Bedlington Ironworks
Encyclopedia
Bedlington Ironworks, in Blyth Dene, Northumberland
, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron
rails were invented by John Birkinshaw
in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington Railway
opened in 1825, about 45 miles (72.4 km) to the south.
Blyth Dene, near Bedlington
, was an idyllic location next to the River Blyth
which had all the right ingredients for an ironworks at the time: there were modules of ironstone in the coal laden banks of the river, there was plenty of wood for the traditional approach of charcoal making, water for driving the hammers, and the port of Blyth was only two miles downriver for shipping of the products. At the time, a Shropshire
man, Abraham Darby
had started a revolution in ironmaking by using coke
instead of charcoal
. The Bedlington ironworks originally consisted of two elements - a mill in Bebside and a furnace at Bedlington Mill
side of the river was taken in 1736 by William Thomlinson, an established ironmaster from Skinnerburn in Newcastle upon Tyne
, though he died in 1737 before the works was properly established. By 1757, when it was sold again, there was a slitting mill
which employed 40 nailers, a quay on the Bedlington side of the river and a "commodious dwelling house, fit for a gentleman's family consisting of ten fine rooms, four of which are hung with genteel papers, with good cellars, a stable, large garden and other conveniences". In 1782 (or 1792) the works, which by then were producing 500 long ton of rod iron and iron hoops per year and exporting as far away as London. They introduced a rolling mill and the nailing business which had separated out steadily declined in importance.
at Bedlington was taken over in 1759 by Malings & Co of Sunderland, who built a blast furnace
for foundry
work. However they did not do well. Later there was a forge
driven by a huge water wheel and a puddling furnace which needed the coal that was all around.
, 2 miles (3 km) away, for reduced prices on coal provided a wagonway
was established to link the two works. Longridge, influenced by a report from Robert Stevenson
of Edinburgh
, decided on malleable iron rails
and his agent John Birkinshaw developed a number of wedge-formed shapes to reduce the amount of iron, taking out a patent in 1820, and the rails were made with a swell or curvature in the middle.
The 2 miles (3 km) wagonway (which cost 15 shillings a yard or 16 shillings 4¾ pence a metre) was a great success and deeply impressed George Stephenson
, a close friend of Longridge who went on to use Birkinshaw's invention in the Stockton and Darlington Railway
and by 1822 the Bedlington Iron Company had delivered 1200 long ton of malleable iron rails to the venture. This level of production was far beyond that possible by the manual casting techniques used at the time and was an important factor in the success of the railways.
By 1836, the ambitious Longridge was also making locomotives for the railways, despite the opposition of Robert Stephenson
, George Stephenson's son, and the first locomotive, the "Michael Longridge", was delivered in 1837 to the Stanhope and Tyne Railway
.
Though the locomotive plant closed in 1855, the Bedlington works exported both rails and locomotives to many parts of Europe and played a significant part in the explosive growth of the railway system. The works were at their peak in 1850 producing rails and castings for the Crimean War
effort.
Longridge sold the works in 1853 and from there on it declined rapidly and was closed in 1867. The same year, Daniel Gooch
, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
's locomotive engineer on the Great Western Railway
, who was brought up in Bedlington and spent his childhood playing around the works, found some rails on the GWR that had come from Bedlington still in very good order after 37 years of use.
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
rails were invented by John Birkinshaw
John Birkinshaw
John Birkinshaw was a 19th Century railway engineer from Bedlington, Northumberland noted for his invention of wrought iron rails in 1820. Up to this point, rail systems had used either wooden rails, which were totally incapable of supporting steam engines, or cast iron rails typically only 3 feet...
in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington Railway
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
opened in 1825, about 45 miles (72.4 km) to the south.
Blyth Dene, near Bedlington
Bedlington
Bedlington is a town in Northumberland, to the north of the Tyne and Wear urban area. It lies north of Newcastle and southeast of the county town of Morpeth. Other nearby places include Ashington to the north northeast, Blyth to the east and Cramlington to the south.The parish of Bedlington...
