Industrial Heritage

Thurgoland has a long history of iron-working and wire-drawing. Of great importance is the nearby Wortley Top Forge, the oldest surviving 17th century iron forge (traced back to 1640), which is open to the public.

The Wortley ironworks consisted of three sites, Top Forge, Low Forge, and Tin Mill. And also the three wire mills on Old Mill Lane Thurgoland. Water power from the river Don was utilised to produce power for all these mills and forges. Wire drawing continued in Thurgoland until the early 1980s.

Wortley was one of several ironworks and blast furnaces owned by the Spencer family of Cannon Hall, Cawthorne, between 1658 and 1750. From 1739 the works were managed by John Cockshutt, a great innovator who developed the puddling process for making cast iron.