The History Anorak

The History Anorak

Monday 25 May 2015

Dyfi Furnace

Dyfi Furnace
For some reason one of the most popular photos on my Flickr stream is of Dyfi Furnace, I have no idea why. The photo is several years old, but I doubt if the place has changed very much since. It's right next to the road on the A487 near Machynlleth, and I found it by accident during a business trip to Aberystwyth back in 2005.

Dyfi is a restored mid-eighteenth-century charcoal-fired blast furnace, built 1755, that was originally used for smelting iron ore. It's now in the care of Cadw* - the Welsh version of English Heritage.

The furnace was powered using charcoal made in nearby woods, and the waterwheel drove a pair of bellows that provided the oxygen needed to raise the temperature high enough to smelt iron. After about 50 years the furnace fell into disuse, however, but the building had a second life as a sawmill. The present wheel is a replacement that was installed to drive the saw.

*I think Cadw is a wonderful name for a heritage organisation. It means 'keep', but it can also be used as 'save', 'guard' or 'protect'. Welsh is a complex, but beautiful, language. It's no surprise they're all poets!

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