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CHAP. 5.

iron forges, where are made wrought iron bars, rods, sheet plates, &c.; and at Derby are the iron and copper works of Messrs. Bingham, Humpston Iron. and Co. These mills were established in 1734, for preparing iron for various uses, and for the purpose of smelting, rolling and preparing copper for sheathing vessels, and sheet-iron and tin. There is also the wrought Forges, &c. iron steam engine boiler manufactory of Mr. Harrison, St. Mary's bridge, Derby; at this manufactory boilers are made from one to one hundred horses' power, steam kitchens, and every other description of wrought-iron boilers, brewing and bleaching pans, gasometers, hot-air stoves or cockles for heating mansions, &c. roasting and steaming apparatus, and every kind of lock and smith's work. Mr. Harrison is now engaged in making a wrought-iron tank, for the Nottingham gas company, forty-two feet in diameter and eighteen feet six inches deep, that will hold 193,082 gallons of water, and estimating the pressure on the bottom to be 8 lbs. to the inch, the weight will be 910 tons.-The tank is estimated to weigh thirty-six tons when complete, and it is undoubtedly the largest ever made in this county. Mr. Harrison also erects vineries, peach houses, pine-pits, conservatories, green-houses, &c. which he heats by steam or hot air.

The manufactory of Messrs. Fox and Son, City Road, Derby, on the banks of the Derwent, is highly interesting for the display of superior ingenuity in the command and application of power imparted to various engines. This is principally seen in cutting and planing iron, and in his admirable iron lathes, which are from £200. to £800. value.

ments.

Iron implements and tools of various descriptions are made at different Iron Implevillages in the Scarsdale Hundred, bordering upon Yorkshire, and are actually considered to be under the jurisdiction of the master cutler in Sheffield; and this portion of the county is included by the Rev. W. Hunter in that district which is termed Hallam-shire, and which is the subject of his ably written history. The principal places alluded to are Dronfield, Norton, Eckington and the villages belonging to those parishes. From this neighbourhood, scythes, sickles and all sorts of farming implements are exported to America, Russia, Poland, &c. and are sent to all parts of the United Kingdom.

A process was discovered some years ago, by which cast-iron could be either softened or converted into steel, and was very much practised at New Brampton, Dronfield and Unston. It was applied to such articles as knives, forks, razors, &c.* which injured the regular steel workers, without being of public benefit. Many of these spurious goods were exported to foreign countries, where they lessened the high reputation which our hardware had attained; and now by orders of the master cutler and the manufacturers of Sheffield, this process is greatly restricted, by all cutlers being compelled to stamp their manufactures, with a particular mark.

The nail manufacture has been a very ancient branch of the iron trade Nails. in this county. It is at present carried on extensively by Messrs. Mold and Co. and by many other masters at Belper, Chesterfield, Derby, Eckington, Wirksworth, and other places; the number of hands employed in this business are from three to four hundred.

The cast-iron goods were first made at Duffield.

CHAP. 5.

There is a curious and interesting mill for the manufacture of common Iron Screws. screws, at Hartshorn, belonging to Messrs. Smith, Port, Wood and Co. It was originally a branch of a similar manufactory at Burton-upon-Trent. Numerous hands are employed, and many hundred gross are made per week, by means of engines and lathes, turned by a water-wheel. These screws are of various sizes, weighing from half an ounce to thirty pounds per gross. Many children are employed, and wages vary according to age and dexterity.

Needles.

Tin-plate
Workers.

Calamine
Works.

Brass Founderies.

Coals.

Copperas.

Marble.

At Hathersage there is a celebrated manufactory of needles, conducted by Messrs. Cocker and Sons, and at Derby there are seven or eight master needle makers.

Tin-plate workers are numerous; at Messrs. Cox, Poyser and Co. of Derby, tin pipes are made, and plates of every dimension are manufactured at the slitting and rolling mills of Messrs. Evans, Humpston and Co. in the Morledge, Derby.

At Cromford, there are calamine works belonging to the Birmingham Brass Company, where from three to four hundred tons of this metallic substance, are prepared annually for the service of the brass-founders, from ores found in that neighbourhood. The Cheadle Brass Company have also works of the same nature in Bonsal Dale. The refuse of this ore, mixed with quick lime, makes a mortar which sets extremely hard, and is used by Messrs. Arkwright in their mills.

There are eight brass founderies in Derbyshire; situated at Derby, Millford and Ashbourn; and at the last-mentioned place, clock-brasses are manufactured by Mr. John Frith and by Mr. Robert Harlow, in so supcrior a manner, that they are in request throughout the kingdom.

