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John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson or "Iron Mad John" as he became known was born in Little Clifton near Workington in Cumbria in 1728. He was educated in Kendal at the Dissenting Academy. His father, Isaac, taught him all the skills necessary for ironworking as he himself worked at the Backbarrow Ironworks foundry in Backbarrow, Furness. In 1748, when John was 20 years old, his father opened his own ironworks at Wilson House near Lindale in Cartmel.

He married Ann Maudesley in 1755 but sadly she died in childbirth a year later. However, he used the money left to him from the marriage to build an industrial empire which consisted of smelting iron, steam engines, cannons, barges, manufacturing of lead and iron pipes, etc. John married his second wife, Mary Lee, in 1763.

In 1766 John built an important ironworks at Bradley in south Staffordshire, he also owned ironworks at Willey in Shropshire. However in 1777/78 he acquired the Castlehead estate and Wilson House, which was once his father's property, complete with it's farm and ironworks. He built a mansion at Castlehead and around the same time built and launched the first iron ship to float on the nearby river Winster.

In 1781 the iron bridge he built across the Severn river at Broseley was opened. This bridge was unusual in that instead of screws, nuts and bolts he used joints, keys and pegs. He invented and patented a way of adding spiral grooves to a cannon in 1789 thus allowing a cannon ball to have a greater distance and truer aim. In approximately 1787 to 1795 John also got involved in issuing copper tokens. These tokens had his portrait on them and they were worth a half penny. It was on these that he recorded himself as ironmaster.

However, during the 1790's his iron madness reached a peak when he had almost everything around him made of iron which ranged from several coffins to a massive obelisk to mark this grave. He died in 1808 and was first buried at Castlehead, however, his coffin was later removed to Lindale church but where exactly remains a mystery. He is commemorated by an iron obelisk on a mound beside the B5277 Grange road where it leaves the A590.

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