly made its contribution both in the technology of iron making and in supporting the early Railway Age, but only ever used the power of its three water wheels.
The Don valley was an ideal area for iron-making as it had access to ironstone from the Tankersley seam, coppiced timber for charcoal and, of course, water power. Iron has been worked in the valley since the 1300s. Top Forge was built before1640, deliberately in a loop of the river Don in order to shorten the course of the head goyt and to maximise the head of water available between the weir and the tail goyt.
The current layout of the building dates from the 1850s when the forge was turned over to the production of shafts and axles mainly for use on railway wagons. Some of the earliest metallurgical experiments in the world were conducted at the site by the engineer and metallurgist Thomas Andrews.
Railway axles of the highest quality were manufactured at the site in the nineteenth century and exported all over the world.
Axle production ceased at Top Forge by 1910 (the price of mild steel from Sheffield had undercut the cost of wrought iron).
The Top Forge workshops continued to service the works both upstream and downstream until 1929 when all activity ceased.
The older breast-shot water wheel and belly-helve hammer was probably installed in 1680s and would have been almost entirely of wood. As each generation updated this structure, we now have a cast iron wheel with a cast iron axle albeit with evidence of a previous wooden tree trunk shaft.
The larger breast-shot wheel and trip hammer was probably installed around 1840 when railway axle making was introduced. It has been calculated that the four-lobed cam running at 20 revolutions per minute would have a power output of about 8 HP and each hammer blow about half as effective as a 1 ton drop hammer.
The forge also houses a large collection of early industrial machinery