The Archaeology of the Iron and Steel Industries in Britain

Abstract

Abstract This chapter deals with the physical remains of the iron and steel industry in Britain. The focus is on extraction and processing rather than the products. The archaeological evidence spans the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, but with an emphasis on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although the traditional industrial archaeological focus has been the charcoal an coke blast furnace remains, there are many other production elements that survive either as standing buildings below ground remains which are discussed. These include the surviving physical remains of ore extraction and processing, the puddling furnace, smelting, blast furnaces, and finery forges. In the later nineteenth the introduction of mass steel making revolutionized the industry producing a further set of industrial monuments and concentrating production in fewer locations