| Description | The extensive material relating to the manufacture of alum at Loftus includes a series of vouchers and related papers for the period 1800-1811. Most of them were day book (later called wage-book) vouchers. They were the month by month records of the running of the alum house. First of all there are the wage sheets showing the number of days worked or amount of work done by each person with the wage given. The work was long and arduous : for some workers there was a danger of being scalded - one man was off work for 2-3 months because of this. The number of people employed in the Alum House was about 20-40; some masons, joiners and labourers were also employed,presumably to build extensions mentioned later. As well as extra building there was a liquor way and pond added.
Some of the workers did not seem to work a full week at the alum house they may have also done other work on the estate.A cooper was employed, later joined by another, who were paid by piecework. Next were three or four coolermen up to about a dozen firemen earning between is and 3/6 per day. Some work was described as roaching and chipping: this would entail scraping out the crystals of alum from lead pans. These lead pans had to be cut up and re-cast every so often. One of the jobs was dealing with ashes, described as cinder dressing. For some of the labourers the hours could be long: one man worked 16 and 17 hours in a six day week.
Much of the other work was transport. Only a small percentage of the rock was alum. The rest had to be thrown away, unsually tipped over the edge of the cliff. Many other materials were needed
sand, clay, lime, cast metal, bricks (possibly fire bricks as well as for building), stones, pantiles, alum plates and gravel, were all taken to the Alum House. Many of these materials would be used for building., Alder wood was brought all the way from Wheeldale. The chief fuel used was a fairly good quality coal. One of the reasons for the decline of the industry in certain areas was the cost of transprting coal. Gorse and topwood also feature prominently, but these were probably used to calcine the alum rock. The process of extraction is described in Bulletin 5 of
the Industrial Archeology group for the North East.
The alum was sold from a warehouse in London. This warehouse needed a ready stock for customers. Some was sold to the continent, and in 1801, this trade closed for a while. Most of the alum was sold in Spring and Summer. Ships were loaded at Hummersea with 30-70 tons at a time. At each loading the men received an ale allowance these extras were given to other workers as well. The crystals of alum could be damaged when stored in the hatchways by the workmens feet. In October 1809 they launched a sloop Commerce. Some of the joiners from the alum house were probably employed in building her. These ships as well as taking alum to London, brought back supplies for the estate, mainly wheat, oats, rye and ashes.In the early part of 1808 there are receipts for the education of the children of those employed in the Alum House. One document in that year gives the numbers of children in each family. There were about 20 boys taught during the day, with some extra pupils at night. The girls education does not seem to have been so important. |