We have already, in our second chapter, described the great coal field extending along the eastern boundaries of this county, and have given a list of the principal collieries. The trade is extensively carried on by means of canals and rail roads; and both the consumption within Derbyshire and the export of coals to other counties are very great. The principal coal owners, or, as they are generally termed, coal-masters, are the Duke of Devonshire; the Earl of Chesterfield; William P. Morewood, esq.; Court Dewes, esq.; Godfrey Booker, esq.; the Butterley Company; D' Ewes Coke, esq.; E. M. Mundy, esq.; James Oakes, esq.; Robert Holden, esq.; the Old Denby Company; John Gorrell Barnes, esq.; G. Hodgkinson Barrow, esq.; Messrs. Smith and Co. Chesterfield; Walter Gisborne, esq.; Messrs. Samuel and Thomas Potter, of Ilkeston, &c. &c. The price of coals, at present, is from 7s. 6d. to 14s. per ton, on delivery in Derby. In the year 1693, according to Mr. Arthur Young, the price of coals in Derby was to the consumer 34d. per cwt. or 5s. 10d. per ton. The number of colliers employed are between five and six thousand.

Many of the coal-seams in Derbyshire and its environs, have considerable quantities of brasses or drosses in them, which are lumps of iron pyrites. These are selected out at several collieries, and sold to the makers of copperas, green vitriol or sulphate of iron, of which there are two manufactories at Brimington, one in Dore (Barber-fields) one at Newhall, and there is also one at Staveley.

Of the natural wealth of this county the marble may be mentioned as

one of the constituents. It is a beautiful calcareous substance, and is found in various parts of the High and Low Peak. The black marble of Ashford is capable of receiving an extraordinary high polish, so as to reflect objects as brightly as a mirror. The mottled and veined grey marble, varying in tint from a faint blue to an azure-purple, is obtained in large quantities near Monyash. The figured marble, abounding with shell-petrifactions (entrochi, anomites, corals, &c.) the sections of which display an endless diversity of figure, is found also at Monyash, Ashover, Hassop and at Slaley near Bonsal. There are marble works at Ashford and at Derby, where this material is wrought into articles of domestic elegance and into monuments. Chimney-pieces are sold at various prices, from 30s. to upwards of £60. and beautiful tables of black marble, enriched with elegant engravings, are also made there.-The saw-mills for cutting marble and free-stone into slabs were first established at Ashford, by the late Mr. Henry Watson, of Bakewell, nearly a century ago.

CHAP. 5.

Marble.

Stone.

In the limestone rocks is found the substance called, petrosilex or chert. China This when white and pure is known by the name of china stone, and is sent off in very considerable quantities to the Staffordshire potteries. Most of the limestone and chalk districts produce this material, but that from the neighbourhood of Bakewell, Little Longsdon, Wirksworth, Buxton, Peak Forest, Matlock, Calver, Ticknall and Crich is most esteemed.

Works.

The lime works are of considerable importance to this county, and large Lime quantities of this article is carried by canal conveyance into the adjoining counties, both for manure and building purposes."

The freestone or building-stone quarries are very numerous in Derby- Freestone. shire. At Wingerworth there is a valuable bed of freestone, which is extensively manufactured by water and steam power, into chimney-pieces, staircases, &c. This stone is known and highly valued in London and other places. The Hopton-wood stone is also in great estimation. At the Lea-wood delph or quarry, blocks of building-stone are sold at 6d. per foot cube; the price at Belper is 8d.; and at the Priory, near Breadsall, a fine solid stone is procured, wholly free from clay, that is sold as high as 10d. -Some of the gritstone rocks afford an excellent building-stone, and that from the yellow limestone strata is durable. The shale freestone is found variegated with concentric streaks, of an orange colour or dingy red, and chimney-pieces are sometimes made of it.-Flag-beds of paving stones, which split plane and flat, and require little labour are also numerous. The price at the quarry is from 12d. to 20d. per superficial yard. The most perfect are those in the gritstone rocks.

There are about twenty grindstone quarries. The stone differs con- Grindstone. siderably in its quality, but is all serviceable either for grinding fine tools or for coarser purposes. At Corbar near Buxton and Stanley, very fine grindstones are made, while the large coarse stones from the Gregory quarry in Overton, are in extensive demand. The average value is about two pounds or two guineas per ton. Some of these quarries furnish whetstones and scythestones; the latter at 10s. or 12s. per long hundred.

The gritstone rock, so abundant in the northern districts of Derbyshire, Gritstone.

* For a list of the limestone quarries and kilns, see page 85.

CHAP. 5. supply the farmer, the builder and the artisan with much useful material, and at Stanton in the Peak and at Birchover, the grit rock is found porous, and is in request for filtering cisterns and other vessels.

Gritstone.

Slate.

Plaster-stone.

Spar Works.

Bricks and
Tiles.

The quarries producing slate or tile-stones are numerous. The general price of the slate at the quarry is from 54s. to 70s. per rood; the rood being sufficient to roof in forty-four square yards. At Cobourn quarry, in South Winfield park, the slates are remarkably large and coarse, some of them are more than a yard high, and are used as eaves slating and even as fences. The gypsum, alabaster or plaster-stone is, by the geologists, classed among the earths, and is no where found in greater purity than in the red marl strata of this county. There are four gypsum pits on the south-east side of Chellaston, belonging to Mr. Henry Orton and Mr. George Wooton. There is also a pit at Aston, and another at Ballington Hill near Ambaston. The principal demand for the pure white gypsum or that slightly streaked with red, is made by the Staffordshire potters. This sells at 10s. per ton; but some particularly fine blocks are purchased by the makers of alabaster ornaments and by statuaries, as high as 30s. and upwards per ton. The columns in the mansion of Lord Scarsdale, at Kedleston, are formed of this material. The inferior sort, of which plaster floors are made, is called flooring stone, and is sold at from 5s. to 7s. and 10s. per ton.

