About
Finch Foundry, in the village of Sticklepath on the northern edge of Dartmoor in Devon, is the last working water-powered forge in England — a remarkable survival of rural industrial technology now cared for by the National Trust. Despite its name, the foundry was never a true iron foundry in the sense of smelting and casting metal; it was an edge-tool factory, taking in wrought iron and steel and forging, shaping, sharpening and finishing it into the agricultural and mining hand tools that powered the rural economy of the south-west for well over a century.
The business was established on this site in 1814 by the Finch family, who took over an earlier fulling mill and adapted its water-power system to drive the heavy machinery of a tool works.
Under successive generations of Finches, the works grew into a substantial small industrial enterprise, turning out thousands of scythes, sickles, billhooks, shovels and hay knives every year, supplying farms, mines and quarries across Devon, Cornwall and beyond. The heart of the site is its water-power system: a leat diverted from the nearby River Taw channels water to drive three large waterwheels, which in turn power a remarkable array of nineteenth-century machinery — massive tilt hammers that hammer red-hot iron into shape, mechanical shears that cut and trim blanks, and grindstones that give the finished tools their sharpened edge.
The whole process, from raw iron bar to finished tool, took place within this single water-powered complex, making it an outstandingly complete example of a technology once common across rural Britain but vanished everywhere else.
The Finch family continued production into the twentieth century, and the works only finally ceased commercial operation as accidents and changing economic conditions made continued production unviable. Rather than being demolished, the foundry was preserved, and the National Trust has maintained it as a working museum ever since, running regular live demonstrations in which the tilt hammers thunder into action exactly as they did for over a hundred years, filling the forge with noise, heat and the smell of hot iron.
Beyond the forge buildings, the site includes workshops, the leat and mill-pond system supplying the waterwheels, and a pleasant informal garden.
Sticklepath itself, strung along the old A30 at the foot of Dartmoor, has a long association with the carpenter and local character Tom Pearce, whose name is linked with the West Country folk song "Widecombe Fair" — a connection that adds local folklore to a visit already rich in genuine industrial heritage.
Finch Foundry offers a vivid, hands-on encounter with a vanished world of rural craft industry, powered entirely by the rushing water of a Dartmoor stream.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the National Trust website before visiting for the live forging demonstration timetable — seeing the tilt hammers actually running is the highlight of a visit and demonstrations are not held every day.
- The forge is usually closed on Mondays outside school holidays and bank holidays, so plan your visit for Tuesday to Sunday where possible.
- Wear sturdy, comfortable shoes — the forge floors are uneven and the leat path can be muddy or slippery after rain.
- Allow time to walk the short circuit around the mill leat and pond to understand how water was channelled from the River Taw to power the three separate waterwheels.
- The forge can be noisy and hot during demonstrations, which some younger children may find overwhelming — plan accordingly if visiting with very young or sensitive children.
- Combine your visit with a walk on the adjoining Dartmoor moorland, directly accessible from Sticklepath village, for a full day combining industrial heritage and outdoor scenery.
- Sticklepath village itself is worth a short stroll — look out for references to Tom Pearce and the "Widecombe Fair" folk song connection.
- National Trust members should bring their membership card for free entry; non-members should check current admission prices online before travelling.
Highlights
The Three Waterwheels and the Leat System
The engine of Finch Foundry is its water-power system: a leat, or artificial water channel, diverts water from the nearby River Taw and carries it to the site, where it drives three separate waterwheels, each powering a different set of machinery within the works. This arrangement of multiple wheels serving different functions from a single water supply is a particularly sophisticated example of pre-industrial water engineering, allowing the foundry to run its tilt hammers, its shears and its grindstones simultaneously or independently as production required.
The leat itself, along with its sluices and control gates, survives in working order and is maintained by the National Trust exactly as it operated during the working life of the foundry.
Walking the short circuit around the mill leat and mill pond gives visitors a clear sense of how the whole site was engineered around the management and exploitation of a modest but reliable Dartmoor watercourse, turning the natural flow of the River Taw into the mechanical power that ran an entire rural industry for more than a century.
The Tilt Hammers and Live Forging Demonstrations
The most dramatic feature of a visit to Finch Foundry is witnessing the great tilt hammers in action. These massive water-powered hammers, driven directly from the waterwheels via a system of cams and shafts, rise and fall with tremendous force to hammer red-hot iron bar into the rough shape of a tool blank — a process that would once have continued for hours at a time throughout the working day.
The National Trust runs regular live demonstrations in which the hammers are set in motion exactly as they were in the nineteenth century, filling the forge building with noise, vibration, heat and the smell of hot metal and coal smoke.
Watching the hammers thunder down onto glowing iron, guided by a demonstrator's tongs, is as close as most visitors will ever come to experiencing a genuine working water-powered forge, and it is the single experience that most vividly brings the site's industrial history to life. Demonstration days are limited, so checking the timetable in advance is strongly recommended.
The Finch Family and a Century of Tool Production
The foundry takes its name from the Finch family, who established the works on this site in 1814, adapting an earlier fulling mill to house a new edge-tool factory. Successive generations of Finches ran the business for well over a hundred years, building it into a significant small industrial enterprise that supplied agricultural and mining tools across Devon, Cornwall and the wider south-west of England.
At its peak the foundry turned out thousands of scythes, sickles, billhooks, shovels, spades, hay knives and other edge tools every year, made to patterns refined over generations to suit the specific needs of local farms, moorland smallholdings and the tin and copper mines of the region.
The Finch family's business finally ceased commercial production in the twentieth century, but the survival of the buildings, the machinery and the water-power system intact is a direct result of the family's long, continuous occupation of a single site, which preserved the works largely unaltered rather than allowing it to be modernised, mechanised further, or demolished as so many comparable rural industries were elsewhere.
The Last Working Water-Powered Forge in England
Finch Foundry's National Trust designation as the last working water-powered forge in England is not a marketing claim but a statement of genuine historical rarity. Water-powered edge-tool works of this type were once common across rural Britain, wherever a fast-flowing stream could be harnessed to save the enormous physical labour of hand-forging iron tools.
Almost all of these small works disappeared during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as steam and then electric power replaced water, and as mass-produced tools from larger factories undercut local production.
Finch Foundry's survival, with its waterwheels, leat, tilt hammers and grindstones all still in working order and still regularly demonstrated, makes it a uniquely complete window onto a vanished branch of British rural industry. For anyone interested in the history of technology, of rural craft industries, or of the way in which ordinary agricultural tools were once made close to the communities that used them, Finch Foundry offers an experience that literally cannot be had anywhere else in the country.
Collections
Finch Foundry is a National Trust working industrial heritage site rather than a conventional collections-based museum. Its principal collection is the surviving nineteenth-century water-power machinery itself — the three waterwheels, the leat and sluice system, the tilt hammers, mechanical shears and grindstones — all preserved in situ and, on demonstration days, kept in working order.
Alongside the machinery, the site holds a collection of edge tools produced by the Finch family works over its long operating life, including scythes, sickles, billhooks, shovels and hay knives, together with related trade equipment, photographs and archive material documenting the Finch family business and the wider history of water-powered rural industry in Devon.
Interpretation panels throughout the forge buildings explain the forging process from raw iron bar to finished tool, and volunteer demonstrators provide live commentary during forging demonstrations.
The Working Forge
The main forge building housing the tilt hammers, shears and associated machinery, with interpretation covering the forging process and the history of the Finch family business. Live demonstrations run on selected days.
Water Power and the Leat System
Interpretation of the leat, sluices and three waterwheels that power the site, explaining how water diverted from the River Taw was engineered to drive multiple separate machines.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.