Boring Mill Pool

The relandscaping of the 'Upper Forge Picnic Site' (the location of our excavations from 2001-2005) not only includes backfilling of the archaeological excavation but also the restoration of the Boring Mill Pool.

This pool was originally the 'Middle Forge Pool', supplying water to the second of four forges in use in Coalbrookdale by the mid-seventeenth century. It possibly has its origins in the mid-1500s - during the 2004 season of excavations we found some sixteenth century pottery here.

During the eighteenth century the pool was enlarged. This enlargement was partly to increase the supply reservoir for the newly created Boring Mill - a conversion of the Middle Forge for precision turning of cast-iron cylinders. It also pooled water for recycling back up the 'Dale (pumped by the 'Resolution' steam engine).














This photo shows the pool earlier this week after being cleaned and desilted to a maximum depth of 2 metres. This work was archaeologically monitored but no artefacts were found during the desilting operations. Previous work (in 2004 and 2005) had recovered a fragment of timber and a wide range of pottery. However we did discover the top of the western wall of the pond, which was rebuilt in the early nineteenth century.