This was a nice explore; I wasn't sure what to be expecting but it was nice to find a place that had been taken back by nature rather than just destroyed by the local kids. There seems to be a lot of tunnels in and around the mill but neither my friend or I had waders so we didn't go underground.
History
Based outside of Mells (previously known as Iron Burgh), the factory was built in 1744 and produced many agricultural edge tools such as scythes, sickles and billhooks. In it's prime the iron works at Mells employed 250 people on this site with various members of the Fussell family operating a total of six sites in the local area: the Upper Works further up the Wadbury Valley, the Great Elm Edge-Tool Works, the Chantry Works, the Railford Works and a small site at Gurney Slade. Tools produced by Fussells were exported to Europe and America, and the family expanded its activities to include coal mining and banking, with the business issuing its own banknotes at one stage.
The Fussell empire collapsed towards the end of the 19th century. A variety of reasons for this have been suggested and all of them probably made their contributions. It was probably a case of too little, too late, in terms of keeping up with technical developments in the great industrial centres of the Midlands and the North. For example, the Fussells depended almost entirely on water power to a late date, although they did use steam in the later years. They also installed rolling mills at the Lower Works at great expense, but seem to have had difficulty in getting these to work satisfactorily. By the time this happened, a catastrophic collapse in English agriculture in the 1870s hit the market for edge tools.
Thanks for looking.
History
Based outside of Mells (previously known as Iron Burgh), the factory was built in 1744 and produced many agricultural edge tools such as scythes, sickles and billhooks. In it's prime the iron works at Mells employed 250 people on this site with various members of the Fussell family operating a total of six sites in the local area: the Upper Works further up the Wadbury Valley, the Great Elm Edge-Tool Works, the Chantry Works, the Railford Works and a small site at Gurney Slade. Tools produced by Fussells were exported to Europe and America, and the family expanded its activities to include coal mining and banking, with the business issuing its own banknotes at one stage.
The Fussell empire collapsed towards the end of the 19th century. A variety of reasons for this have been suggested and all of them probably made their contributions. It was probably a case of too little, too late, in terms of keeping up with technical developments in the great industrial centres of the Midlands and the North. For example, the Fussells depended almost entirely on water power to a late date, although they did use steam in the later years. They also installed rolling mills at the Lower Works at great expense, but seem to have had difficulty in getting these to work satisfactorily. By the time this happened, a catastrophic collapse in English agriculture in the 1870s hit the market for edge tools.
Thanks for looking.
