:Enoch Hughes

{{Use Australian English|date=March 2012}}File:Enoch Hughes, Manager Eskbank Ironworks, Lithgow, NSW c1879 (Sydney Mail 19 July 1879 p93).jpgEnoch Hughes (1829 – 10 April 1893) was an English-born iron-master and pioneer of the iron industry in both Australia and New Zealand. Migrating to Australia, at a time when there was little technical knowledge of the iron industry in the colonies, Hughes became an influential figure, largely because he was self-confident in his own abilities, a tireless worker, and an avid self-promoter. While he was associated with many iron industry ventures—both successful and unsuccessful ones—he is remembered particularly for his time at the Eskbank Ironworks. He was also a significant figure in the brick-making industry of New South Wales.

During his career, he constructed three colonial-era iron-smelting blast furnaces; at Mittagong (1863–64)—the first in Australia—at Lithgow (1875), and at Onehunga, New Zealand (1890). He also erected several iron rolling mills—including the first one in Australia to enter commercial production, in 1860—in both Australia and New Zealand. He was less successful as a works manager and businessman, with most of his efforts ending in financial losses and in great acrimony. He was charged but not convicted of bigamy, twice made bankrupt, and served a prison sentence for perjury.

Later in the 19th century, when the industry required more scientific and engineering knowledge, 'practical men' like Hughes became less appreciated and less influential.

Early life in England

Enoch Hughes was born at Dudley—then in Worcestershire but now in West Midlands—England, in 1829. He was apprenticed to an ironworks at fourteen, spending the next fourteen years working in the English iron industry.{{Cite book|title=The Australian iron and Steel Industry 1848–1962.|last=Hughes|first=Helen|publisher=Melbourne University Press|year=1964|pages=6}} Hughes stated that he had worked at the Bloomfield Ironworks of BBH, at Tipton, and Chillington, Lea Brooke, Bilston Forge, and Spring Vale Ironworks, near Wolverhampton.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28410140|title=IRON RAILS FOR THE GREAT SOUTHERN RAILWAY EXTENSION.|date=1873-09-22|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=3}}

He migrated to Australia in 1857, arriving in Melbourne in January 1858.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=15|oclc=156757606}}

Australia

= Melbourne =

By 1858, no iron was being made in Australia but there was an accumulation of scrap iron. Hughes saw the opportunity to rework scrap iron into bars. In partnership with Benjamin Marks, he set up the Victoria Rolling Mill and Iron Fencing Company, in Dudley St, West Melbourne, which opened in June 1860.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154842225|title=THE NEWS OF THE DAY.|date=1860-06-23|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=5}} Although this was the second mill erected—the first was at the Fitzroy Iron Works in 1857{{Cite book|title=The Australian Iron and Steel Industry 1848–1962|last=Hughes|first=Helen|publisher=Melbourne University Press|year=1964|pages=5}}—the Victoria Rolling Mill was the first iron rolling mill in Australia to enter commercial production. The partnership with Marks ended soon afterwards, in August 1860, probably leaving Hughes with inadequate financial backing for the venture. From 1860 to mid-1862, Hughes was winning tenders for ironwork, including wrought-iron fencing for the Melbourne Botanic Gardens{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148698788|title=GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.|date=1861-05-23|work=Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1929)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=3}} and a grate for Pentridge Prison.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5706608|title=THE GAZETTE.|date=1861-12-04|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=5}} The works were sold and—without Hughes—continued in successful operation until the early 1920s.{{Cite news|date=1922-12-07|title=WHIRLED ROUND SHAFT.|work=Argus|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1860388|access-date=2021-11-12}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1937659|title=OLD ROLLING MILL.|date=1924-04-16|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=22}} Victorian Rolling Mills moved to another site, at Brooklyn. It continued as a company under that name, until it merged with another company, Lion Rolling Mills, to form Melbourne Iron and Steel Mills, in 1929.{{Cite news |date=1929-11-15 |title=NUTS AND BOLTS |pages=16 |work=News |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128876219 |access-date=2022-03-08}}{{Cite news |date=1937-01-16 |title=The Story of Our Secondary Industries. |pages=7 |work=Age |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206190446 |access-date=2022-10-04}} Melbourne Iron and Steel Mills continued to operate, at least until 1959.{{Cite web |title=Search Museums Victoria's collections - Melbourne Iron & Steel Mills |url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/search?name=Melbourne+Iron+&+Steel+Co |access-date=2022-09-19 |website=Museums Victoria Collections}}

Hughes became involved in partnership to erect a plant to roll sheet iron in Melbourne. Land, on the south bank of the Yarra River, was granted for this purpose. Hughes fell into dispute with his partner, which led to legal proceedings that ended in June 1862.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155010959|title=SUPREME COURT.|date=1862-06-26|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=5}} The sheet iron works was never built.

