ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century, further developments in fuel economy, including the regenerative hot blast (1860) and increased furnace size, made ore not fuel the greater influence on location. Added to this, coalfield ore deposits were approaching exhaustion. New areas grew in importance, notably the Northeast coast of England (where supplies of lowgrade jurassic ores lay in close proximity to the Durham coalfield) and the North-west (Cumberland and Lancashire) with supplies of high-grade haematite ore. By 1875, the Northeast coast was producing over 2 million tons of pig iron a year (one-third of national output) while the North-west’s output of approximately a million tons equalled that of Scotland (see Map 3.3). Increasingly, too, there was dependence on high-grade imported ores, particularly from Spain. South Wales, especially, became dependent on imports and this contributed to a coastward shift of the iron industry in that region.
