By Jean Chatterley and John Findlater
Preface
Any observant person crossing the River Keer, going from Carnforth to Warton, might speculate on the origins of the settlement bordering the eastern side of the road. Local people, of course, are well aware of the connection between these terraces of Victorian houses and the now vanished Ironworks, which functioned in nearby Carnforth from 1865 to 1929.
Two members of the Mourholme Society independently, have become intrigued by Millhead. We hope to offer a few articles on various aspects of this settlement, which grew up in the second half of the nineteenth century. It will inevitably involve consideration of Carnforth as a whole, though our primary interest is in the Ironworks/Millhead area.
There are already useful publications on the maturation of Carnforth, which are listed in the bibliography at the end of this article. We hope to complement these publications in this and future articles.
The Growth of Carnforth in the Nineteenth Century
The Ordnance Survey (OS) 6″ map shows Carnforth in 1848, two years after the opening of the Lancaster-Carlisle railway; a sparse collection of limestone cottages and farmhouses along the old coaching road near the Lancaster-Kendal canal. It is now a minor road (North Road) and even in 1848 had been superseded as a through road by the turnpike road (the Garstang and Heronsyke Trust on the map), which roughly followed the line of the present A6. The small settlement lay in the south-eastern part of the largely agricultural parish of Warton. A few craft industries, wool and linen weaving and small-scale quarrying and mining made a modest contribution to the local economy. Millhead, to the north of the River Keer, was merely a bare hillside where once grain from a nearby mill had been threshed.
Over the next few decades the area was changed beyond recognition.
The OS map shows how matters stood in 1891. Carnforth had become a township with the Ironworks occupying a substantial area beside the River Keer, within the triangle made by railway lines going North, South, East and West; Millhead had become a compact little housing development. On the 1904 map, it is called Dudley, for reasons that will be gone into in a later article.
In the years we are talking about, Britain was in a ferment and upheaval. Laissez-faire economics, Chartist agitation and the successful Anti-Corn Law League campaign had stirred up the body politic, though without the revolutions which afflicted other European countries in 1848, the year of the Communist Manifesto. The enormous socio-spatial rearrangement called “urbanisation” was underway, driven by industrialisation and by a great population increase; the population of England and Wales went from 9 million in 1801 to 18 million in 1851, and to over 32 million by 1901. Eighty percent of the increase was in the towns (an eightfold increase). By the mid-nineteenth century the process of industrialisation was at the end of its revolutionary phase, (if you believe in the idea of an industrial “revolution” that is), settling into sustained growth and maturity.
The Great Exhibition in 1851 announced to the world Britain’s primacy, and imperial ambitions were strong; wars (the Crimean War, 1853-6; the Indian Mutiny, 1857 and the American Civil War, 1861-65) were about to erupt. Complex domestic, social, economic and political processes were at work producing change. These included electoral reform, factory legislation, sanitary and housing developments, with Victorians on the move (literally) as never before. Profound alterations in social relationships resulted. Equally disturbing to people of those times, since it impinged on fundamental ideas and beliefs, was the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species”.
All this “froth” of history which we read about in history books was at work. Blowing this froth away and focussing on local matters, we may usefully consider the Millhead/ Ironworks area as an example of what Dr J. D. Marshall has called a “colony”, (though he hastens to reject any pejorative connotations in the use of this word). A colony in his usage “stands for a small social unit (village or settlement) of a homogeneous nature, e.g consisting of people working in the same industry, perhaps in one local unit. Its nature as a ‘colony’ may mean that it contains other occupations, say of a service nature, and buildings like chapels and churches, clubs, institutes and shops”1 .
He suggested that this nineteenth century urban settlement pattern, – “colonisation” – resulted, in the case of Carnforth, in a pre-existing agricultural community on a main route being largely supplanted by “capitalist industrial development. ” Dr Marshall gives it as an example of a colony which resulted in the formation of a “distinct town” Carnforth, “with a central function and widespread amenities”; it became “a central place for up to six surrounding or nearby villages, and … a shopping centre intermediate between Lancaster and Kendal.” over a few decades. However Dr Marshall does say that this variant of the pattern (a colony providing the basis for the formation of a distinct town with a central function) is somewhat rare; more usually a colony “becomes the nucleus of a suburb, or is absorbed by more haphazard urban spread”. Probably the reason for this rarer pattern was the important place of the railway industry in Carnforth.
