Draft:Brecon Ironworks

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Brecon Ironworks, which is now demolished. was situated one mile north of Brecon, in a small valley on the east bank of the River Honddu (after which the Welsh name for Brecon, Aberhonddu, is named), which Alfred Wallace described as a 'little rocky stream'. It began as a charcoal-fired furnace which was constructed in 1720, to which a forge was added.. Theophilus Jones included in his history of Brecknockshire a detailed account of the history of a family of Morgans who were commemorated in the cemetery of St Elli’s Church, Llanelly. Part of his account includes a reference to ‘John Mabery [sic] died April 22, 1758, aged 63’, who was the son of ‘Walter Morgan of Llanwenarth, died February 3, 1787, aged 79’. So, the patronymic name of John Mabery was John Morgan. Jones commented on these commemorations as follows:

This family, who now write their name Maybery, settled first at Pipton, in the latter end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, they were then and afterwards, until the present generation, in the iron trade; from Pipton, when the iron works ceased, the elder branch came to Brecon, and continued in the same business, the late Mr. Maybery left issue three sons, one (Thomas) in the law at Brecon, who is married and has several children; the second died in the East Indies, and the youngest (Charles) settled in America in an iron foundry: this Mabery, at Llanelly, was of this family.’

As will be documented below, the Maybery family subsequently featured prominently in the histories of both the Ironworks and Brecon. In 1723, its proprietors were Benjamin Tanner, a local ironmonger, and Richard Wellington, who owned Hay Castle and who three years later became the county sheriff of Brecknockshire. Probably Tanner operated the furnace, while Wellington financed it

The supplies for the Ironworks

Local historian Ursula Jepson opined that the major reason for the location of the ironworks was the prior existence on the site of a fulling or tucking mill which used water-powered hammers to process locally woven cloth which was produced by local farmers. The water was obtained from the nearby river, three fields away, which reached the mill down a leat, an artificial channel, to fill a pond at the bottom. Periodic openings of a sluice gate at the lower end of the pond would have been enough to power a water wheel, which in turn would have powered the fulling hammers.

Welsh historian J. Geraint Jenkins documented that 'During the first half of the eighteenth century, both the weaving and knitting industries were so flourishing that Brecon was described as 'the richest town in Wales'. However, by the mid-eighteenth century rival industries in Gloucester and Wiltshire 'put a stop to the Brecon trade'.

This was the context for the building of the ironworks. It is likely that the existence of the essential resource of a reliable source of running water persuaded its initial proprietors to take out a lease on the property. The other essential resources were iron and limestone, which were obtained from Hirwaun, eighteen miles south of it, from where they were transported northwards, over the mountain track of the Bannau Brycheiniog and down to the ironworks on the backs of horses and mules.

Hirwaun was an extremely familiar source of iron ore. Iron ore didn't exist there. However, this was not a problem because the locations of iron ore didn't determine the locations of furnaces. and the furnace produced a ton of iron a week, which was taken to Brecon for finishing (forging).

The ironworks was charcoal-fired. It was located in an area of woodlands which grew on both banks of the river. However, it needed insatiable supplies of charcoal, which were obtained ‘from timber obtained over a wide area of the surrounding countryside’, for example from Llangammarch and Llanwrtyd.

In addition to enjoying the previous logistical benefits, the ironworks enjoyed ‘the advantage of proximity to English markets’, which would have been reached from the conveniently adjacent road from Brecon to Hay-on-Wye.

The leases for the Ironworks

In 1723, the proprietors of the ironworks took out a lease from Edward Jeffreys, a barrister of the Inner Temple, who owned the land and who lived nearby in the Priory, Brecon, which is in the grounds of Brecon Cathedral). Three further leases were subsequently granted in the next thirty years. In 1754, Tanner and Wellington took out a second lease for the land. Then, in 1750, it seems that William Tanner, the son of Benjamin Tanner, with the consent of both his father and Wellington, assigned all interests in the works to Thomas Daniel and Richard Reynolds, two iron merchants and dealers from Bristol. Then, in 1753, another lease was granted, this time to Thomas Maybery, the son of Thomas Maybery, who owned Powicks (present-day Powick) Forge, on the River Teme in Worcestershire. Maybery did not buy the lease for himself but for his son, John, from Aberlonvey (present-day Three Cocks or Aberllynfi), who owned a forge there.

