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The Llanymynech Hoffmann Kiln
The Hoffman Kiln was named after a German, Friedrich Hoffman who patented it in 1858. It was intended for brick making but it was soon realised that it would suit the production of quicklime too.
This is a unique view of the lime works when they were in operation. The roof over the Hoffmann kiln can clearly be seen.
The first British Hoffman kiln was built in 1868 at Nottingham. It remained in use until 1970. The Llanymynech kiln was built in 1899 and closed in 1914.
The kiln had a corrugated iron "dutch barn" style roof mounted on steel stanchions - the cast iron bases of which can still be seen.
This incline plane was constructed in 1810 to take limestone for processing down to the lime kilns below the quarry at Llanymynech Rock.
The limestone was taken from the quarry in narrow gauge wagons down inclined planes and loaded straight into the kiln.
This reconstruction of the Hoffmann Kiln at Llanymynech overseen by Tony Beardsell shows how the kiln might have looked when in use just before the First World War.
Coal was poured down through feeder holes on the top into prepared spaces left between the "dry stone walls" of limestone packed inside the kiln.
The loading entrances would be bricked up and the fires lit. Air flues, semi-circular openings between the loading bays, could be closed or opened by “draw tins” to regulate the air flow drawn through by the 140ft/42m chimney.
Limestone from the Bradford and Chirk Estates would have been loaded onto narrow boats at the wharf.
The temperature in the kiln could reach as high as 1300 degrees C.
The burnt lime would be graded and taken out of the kiln in small trucks. It would then be transferred to standard gauge railway wagons which joined the national network. Occasionally low grade lime for agricultural use was transported by canal, but great care had to be taken to keep it dry as burnt lime reacts fiercely to contact with water.