For the commencement of the history of the iron trade in the county of Durham we have no to go back a very many years, for it is during the years that have passed since 1830 that the industry has made such a rapid progress, until at the present time it stands second only in position to the coal trade.

The Romans, whose nation nineteen centuries ago was mistress to the world, during their residence in the north of England, were acquainted with our iron mines, and familiar with the mode of its manufacture. Remains of their forges or blomaries have been found in some parts of the county, and heaps of slag are sometimes found near the remains of their camps, testifying that ancient people availed themselves of its use, as witness the remains of the station at Lanchester, where immense pieces have been found together with portions of coal, showing that they knew also of that mineral and its use. Iron ore was formally worked and smelted in several parts of the county, as appears by the heaps of iron scoriae found on many of the commons or fells and elsewhere. Several of these large heaps of iron slag are found near Milkwellburn on the Derwent, at North Bedburn, and in Weardale. Crowley, Millington and Co's ironworks at Winlaton were founded in 1691, and were the principal works, where anchors, anvils, chains, cables, and other iron goods were manufactured in the north of England for many years. Gateshead ironworks were established about 1745 ; smaller ones at Lumley about 1780 ; and on the Teams at Urpeth, about 1800, by William Hawks, founder of the firm of Hawks, Crawshay, and Co. Consett ironworks were established in 1840, and Birtley and Witton Park at later dates. The amount of iron goods required in the northern counties of England was more than the works in the district could supply, and up to about 1845 the consumers of pig and malleable iron were obliged to obtain much of their suppliers from the ironworks in Scotland, Staffordshire, and South Wales. Tow Law ironworks being founded at such a period were bound to go on and prosper, and that they did so is shown by the fact that the black fell-top, with its single farmstead nestling on its side in 1841, was transformed in 1851 to an increasing, populous, and thriving manufacturing and mining village with a population of nearly 2,000 persons, increasing four years later to nearly 3,000.

The manor of Weardale, the whole of the ironstone of which is leased by the Weardale Iron Company, is of great extent, stretching from near Witton-le-Wear to Alston Moor in Cumberland, at which latter place a portion of these ores, although much less abundantly, is also found, a distance of some twenty miles, and about six miles in average breath. The iron ore was conveyed to the ironworks at Tow Law by the Consett and Darlington branch of the North Eastern Railway from Burnhill junction, and to there from Lanehead, near the Stanhope Burn blast furnace by the western portion of the Stanhope and Tyne Railway, already alluded to, a breakneck looking kind of line of inclined planes and stationary engine, running uphill and downhill and over the moors, whilst by making a private branch along the mountain ridge above Stanhope, they opened out the iron industry of the far western portion of the county, and gave labour to some hundreds of workmen.

The total sum of money expanded in the erection of Tow Law Ironworks, the purchase of the lease of the coal royalties, and the opening out of the mineral royalties and the formation of the works connected with both, far exceeded one million pounds sterling - no small sum to spend on such an apparently bare and barren locality, but it is not the surface of the earth that contains the wealth, as neither is it the outside of the man that contains his disposition ; the rougher and more rugged the surface, the richer and warmer the inside contents.

The rich deposits of the Ryder ironstone in the mountain limestone of Weardale is one of the best qualities, containing a good carbonate of oxide of iron. The iron manufactured from the sparry carbonate stone resembles very much in texture that of the Russian, and in substance that of the Swedish iron. If smelted with charcoal it is almost superior to the best of these, and even when smelted with the coke made from the Durham coal it resembles iron and steel articles made from the ironstone of those countries.

The iron ore is worked in the Weardale mines much the same as the lead ore, and is found in the same veins, though where the lead is more abundant the iron becomes scarce, and vice versa. The iron ore does not confine itself to veins like lead, but flats out, as it termed, into horizontal beds, on one or sometimes both sides, varying very much in with and depth, reaching several hundred yards in the former, and from five to twenty yards or more in the latter. These bands are so near the surface in some localities as to admit of their being worked in the same manner as stone quarries ; whilst in other places they are worked in the same manner as the lead mines. All the lead found in the iron mines is worked by the Weardale Iron Company and turned over to T.W. B. Beaumont, Esq., the lessee of the lead royalties in the manor of Weardale, upon agreeable terms.

From the rich and almost pure ore of the Ryder ironstone Mr. Attwood commenced to manufacture iron of a splendid quality, smelted with coke, manufactured at the Company's own coke ovens at Black Prince, or that made at the Blackfields ovens.

The iron manufactured at Tow Law, in the latter part of the decade of 1840 and the beginning of 1850 - the early years of the iron trade in this country - obtained a fame almost world-wide for the superiority of the goods, which commanded generally the best prices in the market.