File:Fitzroy Iron Works (Blast Furnace area) c.1873 (Illustrated Adelaide Post, 21 Feb 1873, Page 9).jpg

= Fitzroy Iron Works =

By October 1862, Enoch Hughes was already the works manager of the Fitzroy Iron Works,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60577598|title=PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.|date=1864-05-04|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=8}} at Mittagong, N.S.W. before those works were leased to Benjamin Wright Lattin, a wholesale grocer from Melbourne. Lattin agreed to construct a blast furnace—capable of producing 120 to 150 tons of iron per week—at his own cost, in exchange for shares in the company. Lattin chose Hughes to supervise the construction of the furnace.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874–1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=15|oclc=156757606}} It seems likely, however, that Hughes had been working to interest Lattin in providing the financial backing for the venture—since late 1862 at least—with the prospect of a contract for 10,000 tons of iron rails as the key incentive.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13237477|title=FITZROY IRON WORKS COMPANY.|date=1862-11-21|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-05-08|pages=4}} During construction of the blast furnace, to provide cash flow, scrap iron was purchased{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102850947|title=Advertising|date=1863-05-27|work=Goulburn Herald (NSW : 1860 - 1864)|access-date=2019-05-08|pages=3}} and rerolled into bars.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874–1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=16|oclc=156757606}}

Hughes had left England at a time when blast furnace technology was changing rapidly, and he had not kept his knowledge current.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39269488|title=A measure of greatness : the origins of the Australian iron and steel industry|last=Johnston-Liik|first=E. M.|publisher=Melbourne University Press|others=Ward, R. G.|year=1998|isbn=0522847218|location=Carlton South, Vic.|pages=57, 58|oclc=39269488}} The blast furnace that he constructed for Lattin was an old fashioned design—cold blast with an open top—similar to a Scottish design of the 1830s. Hughes used fire-bricks that were made from fire-clay found on the site of the works.

Building the furnace had financially ruined Lattin. When the furnace was first lit in July 1864—Hughes had left by March—it proved to be a failure. It made only about 80 tons of iron, before it was reconfigured as a hot-blast furnace by the next manager, Joseph Kaye Hampshire. It was, nonetheless, the first blast furnace in Australia, and, after modification, it operated successfully, from May 1865 to January 1866, and again—with further modifications— from February 1876 to March 1877.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=18|oclc=156757606}} Hughes went back to the works in May 1865, just after hot-blast operation commenced—probably to learn something about the operation—but was ejected forcefully.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166666745|title=CENTRAL POLICE COURT.|date=1865-06-24|work=Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 - 1871)|access-date=2019-07-11|pages=3}} Hughes attempted to disassociate himself from the failures of his time there, later denying—at least once—that he was ever the manager of the Fitzroy works.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13320756|title=THE LATE MISMANAGEMENT OF THE FITZROY IRON WORKS.|date=1872-12-17|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=3}}

= Sydney =

File:Pyrmont - City Iron Works c. 1870 (Illustrated Sydney News, 26 Oct. 1870, p. 1).jpgHughes moved to Sydney, where he set up the City Iron Works at Pyrmont for its owner, Alexander Brown, and worked again with Lattin{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=34|oclc=156757606}} who was the manager.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13120659|title=THE CITY IRON WORKS.|date=1865-10-21|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=9}} He left this enterprise, he later stated, because he was not offered a share in the company's ownership.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60853703|title=THE FITZROY IRON WORKS.|date=1868-05-30|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-08-04|pages=3}} This venture initially reworked scrap iron, rolling into it into metal bars, but later for a time also puddling imported pig-iron; it operated successfully for many years at Pyrmont,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222916793|title=Advertising|date=1935-08-21|work=Construction and Real Estate Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1930 - 1938)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=13}} relocating to Alexandria in 1938{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222852910|title=BROWN AND BROWN PTY. LIMITED.|date=1938-09-14|work=Construction (Sydney, NSW : 1938 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=9}} and still in business in the 1950s.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224517602|title=Advertising|date=1954-09-29|work=Construction (Sydney, NSW : 1938 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-16|pages=35}}

