THE quantity of iron they work up is very great, employing three ships to the Baltic, that each make ten voyages yearly, and bring 70 tons at a time, which amounts to 2100 tons, besides 500 tons more freighted in others. They use a good deal of American iron, which is as good as any Swedish, and for some purposes much better. They would use more of it, if larger quantities were to be had, but they cannot get it.*
They manufacture anchors as high as 70 cwt, carriages of cannon, hoes, spades, axes, hooks, chains, &c. &c.. In general their greatest work is for exportation, and are employed very considerably by the East India Company: they have of late had a prodigious artillery demand from that Company. During the war their business was extremely great:* it was worse upon the peace; but for anchors and mooring chains the demand these last 7 or 8 years has been very regular and spirited. Their business in general, for some time past, has not been equal to what it was in the war.*
abridged
* Young’s informants could not explain to him why, though he was very curious the know the reason.
* The Seven Years War of 1756-1763 saw Britain and France go head-to-head not only in Europe but also in North America, the Caribbean and India, where fighting spread to the British East India Company’s garrisons and trade centres. The outbreak of peace was hitting the profits of another North East industry at this time, sword-making. See The Hollow Blade Sword Company.
* After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, demand for armaments dropped off again and this time the Crowley ironworks never fully recovered. Ironically, given the labourers’ reputation for radical politics, the works had relied on monopolising Government contracts, and when demand fell and competition opened up in the Victorian era the works began to struggle, and they closed in 1872. Newcastle’s armaments industry was picked up by Sir William Armstrong, who founded his Elswick works on the other side of the Tyne in 1847. The Swalwell site was home to the buildings of Derwenthaugh Coke Works from 1928 to 1986, and is now Derwenthaugh Park; but in Church Street, Winlaton, a small cottage forge dating back to 1691 remains as testimony to the vanished industry.