Hyde Mill
The slitting mill was a watermill used to cut or “slit” bars of iron into rods. The rods then were then processed into nails by nailers who shaped the rod to form a point and a head. This was a handmade process until the mid 19th century when machines were invented to make “cut nails”.
Prior to the invention of the slitting mill, the bars were slit by hand using chisels.
The slitting mill was probably invented near Liège in what is now Belgium. There was a particular concentration of them on the River Stour between Stourbridge and Stourport, where they were conveniently placed to slit iron that was brought up (or down) the River Severn before it reached nailers in the Black Country.
The slitting mill consisted of two pairs of rolls turned by water wheels. Mill bars were flat bars of iron about three inches wide and half an inch thick. A piece was cut off the end of the bar with shears powered by one of the water wheels and heated in a furnace. This was then passed between flat rolls which made it into a thick plate. it was then passed through the second rolls (known as cutters), which slit it into rods. The cutters had intersecting grooves, which sheared the iron lengthways.
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| 1590 | The first slitting mill opens in England at Dartford in Kent |
| 1611 | The second slitting mill opens at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire |
| 1627 | Richard Foley, the son of another Richard Foley who was a nailer at Dudley, leased Hyde Mill (possibly from George Brindley), and converted it to a slitting mill. It is said that Richard travelled to Sweden where he posed as a fiddler to learn the secrets of slitting iron, thereby being able to undercut expensive imported raw material for nailmaking. |
| 1628/9? | The adjacent land owners sued for damages caused by increased traffic by carts bringing the iron bar to the mill, and for flooding caused by the weirs built to dam the river. |
| 1670 | Supplies of wrought iron came from forges located north of Kinver, on the Smestow, from Myddleton Forge in Shropshire and iron delivered from Bewdley |
| 1692 | ‘Ironworks in Partnership”, a consortium of Stour Valley ironmasters was founded. This included Whittington Mill and Cookley forge |
| 1735 | Whittington Mill installs its own slitting machine. Output from Hyde Mill drops |
| 1772 | The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, planned by James Brindley, was completed. |
| 1776 | Cookley Forge cease supplies |
| 1784 | Henry Cort patented the puddling process for refining iron from pig iron to wrought iron using innovative production systems allowing the manufacture of crude, standardized shapes. The Eiffel Tower is made from puddled iron. The Puddler waqs a highly skilled job |
 Puddling Furnace |
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| 1789 | The Homfray family who operated a mill nearby at Gothersley acquired additional land from the Dunsley estate and erected new furnaces and forges. Francis Homfray was a leading industrialist who lived at Wollaston Hall, a Tudor House which was dismantled and shipped to USA in the 1920′s. He was one of the founders of the iron industry in South Wales |
| 1791 | The original Hyde Mill was fully converted to Henry Cort’s process of rolling iron bar |
| 1797 | Kinver’s first steam engine was installed to operate a steam hammer. A steam hammer is a power-driven hammer used to shape forgings. It consists of a hammer-like piston located within a cylinder. The hammer is raised by the pressure of steam injected into the lower part of a cylinder and falls down with a force by removing the steam. |
| 1809 | The ironworks were put up for sale due to the death of Francis Homfray, but were purchased by his heirs Samuel Homfray, Jeremiah Homfray, and Thomas Homfray |
| 1819 | Thomas Homfray was declared bankrupt. The administrators passed control to the bankers who leased the mills, and provided loans for the renovation of furnaces, machinery and the purchase of new equipment. |
| 1828 | Hyde Mill, Hyde House (originally built by the Foleys) and a corn mill adjacent to the slitting mill, were leased to Joseph and Thomas Parkes who were spade manufacturers |
| 1838 | Tenancy changed to Bolton and Lee who continued to expand the facilities with more puddling furnaces, rolling plant and a canal wharf adjacent to Hyde Lock |
| 1862 | Output peaked, but soon declined due to competition from cheaper steel |
| 1865 | The spade mill was leased to another Thomas Parkes who also manufactured spades and shovels |
| 1888 | The puddling mill closed and the spade mill was taken over by Isaac Nash & Sons, of Belbroughton in Worcestershire. They made tools until 1970 at mills iat or near Belbroughton |
| 1901 | The puddling mill was demolished to make way for the Kinver Light Railway. The furnace slag heaps were used for track ballast |
| 1912 | The Hyde Mill spade works closed and the buildings became derelict. |
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Additional content obtained from an article published by the Kinver History Society