n Mrs. Boevey's death
the estate passed by will to Thomas Crawley, Esq., of London, merchant,
in tail male, upon the condition of adding the name of Boevey to Crawley.
Thomas, a lineal descendant, succeeded to the baronetage on the death of
Sir Charles Barrow in January, 1789, by limitation of the patent. {189}
Part of the mansion having been destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt by him
in 1777, with extensive additions. This house yet remains, and is a
capacious structure.

[Picture: The original Chapel at Flaxley, as it appeared in 1712]

"The iron manufactory," writes Rev. T. Rudge, at the beginning of this
century, "is still carried on, and the metal is esteemed peculiarly good;
but its goodness does not arise from any extraordinary qualities in the
ore, but from the practice of working the furnace and forges with
charcoal wood, without any mixture of pit coal. The quantity of charcoal
required is so considerable, that the furnace cannot be kept in blow or
working more than nine months successively, the wheels which work the
bellows and hammers being turned by a powerful stream of water. At this
time (Oct. 28, 1802) a cessation has taken place for nearly a year.
Lancashire ore, which is brought to Newnham by sea, furnishes the
principal supply; the mine found in the Forest being either too scanty to
answer the expense of raising it, or when raised too difficult of fusion,
and consequently too consumptive of fuel, to allow the common use of it."
Since then so great a change has been effected in the mode of reducing
the ore, that several tons of the Lancashire mine yet remain unused near
the spot where the Flaxley furnace stood, the Forest ore readily yielding
to the treatment it now receives in the blast furnaces of the district.
"When the furnace is at work, about twenty tons a week are reduced to pig
iron; in this state it is carried to the forges, where about eight tons a
week are hammered out into bars, ploughshares, &c., ready for the smith."
The aged people of the neighbourhood well remember when the Flaxley
furnaces were in blast, and tell of the ancient cinders and pickings of
the old mine-holes being taken down to them. With their disuse the
former mode of manufacturing iron ceased in the district. The furnace
buildings have been long removed, and the pools drained in which the
water accumulated for driving the machinery.

[Picture: Flaxley Church, and Abbey in the distance]

Thus the "Cas