Monument record 1454 - Iron Bloomery Site near Bradford Cottage

An old Bloomery was situated E of Welsh Row, towards Bradford House. There is an extensive accumulation of pure iron slag 90 yards long and 3ft deep (1). OS describe a small turf-covered mound, lying alongside a streamlet. There is a slight hollow c.10m diam, similar to a mining shaft. The mound is situated on a north facing scarp, which appears to be natural, but which may be the 90 yard long accumulation referred to by Roeder. The nature and age of former activity in the vicinity could not be deduced (2).
According to (3), this is a site of mounds of bloomery slag mixed with a dark earth and charcoal lying beneath the turf on the side of the stream close to Bradford Cottage. Discontinous remnants of the mounds can be seen along the side of the stream for 90 metres or more. At one point, a hollow in the edge of the field may mark the location of a collapsed void underground, such as a small shaft furnace. Roeder & Graves looked at the site after the up-rooting of a tree. It is their opinion that this site is an iron bloomery suggesting that the ore had been brought in from north Staffordshire for this purpose. The slag looks like iron blooms and there is no suggestion that this may be derived from local lead or copper smelting. The site is most probably a Medieval or early Post-Medieval Bloomery (3).

<1> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1883 -, Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 19/111 Roeder C 1901 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3293.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ87NE10/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<3> 1998, Alderley Edge Landscape Project Archive, 225 (Unpublished Report). SCH4334.