Rockley Engine Tower & Furnace
Rockley Engine Tower once housed an early 19th century Newcomen atmospheric steam engine for pumping water out of an ironstone mine. Remains of these structures are rare. Located near the tower is an early 18th century blast furnace that was fired with charcoal to smelt iron ore into pig iron. Both sites are scheduled ancient monuments.
Key info
Visiting guide
Open 24 / 7
Free entry
Free car park (lay-by)
What can I expect when visiting Rockley Engine Tower & Furnace?
Start at the car parking layby where you will see a gate leading to the tower. Notice the pumping shaft in front, which is now capped with concrete.
The beam would have protruded from the arch at the top connected to the pump that ran vertically into the shaft.
Notice the access points and flue on the north side.
You can enter the tower’s shell from the east.
Circle the tower for a better view. When you are ready to continue, follow the footpath east over the Warren Dike where you will see the furnace in the distance.
You can make out the boundary wall that supported the buildings that circumference the furnace. The mantle to the left is the tuyere where the bellows would have blasted air into the furnace. They were powered by a waterwheel that was fed via a wooden aqueduct that sourced water from the dike. The mantle to the right is where the tap hole would have delivered motel iron into the casting pit buried beneath the ground in front.
You can crouch under the mantles into the furnace for a look at its interior and charging inlet at the top.
Notice the abutment to the south of the furnace that would have supported a wooden bridge that led across to the charging inlet. Workers would have wheelbarrowed coal, iron ore, and limestone across the bridge to charge the furnace before it was heated.
Another tuyere exists on the east side where you can see the few stones that survive from its original exterior. This tuyere was probably added at a later date when the furnace firing was changed from charcoal to coke or to increase its capacity.
You can now head back the path you entered and explore more of the surrounding small woods.
History of Rockley Engine Tower & Furnace
c.1700 – Rockley Blast Furnace is completed standing at 18.4 ft (5.6 m). The site was chosen for its proximity to the rich Tankersley seam of iron, the abundance of trees, which provided charcoal, and the Warren Dike, which provided water for powering the bellows. The Rockley mine was located nearby to extract iron from the seam [1]. Ironstone had been mined and worked in this area from at least the 16th century when the method of extraction was in the form of bell-pits, which were shallow holes that were abandoned when flooded before new pits were dug [2].
1717 – The furnace is recorded as producing 400 tonnes of iron.
1742 – The last reference to the furnace in use was recorded this year [1].
1813 – Rockley Engine Tower was erected to hold a Newcomen atmospheric steam engine used to pump water out of Rockley Mine, which had now become a deep mine accessed via a shaft. The engine cylinder was reported to be 28 inches in diameter and the pumping shaft measured 171 ft in depth.
1823 – The mine was closed, and the engine was dismantled and sold to Hesley Park Colliery near Chapeltown where it was reported to still be in use in 1872.
1957 – The engine tower and furnace were purchased from the Wentworth Estate by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society (now the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society).
1969 – Restoration on the engine tower and furnace is completed by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society [2].
Bower Yard Lime Kilns