Mostyn Iron Works

Mostyn Iron Works Circa 1930 Courtesy of Coflein Mapping

 Mostyn Colliery was a coal mine in Flintshire, North Wales, that was owned in the later part of its operating life by the influential Mostyn family. The colliery was located at Mostyn on the banks of the River Dee.

When an ironworks was opened to produce iron using coal from Mostyn colliery in 1802, the company was renamed the 'Mostyn Coal and Iron Company'. In 1887 the Mostyn Coal and Iron Co was taken over by a Darwen (Lancashire) company to become the Darwen and Mostyn Iron Co Ltd. In 1927 A private company with two furnaces usually in blast at Darwen and two at Mostyn, on the North Wales coast. Known as a maker of spiegeleisen, ferromanganese, silicon spiegel, silicious iron and chrome iron, produced largely from foreign ores discharged from steamers at the furnace depots on the Dee. In 1951, business nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. In 1959, Company sold to Barrow Hematite Steel Co by the Holding and Realization Agency.

Mostyn Iron Works Circa 1930 Courtesy of Coflein Mapping

The Mostyn furnaces would have been visible from Lowry's home at Inglewood, Caldy in the 1920s before the trees obscured the view in later years. The furnaces seem to have had a strong impact on the young Lowry's imagination. Later, the view across Burrard Inlet from Dollarton to the oil refinery must have reminded Lowry of the Mostyn furnaces of his youth.

Lowry refers to the furnaces in his early short story 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour': ""Over the Dee in Flintshire the furnaces glowed red." (Psalms & Songs Pg. 232)

Lowry makes several references in his novel In Ballast to the White Sea; the furnaces are visible from the Caldy Golf Club while Sigbjørn plays golf with his father "Dark clouds were blowing up from the sea, from the Point of Ayr: beyond, on the other side of the river in Flintshire, the Welsh mountains loomed leaden-grey: but the Mostyn furnaces were lashing vermillion against the angry sky, as though something, or the shadow of something, were there, gesticulating in the furnace light." and " Over in Flint against the Welsh mountains the Mostyn furnaces lashed red against the blackness." (Chapter V111); the smoke is apparent at Caldy before Sigbjørn leaves for Preston; "And outside a thick fog, as though all the smoke of Liverpool and Birkenhead, not to say of Chester and the furnaces of Mostyn, were hanging concentrated over the Wirral Peninsula. A gloomy prospect." (Chapter 1X) and finally the pilot sees smoke over Lancashire which echoes the furnaces; "Smoke-laden flames, in murderous competition, streaked ever higher in an obscene parody of the Mostyn furnaces which had once seemed to Sigbjørn to threaten the body of the night." (Chapter X111).

Voelnant Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Voel Nant Telegraph Station (or Foelnant), between Prestatyn and Gronant, approaching the Dee estuary. The present Foelnant building carries a stone tablet in south gable with the inscription "Voelnant Telegraph Built in 1841 by the Trustees of the Liverpool Docks". It was built on land belonging to the Nant Hall estate. The semaphore system was used as late as 1860 as an emergency fallback when the electric telegraph failed. Though probably redundant by 1879 the station remained in the occupation of the dock trustees at a rent of £5 per annum.

In the early C20 Foelnant station was brought back into use for spotting ships in distress and summoning lifeboats, but was closed c1907. A stand for launching rockets was set up nearby.

Veryd Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Veryd: Foryd, is a town near Rhyl on the North Wales coast. The station was built (1828) to supplement signals between Llysfaen and Voel Nant; it was moved (1841) when the land was wanted for the railway. No trace remains.

Llysfaen Telgraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of  In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Llysfaen is a small town in Conwy, on the North Wales coast at Colwyn Bay; the telegraph station, was on Mynydd Marion. Now privately owned. Built in 1841 with alterations and additions. Single storey brick building with stone copings under a slate roof; small wings with a flat roofed addition.

