2-996-014 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Britannia Ironworks at Bedford, 1860. A '...gigantic plough-manufactory...owned by Messrs. James and Frederick Howard...The total number of implements turned out of the Britannia Works in a single year is from ten to twelve thousand. This extensive and beautifully-planned block of buildings, designed by Mr. Robert Palgrave, of Pall-mall, occupies a most convenient site. On the north the grounds run right down to the Ouse - a river navigable to the ports of Wisbeach and Lynn...The line of the Midland Railway comes close under the great plough-manufactory, while the London and North-Western is almost as handy; both having branch lines into the works...They are, probably, the largest works in the world devoted to the manufacture of field implements, one shop alone occupying an acre of ground...A tramway runs completely round the whole range of works, and through every shop, with a turn-table in the centre of each...iron is melted in two huge furnaces the whole day through... The roof of the forging department...is supported wholly by iron columns...In this department all the wrought-iron work is done, and upwards of seventy forges and a furnace, employing some hundreds of hands, are in full operation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.