In November 1864, a charge of bigamy against Hughes—apparently based upon the evidence of his own brother—was dropped; it seems that his first wife had indeed died before he remarried.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104608365|title=SYDNEY SUMMARY.|date=1864-10-26|work=Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW : 1864 - 1881)|access-date=2019-09-28|pages=4}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60556873|title=CENTRAL POLICE COURT.—SATURDAY.|date=1864-11-14|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=3}}

By March 1865, he had erected the Balmain Fire Brick and Clay Works and was trading as 'Messrs. Hughes and Son'.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60568304|title=Balmain Fire-Brick And Clay Works|date=1865-03-27|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=5}} In July 1865, in a departure from his normal lines of business, he won a tender to demolish and remove the materials of the old George Street post office in Sydney, to make way for the construction of a new post office.{{Cite news |date=1865-07-21 |title=CITY IMPROVEMENTS. |pages=7 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13116415 |access-date=2023-03-12}}

= Bankruptcy, prison, and a vision for an iron industry =

Hughes was made bankrupt for the first time, in August 1865. A statement that he made under oath during his bankruptcy hearing, about his father's control of the brick-making venture, led to Hughes's committal and trial on a charge of perjury in December 1865.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13123183|title=CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.|date=1865-12-15|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=2}} He was convicted and sentenced to two-year's imprisonment with hard labour,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61896099|title=CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.|date=1865-12-26|work=Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton, NSW : 1859 - 1889)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=2}} which he served at Port Macquarie Gaol. His sentence was remitted and, upon release, he returned to the Fitzroy Iron Works.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251750190|title=Government Gazette Notices|date=1867-08-28|work=New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 - 1930)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=259}}

While Hughes had been imprisoned, his father (Moses Hughes) and a partner (Drury) had opened a brickworks, on the Burwood Estate near Newcastle, a highly successful enterprise that lasted into the 1980s.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/271694884|title=The brickmasters: 1788-2008|last=Ringer, Ron.|date=2008|publisher=Dry Press|isbn=9780646488257|location=Wetherill Park, N.S.W.|pages=54|oclc=271694884}} In October 1867, under the pseudonym "E.H.", he wrote the first of a series of letters to newspapers extolling Newcastle, N.S.W., as a location for an iron works, complete with estimates of production costs.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60845714|title=IRON-ITS MANUFACTURE AND COST OF PRODUCTION.|date=1867-10-08|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=5}} Newcastle would indeed later become the site of a successful steelworks, in 1915. A later letter written by Hughes on the same theme, in 1872,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201344748|title=IRON; ITS MANUFACTURE; WHERE TO MAKE IT; AND HOW TO MAKE IT PAY.|date=1872-05-04|work=Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. : 1871 - 1879)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=11}} influenced the formation of the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company to mine and smelt iron ore in Northern Tasmania.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1048604685|title=An iron will : mining at Beaconsfield - 1804 to 1877|last=Burch|first=Nigel|date=13 March 2012|isbn=9780987371362|edition= 3rd|location=[Beaconsfield, Tasmania]|pages=114, 115, 116|oclc=1048604685}}

