ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Wrockwardine Wood
was probably identical with the woodland 1 league
long and ½ league broad recorded in Domesday. (fn. 64)
Referred to as the king's wood c. 1130, it was
claimed in 1235 to be well stocked with oaks and
underwood. (fn. 65) It was within the royal forest of
Mount Gilbert or the Wrekin. By c. 1290 assarting had begun, and it may have increased following disafforestation in 1301. (fn. 66) Pigs were pastured
in 'Kingshay' in 1397-8 and 1413-14. (fn. 67) The area
was still known as King's wood c. 1577. (fn. 68) Much of
the surviving woodland was probably cleared in
the century after 1650 as mining expanded. A
great deal of timber was sold to the Coalbrookdale
Co. for the building of the Horsehay ironworks in
1754. (fn. 69) The woodland then remaining, at the
Nabb and on Cockshutt Piece, was coppiced (fn. 70) but
by 1847 virtually no woodland remained. In the
later 19th century, with the decline of mining,
woodland began to reappear on Cockshutt Piece,
which was partly wooded in 1982. (fn. 71)
In 1650 almost 38 per cent of the township was
let to 16 tenants in 14 holdings; three were of 60
a., 50 a., and 30 a., the rest varying between 14 a.
and 4 a. Thirty-two cottages (three of them
divided) were occupied by 35 cottagers, 12 of
them at Pain's Lane. By the early 18th century
smallholdings probably occupied most of the
northern half of the township. Yeomen, colliers,
and labourers all engaged in mixed farming, and
there was also some small-scale textile
production. (fn. 72) In 1847 about half the land north of
the Shropshire Canal was under arable cultivation, while some pasture and meadow lay at either
end of the township. (fn. 73) Agricultural land shrank as
housing expanded in the 1860s and 1870s. In
1891, however, c. 240 a. remained under arable
cultivation with a further 330 a. under grass. (fn. 74)
After the First World War house building south of
Trench Road further reduced those totals, and
building by the district council and private developers in the 1970s took most of the remaining
agricultural land.
Mill.
Between 1818 and 1821 a partnership
was formed to mill, bake, and deal in grain, and a
four-storeyed brick steam mill was built in 1818
on the north bank of the Shrewsbury Canal. The
mill, generally known as Donnington Wood mill,
closed in the 1970s. (fn. 75)
Coal and ironstone.
The township's mineral
resources were exploited in the Middle Ages; an
iron ore mine was noted in 1324. Regular extraction, however, probably began in the early 17th
century. (fn. 76) In 1650 a coal delf was noted; (fn. 77) it was
probably an opencast mine extracting coal, and
almost certainly ironstone too, from the Middle
Coal Measures that lay near the surface over most
of the southern half of the township. (fn. 78) In 1767 the
traveller Joseph Banks described a pit in the
Wrockwardine Wood area where there were three
layers of ironstone between the coal beds. Uppermost were smooth ironstone balls about the size
of potatoes, next a regular stratum of stone, and
below that large lumps of ironstone weighing up
to ½ cwt. set in blue clay or shale known as 'crows'
or 'hatter's blocks'. (fn. 79)
Sir George Saville, one of the lords of Wrockwardine manor, sold his third interest in the
Wrockwardine Wood mines to Francis Butler in
1660. At the same time he sold his interest in
various holdings in Wrockwardine and Wrockwardine Wood to the ground tenants, omitting to
reserve the mineral rights. Ownership of the
rights was at once disputed and similar problems
arose several times over the next two centuries. (fn. 80)
In 1673 Butler sold his third interest in the mines
to Francis Charlton, who leased the adjoining
Lilleshall mining rights next year. (fn. 81) The Charlton
mines were leased to, or operated by, the Pitts
family, whose rights were challenged in 1696
when several independent charter masters began
mining. (fn. 82)
Underground mining probably began about
then. Lord Gower's agent William Cartwright
had apparently worked the mines on his own
account after Francis Charlton's extraction of
most of the easily available surface coal, and in
1699 he reported that he had found a potentially
good mine 22 yards deep. (fn. 83) The industry was still
small in scale: Richard Vickers of Wrockwardine
Wood (d. 1705) made part of his living carrying
coal on two pack horses and part from working a
smallholding. (fn. 84) In 1715, however, large stocks of
coal lay unsold at Donnington Wood and Wrockwardine Wood. (fn. 85)
In 1731 Richard Hartshorne (d. 1733), the
leading Shropshire coal entrepreneur, had a lease
