Saltford Brass Mill is a

brass mill A brass mill is a mill which processes brass. Brass mills are common in England; many date from long before the Industrial Revolution. ;Examples of brass mills include: *Brassmill (Ross on Wye) *Saltford Brass Mill See also * Calamine brass * ...

on the River Avon at

Saltford Saltford is a large English village and civil parish in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, Somerset. It lies between the cities of Bristol and Bath, and adjoins Keynsham on the same route. Saltford Manor House (built about 116 ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. It dates from the 1720s is listed as Grade II* and is also a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. There was a watermill on the site at the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

and it is the last surviving of over 30 mills which were once on this stretch of the Avon. Local

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

making was initiated in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

around 1700 by the family of

Abraham Darby Abraham Darby may refer to: People *Abraham Darby I (1678–1717) the first of several men of that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a new method of producing pig iron with ...

who later moved upstream because of the better water supply at Saltford and

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It has a population of 16,000. It was listed in the Domesday Book as ''Cainesham'' (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of Sai ...

. The brass was made from Cornish ores refined at Crew's Hole and then transported via the river. These were mixed with

calamine Calamine, also known as calamine lotion, is a medication used to treat mild itchiness. This includes from sunburn, insect bites, poison ivy, poison oak, and other mild skin conditions. It may also help dry out skin irritation. It is applied ...

from the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

to make

calamine brass Calamine brass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using the zinc ore calamine directly, rather than first refining it to metallic zinc. Direct zinc smelting appears to have been unknown in Europe until the mid-18th century, even th ...

. This changed as processes improved and local copper smelting was replaced by supplies from

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

. By the 1850s

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

metal was used instead of calamine, using a process introduced by William Champion, who lived nearby. Annealing furnace Saltford Brass Mill

The site includes a battery mill which was used for hollowing out brass sheet to make pans, bowls and vats, some of which are on display. There is also a complete annealing furnace, one of four originally installed, which were used to heat the brass to reduce the likelihood of it cracking while it was being worked. The furnace is claimed to be one of the best remaining examples of this technology. There are also the remains of 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 buckets ...

s initially used to power the machinery, one of which is still in working order. The battery mills were supplemented by

rolling mills In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

between 1760 and 1830, as this produced more even sheets of metal than the original battery techniques. However battery ware was still produced at the site until 1908, the last mill in Britain to do so. The mill ceased production in 1924. In 1995 it was restored and is now supported by a group of volunteers in conjunction with

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and the owners

Bath and North East Somerset Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a unitary authority district in England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. It is part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. Th ...

Council.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, last=Day, first=Joan, title=Bristol brass: a history of the industry, year=1973, publisher=David & Charles

External links

Saltford Brass Mill
Industrial buildings completed in the 18th century Grade II* listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset Scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset Watermills in Somerset Rolling mills Grade II* listed watermills