White Rock 1744 (Thomas Lightfoot)

Thomas Lightfoot’s famous engraving of White Rock in the earlier years of its existence. Note the marshland/field by the river (complete with cow) and the early slag mounds which eventually reclaimed the marshland by the river. The old millpond and mill are visible to the left of the works. The Great Calciner building is located at the centre of the engraving while just a little lower and stretching almost the length of the works is the Great Workhouse. The buildings nearer the river were additional calcining and smelting furnaces, while to the right is the extant dock and the Mansell coal yard. The ‘Great Coal Road’ – an early horse drawn tramway – ran down the valley from the local mines past the mill and just to the north of the Great Workhouse, and ended in a coal tipping tower by the river at the southern end of the site.