The Lancaster and Carlisle railway line was opened in 1846, during the second boom in Britain’s railway expansion, sometimes referred to as the era of “railway mania” [There was a hundredfold increase in railway line mileage between 1830 and 1879]. The line was leased to the London and North Western Railway company in 1859 and later taken over altogether by the bigger company. The Carnforth/Ulverston line opened in 1857, (and was absorbed in 1862 by the Furness Company), so linking the whole Furness area with the north-south line. Carnforth’s importance as a junction increased when in 1867 the Furness company, jointly with the Midland Company, built a link line to the West Riding of Yorkshire via Wennington. In addition, the important South Durham and Lancashire Railway Line from the North East had already in 1861 made a link with the Lancaster/Carlisle line at Tebay.
This rail network was the crucial precondition for the establishment of the Ironworks in Carnforth. Then, partly because of the synergy between the ironworks and the railways, but also because of Carnforth’s importance as a mainline junction, the railway industry grew rapidly in the town. Three motive power depots were built (one for each of the companies, the London and North-Western, the Furness, and the Midland), each with offices, stores, fitting shops, blacksmith shops, coaling plant, sheds and marshalling yards.
In 1851 the stationmaster (born in Hayton, Cumberland) and one inspector lived in Carnforth; by 1861, besides the stationmaster, (born in Sedgwick, Westmorland) there were four engine drivers, all Lancashire men (one born in Barrow, one in Dalton and one in Preston), a fireman, one guard and one porter (all born in Cumberland), and one engineer from Scotland. The railway development pre-dated the ironworks (which were not established till 1864,) and remained (in terms of numbers employed) the more important of the two, as shown below in the table. The number of household heads in the two industries is taken from the censuses for 1871 and 1881.
| Employment: Railways and Ironworks (Warton/Carnforth) | ||
| Employment: Number of Household Heads | ||
| 1871 | 1881 | |
| Railwaymen | 68 (19.32%) | 147 (26.11% |
| Ironworkers | 69 (19.60% | 109 (19.36% |
Development of Carnforth town took place between the old settlement around North Road and the new railway station down by the River Keer. There was a new town centre of millstone grit shops, terraced houses, a few “villa” type houses, hotels, church, chapels and schools with an influx of all manner of tradesmen and occupations. But it has to be noted that this was occurring even before the Ironworks started up. For example, the Lancaster Gazette of 24th October 1863 rejoices that eight first class houses are being built near Robin Hill, one to be a grocer’s shop and another a clothier and tailor’s which will greatly “add to the beauty of the town”, and notes what a boon the General Post Office is; the same issue also announces that the Carnforth “Newsroom and Library of the Young Men’s Improvement Society” is being opened.
Details of the population changes which accompanied this development will be gone into in a future article. Here it can be pointed out that from the 1850’s Carnforth’s population rapidly increased, first overhauling and then outstripping the increase in the once larger settlement of Warton; rather as if Carnforth was a cuckoo in Warton’s nest. (though the comparisons are complicated by the simultaneous growth of Millhead, which housed mainly railway and iron workers, but remained part of Warton. ) No doubt the establishment of the Ironworks provided a great stimulus to Carnforth’s development, but it was already underway. On the whole, it is perhaps fairest to call Carnforth the child of both the railway and the ironworks.
Establishment and Growth of the Carnforth Ironworks
The Carnforth Haematite (Iron) Company was born in 1864; with registered capital of £100,000 in five hundred £200 shares. There were no local names among the shareholders who were, in the main, business and professional men from Manchester, Birmingham and the North East. Amongst them was Henry Bessemer2 with two shares.
Iron working was not new to the area; the monks of Furness Abbey had worked iron. By the early 19th century, Furness was exporting iron ore (182,000 tons in 1849), and by the 1860’s, Barrow had the world’s largest steel complex with three blast furnaces. Carnforth’s works can indeed be seen as a natural growth point for the region’s iron industry when new factors, which with hindsight we call the Industrial Revolution, came into play.
During the mid-nineteenth century demands for wrought iron worldwide were becoming insatiable; for buildings, bridges, boats, but above all for railways, especially rails, where Britain was the world’s chief supplier3. Everything essential for manufacturing iron either existed at Carnforth in the 1860’s, or could be easily brought there by various railway company lines which converged on the area.
- Iron ore plentiful in nearby Furness.
- Good quality coke from the Durham coalfield.
- Limestone used as flux in the furnaces from the [Warton] Crag.
- Water from the Keer.
- The saltings of Warton and ideal area for dumping slag.
- A large flat cheap site for the works, in the triangle of land produced by the junction of the railway lines.
A railway line, or tramline as it was called on contemporary maps, was built to run from the works to the Scout Quarry, with a branch out to the tip on the sands. The remains of it can still be traced in the fields and roadside verges alongside the toll road to Crag Foot and out to the sands past the present tip at Cotestones. There were many accidents, especially to children, during the building of this quarry railway link. The accidents frequently involved amputation or surgery under chloroform at the “Lancaster Dispensary”. There seems to have been a total absence of some rudimentary safety measures let alone compensation or benefit for the disabled.
