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Report - - Backbarrow Furnace, Cumbria July 2014 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Backbarrow Furnace, Cumbria July 2014

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Keynsham

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Last year I failed to get to the ore bunkers and resolved to come back when the vevetation died down. Well the brambles died down in the winter and came back bigger and sharper in the spring.
The history
This was the site of a charcoal blast furnace which lasted 250 years so I will try to be brief with the history:
Built 1711
Rebuilt 1770
Bought by Harrison Ainslie 1824.
Harrison Ainslie bankrupt in 1903 and 1918
Reopened as the Charcoal Iron Co in 1918. Among other things they made Valley brand cold blast pig iron
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and there was a fire in 1883:
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This, I think, is the coke bunker
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and this the ore bunker. The railway line was on the beams near the roof so hopper wagons could drop the ore straight into the building.
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Another ore bunker
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Ore crusher
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This is the remains of workers houses.
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The furnace stack
d232b6fd-c47e-4c1d-83e5-9aa748fab6a7_zps47fad9f4.jpg

Porcelein insulators - and a teapot lid
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The "Live-work units"
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Fusebox
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Detail
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The roof has gone over the generator
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Stack of sand moulds
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1920s wiring
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This is an electricar TU40.
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The handbook is in the records office but it cannot be shown.
a5797c40-668c-4987-b7fd-ef38a32e4f8d_zpse2d0f415.jpg


A previous report mentioned that Valley cold blast pig iron was made here. Here is a Valley cold blast pig:
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Detail
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Yellow van man missed that ingot.
Three men admit burglary at Backbarrow Ironworks site (From The Westmorland Gazette)
Thanks for looking.
 
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