Wortley Top Forge
Wortley Top Forge, Forge Lane
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1315032
- Date first listed:
- 18-Mar-1968
- List Entry Name:
- Wortley Top Forge
- Statutory Address:
- Wortley Top Forge, Forge Lane
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-09-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/16830/03
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter Keeble. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1315032
- Date first listed:
- 18-Mar-1968
- List Entry Name:
- Wortley Top Forge
- Statutory Address 1:
- Wortley Top Forge, Forge Lane
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Wortley Top Forge, Forge Lane
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Barnsley (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Hunshelf
- National Grid Reference:
- SK 29446 99872
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 8 August 2025 to amend the address and reformat the text to current standards
SK49NE
11/49
HUNSHELF
FORGE LANE (east side)
Wortley Top Forge
(Formerly listed as Wortley Top Forge, COTE LANE (east side))
18.3.68
GV
I
Forge. C17 origin, mid C18 mid C19 structure and form with mid C19 functional layout and alterations, re-roofed 1880, C20 restoration. Tooled, squared stone, rubble to rear, Welsh slate upper roof, stone slate lower roof.
Rectangular plan with continuous rear outshut with additional housing the blower wheel, and pits to front right and front centre for wheels 1 and 2 respectively. The front wall has a large round-arched opening for each wheel, each with a single, flanking square-headed smaller doorway. At high level are three square window openings. Set back to the left, built into the cottages (q.v), is a two bay arcade with brick voussoirs supported on two cast-iron round columns. On one pier is a re-set stone inscribed 'M 1713 W' (Mathew Wilson, manager). Central raised roof section.
Rear: the blower wheel to left works through a round arch with brick voussoirs.
Interior: the rear wall is opened-up by four large segmental arches with brick voussoirs. In situ machinery includes: Wheel 1: one-piece iron casting (wooden paddles missing) probably replacing an earler wooden wheel, 12 feet in diameter, breast-shot and with a cast-iron axle. Wheel 2: installed mid C19; cast-iron with separate felloes and later wooden paddles, 13½ feet in diameter, breast-shot. The blower wheel: cast-iron with wooden buckets, fed pitch-back by a cast-iron pentrough dated 1850; it was used to blow air to the furnaces for welding. Hammer 1, of C18 type: massive wooden construction, with cast-iron replacement parts, operated by a cam to the underside of the helve, fitted with wooden spring beam. Hammer 2, of mid C19 type: cast-iron, driven by a cam to the underside of the helve. Four wooden jib cranes one at each hammer and two at the entrance.
A bloomery existed on the site in the early C17 and a finery in the mid C17. A lease was granted in 1640; in 1658 John Spencer acquired the lease and from then until 1746 the forge was run by Spencer partnerships. Subsequent owners included the Cockshutts, 1746-1819, Thos Andrews II 1871-1907, and The Wortley Iron Co. The Sheffield Trades Historical Society purchased the forge in 1953.
From c1840 the forge successfully produced railway axles, forge-welded from nine
wrought-iron bars; it was last used in 1912. A scheduled Ancient Monument.
D Crossley, "Wortley Top Froge", Archaeological Journal, Vol 137, 1980 p86.
M P Johnson and P Worrall, Top Forge, Wortley, undated official guidebook.
Listing NGR: SK2944699872
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 333829
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Johnson, , Worrall, , Top Forge Wortley, ()
Archaeological Journal in Archaeological Journal, Vol. 137, (1980), 86
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 16-Jun-2026 at 06:16:41.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.