The Weardale Iron Company, soon after its formation, worked a kind of ironstone which is often found in the coal measures, but in uncertain quantities, at Tow Law. One of these ironstone pits was in a field behind the Company's offices, to the south of the cemetery ; the large black heap lying near the railway being the refuse obtained from the mine. The other ironstone pit was in the dale between Tow Law and the farm of West Shield, through which the streamlet called Mosey, more properly the Moss burn, flows onward to Panburn, the large heap lying there being the waste obtained in working the mine. A well of clear pure spring water at the lower end of this heap is know as the " Ironstone Well." The kind of ironstone worked from these two mines, or pits as they were locally called, and which is associated with the coal measures, is often called clay band ironstone, from its being found in these horizontal beds interstrarifield with the plate beds, or clay bands of the carboniferous rocks. It is sometimes called the German band ironstone, from the ore found in such beds having been used by the colony of German swordmakers of Shotley Bridge, in the manufacture of swords and other articles in the seventeenth century. The small nodules of ironstone found in these bands are also known by the name of "catheads," and some may always be found on searching either of the above "seggar" heaps. The stone obtained from these pits not unfrequently yielded iron of a superior quality, but the small amount left after calcimining did nor render the working payable, owing to the limited supply.

Whilst Mr. Attwood and his miners and sinkers were employed in making the mineral survey of the surrounding district, their labours became objects of great curiosity amongst the more inquisitive of the inhabitants. Each adit, shaft, level, and hole that was made was believed by the uninitiated to be the supposed spot wherein some treasure had been concealed, and what the workmen were "howking holes to find some gould which had been hidden in the troublesome times." Such an idea as this, as was consequent, drew many persons to watch the proceedings, and their ardent desire to gratify the mind with a knowledge of what the men were doing seldom met with much success. The workmen were all very reticent to all enquirers, and gave the onlookers little satisfaction, some, more forward than others, persisted in knowing the why and wherefore of the works, and they generally received answers equal to themselves, being confidentially informed that they were in search of "magnesia," or some other similar impossibility.

Mr. Attwood, the founder of the Weardale Iron and Coal Company, upon the formation of that body, removed from Bishop Oak near Wolsingham, in 1846, to Tow Law, and assumed the position of managing partner. He resided at the offices down near the furnaces, and, by so doing, Tow Law became the headquarters of the Company. From that place he directed their vast operations for some eighteen years with a firm judgement and the confidence of sound commercial ability. Besides this, he worked out several amelioration's in the manufacture of steel, carrying on his experiments in a small laboratory and furnace near his residence. After many years' trials he took out a patent for improvements in the manufacture, and carried it out by erecting steel works at Wolsingham, of which more anon. Nor was this all, for his mind was occupied in the Company's business for the future, and his foresight has now been amply rewarded, for they (the Company) have a flourishing works elsewhere. Yet more, though his mind seemed to be full of commercial concerns, a space, and that not a small one, was reserved for the wants of his workmen. Living in a manner quit and unobtrusive, both Mr. and Mrs. Attwood were beloved by all who knew them, and were ever busy in looking after the social requirements of the place.

With the furnaces constantly blowing, and the foundry in full swing, the workmen had plenty of employment, and consequently the times were good. Bars, hoop and rod iron, boiler plates, rails and numerous other articles numbered amongst the iron manufactures ; and a number of men were brought from Ipswich to Tow Law, and engaged in the manufacture of railway chains for Messrs. Ransom & Sons, to be used on the Great Northern Railway.

In 1852 Tow Law cast off an attendant undertaking in the erection of rolling-mills and forges at Tudhoe, twelve miles distant, where Mr. Attwood's penetrating foresight had secured for the Company a splendid coal royalty, situated in the centre of the county of Durham. At Tudhoe, a repetition of the growth of Tow Law took place, but on a somewhat larger scale. Pits were sunk, iron furnaces were erected, and plate mills started on a very extensive plan, some 120 acres or more of land having been purchased for the purpose of carrying on the works, and a prosperous village sprang up on what had previously been part of Tudhoe Moor. So thriving have these ironworks been, that they soon surpassed their maternal parent in wealth as well as population, springing in the latter instance from some 300 persons to close on 15,000 in thirty years, a growth unprecedented save by the town of Middlesborough.

The blast furnaces of Tow Law were each capable of producing, according to the different qualities afforded by the ores, from 130 to 180 tons or more per week, and much of the iron manufactured at Tow Law was taken to Tudhoe, where it was either finished in the forges and mills, or converted by the Bessemer process into steel - Mr. Attwood having obtained a license from Mr. Bessemer, the patentee, to convert iron into steel by that process. Some of it was sold for making bar iron to forge and mill master in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire, in all of which places its superior quality commanded remunerative prices, notwithstanding the great distance and cost of carriage. The number of men employed by the Weardale Iron and Coal Company in 1850 in their works and collieries at Tow Law and Tudhoe, and in their mines in Weardale, was something like 2,500, one half of which were employed underground in working the minerals.

J.W. Fawcett.

The Grange, Satley,

November 15th, 1890.