Blast! Traditional Cache
Antheia: At owners request
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A really easy cache on flat paths with a few stiles leads you to a fine example of our industrial heritage. The cache isn't in the site.
Marked on the modern Ordnance Survey map as "Ironworks (rems of)" I was expecting some crumbling foundations. But when you actually visit these blast furnaces dated 1780 and 1818 you'll realise that all you need to get them going again is some iron ore, coke and a match, such is their condition.
Unfortunately all that is remaining are the bits that couldn't be dismantled after they shut down in 1874. Imagine a rail track coming from the east with branches leading to each furnace. The right handside one being top loaded from a track coming over the top of the hillside into which it's been built while the left hand side furnace having an aerial track on a viaduct to top load it with iron ore, limestone and coke. Each furnace would have been "blasted" from below by a 300hp steam driven bellows. The arches in the sides would lead you to troughs in which the molten iron would collect before being run off into the pig-iron moulds.
They were the first coke fired blast furnaces in Derbyshire, being built for John and Charles Mold by Francis Hurt.
The best perspective is acheived when approaching from the west. Do remember to "burp" the plastic container before you replace it.
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