= Return to Mittagong =

File:Fitzroy Iron Works (Rolling Mill) c.1868 ( Illustrated Sydney News Thu 18 Feb 1869 Page 5 ).jpgEnoch Hughes and his brother leased the puddling furnaces and rolling mill of the Fitzroy Iron Works between February and June 1868.{{Cite book|title=The Australian Iron and Steel Industry 1848–1962|last=Hughes|first=Helen|publisher=Melbourne University Press|year=1964|pages=9}} They puddled left over pig-iron, then shingled and rolled it.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874–1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=16, 17|oclc=156757606}} While there, Hughes rolled the first plate rolled in Australia, and claimed to have rolled the first rails.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60853703|title=THE FITZROY IRON WORKS.|date=1868-05-30|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875)|access-date=2019-04-23|pages=3}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13166081|title=Advertising|date=1868-05-14|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-04-23|pages=6}} The venture was not profitable. It was soon after this that Enoch Hughes is first recorded as being interested in solving the problem of smelting New Zealand iron-sand.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TH18680905.2.17|title=THE TARANAKI ASSOCIATION.|date=1868-09-05|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=TARANAKI HERALD, VOLUME XVI, ISSUE 841|page=3|access-date=2019-08-04}}

= Brickmaking =

In early 1869, Hughes returned to brickmaking, becoming manager of Goodsell and Tye's brickworks at Newtown in Sydney and he was for a short time a partner in this venture In late 1869, Hughes was released from bankruptcy,{{Cite news |date=1869-10-30 |title=INSOLVENCY COURT. |pages=14 |work=Sydney Mail |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166808573 |access-date=2023-03-12}} and by late 1871 was operating the Enmore Pressed Brick Company.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13249641|title=Advertising|date=1871-12-23|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=3}} He also was an agent for his father's brickworks.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13316225|title=Advertising|date=1873-07-05|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=9}}

= Lithgow =

File:'Ironworks, Lithgow'.jpgHughes retained his ambition to set up an iron industry, shifting his attention to the iron ore, coal and limestone deposits near Wallerawang. The venture was to be known as the Great Western Iron Works, and the company the Great Western Iron & Coal Company.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13311536|title=Advertising|date=1873-06-28|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=2}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107146725|title=Untitled|date=1874-04-14|work=Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=2}} But apparently he fell out with his partners in this potential iron-making venture,{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=35, 36|oclc=156757606}} and they held the lease over the ore-bearing land at Piper's Flat.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13347491|title=Advertising|date=1874-05-12|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-11|pages=1}} The site near Wallerawang was, in the eyes of experts at the time, a uniquely promising location for an iron and steelworks, but, despite some later attempts, nothing was ever built there.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63619679|title=THE UNDERGROUND PERMANENT WEALTH OF NEW SOUTH WALES.|date=1873-09-27|work=Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier (NSW : 1872 - 1881)|access-date=2019-11-27|pages=6}}

In July 1874, Hughes and others took out a lease on some land at Lithgow.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=36–42|oclc=156757606}} By November 1874, he was already at work preparing to make the bricks needed for furnaces of an ironworks at Lithgow.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70486186|title=Our Western Coal Mines and Smelting Works|date=1874-11-07|work=Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907)|access-date=2019-07-11|pages=18}} This time, the venture was able to obtain some important and influential shareholders, particularly James Rutherford, John Sutherland (N.S.W Minister for Public Works), Daniel Williams, and Thomas Denny (owner of the Denison Foundry in Bathurst), resulting in the establishment of the Lithgow Valley Iron Company (later the Eskbank Ironworks) at Lithgow.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219135073|title=ESKBANK IRONWORKS.|date=1907-05-17|work=Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-09|pages=6}}

File:Lithgow - Eskbank Ironworks c1879 (Sydney Mail 19 July 1879 p93).jpg

Hughes' blast furnace at Lithgow was quite similar in concept to the design that he had used at Fitzroy Iron Works, with an 'open-top' and initially cold-blast, but of a stronger cylindrical design bound in iron. Hughes had once again built a blast furnace of an antiquated design; it was not converted to hot blast until 1877.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=47|oclc=156757606}} Hughes was later to boast that he had designed and erected this furnace himself and "never paid an engineer or a draftsman a shilling in my life".{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA18901101.2.19|title=The Iron Industry|date=1890-11-01|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NORTHERN ADVOCATE|page=3|access-date=2019-07-15}} Despite these deficiencies, the furnace made iron—just 400 tons from 28 November 1875 until its first shutdown in February 1876—well enough that the company later added puddling furnaces and rolling mills, to enable it to make bar iron and rails.{{Cite web|title=The Esk Bank Ironworks, Lithgow. - The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912) - 19 Jul 1879|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161874246|access-date=2021-08-26|newspaper=Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser|date=19 July 1879 |language=en}} The end of the rival blast furnace operations at Mittagong, in March 1877,{{Cite book |last=McKillop |first=Robert F. |title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874–1932 |date=2006 |publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia |others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia |isbn=0909340447 |location=Melbourne, Australia |page=18 |oclc=156757606}} boosted the prospects of the newer Lithgow works.