of the Charlton mining interests, and new pits
were being sunk in Wrockwardine Wood. In
1736-7 the mines were let to Walter Stubbs of
Beckbury. By then there were mines at the Nabb
and the Moss; a third group, possibly distinct,
was known as the 'little pits'. (fn. 86) By the 1750s
colliers who had earlier worked farther south in
the coalfield were finding employment in the
Wrockwardine Wood mines. (fn. 87)
Extraction was stimulated by the expansion of
Shropshire's coke-iron industry. In 1757 the
township's mines began to supply ironstone to the
Coalbrookdale partners' works at Coalbrookdale,
Horsehay, and Ketley, and in the next three years
it amounted to some 2,000, 5,000, and 4,300
dozens of 'black' and 'bald' ironstone. In 1761
Richard Reynolds of Ketley began to work the
mines on the Charlton estate, including those in
Wrockwardine Wood, on his own account. Thereafter most of the ore was sent to Ketley where
Reynolds held larger interests than in the other
works. (fn. 88)
Ironstone made greater profits than coal for
landlord and tenant alike. In 1758-9 St. John
Charlton received £232 as his share of the royalties: £199 for ironstone and £33 for coal. (fn. 89) In the
years 1748-54 Earl Gower invested an average of
£1,714 a year in mines in the township, averaging
14 per cent profit. (fn. 90) Between 30 and 100 dozens of
ironstone a month were raised in 1764-5. (fn. 91) The
Gower interest increased, the 2nd Earl Gower
buying land in 1771. By 1780 ironstone production was running at nearly 300 dozens a month, (fn. 92)
and in the 1780s Joseph Rathbone and Richard
Reynolds's son William took an under-lease of
ironstone mines from Earl Gower & Co., who
between 1781 and 1783 had obtained the lease of
all the township's minerals. Rathbone and
Reynolds sent the ore to be smelted in their
Donnington Wood furnaces, blown in in 1785. (fn. 93)
During the 1780s ironstone production rose to
over 400 dozens a month, and in 1782 a pumping
engine was installed, probably at the Nabb. (fn. 94)
Between the mid 18th century and the mid
19th virtually all the land south of the Wombridge
Canal was covered by mines, tips, and houses.
There were steam-wound deep pits on Cockshutt
Piece. Mining was almost monopolized by the
Lilleshall Co. (fn. 95) On the disentanglement of the
Reynolds interests from the Coalbrookdale
partners' concerns the leased Wrockwardine
Wood mines (and Donnington Wood ironworks)
were given up and taken over by John Bishton the
elder and his partners in 1797. Those interests of
Bishton's were put into the Lilleshall Co. in
1802. (fn. 96) The Lilleshall Co. worked the minerals
bought in 1822 by Lord Granville from Lord
Berwick. (fn. 97)
Between 1805 and late 1807 approximately 400
dozens of ironstone a month were still being
raised from the Wrockwardine Wood mines by
about nine charter masters. Production fell to half
that level by early 1810, to a quarter by mid 1812.
In the summer of 1813 only 90-100 dozens
monthly were produced by two or three charter
masters. The decline heralded the general recession in the Shropshire iron trade after the boom it
enjoyed during the early years of the Napoleonic
wars. (fn. 98) In 1854 the Lilleshall Co. leased the right
to mine coal between the two canals, except tops
and clods, to John Bennett. (fn. 99) In 1865 his lease was
extended to include the ironstone rights. In 1900
there was still some commercial mining in the
parish, but it had ceased by 1908. (fn. 1)
Iron and steel.
In 1801 John Bishton, lessee
of the Wrockwardine Wood mines and the Donnington Wood ironworks, (fn. 2) built two blast furnaces on the west side of what was later known as
Moss Road. In 1802 he took them into the newly
formed Lilleshall Co. The furnaces were closed
down in 1826, about the time that the Donnington Wood Old Lodge furnaces were blown in. (fn. 3)
In 1861 the Lilleshall Co. began to build the
Phoenix Foundry, an engineering works that replaced the Donnington Wood Old Yard works and
soon became known as the New Yard. (fn. 4) Engineering rapidly became as important to the company
as its coal, iron, and brick production, and it was
well enough established by 1862 to allow the
company to exhibit and win prizes at the London
International Exhibition. From the start locomotives and blowing engines were manufactured,
largely from the company's raw materials, and
production in general was centred on the needs of
the iron and coal industries. From c. 1870, after
doing similar work on its own plants, the company began to modernize blast furnaces and construct new ones for other firms. Those, like most
of the company's products, were for both the
home and export markets.