The demise of the Ironworks

Jepson opined that the ironworks seems ‘not to have lasted beyond 1780’. Two reasons explain its demise. First, at the heads of the valleys, most blast furnaces were located close to supplies of coal, from which they began to produce coke as a fuel. Second, the production of the ironworks came to be dwarfed by that of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, which opened in 1765.

The industrial and historical legacies of the Ironworks

The Brecon Ironworks produced two legacies, an industrial one and an historical one. John Maybery married Anne, the eldest daughter of John Wilkins, the-then Deputy Prothonotary of The Crown for the Brecknock Circuit, and Sibyl, his wife, with whom he lived in the Tower of the Priory, Brecon (see 'The leases for the Ironworks' previously). In 1757, he took out a lease from Lord Windsor to build an ironworks at Hirwaun. In 1760, upon the death of Lord Windsor, he took out, with John Wilkins, his brother-in-law, and Mary Maybery, his mother, a lease from Lady Windsor for the same land.

In the next two decades, John Maybery took out leases for two other pieces of land in South Wales. In 1764 he took out a lease for the Tredegar Forge and furnaces. And in 1777, he and his father-in-law took out a lease for an ironworks at Machen, which might have been what Williams (1960) later described as a forge.

John Maybery died in 1784. He left two sons, Thomas and Arthur Henry Augustus, both of whom followed their uncle in entering the legal profession. Thomas, his eldest son, succeeded William Wilkins, as Prothonotary for the Brecknock Circuit and Arthur Henry Augustus, his second son, became the head of Maybery, Williams, and Cobb, the Brecon firm of solicitors.

Welsh historian Frederick Rees observed that, in the early part of the eighteenth century, there were ‘some scattered charcoal-burning furnaces in South Wales’. The subsequent industrialization of South Wales can be viewed through the lens of the 'Maybery Papers', which originated in Brecon and which are held in the National Library of Wales.

The papers came to the attention of John Edward Lloyd (1904: iii), the eminent historian of Wales, around the end of the nineteenth century or the beginning of the twentieth century. He recounted that he had come into the possession of a collection of ‘tens of thousands’ (sic) of documents about the South Wales iron works that he described as having been undisturbed for forty years. The donor of the collection was 'Mr A. Maybery of Brecon', who might have been Arthur Henry Augustus Maybery, a solicitor and a member of a the local Maybery family, of whom more below.

Lloyd attributed the origin of the collection of papers to the Brecon firm of solicitors of Walter and John Powell. He explained that the firm:

‘had the privilege of being largely employed and trusted by the chief Ironmasters, with the result that in the course of years a mass of documents relating to the South Wales Iron Works accumulated in their offices, and passed on to successive members of the firm … Eventually in 1860, every member of the firm having retired or died, the contents of the office became the property of Mr A. Maybery by descent …’. (ibid.)

Lloyd reported that the condition of the papers ‘was such as to make it a risk to health to make among them even a search of a few hours’ duration.’ Nevertheless he examined and reduced them ‘to some kind of order’. Eventually he reproduced what he considered were the most important ones in his book ‘The early history of the old South Wales iron works (1760-1840)’, which was published in 1906.

The book documents the histories of multiple industrial locations in South Wales and comprises thirty-one chapters, which are divided into two divisions, a Western one and an Eastern one.

The first chapter of the book sets the tone for the remaining ones. It relates to the construction in 1720 of the Brecon Furnace and Forge, and the Aberllonvey (present-day Three Cocks) Forge and is mostly based upon the reproduction of a lease between the two lessees and the landowner of the related property.

The historical importance of the Maybery Papers will be understood from the wide scope of its contents.

