See my article, 'The cupola near Bristol' Somerset Archaeology and Natural
History 140 (1999 for 1997), 48. The reference reads clay potsheards and
spar £86.7.3 1/2. This comes from the accounts of Gravely Claypoole, who
was appointed receiver of the business during litigation between Lord
Grandison and Talbot Clerke. The cupola was at the mouth a valley in the
side of the Avon gorge, almost just below the Clifton suspension bridge.
Clay in this context may well be Stourbridge fireclay; if so, it is one of
its first uses outside the glass industry. There is a rather briefer
account of the same business in my 'Sir Clement Clerke and the adoption of
Coal in metallurgy' Trans Newcomen Soc. 73(1) (2001-2), 33-52. However, I
did not go into the detail of the fluxes in that.
My subject is primarily the iron industry and historical metallurgy, rather
than mining, and I have not attended mining history conferences.
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley,
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
01562-720368
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Alasdair Neill
Sent: 28 November 2006 09:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: miners and 1851 census
The spar at this site was almost certainly barytes, which the mine was
worked for at a later date & I have not heard of fluorspar occuring in this
area - although I think some was obtained from Snailbeach.
Your mention of early use of fluorspar in lead smelting is of interest; the
earliest large scale use I am aware of was in the Swansea copper smelting
industry from about 1815 or so. Large quantities were obtained from the
Gwennap & Bere Alston mines, which may have produced several hunderd
thousand tons in total (most works state the production from SW England was
insignificant, which is clearly incorrect). At the conference in Exeter
last year I asked if anyone was aware of other metallurgical use of
fluorspar before the late 19th C, with no response apart from the
suggestion it was not used in lead smelting as most lead ores (at least
from Pennine areas) would contain fluorspar anyway. It would be interesting
to hear more about the 1680's ref to its use in lead smelting you mention.
There is a reference in the Boulton & Watt papers at Truro to using
fluorspar as a flux for copper smelting, but only on an experimental scale.
Alasdair Neill.
On Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:30:02 -0000, Peter King
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>John Wilkinson ironmaster is of course a well-known figure, with several
>coke ironworks in the west Midlands and Denbighshire. He also had lead
>mining interests, I think at Minera. The late Janet Butler got close to
>completing a doctoral thesis on him, but died before doing so. Her papers
>are in the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Library; I am not sure whether it is
>necessary to have permission to see them.
>
>Spar might be fluorspar, which was amongst other things a known flux for
>smelting lead by the 1680s.
>
>Peter King
>49, Stourbridge Road,
>Hagley,
>Stourbridge
>West Midlands
>DY9 0QS
>01562-720368
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
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