In the early 20th century railway engine manufacture ceased, but large gas engines began to be
produced to the ürnberg design. German engineers in general played an important part in the
company in the decade before the First World
War. By 1904 at the works there were pattern
shops, a foundry capable of making castings
weighing up to 60 tons, a smithy with steam and
pneumatic hammers, and machine, fitting, erecting, structural engineering, and boiler shops, all
equipped with overhead electric travelling cranes.
The entire plant was powered by its own generating station. About 1912 the works reached a peak
in the range of products manufactured and the
number of workers employed (c. 4,000).
Munitions were produced during the First
World War but thereafter a period of unprofitability began; the plant was old, and there were
difficulties in getting, and then fulfilling, orders.
The works closed in 1931. From 1937 the buildings began to be let out in sections to other
companies, and it remained in multiple occupation in 1982.
Clay industries.
In 1764 Richard Jones, a
Wellington brick and tile maker, took the lease of
a clay mine in Brick Kiln field in order to make
bricks and tiles. John Jones made 209,000 bricks
in 1783 at the Moss, and by 1793 a group of kilns
at the Nabb and the Moss was supplying the
Donnington Wood industries. (fn. 5)
Bricks were probably produced in the township
throughout the 19th century, the Lilleshall Co.
owning a brickworks there by the 1850s. In 1882 a
brickworks stood between Lincoln Road and
Cockshutt Piece and there was also a kiln at the
Nabb. The brickworks had apparently closed by
1902. (fn. 6)
Glass.
The establishment of a glassworks,
often known as the Donnington Wood glassworks,
on the north bank of the Wombridge Canal in
Wrockwardine Wood (fn. 7) was one of the few attempts
to expand the coalfield's range of industries. (fn. 8)
Glass had been produced in the coalfield in the
late 17th century but there is no evidence that its
manufacture continued into the 18th century.
In 1792 William Reynolds, the Ketley ironmaster, and his brother Joseph agreed with William
Phillips to construct a glassworks. In 1796 the
glasshouse was being managed by Richard
Mountford, and between 1800 and 1803 its ownership passed to a partnership of Mountford,
William and Henry Cope, and John Biddle. All
were connected with glasshouses in the Birmingham and Stourbridge areas. William Cope left the
partnersip in 1814 (fn. 9) and the firm traded under the
name of Biddle, Mountford, & Co. The glassworks, like the whole east Shropshire coalfield,
was badly affected by the post-war depression and
closed for a time in late 1816. (fn. 10) It closed finally in
1841, after Mountford's death, as a consequence
of the Glass Duties Act, 1838. (fn. 11) Only eight glassworkers then lived in Wrockwardine Wood: six
blowers, a packer, and a labourer. (fn. 12)
Production may have started before the end of
1792 when a circular glasshouse was shown on a
map. (fn. 13) In 1794 Stourbridge clay was apparently
used for crucibles, while refractory bricks came
from Horsehay, and slag for the glass itself from
the nearby Donnington Wood blast furnaces. In
1805 'black rock stone' was brought from Lord
Craven's land in Little Dawley. By 1833 two
English glass cones were operating, and there
were two glasshouses at closure. (fn. 14) A cone illustrated on a bill of 1840 from Biddle, Mountford,
& Co. may have been a standardized
representation. (fn. 15) The principal products were
crown glass and dark green bottles for the French
wine trade. Some table ware was also manufactured as well as fancy goods such as rolling pins,
walking sticks, and buttons. A 70-gallon bottle
blown at the works was reputedly displayed at
Reynolds's house.
In the 1790s a manager's house was built south
of the canal. It later became the rectory. Glasshouse Row adjacent to the works was built c.
1800, perhaps by the owners to house the workforce. In 1856 the glass furnaces themselves were
converted to working class housing known as
Glassworks Square. (fn. 16)