The Bowling Iron Works was an iron working complex established around 1780 in the district of East Bowling part of the township and manor of Bowling, now in the southeast of Bradford in Yorkshire, England. The operation included mining coal and iron ore, smelting, refining, casting and forging to create finished products.
Mineral deposits
Iron is said to have been worked in the vicinity of Bradford in Roman times. The monks of Rievaulx Abbey to the east were working iron on land owned by their monastery in 1150, and forgemen are mentioned in 1358. Surface coal was being extracted from outcrops and shallow pits by 1360, and coal mines were worked by 1502. The Bowling Ironworks were established in the 1780s to smelt and forge iron from the Black Bed ironstone deposits using coal from the Better Bed seam, both of which lay under the site. The ironstone yields about 32% iron. The Better Bed coal is free of sulfur, making it ideal for furnaces used in smelting, puddling and forging. The Black Bed coal, nearer to the surface, could be sold or used for firing boilers and other purposes.
Mining began in Jeremiah Rawson's estate, then extended into nearby estates as the deposits became exhausted, always mining the same beds of minerals. In 1794 the company purchased from Sir Francis Wood (owner of Bowling Hall and Lord of the Manor) the rights to 90 acres of coal and iron stone in Hall Lane, Broomfields. In 1806 the company purchased additional mineral rights to parts of Sir Francis' Bowling Hall estate. The rights to other land was purchased in later years, often after extensive negotiation. In 1816 the company purchased from Sir Francis all his remaining lands and mineral rights in Bowling and in 1821 purchased from him the Lordship of the Manor.
The same seams of ironstone and coal were exploited by the Low Moor Iron Company, founded in 1788, and then by the Bierley Iron Company from around 1810.
Foundation
The first foundry was established at Bowling around 1784 by a group of businessmen including John Sturges, an ironmaster with works at Wakefield, and Richard Paley (1746-1808), an iron merchant of Leeds. The other partners were John Sturges junior, William Sturges and John Ewell. Ewell left the partnership in 1792. The company took the name of John Sturges & Company.
Iron was brought to the foundry from Wakefield in the early years. The first products were items for domestic use such as laundry irons, ovens, boilers, window sash weights and clock weights. The smelting plant was established in 1788, producing pig iron that was used in the boiler plates for the first steam engine at the Low Moor works. As late as 1792 pig iron was delivered to Wakefield and wrought iron received in exchange. In 1804 the partnership was extended, bringing in George Paley (1779-1865) and John Green Paley (1774-1860) - respectively the son and nephew of Richard Paley - plus Thomas Mason and the Reverend John Simons.
History
The Bowling works were selling large quantities of guns, shot and shells to the British government before 1790. Cast iron was used for guns before the invention of wrought iron, and the cast iron guns were subject to rigorous production controls and quality tests. On 27 July 1796 the partners signed an agreement with Matthew Boulton and James Watt to pay royalties on the two steam engines in use at the works, and to be allowed to make additional steam engines at the works, paying royalties. When Sir William Armstrong invented wrought-iron guns, some of the first coils he used were Bowling iron. Bowling iron, or Best Yorkshire, became well known around the world.
Steam hammers were installed at the Bowling Ironworks where the steam cylinder was bolted to the back of the hammer, thus reducing the height of the machine. These were designed by John Charles Pearce, who took out a patent for his steam hammer design several years before James Nasmyth's patent expired. On 14 November 1848 a new partnership was created with the name of Bowling Iron Co., confirmed by act of parliament in August 1849. The company was incorporated and registered in 1870.
An 1891 description said the ironworks lay in,