Lucy ELSMORE Accident in Factory in FOD (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, September 18, 2011, 23:36 (4821 days ago) @ alison2

Hi Alison,
thanks for that, yes I knew of the Ironworks, this prior thread may be of interest to you.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=24659

It is completely logical that other industrial works producing & repairing quarrying, mining, railway machinery & tools etc would be nearby a source of iron and the area was certainly a thriving industrial area by Lucy's time, especially around Parkend.
eg
"At Dark Hill David Mushet built a second furnace before 1845 when he handed the works over to his sons William, David, and Robert. Their partnership ended in 1847. Robert Mushet, who later introduced spiegeleisen to the Bessemer process and also invented a self-hardening tool steel, formed a partnership with T. D. Clare of Birmingham and built small steelworks, known as the Forest Steel Works, some way to the north-west on Gorsty knoll. Mushet, who employed 41 men in 1851, added a cupola and a small Bessemer converter to the works in 1856 and enlarged them again after forming the Titanic Steel and Iron Co. in 1862. Financial difficulties caused the winding up of the company in 1874 and the buildings were used as brickworks in 1928 and fell into ruin later."

From the excellent & searchable '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.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23267&strquery=darkhill
This describes many aspects of the intense industrial activity within the area at Lucy's time.

Another business that would need some rotating machinery for lifting and perhaps crushing, sifting & grading of sandstone etc would be
"Brickyards were opened in various places, including Whitecroft, Ellwood, Parkend and Staple Edge. (fn. 92) They usually manufactured fire bricks as well as ordinary bricks and several were attached to local ironworks. David Mushet, who had brickworks next to his ironworks at Dark Hill in 1832, supplied bricks to South Wales in 1843. Brickworks established by the Coleford-Parkend road at Fetter Hill by 1858 also produced pottery."

Despite apparent decline setting in wrt ironmaking but not bricks by the time Lucy was working (presumably the 1870s?), there would still have been several industrial works within the area where she might have worked. They were all dangerous places still employing women and young children. As can be seen the Factories Acts wrt H&S were still in their infancy when Lucy had her accident.
http://www.thepotteries.org/dates/work.htm