Stirchley Chimney is a chimney located in Telford Town Park . The chimney also marks a notable waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail . Measuring 209 feet (64 m) high, construction of the chimney was completed in 1873.
7-561: In 1790 Thomas Botfield began the construction of an ironworks on the site, consisting of two blast furnaces , a forge , and a mill. The site was opened in 1828 and later expanded in order to produce bricks in 1838. In 1856, control of the site was granted to the Old Park Iron Company. Following the demise of the Old Park Iron Company, the blast furnaces were leased to the Wellington Iron & Coal Company, yet
14-467: A fortune from collieries and iron manufacture, his mother Margaret, only daughter of William Baker of Bromley, Worfield , Shropshire. Thomas Botfield, the younger, born at Dawley , Shropshire, in 1762, was educated at the endowed school of Cleobury Mortimer . He worked as a colliery manager and married in 1800. Seated at Hopton Court in Hopton Wafers , whose manor he purchased in 1812, he funded
21-579: The slag mounds surrounding the chimney in order to use the refuse for the purpose of road building. The Tarmac company continued to remove slag from the site until 1964. The creation of Telford in 1969 led to the purchase of the site by the New Town Development Corporation.The decision was made to retain the Stirchley Chimney as a permanent reminder of the industry which once dominated the area. The chimney and
28-708: The area around it was recently refurbished following years of neglect. The chimney now boasts information boards explaining its history to visitors. In 2020 work began to repoint the chimney with lime mortar. Work was suspended as a result of the UK Coronavirus lockdown . When the repointing resumed in May 2020 it was discovered that the chimney had become home to a nest of kestrels . 52°39′50″N 2°26′40″W / 52.66389°N 2.44441°W / 52.66389; -2.44441 Thomas Botfield Thomas Botfield FRS (14 February 1762 – 17 January 1843)
35-541: The company folded shortly after in 1877. It was during this tenure that the Stirchley Chimney was constructed. The blast furnaces continued to operate until 1885 until they were taken over by Wrekin Chemical Works in 1886, when the plant was converted in order to produce tar , sulphur , lime salt, wood naphtha and charcoal . Production at the site ceased in 1932. From 1923 until 1935 the Tarslag company purchased
42-821: The rebuilding of Hopton's parish church in 1825. He served as High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1818 He was elected F.R.S. on 18 April 1833. He was one of the original members of the Geological Society, and early a fellow of the Society of Arts. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Horticultural Society, a member of the Royal Institution, and of the Royal Geographical and Agricultural Societies. He
49-410: Was an English metallurgist, geologist, magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Shropshire , and inventor of a method of smelting and making iron using the principle of "gas flame or heated air in the blast of furnaces". Botfield's 1828 patent seems to have anticipated most of the elements of the blast furnace as it was used in the 1830s and 1840s. His father was Thomas Botfield (1738–1801) who acquired
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