1862 London Exhibition: Catalogue: Class I.: F. Winn Knight
190. KNIGHT, F. WINN, Exmoor, South Molton.
Spathic and other iron ores from Exmoor Forest.
Sample of red, brown, and spathic iron ores, and clay ironstone from some of the principal veins in Exmoor Forest.
- No. 1 is from the Hangley Cleve lode;
- No. 2, Topdeer Park lode;
- No. 3, Double lode;
- No. 4, Ebenezer Rogers lode;
- No. 5, Roman lode;
- No. 6, Cornham Ford lode;
- No. 7, Woolcombe lode;
- No. 8, Huel Eliza lode;
- No. 9, Picked Stones lode;
- No. 10, Blue lode;
- No. 11, Hoar Oak lode;
- No. 12, North Forest clay ironstone.
These iron ores are found in large veins in the Devonian slates of West Somerset, in the high lands which rise about ten miles west of Taunton, and run westward into the sea near Ilfracombe and Combmartin.
Old workings, supposed to be Roman, are found on the outcrops of these veins along the whole length of the Brendon and Exmoor Hills.
These ores are precisely similar to those which have long been worked in the Siegen district of Western Germany.
The value of this class of ores in producing steel and iron of the finest qualities was not known in England until the Great Exhibition of 1851, when their prototypes were brought over and shown by the continental iron-masters as the ores from which their finest steel and iron were made.
The old workings of West Somerset were then reopened; and their ores are now worked in considerable quantities in the Brendon Hills by the Ebbw-Vale Company, who have laid down a mineral railway from the mines to the port of Watchet.
These veins contain in some places more than 20 feet in width of solid iron ore.
The ores may be seen in great strength in the Exmoor Hills; but until a railway is constructed to one of the adjoining ports they cannot be worked at a profit.
The lands between the Exmoor mines and the sea are in the hands of few and friendly parties, and no Act of Parliament would be necessary for the formation of such a line.
These ores are very rich, and contain no trace of sulphur or phosphoric acid, or any other deleterious matter.
Address of Exhibitor—
Fred. Winn Knight, Esq., M.P., Simonsbath Lodge, Exmoor, Somerset.