In March 1865 the Lancaster Gazette reported that the site was a chaotic scene: “Here a number of huge stones thrown anyhow in a heap … here a steam engine pounding away. . . masons at work in one quarter, bricklayers in another … “
A Mr Edward Barton was appointed by the owners to oversee the founding of the iron works and the hiring of labour. In May his wife laid the foundation stone of the engine house chimney – 210ft high and 19ft across at the base, and the town’s landmark for some 60 years. Five furnaces were planned at first (and a sixth added later). It was anticipated that there would be employment for 200-500 men. In 1866 two of the furnaces were “blown in” and the first pig-iron – produced. Blowing in meant starting up the furnace with blasts of hot air through the first loading of ore, coke and limestone. It was a serious matter after that to allow the furnace to “blowout” again – the contents could solidify, and the furnace develop cracks and other expensive damage.
In 1867 Edward Barton was appointed Chief Engineer, and was later to become Manager. Although only in his thirties, he was experienced in iron-making techniques from his time in the industry on Teeside and in West Cumbria. Warton Grange, on Sand Lane in Warton, was built for him and his family, and it was his home from 1873.
In the initial phase of establishing an ironworks, there would have been an influx of construction workers. But once established, labour demand would be for skilled and unskilled4 iron workers. Tradition has it that these men came from Dudley -the Dudley/Bilston/Wednesbury area of Staffordshire. Some support is given to this idea, among other things, by the fact that the maps of the time call the Millhead area “Dudley”.
By 1870 four furnaces were each producing 300-400 tons of pig-iron per week, and the decision was made to make steel as well. Two Bessemer converters were installed and in 1873 three plate and rail rolling mills were added. By 1876 the capitalisation of the company had risen to £240,000 in two thousand four hundred £100 shares, 166 of which were held by Bessemer.
In February 1879 however, “after 12 years of expansion and prosperity, came the first hint of trouble; the local papers reported a “stoppage” because ”remunerative prices cannot be obtained.” The plant was idle for some months. There followed a period of ups and downs, with gradually falling prices. The newspapers of 1880-1882 reported regularly that only four, then three of the furnaces were operating.
In 1883 a scheme to revive the industry was proposed, that of having a puddling works, employing 150 men. Puddling was an arduous manual operation, stirring and turning molton iron in a reverberatory furnace to convert it into malleable iron. It did not revive the industry, and the following year the paper reported that; “The company intends to put their large converting plant which has lain idle since its construction to profitable use. It was realised that it was a waste of money sending pig iron from Carnforth to Sheffield to be made into steel. ”The report is quoted just as it stands in the newspaper. It is odd, however, since it seems to imply that, despite the installation of Bessemer Convertors some fourteen years before, the company had never used them, but had continued to send their pig-iron elsewhere for conversion to steel.
By December 1884, plans for reorganising the steel works to produce steel wire were reported. However, none of these plans were enough to keep more than 3 of the furnaces alive, and in June 1886 a fourth was “blown out” and some 40-50 men were given notice. The strike of 1886 saw the works closed completely for a while.
The story of the further decline and the end of the venture will be told later. Meanwhile, what was the lot of the 300 or so men who were employed by the company for those first 20 years of growth? A few were local labourers, but most came into the area with skills acquired in other iron and steel works. There were great distinctions between workers in the various stages of iron production. “Fillers” loaded the ore, coke and limestone into barrows which were then raised to the “bell” at the furnace top. Here the “Bridge Stocker” had a gang of “Chargers” who loaded the material into the bell, a cone-shaped canopy which, when lowered, allowed the load to drop into the furnace. 35 cwt of ore, 10 cwt of limestone and 21 cwt of coke were hoisted up for every ton of pig iron produced. The lower furnace was in charge of a “Stock Taker” helped by a “Keeper” who decided when the furnace was ready for tapping, and he in turn had “Helpers” and “Slaggers”. Twelve men worked a shift at each furnace. Some of these “men” were 12 year old lads.
In the early days, especially, problems of industrial relations were many. The following case (Lancaster Guardian March 9th 1867) illustrates the worker-manager divide, as well as the legal system of the times.
Fifteen employees of the company were up before the magistrates for alleged breach of contract some of them were employed as ore fillers, others as coke fillers, and the remainder as labourers.
Representatives for the two sides agreed that the case arose over a new method of filling a furnace with mixed ore which was being tried out. Extra men were put on to help, but about midday Williams, the foreman, sent the extra men elsewhere. Those remaining said they could not manage without help.
