Dyfi Furnace
Dyfi Furnace is a restored mid-18th-century charcoal-fired blast furnace used for smelting iron ore. It has given its name to the adjoining hamlet of Furnace.
History
The site for Dyfi Furnace was chosen downstream of the waterfall on the River Einion to take advantage of the water power from the river and charcoal produced from the local woodlands, with the iron ore being shipped in from the Lake District via the River Dovey.
The furnace built around 1755 was only in use for about fifty years. It was abandoned by 1810.[1] The furnace site was renovated around 2008.[2]
The furnace was built by Ralph Vernon and the brothers Edward Bridge and William Bridge. Vernon retired between 1765 and 1770, and the Bridges (who also owned Conwy Furnace) became bankrupt in 1773. The furnace probably passed to Kendall & Co. (probably Jonathan Kendall and his brother Henry), Midlands ironmasters with extensive interests scattered across Staffordshire, Cheshire, The Lake District and Scotland. After the original lease expired in 1796, the furnace was probably owned by Bell and Gaskell, including Thomas Bell, who had managed it for the Kendalls, whose main activity by then was running the Beaufort Ironworks in Beaufort on the borders of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire.
The water wheel, shown in the photographs, provided power to the bellows of the blast furnace and, later in its history, powered a sawmill.[3]
The site was previously a Silver Mill of the Society of Mines Royal.
References
- James Dinn, 'Dyfi Furnace excavations 1982-87', Post-medieval Archaeology 22 (1988), 111-42.
Outside links
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