Dyfi Furnace is a restored mid 18th century charcoal fired blast furnace used for

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...

iron ore. It has given its name to the adjoining hamlet of

Furnace A furnace is a structure in which heat is produced with the help of combustion. Furnace may also refer to: Appliances Buildings * Furnace (central heating): a furnace , or a heater or boiler , used to generate heat for buildings * Boiler, used t ...

( cy, Ffwrnais).

Location

The Dyfi Furnace is in the village of Furnace,

Ceredigion Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, adjoining the

A487 The A487, officially the Fishguard to Bangor Trunk Road, is a trunk road in Wales that follows the coast from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in the south, to Bangor, Gwynedd, in the north. Route The road starts at a junction with the A40 i ...

trunk road from

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...

to Aberystwyth, near Eglwysfach.

History

The site for Dyfi Furnace was chosen downstream of the

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

on the River Einion to take advantage of the water power from the river and charcoal produced from the local

woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

, with the iron ore being shipped in from

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

via the Afon Dyfi. The furnace built around 1755 was only used for about fifty years to smelt iron ore. By 1810 it had been abandoned and the waterwheel removed. The etching by John George Wood to accompany his "The Principal Rivers of Wales", published 1813, shows the furnace in its transitional form with no waterwheel attached. Some time later a new waterwheel was installed - the one that has been renovated and is visible today - and the furnace became a sawmill. The furnace site was renovated around 1988. The furnace was built by Ralph Vernon and the brothers Edward Bridge and William Bridge . Vernon retired between 1765 and 1770, and the Bridges (who also owned Conwy Furnace) became

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in 1773. It is likely that the furnace was then transferred to Kendall & Co. (Jonathan Kendall and his brother Henry), ironmasters from the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

with extensive interests scattered across Staffordshire, Cheshire, The Lake District and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. After the original lease expired in 1796, it appears the furnace was then owned by Bell and Gaskell, including Thomas Bell, who had managed it for the Kendalls, whose main activity by then was running the Beaufort Ironworks in

Beaufort, Ebbw Vale Beaufort ( cy, Cendl or ''Y Cendl'') is a community and village located in the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire) and the preserved county of Gwent. It currently lies on the northern edge of the county borough of Blaenau Gwent i ...

, in the South Wales Valleys. The

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucket ...

, shown in the photographs, provided power for a sawmill. The site was previously a

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

Mill of the

Society of Mines Royal The Society of the Mines Royal was one of two English mining monopoly companies incorporated by royal charter in 1568, the other being the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. History On 28 May 1568, Elizabeth I established the Society by let ...

References

*James Dinn, 'Dyfi Furnace excavations 1982-87', ''Post-medieval Archaeology'' 22 (1988), 111-42.

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Dyfi Furnace and surrounding areaVisitor informationCADW page
{{coord, 52.5382, -3.9403, type:landmark_region:GB-CGN, display=title Industrial history of Wales Ironworks and steelworks in Wales History of Ceredigion Furnaces Grade II* listed buildings in Ceredigion

Location

History

See also

References

External links