Stuckton Ironworks once a major industrial site

Column by Fordingbridge Museum is sponsored by Adrian Dowding

By Julian Hewitt, Fordingbridge Museum

In 1830, agricultural workers were suffering. Poor harvests and harsh weather made working and living conditions bad. Enclosure acts removed their right to use common land. Their major source of winter work was replaced by newly developed threshing machines.

With no wages and evictions making workers homeless, there were riots. In Fordingbridge, about 300 rioters, led by someone calling himself Captain Hunt, attacked William Sheppard’s ironworks and agricultural equipment factory at Stuckton, damaging machinery and the building.

The ironworks had been set up in the late-1700s by skilled engineer, millwright, iron master and producer of agricultural machinery, Thomas Sheppard. His son, William, was an apprentice at Henry Cort’s ironworks near Fareham where he learnt to produce high grade steel. William took over his father’s thriving business when his father died in 1805. This was the time of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and William was at the cutting edge of the technology.

The works made mill equipment, threshing machines, farm implements and steam engines. Now a wealthy man, William was able to sponsor local schools and chapels and support the poor as well as his own family of 14 children. When he died in 1844, the business was run by his wife Maria until 1855. She passed it to her son, George.

The factory with its 50-foot chimney must have been a prominent local landmark.

Eventually, the business was bought by Armfield, a Ringwood mill machinery company. The range of products was increased and sold all over the world. Offices were opened in London, South Africa and South America.

In 1915, George Wort became manager at Stuckton and modernised the business. By the 1940s, the Stuckton works had become a general and agricultural merchants selling boughtin products as well as their own manufactured items.

Joseph Armfield died in 1935 and his son took over. In 1953, the business was sold to George Wort who was succeeded by his son Hartley. The saying was, ‘if you want it, Armfields will make it.’

After Hartley’s retirement, the company was sold to Humberstone and Pulfords of Salisbury and, with the decline of the agriculture business, the company diversified, at one time building sailing boats. In the UK, the recession in 1991 saw the Stuckton works finally close its doors.

Most of the buildings at Stuckton ironworks survive in their original condition. The 50-foot chimney collapsed in the 1960s and many of the triangular bricks it was made from can still be found around the village. The old gaslight in Church Street was manufactured at Stuckton and there must be many pieces of mill and farm equipment in Great Britain and all over the world that came from the Stuckton ironworks. Visiting the little village now, one would never guess that it once hosted a major industrial site.