Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/432

Rh the point of operation is concerned, to the northwest area, such area having for its boundaries the three rivers, Humber, Trent, and Ancholme. Frodingham and Appleby, Kirton-Lindsey, Caythorpe, Claxby, and Scunthorpe, are the chief centres at which the Lincolnshire iron deposits, known as 'hydrated oxide,' betray their presence. The workings are mainly open, and the percentage of iron is about thirty-three.

Frodingham is the most important of the iron fields, the development of which has transformed a mere hamlet into a thriving town of 5,000 inhabitants. Mr. George Dove, jun., in a paper on 'The Frodingham Iron Fields,' read by him before the Iron and Steel Institute, states that: "The bed is almost entirely free from faults, inclines gently to the east, but where it is now being worked, at and within 1½ miles from the outcrop, the amount of 'bareing' required is very small, in no place exceeding 3ft."

As to labour, that of 'the most unskilful kind' is alone necessary, 'blasting only being required in getting the stronger portions of the bed, the whole operation being simply quarrying.' The demand for Frodingham iron for forge purposes is good, chiefly for the manufacture of bars, sheets, tin-plates, and wires. For the latter it is especially valuable, owing to the qualities imparted by the presence of manganese. In every instance, however, the preponderance of lime in the ore necessitates the admixture with other ore of a siliceous character, notably such as is raised near Lincoln, at Monk's Abbey and Greetwell. In 1898, 7,848,404 tons of ore were raised at Frodingham, and there were twenty blast furnaces at work, producing about 300,000 tons of iron. To the total output of iron ore for the whole kingdom (13,774,282 tons) Lincolnshire (with Leicestershire) contributes a third.

With the laying down and erection in 1861 by Messrs. W. H. and G. Dawes, of the Milton Elsecar Works, the Trent ironworks may be said to have begun. This firm had been previously engaged in developing ironstone deposits elsewhere in the county. At the Trent Works the first ton of pig iron was cast in 1864. In 1866 the Frodingham Iron Company was started by Messrs. ClifF & Hurst, and by 1867 this company had two furnaces in blast; 1867 also saw the inauguration of the North Lincolnshire Iron Company, which had two furnaces at work in 1871. In 1872 the Lincolnshire Iron Smelting Company began operations, followed in 1874 by the Redbourn Hill Iron and Coal Company, and in 1877 by the Appleby Iron Company.

The total output from mines and quarries in Lincolnshire in 1904 is as follows:

The blast furnaces at present at work in the county are as follows:

The total make of pig iron in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire is 376,674 tons; the iron ore used, 1,261,937 tons; total of coal used, 972,597 tons. The number of persons employed in and about and dealing in the products of mines and quarries, according to the census of 1901, is 1,951.  

Arthur Young, making his agricultural survey of Lincolnshire in 1799, was struck by the number of fen farmers who were also inventors. Such for instance were Mr. Cartwright of Brothertoft, whose plough with bean-drill attached, twitch-drag, and sward-dresser, were supplemented by a cartoon, or water-cart, of his own designing; Mr. William Naylor of Langworth near Sudbrook, who had invented and patented a chaff-cutter; Mr, Michael Pilley, who had also invented a water-cart; and Mr. Amos Brothertoft, the inventor of an expanding horse-hoe. On the east fen Young further noted an ingenious local ice-sledge, which consisted of a small frame sliding on four horse-bones, the driver pushing himself forward by the aid of a pitchfork. A man called Clegg of Haxey invented a machine for crushising and dressing hemp; whilst it is worthy of note in passing that the first movable combined thrashing and dressing machine by steam-power was made at the Boston and Skirbeck Ironworks, and the first portable engine at Howden's Foundry at Boston.