Nelson & His World

Hello, Roy and I send out very occasional newsletters (about 4 a year, with back numbers on our website at www.adkinshistory.com). The latest one has just been distributed, and Anna suggested that I post some or all of it on this forum. So here is the bit on the Carron works, but bear in mind it is written for a general readership - all of you on this forum will know far more than this! We did include a picture of the post box, but it hasn't copied - if someone can advise how it should be done, I'll add the pictures:

"This month’s monument is a Royal Mail post box on the way to the picturesque port of Clovelly on the north Devon coast (south-west England). On the face of it there is nothing particularly remarkable about this post box. As can be clearly seen from the ‘E II R’ at the top, it dates to the reign of the present Queen Elizabeth II, and although not very old, such boxes are gradually being replaced with slightly larger ones that have a more modern design.

The interest of this box lies in the writing at the bottom, which reads ‘Carron Company Stirlingshire’. The Carron Company was founded in Scotland in 1759 on the north bank of the River Carron, about 2 miles from Falkirk in Stirlingshire. The first blast furnace on this site, using coke as fuel, came into use in December of the following year. The company produced all kinds of iron objects, from elegant fireplaces for country mansions and stoves for use by American pioneers to steam engines and post boxes – both small rural ones and the more familiar ‘pillar boxes’.

Over the years the works had many famous visitors and collaborators. James Watt experimented with steam engine designs at the Carron works before he moved south to Birmingham, and Benjamin Franklin is said to have left a design for a stove (‘Dr Franklin’s stove or the Philadelphia stove’) at Carron after his visit there.

The early fame of the Carron Company rested on its production of armaments. Wellington remarked in 1812 that he only wanted cannons from the Carron Company in his army, and examples of such cannons that were used at Waterloo were exhibited in London in 1965 on the 150th anniversary of the battle. What the company was most famous for, though, were the short-barrelled, large-calibre naval cannons it produced, which were called carronades. These had a considerably shorter muzzle than conventional cannons, so reducing their range and accuracy, but at the same time making them considerably lighter. Conventional large-bore cannons were so heavy that they could only be carried on the lower decks of warships, which meant that at close range they fired mainly into the thickest part of the hulls of enemy ships. The importance of the lighter large-calibre carronades was that they could be carried on the upper decks without making the warships top-heavy and liable to capsize. Being on the upper decks, carronades could fire more easily through the relatively thin-walled upper hulls of enemy ships.

The other benefit of the carronade was that the design could be kept the same, but just scaled up or down for different-calibre guns, so that smaller ships such as brig-sloops could be armed with carronades that had a larger calibre than the cannons they were carrying. Sailors referred to them as ‘smashers’ because of the devastation they caused.

Unlike cannons, carronades came with their own carriages that were manufactured at the Carron works. Ordinary cannons were mounted on a truck supported on four wheels, and when they were fired the wheels allowed the whole cannon and truck to roll backwards with the recoil. Carronades were fixed to a mounting on a wooden slide, so that the recoil forced the mounting down the slide, but the slide itself did not move. This removed the danger of the gun carriage running over the feet of the gun crew on the recoil, which often caused terrible injuries. It also made it easier to ‘traverse’ the carronade (aim it from side to side), because the slide was fixed at the front but rested on small wheels at the rear. Although the slide could not move backwards, the rear of the slide could be swivelled from side to side to aim the gun. Although a few carronades were used by other navies, and the design was copied abroad, the carronade was one of the few technological advantages that Nelson’s navy had over the enemy.

Thoughout the 19th and into the 20th century the Carron Company made diverse products from cast iron, including bathtubs, telephone kiosks and rings for the lining of tunnels under the Rivers Tyne and Clyde. Gradually the market for cast iron diminished, and despite diversifying the company folded in 1982. Part of the company continues under the name of Carron Phoenix and specialises in high-quality kitchen sinks."

Lesley Adkins

Many thanks for that post, Lesley.

I've mentioned on another thread (Foreign Officers) the links between the Russian and British navies, and was interested to read in Joanna Woods' book about Elizabeth Proby and Admiral Chichagov that a man called Charles Gascoigne, a Scotsman, enjoyed a successful career in the service of the Russians, became a millionaire, received many honours and called himself Sir Charles, 'though he was never honoured so by his own country. On the contrary, he was for many years regarded askance by his compatriots for passing onto the Russians a system of cannon-making invented by his previous employer, the Scottish company Carron.'

Why is it I don't find that so surprising? I was also somewhat amused by the words 'ship' and 'carronade', together with 'sink' in Lesley's article!

I love that story about Sir Charles! The terrible thing about spotting the words 'Carron' is that there's a temptation to examine any passing postbox - a real link with the past.