By 1879, as well as its blast furnace, the works had eight puddling furnaces, rolling mills and mill furnaces. It was sourcing its iron ore from the small deposits in the hills around Lithgow, and from Newbridge and Blaney.{{Cite news |date=1911-11-27 |title=THE IRONWORKS SLAG HEAP. |pages=2 |work=Lithgow Mercury |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219536634 |access-date=2023-03-11}} With a scarcity of suitably skilled labour in the colony, Hughes recruited workers from the ranks of immigrant ironworkers arriving from Great Britain.{{Cite news |date=1878-01-21 |title=WORKERS IN IRON. |pages=5 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28396187 |access-date=2023-03-12}}

The company won contracts to make iron rails, and to reroll old iron rails into new ones. However, as works manager, Hughes embarrassed the company, when he clashed with the government's inspector Thomas Bladen over product quality, and was caught out clumsily covering up defects in tramway rails by Bladen.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=63, 64|oclc=156757606}} Worse followed, when the major shareholders found that the overdraft of the works, from the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, had blown out to £75,000.

In 1881–1882, Hughes was in a state of dispute, with the other partners who were manoeuvring to buy him out and be rid of him.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874-1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=68, 69, 70|oclc=156757606}} Hughes' blast furnace at the Eskbank Ironworks finally closed in 1882, and it is reported that James Rutherford—to avoid the temptation to ever reopen it—used two dray-loads of blasting powder to blow it up, in the dead of night.{{Cite web|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com.au/&httpsredir=1&article=1725&context=ihsbulletin|title=The History of Iron Smelting in Australia|last=Southern|first=J.L.N.|publisher=Illawarra Historical Society|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327094534/https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1725&context=ihsbulletin|archive-date=27 March 2019}}

Hughes had left Lithgow, by September 1883, and was made bankrupt, for the second time, in May 1884.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193392797|title=FAILURE IN THE IRON TRADE AT LITHGOW.|date=1884-05-15|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-11|pages=5}}

= Working for William Sandford =

For four months in 1886, Enoch Hughes worked as a manager for William Sandford,{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/156757606|title=Furnace, fire & forge : Lithgow's iron and steel industry, 1874–1932|last=McKillop, Robert F.|date=2006|publisher=Light Railway Research Society of Australia|others=Light Railway Research Society of Australia.|isbn=0909340447|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=18|oclc=156757606}} who took a lease on the Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong, in March 1886, in order to re-roll scrapped iron rails{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112410568|title=The Mittagong Iron Industry.|date=1886-03-13|work=Bowral Free Press and Berrima District Intelligencer (NSW : 1884 - 1901)|access-date=2019-04-19|pages=2}} under a contract to the NSW Government that he shared with the Eskbank Iron Works at Lithgow. Production commenced in August 1886,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13644200|title=TRE FITZROY IRONWORKS.|date=1886-08-27|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-04-19|pages=7}} ending after nine months, when Sandford took the work to the Eskbank Ironworks.

Hughes had engaged in a public debate—via letters to newspapers in August–September 1885—with W. M. Foote, lecturer on iron and steel to the Board of Technical Education. In a speech that he had made, Foote had advanced the proposition that it was not the lack of tariff protection that had resulted in the failures of the iron-making operations at Mittagong and Lithgow, but rather, "ignorance, bungling stupidity, and mismanagement". That could only be understood as an implicit and very harsh criticism of Hughes, and Hughes in turn retorted that, "we imported some theorists of the Technical College lecturing type and such a class of theorists have ruined our iron-manufacturing efforts from that time to this."{{Cite news |date=1885-08-04 |title= |pages=7 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13594451 |access-date=2023-03-12}}{{Cite news |date=1885-08-15 |title=The IRON TRADE and MR. W. M. FOOTE'S STATEMENT of the LATE CONFERENCE. |pages=8 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13595313 |access-date=2023-03-12}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111345672|title=A Novel Challenge.|date=1885-09-10|work=Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931)|access-date=2019-07-11|pages=4}}

