Preparing Sand Bed for Casting

These two men are preparing the sand runners (sows) and moulds (pigs) to receive the molten Iron from the blast furnace. The man on the left is raking the sand smooth, to the right the man is using a tool known as the ‘Worker’ making the mould for the pig. Ed Jones commented: “This pig-bed sequence may well be the Normanby Ironworks as there is a large travelling crane gantry seen on all the photos and the OS 6″ map (surveyed 1913) shows a travelling crane at those works.” However knowing the source of all these images as being Skinningrove works, the Archive believes these are the blast furnaces at Skinningrove.

Glass Plate Negative courtesy Dave Mcgill, thanks to Ed Jones for the suggestion.