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Cyfarthfa
was a successful works but its great opportunity came with the
arrival of Richard Crawshay in 1783. Crawshay had a great deal
of knowledge and experience of the British iron business. He knew
that the profit was in producing bar or wrought iron. Crawshay
ensured that Cyfarthfa's forges were large and well staffed so
that he could produce large quantities of wrought iron from the
basic pig iron produced in the blast furnaces. You can see the
large forge building in the illustration at the foot of the page.
At times,
Cyfarthfa works was producing so much wrought iron in various
shapes and forms that it even had to buy in extra supplies of
pig iron from the nearby Dowlais works. Crawshay was quick to
adopt Henry Cort's puddling process which meant that he was able
to produce large quantities of high quality wrought iron in a
short space of time. Puddling was a means of converting the pig
iron into wrought iron. Using a special furnace, the molten pig
iron was stirred (or 'puddled') by stirring it with a big ladle.
The job of puddler was one of the most skilled and specialised
in the whole of the ironworks (see right).
Crawshay's
involvement in Cyfarthfa increased after Anthony Bacon's death
in 1786.
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Above:
A puddler at work in the cavernous foundry building of Cyfarthfa
works in 1825. The figure at the far left is holding the furnace
door open whilst the puddler works on the molten mass of iron.
The second figure is controlling a wheeled dolly which will hold
the ball of molten iron being formed in the furnace. The puddler
will be working in extreme heat and his clothes will be almost
hot enough to burst into flames but he has become used to the
discomfort. The men on the left are deliberately sitting away
from the extreme heat of the furnace opening.
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By the end
of the 1780s, Cyfarthfa was producing over 2000 tons of bar iron
annually, and this figure was to triple within five years. The
original furnace had been expanded to four furnaces by 1800. The
works developed a reputation for good quality naval cannon which
explains why Admiral Nelson visited the works in 1802. Although
some ironworks had a rather precarious economy and relied on times
of war for good business, Cyfarthfa was far more flexible. The
period between 1800 and 1810 were years of steady expansion and
development. At the time of his death in 1810, Richard Crawshay
was able to leave his family a fortune estimated to be in the
region of £1½ million!
William Crawshay
II took over the management of the works after 1810. The works
continued to be very profitable. A new water wheel was built around
1820 which cost over £4000. William II spent £30,000
of the company's money to build Cyfarthfa Castle in 1825. Although
not seen by everyone as an attractive building, it certainly portrays
much of the attitude of the early iron masters.
From the
1820s, the railway boom helped increase the profitability of the
works as it produced iron rails for railway companies all over
the country. Cyfarthfa specialised in the production of basic
iron rails which although reliable, were not up to the quality
of the iron produced at Dowlais. As long as there was a boom,
quality did not matter but as early as 1833 there was concern
over the poor quality of Cyfarthfa iron when compared to that
being made at Dowlais. Nevertheless, the name of Crawshay and
Cyfarthfa ensured business remained good. By 1840 there were 11
blast furnaces, about 100 puddling furnaces and 6 rolling mills.
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