(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
In the interesting extract you have given in your excellent Miscellany
(No. 321) from Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, when speaking of the
exhausted or impoverished state of the iron-ore and coals in Shropshire,
&c., an allusion is made in a note to that truly excellent man, the late
Mr. Richard Reynolds, and to the final extinction of the furnaces at
Colebrook-Dale, which is not altogether correct.
I beg leave, therefore, to point out the errors to you, and to add a
fact or two more relating to that distinguished philanthropist and his
family, which, perhaps, will not be unacceptable to many of your
readers.
Mr. Reynolds was by no means the _original_, nor, I believe, ever the
_sole_ proprietor, of the iron-works in Colebrook-Dale, as stated by Mr.
Bakewell; he derived his right in them from his wife's family the
Darbies; and the firm of "Darby and Company" was the well known mark on
the iron from these works for a very long period; more recently, that of
"Colebrook-Dale Company" was adopted.
The Darbies were an old and respectable family of the Society of
Friends, and a pair of the elder branches of it were the original "Darby
and Joan," whose names are so well known throughout the whole kingdom. I
had this anecdote from one of the sons of Mr. Reynolds,[7] and have no
doubt of its authenticity.
It may not be generally known to your readers, perhaps, that the first
iron bridge in England was projected at, and cast from, the furnaces of
Colebrook-Dale, and erected over the Severn, near that place, about the
year 1779; and, considering it to be the _first_ bridge of the kind, I
feel little hesitation in stating it to be, even now, the most beautiful
one. This structure, at that time thought to be a wonderful attempt, was
the entire offspring of Mr. Reynolds' genius; it was planned, cast, and
erected, under his immediate care and superintendance.
I cannot suppose the reason given by your author for the discontinuance
of the works at Colebrook-Dale to be correct, as there is another large
furnace in the immediate neighbourhood, called "Madeley Wood Furnace"
(also belonging to Mr. Reynolds's family), which was allowed to make,
and, I believe, still makes, the best iron and steel in the United
Kingdom. Mr. Reynolds had also other great iron-works at Ketley, since
carried on by his two sons, William and Joseph, and still in high
reputation, as to the quality of the iron made there; these are not more
distant from Colebrook-Dale than six or seven miles, and between the two
there are the extensive and highly valuable works of "Old Park," &c.,
belonging to Mr. Botfield (so that the whole district abounds in the
materials), which not having the advantage of the immediate vicinity of
the Severn for conveyance, would have been more likely to have stopped
from the circumstances stated in your extract; _viz._ the failure in
quality or quantity of iron-stone, coals, or other necessary matter. The
Colebrook-Dale fires must, therefore, I conceive, have ceased to blaze,
and the blast of her furnaces to roar, from some other cause, and from
some private reason of her late proprietors.
Your constant reader,
_Shrewsbury._ SALOPIENSIS.
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