I am pleased to hear that Historic England has awarded a further grant of £163,812 to the Forest of Dean Buildings Preservation Trust to carry out urgent repairs at Gunns Mill Furnace.
Gunns Mill is considered to be the best-preserved charcoal blast furnace in Britain. It dates from around 1682 when the Forest of Dean was an important centre for iron production. It was converted to a papermill in 1743 but had fallen out of use by the 20th century. The site was placed on Historic England’s original Heritage at Risk register in 1998.
The grant will fund the repair of the roof of the bridge house, which once protected charcoal and ore from the weather before being loaded into the furnace. This will be the third major repair project at Gunns Mill since 2020 when the Trust successfully completed repairs to the mill waterwheel pit. This was followed by urgent structural works to the northeast wall in 2022.
As seen below, I had the pleasure of visiting this site back in May 2021 where I learned of plans to eventually develop this site into a top tourist attraction. We must do all we can to ensure the survival of this important historical site, so that it may educate future generations on the Forest of Dean’s rich industrial heritage.