…. Mr Barton the General Manager, was not at the works, so Williams sent to his home in Warton. . . according to Williams the men refused even to speak to him; he said that he told them to return to work. . . even if they could not keep up with the loading it would make no difference to them as they would still get paid. But, he said,the men still ignored him. . . packed up and left for home
The men’s story was that Williams had just said they could do the work, or take their money and go. They had taken this to mean that they were dismissed. They had not known that only the absent Mr Barton had the power to dismiss anyone. The men themselves did not hear their case since:
“All these arguments were heard before the men came into court. The magistrate felt the men might be tempted to alter their story to fit the arguments if they were present in court all the time. When the men were brought into court, four of them pleaded guilty. This settled the case rather quickly; the others were also judged guilty. Those who had pleaded guilty were sentenced to seven days hard labour at Lancaster Castle; the others got 21 days.”
The newspapers of the period also gave graphic accounts of the numerous and horrific accidents associated with the iron works. A small sample will suffice. Between 1866 and 1881 :-
John Barrow, son of Warton’s grocer, fell 70 ft from a plank at the top of a furnace;
a man was buried alive under 14 tons of sand in the pit at Robin Hill (sand was used in making the pig-iron beds);
William Butler fell while putting coals on a furnace and broke both arms;
Thomas Edmondson of the Ironworks Cottages was taken to Lancaster Infirmary after bogies passed over both his legs.
The accident that brought the works to a standstill came as late as the 1890’s: –
“About midnight on Thursday last occurred at the Carnforth Ironworks the most shocking fatal accident … John Hodgson was following his ordinary work on top of the furnaces, which consisted in charging No.2 furnace. Shortly after midnight Hodgson gave the customary signal to the men in charge of the “bell” … to lower it before Hodgson had tipped his barrow. To the horror and intense grief of his fellow labourers Hodgson fell into the burning furnace and was no more seen. The gases which escape from the furnace would render him insensible and this fact will be some consolation to his sorrowing widow and children, as well as his parents who reside in Warton and are very respectable people … not a particle of the unfortunate man’s body remains…
Between 1 and 2 a.m (sic) Friday all the men at the Ironworks were hoisted up to the mouth of the furnace, where the Church of England Burial Service – was impressively read by Rev. J. H. Fidler, Mr Barton and others being present. .. Work stopped for some hours.”
During this time Carnforth grew rapidly. The total population of Carnforth and Warton rose from 974 to 3,350 (roughly 244% increase). Consequently, there was urgent demand for housing. The first company houses were built in Millhead – 20 alongside Warton Rd., called Bessemer Cottages (later demolished to make way for expansion of the works). The built up area in Warton and Carnforth expanded rapidly as gaps between cottages were filled and the fields were covered with rows of terraced houses. Most of “Dudley” was company owned or sponsored (119 workers’ houses were listed for Sale when the works were finally dismantled). Elsewhere in Carnforth they were not company property even if company inspired. The period of rapid building lasted well into the 1890’s for a decade after the Ironworks had begun to decline such was the momentum of the town’s expansion.
The growth was reflected in land prices. The Lancaster Guardian for April 11th 1874 comments on this “extraordinary increase”, giving as example a sale at Carnforth when a small field purchased for £60 thirty years before realised £350.
Thus there was a great impact on the landscape, townscape and economy of the area. In twenty years, the long-settled population saw the arrival of the ironworks, the 210ft chimney, blast furnaces, rapidly built terrace houses, railway lines, slag heaps and all their accompanying dirt, smoke and smells. The quarrying would have added its own specialities to the rural environment. There are many older Warton residents who, when interviewed for the Society’s oral history researches, recalled how the sky was lit up by the furnaces and by the wagons of still burning slag as they travelled along the line to the tip on the sands.
Acknowledgements
In preparation of this article, use has been made of notes left to the Society’s archives by David Peter, Sylvia Myall and others.
Bibliography
Alan Harris: Carnforth, 1840-1900: The Rise of a North Lancashire Town Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Vol. 112, 1960.
John Easter Roberts: The Changing Face of Carnforth [ 1974 Mayoh Press, Carnforth]
David Peter: Warton with Lindeth, A History. Part One. Lancashire Library 1985
Jean Chatterley: To Dudley … From Dudley Mourholme Magazine
Jean Chatterley Carnforth’s Public Health Crisis Mourholme Magazine
Notes
- J.D. Marshall Urban –related Colonies in the North West Unpublished Paper ↩︎
- Henry Bessemer patented in 1856 an economical process by which molten pig iron disturbed by a current of air is turned directly into steel. He was knighted in 1879 (Chambers Biographical Dictionary) ↩︎
- Production of wrought iron in Britain grew from 300,000 tons between 1830 and 1870. ↩︎
- We would probably call them semi-skilled now, but they described themselves as “labourers” in census returns. ↩︎
A website has several photographs and the history of the Carnforth Ironworks.
Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 17 1991 and Issue 18 1992