Iron Act Closes Lawrence Scrawley/Crowley’s Forge in Bellvale

The tilt-hammer beat the weak and brittle iron from the blast furnace into stronger and more easily shaped iron.  It was powered by a water-wheel. This picture is of the Jessop Tilt Hammer in the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, Sheffield, England.  It was built in 1785.

One of the provisions of the Iron Act was that no mill or engine for slitting or rolling iron or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer or any furnace for making steel should be erected in America. Bellvale hamlet was often referred to as Wawayanda early on. There is a historical marker for the forge on Iron Forge Rd.

Preludes to Revolutionary War; Colonial Technology