Corn /Grist Mills in Lydbrook ? Part 3 (General)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Tuesday, July 07, 2009, 11:22 (5692 days ago) @ slowhands

After the Restoration Middle and Lower forges at Lydbrook were owned by the Halls of Highmeadow, (fn. 33) and in the early 18th century their estate was said also to include a furnace at Lydbrook. (fn. 34) In 1671 Paul Foley acquired a lease of both forges and a furnace at Redbrook. (fn. 35) He and his partners made Osmund iron for the Tintern and Whitebrook wireworks at Middle (later Upper) forge and, probably until 1694, manufactured anvils at Lydbrook. (fn. 36) The Foleys and their partners, including William Rea who was manager of their Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire ironworks until 1725, remained lessees of the Lydbrook and Redbrook works in the early 18th century. In the late 1720s they operated three forges at Lydbrook with the Bishopswood furnace. (fn. 37) The third forge, which had been a grist mill not long before, was at the bottom of Lower Lydbrook and was part of the Vaughan family's Courtfield estate. It became known as Lower forge (fn. 38) and the Foleys retained it after they had relinquished the other forges. In the late 1740s it worked blooms from the Bishopswood forge and pig iron from Lancashire and Scotland. (fn. 39)

From: 'Forest of Dean: Industry', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 326-354. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23267 Date accessed: 07 July 2009.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>