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Summary

Important small industrial complex originating as an early 18th century smithy, and developing as an agricultural iron foundry in c1820, supplying many products in the area

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 02423.00.000
  
• National Monuments Record No.: SU 57 SE 36
  SU 55196 70989
• Old Listed Building Ref (pre 1984) (III): 8/5A Foundry
  C.19 brick built foundry with water-wheel in situ in river Pang but no longer used. One storey building with tall chimney.

Monument Type(s):

• BLACKSMITHS WORKSHOP (18th century to Mid 20th century - 1736 AD to 1950 AD?)
• WOOD WORKERS WORKSHOP (18th century to Mid 20th century - 1736 AD? to 1950 AD?)
• IRON FOUNDRY (19th century to Mid 20th century - 1820 AD to 1950 AD)

Full Description

See also MWB6274, record for the foundry's water wheel.

In 1736 the Hedges family was running a blacksmiths on the site of the foundry which employed up to 20 people; there is documentary evidence in the form of day books and ledgers <1>. The foundry side of the business started in c1820. The King brothers took over from the Hedges in c1908 and became a big employer in the area. In 1946 they were producing castings for agricultural machinery as well as road gratings, man hole covers and meter boxes for Newbury Corporation. The Whatley brothers took over in 1946 and ran the foundry until it closed in 1986 <6>.

In c1970 the group of buildings was used for light engineering, garage work and sheet metal work. The industrial complex was visited by J Kenneth Major who compiled a short report for the Berkshire Archaeological Journal <4> but it appears that detailed recording including photographs and measured drawings was also undertaken. This is entered on the National Record of Industrial Monuments <12> as 'Recorded by JK Major, 27-Dec-1971'.

The river Pang formed the northern boundary of the complex, though the cottage on the north bank of the Pang was at one time attached to the foundry <4>. On the west of the lane to the cottage were workshop associated with the woodworking and wheelwright part of the business; at the south of this range was a tyring furnace and the cast iron trying plate.

On the east of the lane was the original smithy which had been absorbed into the foundry, and behind that by the stream was a large workshop dated 1844. Inside were hearths and benches for making and repairing agricultural machinery. To the south of the workshop was a parallel building, perhaps of the same date, where pumps and engines were made or repaired. The southwest corner of this shop was the engine house to which a chimney (dated 1876) was attached. Some form of horizontal steam engine was put in to drive the lathes and other machinery. The two workshops were c 15 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a large double door in the centre of each main wall so that large vehicles like steam engines could enter for repair <4>.

To the east of the northern workshop was a small compartment housing the two furnaces. One cupola furnace had been used only a short while before 1970 although it was almost certainly the one first used by the business in the early 19th century. It was made of cast iron segments about 7 feet high built up like the staves of a barrel. The second cupola was a standard furnace. The air to the nozzles of both furnaces was provided by a series of channels fed by a fan, the power for the fan coming from the waterwheel in the river. The wheel was an undershot wheel cast in the foundry in c1875 <4>.

Elsewhere was a pattern shop and pattern store, further sheds and stables as well as a frame for tethering oxen when they were being shoed. A more modern brick office block and washroom served the petrol pumps of the garage forecourt <4>.

Planning permission was granted in the 1980s for the conversion into dwellings of the western filling station and smithy, and eastern foundry <7><8>. It is unclear how much original fabric was retained. The furnace from Bucklebury Foundry was apparently sent to Ironbridge Museum <5>. Some wooden patterns and a model of the stave cupola furnace are in the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading <19><20>, and the Berkshire Record Office holds some documents <9>.

Products from the Bucklebury foundry (particularly those made by Hedges) can be seen at various locations across West Berkshire. These include churchyard railings at Bucklebury (MWB18399) and Frilsham (MWB20684), the pyramid tomb for the Lousley family in Hampstead Norris (MWB15862), waterwheels for mills at Woolhampton, Marlston and Bucklebury Manor Farm and a pump on the A4 Bath Road at Thatcham (MWB16064) <4>.

West Berkshire Museum has a collection of photographs showing the foundry in the late 19th century <18>.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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