The industrial locations in the Western division comprised Brecon Furnace and Forge and Aberlonvey Forge; Hirwain Iron Works; Dowlais Iron Works; Cyfarthfa Iron Works; Plymouth Iron Works; Pendyarran Iron Works; Neath Abbey Works; Afon, Ynis y Penalwch, Ynis y Gerwn and Dylais Forges; Ynis y Cedwyn Furnace; Melin Griffith Iron Works; Treforest Works; Aberaman Iron Works; Aberdare Iron Works; Abernant Iron Works and Gadlys Iron Works.

The industrial locations in the Eastern division comprised Bute Iron Works; Union Iron Works; Tredegar Iron Works; Sirhowy Ironworks; Ebbw Vale Iron Works; Abercarne Iron Works; Blaen Afon Iron Works; Nant y Glo Iron Works; Beaufort Iron Works; Clydach Iron Works; Llanelly (or Clydach) Forge; Llangrwyney Forge; The Forge or Trostre Forge; Abbey Tintern Iron Works; Monmouth Forge and New Wear Forge.

Originally coal was used as a fuel in iron production. Then, with the discovery of the huge extent of the South Wales Coalfield, iron production became superseded by coal mining..

Sources

• Ashton, Thomas Southcliffe (1924). Iron and steel in the industrial revolution. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. ISBN 9333303626.
• Atkinson, Michael; Baber, Colin (1987). The growth and decline of the South Wales iron industry. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0953-4. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
• Black, Adam; Black, Charles (1856). Black's Picturesque Guide Through North and South Wales (Sixth ed.). North Bridge: The Authors. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
• Davies, David James (1933). The economic history of South Wales prior to 1800. Cardiff: University of Wales Press Board.
• Davies, E.T. (1965). Religion in the Industrial Revolution in South Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
• Jenkins, R. Geraint (1970). "Rural industry in Brecknock". Brycheiniog. XIV: 1-40.
• Jepson, Ursula (1997). "The Brecon Ironworks". Brycheiniog. 29: 47-52.
• Jones, Theophilus (1898). A history of the county of Brecknock Containing the chorography, general history, religion, laws, customs, manners, language, and system of agriculture used in that county. Volumes 1-2. Brecknock: Edwin Davies.
• Lewis, E.A. "The development of industry and commerce in Wales during the Middle Ages". Transactions of the Royal Society. New Series XVII: 121-173.
• Lloyd, John (1906). The early history of the old South Wales ironworks, 1760 to 1840. The Bedford Press: London.
• Lundström, Johan (1969). The History of the Söderfors Anchor-Works. Translated by Hedia, Lars-Erik. Boston, Massachusetts: Kress Library of Business and Economics, Harvard University Business School.
• Minchinton, W.E. (1961). "The place of Brecknock in the industrialization of South Wales II. Iron and Tinplate". Brycheiniog. VII: 7-29.
• Morganwg, Dafydd (1874). Hanes Morganwg. Aberdare: The Author.
• Owen, Matthew (1911). The Story of Breconshire. Cardiff: Educational Publishing Co.
• Poole, Edwin (1886). The illustrated history and biography of Brecknockshire from the earliest times to the present day. Brecknock: The Author. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
• Rees, J.F. (1965). "How South Wales became industrialized". Studies in Welsh history Collected papers, lectures and reviews (Second ed.). Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
• Rehder, J.E. (1987). "The change from charcoal to coke in iron smelting". Historica/ Metallurgy. 21 (1): 37-43.
• Van Laun, John (1976). The pattern of industry in the National Park. Brecon: Brecon Beacons National Park Committee. ISBN 0905293002.
• Wallace, Alfred Russel (1905). My life A record of events and opinions (Volume I ed.). London: Chapman & Hall. p. 161.
• Williams, L.J. (1960). "A Welsh Ironworks at the Close of the Seventeenth Century". National Library of Wales Journal. XI (3): 266-271.
• Young, Wm. A (1937). "A stock book of 1828 and other finds". Transactions of the Newcomen Society. 18 (1): 199-203. doi:10.1179/tns.1937.015.