Hareshaw Ironworks

Summary

The upstanding, earthwork and buried remains of part of a mid-C19 ironworks, orientated north-south on the east side of the Hareshaw Burn. It includes the water management system, rows of calcining kilns and coke ovens, waggon ways, spoil heap, and part of the foundry and associated structures.

Reasons for Designation

Hareshaw Ironworks, of mid-C19 date, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

Period: a good example of the type of marginal enterprises that grew in response to the national mid-C19 demand for iron, but which were soon outclassed by emerging integrated concerns elsewhere;

Diversity of features: the site illustrates many of the elements that characterise small-scale ironworks, including dams, waggon ways, spoil heaps, calcining kilns, coke ovens, and part of the foundry buildings;

Survival: despite the loss of some of the prime foundry features, the ironworks survive reasonably well and retain significant remains encased in earthworks, which are associated with significant buried deposits;

Potential: the site will inform about the origin, daily use, and the abandonment of this type of mid-C19 marginal and short-lived ironworks.

History

Iron has been produced in England from at least 500 BC. The iron industry, spurred on by a succession of technological developments, has played a major part in the history of the country, its production and overall importance peaking with the Industrial Revolution. During the first three decades of the C19 there was only one substantial ironworks in Northumberland, which had operated since the 1790s. During the late 1830s, in response to growing demand for iron products a number of small ironworks were established in the county in relation to local sources of iron ore, coal (coke) and lime. These were short lived enterprises but illustrative of the demand nationally, which were soon outclassed by emerging integrated concerns elsewhere.

The Hareshaw Ironworks opened in 1839 by Batson, Campion, and Company. It manufactured pig iron from locally sourced coal, iron ore, and limestone by converting the coal to coke and then using a cold blast furnace for manufacturing the iron. A single blast furnace was constructed at the site driven by a 60-horsepower engine powered by water. Two dams were created on the Hareshaw Burn: a lower dam abstracted water through a flume to drive the engine, while a larger dam was constructed upstream to provide a reservoir for continuous supplies of water. There were also 24 calcining kilns to roast the iron ore, 70 coke ovens to covert the coal to coke, a wagonway, waste heaps, dwellings for workers, offices, stables, and stores. By the time of the 1841 census there were about 150 foundry employees living in the village, and at its height the company employed about 500 men and boys. The raw materials were transported to the works on iron waggon ways, and the resultant pig iron was sent by cart to Hexham where the company had a foundry and timber yard. The pig iron was allowed to cool completely before transport to Hexham, where it had to be re-heated for casting or sold on to other companies. Specific castings were made for customers such as Woolwich Dockyard and the Carlisle and Maryport Railway, and any remaining iron was sold on the open market.

After the death of Baston, and Campion's loss of fortune, the works became the property of the Union Bank, who attempted its modernisation by constructing two more blast furnaces powered by a steam engine. However, by May 1848 the works was only producing 80 tons of pig iron a week, and it closed in 1849. This failure is considered to include the inadequacy of the transport arrangements especially the absence of a railway, a depression in the iron trade, the anachronistic water-powered technology employed, and the inefficient production of pig iron. Some of the iron smelting buildings were leased by the bank to a company running a new tileworks on the lower ground to the west. By 1863 the remaining iron works plant had been sold and removed from the site and in 1869 the upper dam was dismantled.

The iron smelting site including the blast furnaces and associated buildings at the south end of the site were largely levelled and built over in 1978.

Investigation History

In 2007 an archaeological evaluation within the south end of the scheduled area revealed the presence of ironworks remains at a depth of between 0.5m and 0.8m. Two trenches uncovered a brick floor of a building depicted on the 1853 plan, and the remains of a stone and brick structure interpreted as an office or ancillary building. In 2023 excavation of the track which crosses the scheduled area was shown to comprise a series of distinct levels including clay, sandstone rubble, brick, charcoal, and furnace waste from the ironworks used as track surfacing.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the upstanding, earthwork and buried remains of part of a mid-C19 ironworks, orientated north-south on the east side of the Hareshaw Burn. It includes the water management system, rows of calcining kilns and coke ovens, a waggon way, spoil heap, and part of the foundry and associated structures.

DESCRIPTION: at the north end of the site the substantial remains of the lower dam are visible as a masonry pier standing on each side of the Hareshaw Burn. The piers stand to a height of 6m and are 9.5m wide and each is of dressed stone with rubblestone to the rear. The eastern pier has a rectangular opening through which the head race water was taken to the main ironworks; the head race is considered to have lain underground and remains in situ. The remains of a waggon way run north-south through the centre of the site, which brought iron ore from mines further up the valley. It is visible as a low linear earthwork with an upper surface of re-deposited iron slag. Adjacent to this and near the edge of the burn there is a substantial spoil heap; this feature was created by sorting of the iron stone spoil which was discarded before the raw material was carried by waggon onto the top of the kilns; the waggon way continues south as far as the grassed over remains of the calcining kilns and coke ovens where the raw materials were deposited into the furnaces. There were known to have been 70 coke ovens in several ranges and 24 large kilns for the roasting of iron stone. These features are visible as substantial linear earthworks standing up to 10m high, which contain the lower courses of these structures and buildings. The latter are depicted on a detailed 1854 plan of the works and are highly visible on a 1940s aerial photograph. Their form can still be discerned within the rough grass covering of the earthwork. A second waggon way runs through the eastern end of the site which carried coal from local mines also as far as the kilns and coke ovens.

Immediately to the west of the coke ovens there is a steep, natural scarp which is considered to contain deposits associated with the coking process. At the foot of the scarp there is an intermittent retaining wall and the remains of masonry walls at the south-west corner of the site. Further to the south-east the lower parts of iron foundry buildings are retained on the flat top of the scarp and within the scarp itself. On the level ground at the foot of the scarp there is a prominent curvilinear grassed earthwork retaining the lower courses of associated structures.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this includes the full extent of the ironworks as identified by historic maps, aerial photographs, and field inspection. The exact nature of a prominent spoil heap outside this area to the east, thought to be discarded coal spoil, is not included in the scheduling at this time. Outside the scheduled area to the south-west, the remainder of the foundry yard was built over in 1978, but some remains associated with this are included.

EXCLUSIONS: all fence and gate posts that sit within or cross the monument are excluded, although the ground beneath these features is included.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

ND 594

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Linsley, S M, Hareshaw and Ridsdale Ironworks in Northumbriana, Vol. 12 and 13, (1978), 15-17 and 11-14
Roberts, I D, Iron Making in Redesdale and North Tynedale in the Nineteenth Century: The problems of Rural Exploitation and Diversification in Northern History, Vol. XXXVI, (2000), 283-298

End of official list entry

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