Great Orme Head Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Original building of timber, built for the Admiralty in 1800/2; taken over by the telegraph in 1827 and rebuilt in 1841. The station closed in c.1863.

The Telegraph Hotel was built on the site of the Telegraph Station in c.1910. The hotel was taken over by the RAF in 1939 and used as a Radar Station.

The telegraph tower is depicted on an historic chart clear to the summit of the Great Orme (676ft) and a track leading to a second tower or lighthouse.

Puffin Island Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

This station was part of the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph network and was originally built in 1827. The station was rebuilt in 1841 and converted in 1887 to a biological station.

Point Lynas Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Point Lynas Telegraph Station was built in 1840 to supercede that on Mynydd Llaneilian ; rebuilt in 1855. L-shaped building, converted to a private house, 'The Old Telegraph'.

Cefyndu Telegraph Station

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Cefyndu  Telegraph Station was in central Anglesey, near Llanryddlad. An earlier station at Carreglwyd moved to Cefyndu  in 1840.  Note spelling error of name.

Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph

Prior to the establishment of the Semaphore Telegraph ships approaching Liverpool were signalled to their owners by means of flags on Bidston Hill. At its peak there were 103 poles and masts sited on the hill. The watchman who reported the signals was initially located on a warehouse in Chapel Street, then on the tower of St. Nicholas Church and lastly on Tower Buildings.

In 1824 the Liverpool Dock Trustees applied to Parliament for authority to make improvements to Liverpool Docks and in response an Act of Parliament was passed on 27 June 1825 ‘for the further improvement of the Port, Harbour, and Town of Liverpool,’ which authorised the Liverpool Dock Trustees to:

“establish a speedy Mode of Communication to the Ship-owners and Merchants at Liverpool of the arrival of Ships and Vessels off the Port of Liverpool or the Coast of Wales, by building, erecting and maintaining Signal Houses, Telegraphs or such other Modes of Communication as to them shall seem expedient, between Liverpool and Hoylake, or between Liverpool and the Isle of Anglesea.”

The following year the Trustees authorised Barnard Lindsay Watson to carry out a survey. Watson reported back that the cost of the line he proposed would be £1700 for the stations and appropriate equipment. He recommended stations at Liverpool, Bidston, Hoylake, Golden Grove, Hill Beyond Abergele, Great Ormes Head, Round Table Penmon, Llaneilian, Llanfaithlu, Holyhead. On 1 August 1826 the sub-committee set up to oversee the project reported in favour and work commenced immediately. The line was amended and stations were erected at Liverpool, Bidston, Hilbre Island, Voel Nant, Foryd, Llysfaen, Great Ormes Head, Puffin Island, Point Lynas, Carreglwyd, Holyhead.

Route of the telegraph after the 1841 changes Holyhead Mountain - Cefdnu - Point Lynas - Puffin Island - Great Ormes Head - Llysfaen - Foryd - Voel Nant - Hilbre Island - Bidston - Liverpool Read More

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Holyhead Telegraph Station

Holyhead Telegraph Station was part of the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph. It was built for a previous local telegraph in 1810, taken over by the L&H Telegraph in 1827 and rebuilt in 1841. The building is now a ruinous walled complex.

Lowry refers to the Liverpool and Holyhead Telegraph in Chapter X111 of In Ballast to the White Sea; "A lone airman, that wintry Easter, was flying over the Irish Sea. Now that the fog had cleared completely he was following the line of the old telegraph stations to Liverpool: Holyhead, Cefn Du, Point Lynas, Puffin Island, Great Ormes Head. Making a spurt, he covered the seventeen miles between Llysfaen over Veryd to Voel Nant in seven minutes."

Alexander Pope Dunciad

Lowry alludes to Alexander Pope's poem 'Dunciad' in Chapter 3 of his novel Ultramarine: "Thy hand, great Anarch! Evil ghost who must follow me wherever I go! Hear chaos!" (Pg. 92).