In December 1886, Sandford—a strong advocate of protection—defended Hughes against the criticism of his earlier career and abilities (by Foote), saying, "Do not let us despise the day of small things, or sneer at such men as Enoch Hughes and others, for their efforts. Is it not better to be men who have tried against great odds, and apparently failed than those who have never made an effort".{{Cite news |date=1886-12-20 |title=THE IRON INDUSTRY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD. |pages=11 |work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13623236 |access-date=2019-07-11}}{{Cite news |date=1886-12-31 |title=THE IRON INDUSTRY. |pages=8 |work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28352753 |access-date=2019-07-11}}

Although Foote had been very rude to Hughes, in the way that he had stated his argument, the demonstrably poor outcomes tended to support the thrust of his accusations.{{Cite news |date=1885-08-18 |title=TECHNICAL EDUCATION. |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13595570 |access-date=2023-03-12}} The days of the so-called 'practical men' in managing the local iron industry were coming to an end, and managers with formal technical training would be a part of its future.

As a footnote to this controversy, by 1892, Foote had changed his tune somewhat and was advocating protection of locally-rolled iron,{{Cite news |date=1892-01-06 |title=THE IRON INDUSTRY AND THE NEW TARIFF. |pages=2 |work=Australian Star |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229597306 |access-date=2023-03-12}} but he remained implacably opposed to a bonus payment as an inducement to commence local production.{{Cite news |date=1900-03-20 |title=THE IRON INDUSTRY. |pages=3 |work=Australian Star |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229379036 |access-date=2023-03-12}}

New Zealand

File:Onehunga Ironworks 1889 (Pegler, Enos Silvenus, d. 1938, photographer).jpg. Cropped from the original image.){{Cite web|last=Pegler|first=Enos Silvenus|date=1889|title=Onehunga Ironworks|url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_library-photography-236066|website=Auckland Museum}}]]

Perhaps more wary of operating a business while being bankrupt—for a second time—in New South Wales and with his reputation as an iron-master having been questioned, Hughes went to New Zealand. In July 1887 Hughes was reported to be in treaty to buy the Onehunga Ironworks{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TH18870723.2.23|title=SMELTING IRONSAND|date=1887-07-23|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=TARANAKI HERALD, VOLUME XXXVI, ISSUE 7925|page=3|access-date=2019-07-08}}

The Onehunga Ironworks had been founded in 1883, to smelt New Zealand's plentiful iron-sand, by an ingenious direct reduction method.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC18830511.2.16|title=THE ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS|date=1883-05-01|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=COLONIST, VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE 3766|page=4|access-date=2019-07-15}} The venture had failed to prosper after the works' American manager, who had the smelting expertise, was sent to prison for attempted murder.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS18840403.2.18.5|title=SUPREME COURT - Auckland, April 3.|date=1884-04-03|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=HAWERA & NORMANBY STAR, VOLUME V, ISSUE 764|page=3|access-date=2019-07-08}} Operations continued initially, but had ceased completely in March 1887.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18870305.2.8|title=Operations at the Onehunga iron works|date=1887-03-05|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=WAIKATO TIMES, VOLUME XXVIII, ISSUE 2286|page=2|access-date=2019-07-08}}

Hughes took over as manager of the Onehunga works in August 1887, contracted to erect and operate the rolling mills to re-roll iron made from scrap. He brought some experienced iron-workers from Lithgow and, like the Eskbank works at Lithgow, operated Onehunga as a 'co-operative'.{{Cite web |date=1887-10-29 |title=Untitled |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WSTAR18871029.2.19.1 |access-date=2019-07-08 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |series=WESTERN STAR, ISSUE 1198 |page=4}} The operation was successful but soon had rolled more bars than it could sell. Under his management the works was expanded in 1889 to make galvanised corrugated iron.{{Cite web |date=1888-11-17 |title=NEW PLANT FOR THE ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18881117.2.37 |access-date=2019-07-12 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXV, ISSUE 9214 |page=5}}

Hughes was first recorded as being interested in solving the problem of smelting New Zealand iron-sand, as early as September 1868. His original plan was to mix the ironsand with hematite ore (from Kamo near Whangārei) and smelt this mixture.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18880321.2.18|title=ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS - THE MACHINERY AND WHAT IT IS DOING|date=1888-03-21|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME XIX, ISSUE 68|page=3|access-date=2019-07-08}} By later in 1887, this had changed to making iron bars, using iron made from scrap iron with a 20% iron-sands admixture.