The spar works of Mr. Hall at Derby, together with the museum at Matlock, are gratifying objects of curiosity, taste and science. The fluor spar, or as it is termed blue john, is an elegant natural production. The only mountain where it can be obtained in sufficient abundance and quality for the purposes of manufacture, is situated westward of Castleton, between Mam-Tor and the eminences that compose the Long Cliff. Its price is about £40. per ton. Some of the pieces of fluor are a foot in thickness, and have four or five different veins, but such large pieces are very rare. In general they are only about three or four inches in thickness. The deep violet is the most common kind, but in some pieces a fine yellow tint prevails, and in others a pale rose-colour. The acid obtained from fluor spar is more powerfully corrosive than any other, and is used in engraving upon glass. The natural colours of the spar are greatly affected by heat. At the spar-manufactories in Derby, this elegant material is worked into a variety of ornamental and useful articles, such as vases, cups, necklaces, ear-drops, &c. Thousands of these necklaces, ear-drops and other ornaments are exported to foreign markets, and are from thence dispersed into different parts of China, South America and the Indies. There are also similar manufactories at Buxton, Castleton and Matlock Bath. The coarse, discoloured and inferior kinds of this spar, are in great demand at the founderies as fluxes of the ore. From Knowles' mine great quantities are sent to the Ecton copper works; and the furnaces at Butterley and Somercotes are supplied from the Crich Cliff pits.

Bricks and tiles are made from the red marl, with which the more fruitful part of Derbyshire abounds; particularly from the tenacious portions of that earth. From the grey clay of Brassington, which is a decomposition of toadstone, tiles have been made, resembling the flat slate-like tiles of Staffordshire. Draining tiles and pipe-bricks are made at Newton Solney, where the former are sold at 20s. per hundred; and the latter at

various prices, from 4d. each to 35s. the thousand. At Ashover, Bolsover, CHAP. 5. Swadlincote and other places, fire bricks are manufactured for sale and are in great repute; and at Swadlincote arch-bricks are made for reverberatory furnaces, and round tiles for the use of the bar-iron manufacturers. Excellent bricks for building are made at Derby and in its neighbourhood.

The tobacco-pipe makers, who reside chiefly in Derby, Bolsover, and TobaccoNew Brampton near Chesterfield, obtain much of the raw material from Pipes. Bolsover, Killamarsh, and Chellaston Hill.

&c.

The Derbyshire diamonds are small detached and perfect crystals, con- Derbyshire sisting of an hexagonal prism terminated by pyramids. They are found Diamonds, at Buxton, Castleton, Miller's-Dale near Priestcliff, &c. They are generally imbedded in toadstone strata, where sometimes have been found small specimens of calcedony, jasper, terra-vert and even onyxes. Many valuable stones are also found in a small brook that runs through the village of Packington.

The art of the lapidary or jeweller is said to have been introduced into Jewellery. this town by Mr. Obijah Mellor, about the middle of the last century, and yet there exist some uncertain traditions that assign to it a much higher antiquity; and it is not improbable that the stones found in the High Peak tempted the researches of lapidaries from very remote periods, until the real value of those stones was correctly ascertained. The present lapidaries and jewellers are Mr. F. Severne, Mr. E. Simpson and Mr. W. Moore. The articles manufactured by them are esteemed little inferior to the best workmanship of London. They employ about one hundred hands, and the wages are from 12s. to 22s. per week.

or China Works.

The porcelain or china manufactory of Derby has placed the reputation Porcelain of this country on a level with that of Saxony or France for the production of this elegant article; and superior to any other, for the finish and taste of the execution. This manufacture was introduced here about the year 1750, by Mr. W. Duesbury, who fabricated numerous elegant and costly articles, among which was an elegant dessert service, consisting of one hundred and twenty pieces, for his present Majesty, when Prince of Wales. The fineness of the material has subsequently been greatly increased, and much superiority in the colouring has been attained. The blue and gold had been brought to the highest degree of beauty, and now the green, in which alone this porcelain was surpassed by foreigners, is possessed of the highest degree of delicacy and lustre. The body of this elegant ware is fine clay, combined with fluxes, and is chiefly brought from Cornwall. The best kind is completely fusible. The biscuit figures are peculiar to this manufacture, and are in high estimation in almost every part of the globe. The urns, vases and ewers produced in this manufactory are from classical designs, and are adorned with landscapes, portraits and figures by some very superior artists. Among the splendid services executed at the Derby china works, the following may be enumerated:-one for the Earl of Shrewsbury, embellished with fruit-subjects, upon a rich ground of the chrome-green; another for the Duke of Devonshire, which was enriched with original views of Chatsworth, Hardwick, &c. Elegant services for Lord Muncaster, and for Lord Ongley, were richly and tastefully embellished with historical designs. In 1819, a service consisting of numerous bowls

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