The line of the Pope's poem is:

Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all

The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. The second version, in which Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. The poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain. Read more on Wikipedia

Lola Ridge The Song of Iron

Lowry alludes to Lola Ridge's poem 'The Song of Iron' in his novel Ultramarine during Dana's drift around Dairen ; "The song of iron accompanied my footsteps infuriatingly until I realised I had gone the wrong side of the restaurant and was keeping too much to the line of the docks of the town." (Pg. 82).

Lola Ridge's poem was first published in a collection edited by Alfred Kreymborg entitled Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse (1920). Both Ridge and Kreymborg were collaborators with Conrad Aiken hence Lowry's probable source for knowledge of the poem.

Oscar Wilde Salome

Gustave Moreau Salomé 1876

Lowry makes reference to Salome in his novel Ultramarine; "Herod, he looked like, Herod, watching Salome. Among them you will seem like a moon moving in a white cloud, but do not ask for the head of this man. Male Salome. Satsuma wares. Salome wears - what? And they pierced his hands his side his feet, and dey heard dat noise in the Jerusalem street...."  (Pg.116). Lowry's source for the story of Salome is possibly the Oscar Wilde play.

Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. Scholars like Christopher Nassaar point out that Wilde employs a number of the images favored by Israel's kingly poets and that the moon is meant to suggest the pagan goddess Cybele, who, like Salomé, was obsessed with preserving her virginity and thus took pleasure in destroying male sexuality. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry's  reference to the "white moon" may stem from Wilde's episodes within the play - following the prelude three demarcated episodes follow: the meeting between Salome and Iokanaan, the phase of the white moon; the major public central episode, the dance and the beheading, the phase of the red moon; and finally the conclusion, when the black cloud conceals the moon.

For Lowry's reference to a "Male Salome" - see I.S.R. Miles

Lowry also conducts a word-play with Salome and Satsuma wares, a type of pottery which feature elsewhere in Chapter 3. Lowry may use of the phrase "and dey heard dat noise in the Jerusalem street"  may relate to an unidentified spiritual relating to the story of Salome or possibly reference back to the crucifixion of Christ.

I.S.R. Miles

An unidentified teacher referred to by Lowry in the novel Ultramarine; "I.S.R. Miles, the mathematics master, sitting at the head of the hall, presiding over preparation, his eyes lecherous and rolling, the eyes of a ferret. One had always suspected homosexuality. Herod, he looked like, Herod, watching Salome." (Pg.116).

One of several gay references in Ultramarine in which the younger man is threatened by older authority figure. Lowry makes reference to the Dance of the Seven Veils suggesting the teacher's inflamed desire similar to King Herod's incestuous desire for Salome - in this case Lowry says a "Male Salome" (Pg. 116).

John Keats Endymion

George Frederick Watts Endymion 1872

Lowry quotes from Keat's poem Endymion during Dana's drunken drift around Dairen in the novel Ultramarine; "Ah sorrow who dost borrow the lustrous passion from a falcon's eye," (Pg.116).

Endymion is a poem by John Keats first published in 1818. It begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Endymion is written in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter (also known as heroic couplets). Keats based the poem on the Greek myth of Endymion, the shepherd beloved by the moon goddess Selene. The poem elaborates on the original story and renames Selene "Cynthia" Read more on Wikipedia

Keat's poem may have appealed to Lowry as in the poem  Endymion ventures into the underworld in search of his love corresponding to Dana's search for love in Dairen. Lowry would also have been aware of the coincidence in the name Cynthia being both the name of Endymion's lover but also the name of the woman lusted after by Demerest in Aiken's novel Blue Voyage.

