The Mining Industry in
the Huddersfield District
By D. A. Wray
PRIMITIVE METHODS OF MINING
The usual method of mining the iron-ore was to sink shallow
pits close to the outcrop and then remove the mineral from
the base of the shaft; the process being continued laterally
by undercutting the sides as far as was practicable with
safety. When the roof began to fall in to any dangerous
extent the working was abandoned, and another began a short
distance away. Around Emley and Kexbrough these shafts or
bell-pits were on average forty to fifty yards apart; and
they extended to a distance of from five hundred to eight
hundred yards from the outcrop of the bed of ironstone.
The smelting of the iron-ore was also originally carried
out in a very primitive manner. Wood, which was doubtless
plentiful locally, was employed exclusively for fuel. The
present area, even to-day, is comparatively well-wooded
despite the close proximity of large industrial centers.
The ancient records, however, clearly show that the extensive
depredations made on the local woodlands became in time
a frequent source of complaint, and numerous agreements
made in the fourteenth century clearly defining what timber
should be taken bear witness to a rigour which was not exercised
two centuries previously.
In the earliest type of furnace constructed it is improbable
that an artificial blast would be regularly employed. The
bloomeries, as they were termed, were placed in elevated
positions or in such situations as full advantage could
be taken of the prevalent winds. Later no doubt improvements
would be introduced, though precise technical details are
singularly lacking in the ancient records. The employment
of water-power when the furnaces were built by the streams
was a much later development to have gradually fallen away
later. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed
the development of a new industry, that of coal mining;
while the iron forges decreased in number; and at the dissolution
of the monasteries in the following century the iron industry
had almost completely disappeared.
An interesting an isolated record, however, of the working
of the Tankersley Ironstone not far from the vicinity of
Bentley Grange is contained in some correspondence belonging
to the Wortley family and dating from the end of the sixteenth
century. It is here recorded that 'the River Dearne riseth
at a place called Grange Ashe, cometh to Flockton, then
to Midgley-Banke Smythies; being ironworks belonging to
Sir Francis Wortley.'
The Wortley family, it may be mentioned, were connected
for centuries with the iron industry in the Rotherham district.
Not long after, in 1624, these workings had fallen into
disuse, and since that time no ironstone has been worked.
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