Iron Age Furness Vale

The name of our village is a corruption of its original name "The Furnace" which died out of use in the early 19th century. 

The Journal of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire reported in 1957, on the existance of the original "furnace" as recorded in the Jodrell family archives at John Ryland's Library.
 Disley furnace was situated on land of the Jodrell family, on the boundary of Yeardsley Whaley. It is first noticed in the 1690s when small quantities of "Jodrell pig" were being received at the south Yorkshire forges, but in 1702 some of its produce found its way as far as Carburton forge in Nottinghamshire. An estimate of the estate for 1737 shows it to have been worth a rent of £50 and then in the hands of Samuel Bagshaw, whilst in 1770 the tenant was Joseph Lowe.
(The locations, Disley and Yeardsley Whaley refer to the relative parishes. The boundary between these being the Furness Brook)

Burdett's Map of Cheshire, published in 1777 shows the furnace which was apparently still in operation at that time.

John Farey, writing in his 1811 book "General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire", claims that he observed slag and remains of old bloomeries and charcoal furnaces at Jow Hole. A bloomer was a type of furnace once commonly used for smelting iron and was fired with charcoal. These were once common in England until most of the available woodland had been denuded. By 1806, just eleven remained in use. The illustration below is a cut-away diagram of a typical bloomer. These were quite small, perhaps no more than 1.5 metres high and made from stone or clay. 

This next illustration is of a Roman Bloomery. The principle remained the same.

We must assume that there was a ready supply of iron ore close by. John Farey desribes the methods of obtaining ironstone. "In the early periods, the method of obtaining ore was by removing the soil layer and exposing the mineral beds. These open cast workings were known as Rakes. After these had been worked out, a method of working called Bell-work,was adopted. A roundpit, of the usual size of a shaft, is sunk, until the ironstone is reached, from 3 to 10 tards deep, the first two or three yards being made cylindrical, and the part below it, conical, in order to reach a larger surface of the stone, which being got below the shaft,and a drain laid across it for connecting with the next pit, the workment, or ironstone-men, begin to hollow out the measures all around the shaft into the form of a bell (whence the name), throwing the refuse into the centre, and getting the ironstone as far under as possible on all sides: which done, the pit is abandoned, and another began at a proper distance, the soil from which is tumbled into the last pit, as fast as it is drawn, until the stone is reached and got as before, when another pit is begun and so on."

The location of the furnace is uncertain. Farey states that it was at Jow Hole ( Gow Hole ), later historians believe it to have been close to where Rotational Mouldings is now sited.

 

Iron ore was to be found locally, between the coal seams. 

Living In The Furnace

We all know the story of how Bugsworth changed its name to something more respectable. A hundred years beforehand, a similar change took place in Furness Vale. We might otherwise have all been "Living in the Furnace"


Our community at the end of the 1700s was no more than a small hamlet called The Furnace. Within ten years, the canal, printworks and turnpike road had all opened and the village rapidly grew in size and population. 

We don't know when the name "Furness Vale" first came into use but it must have been around the beginning of the nineteenth century.  Maps published as late as 1831 still give the name of the village as "Furnace" or "The Furnace" and show the mill as "Furnace Print Works". Legal documents such as "Hansard" (the Parliamentary record) still quote the "Furnace" spelling in 1831.  "Furness Vale" was however, in use by 1821 for the name appears in a trade directory for that year.  There appears to be a gradual transition from one name to the other rather than an official change.

The first record of a furnace in the parish of Disley is in 1690.  A charcoal fired iron smelting furnace stood where the "beehive" kilns of Knowles Brickyard were later constructed. This must have been a reasonable sized operation for "Jodrell Pig" was sent to forges in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.  Small iron foundries were to be found in many parts of the country, wherever charcoal or coke, and iron ore were available. The mineral was probably mined locally among the coal seams of Furness Clough and charcoal produced in nearby woodland. Most of these small local furnaces had closed by the late 18th century, replaced by much larger and more profitable coke fired plants. The disused kiln was probably still in evidence in 1811 for John Farey, described its location in his book of that date.