Francis Thompson An Anthem of Earth

Lowry quotes from Francis Thompson's poem 'An Anthem of Earth' during Dana Hilliot's drunken drift around Dairen in Chapter 3 of the novel Ultramarine; "Ay, Mother ! Mother ! What is this Man, thy darling kissed and cuffed, Thou lustingly engender'st, To sweat, and make his brag, and rot crowned with all honour and all shamefulness?" (Pg. 116)

Rejoice with all their joy. Ay, Mother! Mother!
What is this Man, thy darling kissed and cuffed,
Thou lustingly engender'st,
To sweat, and make his brag, and rot,
Crowned with all honour and all shamefulness?
From nightly towers
He dogs the secret footsteps of the heavens,
Sifts in his hands the stars, weighs them as gold-dust,
And yet is he successive unto nothing
But patrimony of a little mould,
And entail of four planks. Thou hast made his mouth
Avid of all dominion and all mightiness,
All sorrow, all delight, all topless grandeurs,
All beauty, and all starry majesties,
And dim transtellar things;--even that it may,
Filled in the ending with a puff of dust,
Confess--'It is enough.' The world left empty

Lowry may have been drawn to Thompson's poem on man's mortality to reinforce the sense of death and decay which surrounds Dana on his drift around Dairen.

Lowry also puts the quote into the context of his mother's feelings about the trip to the Far East; "I don't want my son coarsened by a lot of hooligans?" However, Lowry cannot resist joking about his mother's perhaps prudish attitude to his conception; "My son whom thou lustingly engenderest?" (Pg. 116)

Dutchman's Breeches

Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's breeches) is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to rich woods of eastern North America, with a disjunct population in the Columbia River Basin.

The common name Dutchman's breeches derives from their white flowers that look like white breeches.

Lowry refers to the plant in his novel Ultramarine; "Andy, the Dutchman's breeches, ha ha!" (Pg. 40). This reference is to the Native Americans and early white practitioners use of the plant for treating syphilis. Andy the cook on board the Oedipus Tyrannus is suffering from venereal disease.

John Owen An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

Lowry refers to the "manifold security" in his novel Ultramarine;  "it seemed to Hilliot now that Oedipus Tyrannus had a manifold security:" (Pg. 43). The phrase is used alongside other biblical allusions. One possible source is John Owen's An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews first published in the 17th century; "The Lord Jesus being thus entered into heaven as our forerunner, gives us manifold security for entering in thither also at the appointed season."

Lamp of Sanctuary

A sanctuary lamp, altar lamp, everlasting light, or eternal flame is a light that shines before the altar of sanctuaries in many denominations of (Jewish) and (Christian) places of worship. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the lamp in Ultramarine; "The light burning in the forecastle was the lamp of sanctuary." (Pg. 43)

Man, Know Thyself!

The Ancient Greek aphorism Man, Know Thyself was painted on the signboard above the Liverpool Museum of Anatomy which was visited by Lowry circa 1927. Lowry refers to the sign in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated 14th September 1952 (Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 597).

The Ancient Greek aphorism "Know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also ... σαυτόν ... sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).

The maxim, or aphorism, "know thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are,"and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude Wikipedia

The use of the sign at the Anatomy Museum may relate to the use of the aphorism in relation to anatomical fugitive sheets which were illustrations of the human body specially created to display internal organs and structures. The museum contained a variety of exhibits to show the internal organs of the body.

From 1539 onwards the phrase nosce te ipsum and its Latin variants were often used in the anonymous texts written for anatomical fugitive sheets printed in Venice as well as for later anatomical atlases printed throughout Europe. The 1530s fugitive sheets are the first instances in which the phrase was applied to knowledge of the human body attained through dissection.

However, a further clue to the use of the phrase by the Museum are the use of lines in their catalogue from Alexander Pope:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;

These lines are taken from Pope's poem 'Epistle II: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Himself as an Individual' (1734) which opens with an argument; "The business of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties. The limits of his capacity" and also contains the lines:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.

We must assume that Joseph Woodhead, the founder of the Museum, was familiar with Pope's poem.

The phrase was also used by Conrad Aiken in his novel Blue Voyage; "Know thyself!" he reflects, 'was the best joke ever perpetrated'. And what was he? A hurricane of maggots which answered to the name of Demerest." (Pg. 16). Lowry would have been struck by the coincidence of the sign with Aiken's use of the phrase.