Thanks To Kate Andrew, Project Manager leading the Building Stones Project based at the University of Worcester, for the following notes on the history and industry of the Teme Valley in the Shelsley area. These follow on from recent blogs about tufa and lost quarries.

Tufa: In terms of tufa formation, Beryl Harding wrote a really good paper about it in the Woolhope Transactions in about 2000 – this covers Southstone rock – photosynthesing moss and a drop in pH are critical to the CaCo3 coming out of solution and precipitating.

Coal: In Abberley there is a thin coal seam more or less at the boundary of the Halesowen Sandstone and Halesowen mudstone and then better seams that were mined up until the 1920s

The Temple and Stanford Court (the Court was the location of Forest Fencing) was a planned landscape garden and Kate suspects the Temple was part of that – could have had a cold plunge pool in it or been a place for banqueting and parties.

Kate’s Internet research reveals that Sir Edward Winnington (owner of Stanford court and brother in law to a Foley of Witley Court, before the Dudleys) and Richard Payne Knight were friends and both interested in the Picturesque movement, Stanford Bridge being built in 1794 by Nash, the architect of the Picturesque.

Richard Payne Knight was one of the founders of the Picturesque movement and created an enhanced landscape with hermitages, caves, springs, cold plunge baths etc upstream from all his forges and furnaces in Downton Gorge (on the Upper Teme below Leintwardine). The thrill was the contrast of dark satanic mills of iron production with wild “natural” beauty. This was in the 1780s-1820s time period.

A temple and hermitage are mentioned on the register of parks and gardens for Stanford Court, so Kate suggests that this is likely to be a Picturesque movement landscape hidden under the undergrowth. Kate conducted in depth research on Thomas Andrew Knight, Richard Payne’s younger brother and this involved looking into Knight family history and iron workings, among many other things.

Iron forging – the critical thing was decent water supply for bellows to get the furnaces up to high enough temperature and a good supply of wood close by for charcoal production – this is pre-industrial revolution/ Abraham Darby/ Coalbrookdale iron we are talking about. The iron ore could be brought in by pack horse or river as it is much easier to move than charcoal (which disintegrates if moved and is then no use) and decent water supply for power. You don’t need limestone flux if using charcoal for smelting as it is the sulphur in the coal of later processes that causes the problems. There were small forges all over the place in these parts, both smelting ore and working the pig iron with forge hammers – the critical thing was a decent water supply close to charcoal.

There is an interesting comparator with forges in the Downton Gorge owned by Richard Payne Knight.