Hughes expressed complete confidence that he could smelt the iron-sands profitably,{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18871220.2.57|title=MANUFACTURE OF IRONSAND.|date=1887-12-20|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME XVIII, ISSUE 299|page=5|access-date=2019-07-08}} but it seems that he only ever did so experimentally and on a small scale.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18900224.2.15|title=SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF IRONSAND.|date=1890-02-24|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXVII, ISSUE 8187|page=5|access-date=2019-07-12}} In June 1889, he said that the works had made iron entirely from iron-sand.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18890629.2.16|title=Untitled|date=1889-06-29|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXVI, ISSUE 9404|page=4|access-date=2019-07-12}} Hughes position on the technology of iron-sand smelting seems to have been that direct reduction would not work—at least on a commercial scale—and only a blast furnace could be successful.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18900301.2.9.1|title=ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS|date=1890-03-01|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXVII, ISSUE 8192|page=3|access-date=2019-07-12}} This is the opposite to the modern practice in iron-sand smelting.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzsteel.co.nz/new-zealand-steel/the-story-of-steel/the-science-of-steel/the-ironmaking-process/|title=The Ironmaking Process {{!}} New Zealand Steel|website=nzsteel.co.nz|access-date=2019-07-12}} Hughes was backing the wrong approach, and was out of his depth in understanding the daunting technical issues involved.{{Cite web |title=Iron Sand Chemistry |url=http://www.techhistory.co.nz/IronSands/Titanium.htm |access-date=2019-08-04 |website=techhistory.co.nz}} He should have been aware of the failure of an earlier attempt to smelt iron sands, in a blast furnace near New Plymouth, but seems to have drawn the wrong conclusions from its partial success in making some pig-iron.{{cite news |date=1888-01-04 |title=OUR IRON SAND AND MR. EDWARDS' OPINION |page=3 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18880104.2.17 |access-date=2019-08-04 |series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXV, ISSUE 8941}}

In July 1889, a blast furnace was under construction at Onehunga.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18890708.2.10|title=ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS COMPANY (LIMITED)|date=1889-07-08|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NEW ZEALAND TIMES, VOLUME LI, ISSUE 8726|page=3|access-date=2019-07-12}} The furnace made its first pig-iron, in July 1890. It seems that the iron was made with conventional iron ore, not iron-sand.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18900705.2.3.17|title=SUCCESSFUL PIG IRON MAKING AT THE ONEHUNGA IRON WORKS|date=1890-07-05|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME XXI, ISSUE 157|page=2|access-date=2019-07-12}}{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18900716.2.19|title=Untitled|date=1890-07-16|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME XXI, ISSUE 166|page=4|access-date=2019-07-15}} Hughes never achieved his goal of smelting iron-sand commercially. In early September 1890, the furnace was 'allowed to cool', reportedly as a result of insufficient coal, due to industrial trouble at the mines,{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH18900908.2.15|title=AFFAIRS IN AUCKLAND|date=1890-09-08|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=POVERTY BAY HERALD, VOLUME XVII, ISSUE 5864|page=3|access-date=2019-07-15}} and was never used again.

In late October 1890, Hughes was advocating the erection of a blast furnace at Kamo near Whangārei, where there was an iron ore deposit, with coal and limestone nearby. He was openly stating that Onehunga could not compete with a works at Kamo. His grand plans for Kamo came to nothing, other than to further alienate his employers at Onehunga.