, was an idyllic location next to the River Blyth
River Blyth, Northumberland
The River Blyth flows eastwards through southern Northumberland into the North Sea at the town of Blyth. It flows through Plessey Woods Country Park. The River Pont is a tributary....
which had all the right ingredients for an ironworks at the time: there were modules of ironstone in the coal laden banks of the river, there was plenty of wood for the traditional approach of charcoal making, water for driving the hammers, and the port of Blyth was only two miles downriver for shipping of the products. At the time, a Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
man, Abraham Darby
Abraham Darby I
Abraham Darby I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal...
had started a revolution in ironmaking by using coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
instead of charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
. The Bedlington ironworks originally consisted of two elements - a mill in Bebside and a furnace at Bedlington Mill
Bebside
A lease of 50 acres (20.2 ha) on the BebsideBebside
Bebside is a village in Northumberland, in England. It is situated to the west of Blyth....
side of the river was taken in 1736 by William Thomlinson, an established ironmaster from Skinnerburn in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, though he died in 1737 before the works was properly established. By 1757, when it was sold again, there was a slitting mill
Slitting mill
The slitting mill was a watermill for slitting bars of iron into rods. The rods then were passed to nailers who made the rods into nails, by giving them a point and head....
which employed 40 nailers, a quay on the Bedlington side of the river and a "commodious dwelling house, fit for a gentleman's family consisting of ten fine rooms, four of which are hung with genteel papers, with good cellars, a stable, large garden and other conveniences". In 1782 (or 1792) the works, which by then were producing 500 long ton of rod iron and iron hoops per year and exporting as far away as London. They introduced a rolling mill and the nailing business which had separated out steadily declined in importance.
Bedlington
The ancient corn millGristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
at Bedlington was taken over in 1759 by Malings & Co of Sunderland, who built a blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
for foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
work. However they did not do well. Later there was a forge
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
driven by a huge water wheel and a puddling furnace which needed the coal that was all around.
The 19th century
By 1788, both works had passed to William Hawks and Thomas Longridge, brothers-in-law from Gateshead, who were both ironmasters. Though in 1809 the business passed to Gordon and Biddulph, by 1819 Michael Longridge, nephew of the previous co-owner was in charge. One of his first acts was to make an agreement in 1819 with a coal mine at ChoppingtonChoppington
Choppington is a village in Northumberland, in England. It is situated a short distance to the south-east of Morpeth, and north of Bedlington. It was at one time part of the three big mid-Northumberland collieries . Older people will tell you that they worked at A, B or C....
, 2 miles (3 km) away, for reduced prices on coal provided a wagonway
Wagonway
Wagonways consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.- Early developments :...
was established to link the two works. Longridge, influenced by a report from Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...
of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, decided on malleable iron rails
Rail profile
The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to the length of the rail.In all but very early cast iron rails, a rail is hot rolled steel of a specific cross sectional profile designed for use as the fundamental component of railway track.Unlike some other uses of...
and his agent John Birkinshaw developed a number of wedge-formed shapes to reduce the amount of iron, taking out a patent in 1820, and the rails were made with a swell or curvature in the middle.
The 2 miles (3 km) wagonway (which cost 15 shillings a yard or 16 shillings 4¾ pence a metre) was a great success and deeply impressed George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
, a close friend of Longridge who went on to use Birkinshaw's invention in the Stockton and Darlington Railway
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
and by 1822 the Bedlington Iron Company had delivered 1200 long ton of malleable iron rails to the venture. This level of production was far beyond that possible by the manual casting techniques used at the time and was an important factor in the success of the railways.
By 1836, the ambitious Longridge was also making locomotives for the railways, despite the opposition of Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
, George Stephenson's son, and the first locomotive, the "Michael Longridge", was delivered in 1837 to the Stanhope and Tyne Railway
Stanhope and Tyne Railway
The Stanhope and Tyne Railway was opened in 1834 from Stanhope, in County Durham, UK, to Tyne Dock in South Shields, via Consett. It originally provided a link between the limestone quarries at Stanhope and coal mines at Stanhope for the production of lime, with an outlet to the Tyne down river of...
.
Though the locomotive plant closed in 1855, the Bedlington works exported both rails and locomotives to many parts of Europe and played a significant part in the explosive growth of the railway system. The works were at their peak in 1850 producing rails and castings for the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
effort.
Longridge sold the works in 1853 and from there on it declined rapidly and was closed in 1867. The same year, Daniel Gooch
Daniel Gooch
Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet was an English railway and transatlantic cable engineer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1885...
, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
's locomotive engineer on the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
, who was brought up in Bedlington and spent his childhood playing around the works, found some rails on the GWR that had come from Bedlington still in very good order after 37 years of use.