By December 1890, he had been sacked by Onehunga and was suing the company{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18901215.2.19.2|title=CLAIM FOR DAMAGES|date=1890-12-15|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME XXI, ISSUE 295|page=3|access-date=2019-07-12}} and a little later was trying to dispose of his shares in it.{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18910117.2.58.5|title=TENDERS WANTED|date=1891-01-17|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|series=NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XXVIII, ISSUE 8466|page=8|access-date=2019-07-12}}

Final years in Australia

Hughes returned to Australia and, in August 1891, made an application to be released from bankruptcy.{{Cite news |date=1891-08-21 |title=IN INSOLVENCY AND IN BANKRUPTCY. |pages=6516 |work=New South Wales Government Gazette |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222127457 |access-date=2023-03-12}} A certificate releasing him from bankruptcy was issued in October 1891,{{Cite news |date=1891-10-24 |title=LAW. |pages=10 |work=Daily Telegraph |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235931734 |access-date=2023-03-12}} but only after three cottages located at The Junction, in Newcastle—apparently newly-identified assets—had been sold off.{{Cite news |date=1891-10-15 |title=Advertising |work=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135844452 |access-date=2023-03-12}}

In September 1892, Hughes was made general manager of The Australian Gas Retort and Firebrick Manufacturing Company, of South Yarra, in Melbourne.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197175065|title=Advertising|date=1892-09-24|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=16}}

Enoch Hughes died on 10 April 1893 at his house in South Yarra, and was said to be 62-years old (if so, he was born in 1831, not 1829).{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8536209|title=Family Notices|date=1893-04-11|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=1}} He was survived by his second wife, Roderickina{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227178285|title=Family Notices|date=1893-04-21|work=Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 - 1909)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=1}} (née McDonald), four sons, and two daughters.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article192194011|title=Family Notices|date=1894-04-10|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2019-07-08|pages=1}}

Legacy

In May 1907, around the time of the opening of Australia's first modern blast furnace at the Eskbank Ironworks, Hughes was extolled as a visionary pioneer of the industry,{{Cite news |date=1907-05-16 |title=AN ARGONAUT OF AUSTRALIAN IRON. |pages=8 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14857226 |access-date=2023-03-11}} probably due to the influence of the then owner of the Eskbank Ironworks, his old colleague and loyal defender, William Sandford. Although other erstwhile business associates held less favourable views of his character and abilities,{{Cite news |date=1907-05-17 |title=ESKBANK IRONWORKS. |pages=6 |work=Lithgow Mercury |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219135073 |access-date=2023-03-12}}{{Cite news |date=1911-11-25 |title=Late James Rutherford |pages=2 |work=National Advocate |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157783729 |access-date=2023-03-12}} Hughes was, nonetheless, a pioneer of the industry, for better or worse.

Two of the early rolling mill ventures, which he founded in Australia, survived into the mid 20th Century. However, the iron works at Onehunga closed by August 1895,{{cite news |title=THE TARIFF COMMISSION |page=2 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18950831.2.9 |access-date=2019-08-01 |series=OTAGO DAILY TIMES, ISSUE 10453}} and a commercially-viable process to smelt ironsand{{Cite web |last=Taonga |first=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu |title=3. – Iron and steel – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/iron-and-steel/page-3 |access-date=2019-09-01 |website=teara.govt.nz |language=en}}—now the basis of the modern steel industry of New Zealand—was not developed until the 1950s.

Although he was there only at its very beginnings, the enterprise that Hughes founded at Lithgow, in 1874, did carry on, under various ownership and operating arrangements,{{Cite news |date=1894-01-16 |title=ESKBANK IRONWORKS. |pages=6 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13910279 |access-date=2023-03-12}}{{Cite news |date=1926-04-30 |title=IRON AND STEEL |pages=4 |work=Daily News |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83397108 |access-date=2023-03-12}} until it was relocated to the coast at Port Kembla, between 1928 and 1932, as Australian Iron & Steel.{{Cite news |date=1931-03-26 |title=AUSTRALIAN IRON AND STEEL. |pages=11 |work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16765047 |access-date=2020-05-05}}{{Cite news |date=1932-01-22 |title=LITHGOW'S PIONEER INDUSTRY–OUR IRON AND STEEL MAKES AUSTRALIAN HISTORY |pages=6 |work=Lithgow Mercury (NSW : 1898 - 1954) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219681533 |access-date=2020-05-07}} It later became a subsidiary of BHP, and is now a part of Bluescope Steel. Port Kembla is still the largest producer of steel in Australia.