Määttälä ironworks

Lestintie Toholampi

Iron was manufactured on the Määttälä farm already in the late 1500s, and iron-manufacturing skills have been passed from one generation to the next in the family. In the 1600s, iron products were delivered from Määttälä to other parishes as well. At some point, an uncommonly large bloomery was built at Määttälä: its height was about a metre and the area of its hearth 50 cm x 60 cm. The bellows and sledgehammer were used with waterpower received from the adjacent heavily flowing brook. The centre stake, rotated by a waterwheel, extended from the rapids to the smithy. The sledgehammer weighed almost 50 kilos. Tools, mill axes, anchors, and nails were forged from relatively high-quality and durable iron.

The last owner of the Määttälä ironworks was Mikko Juhonpoika Määttälä, also known as Rauta-Mikko (1751–1822). As a recognised expert, he also worked in Southern Ostrobothnia, building bloomeries and teaching iron-manufacturing methods. In addition to iron, he sold boards and timber, as well as tar burned in his tar-burning pits, from his mill. Towards the end of the 1700s, Määttälä was one of the wealthiest houses in the parish. When Rauta-Mikko died, the operation of the ironworks had already slowed down. Near the Määttälä ironworks, a blacksmith memorial by Lasse Minkkinen was erected in summer 1993. This memorial gives an idea of what old bloomeries looked like.

Stories

The mother parish Suur-Lohtaja was known as a regional centre of anchor industry, which delivered anchors to the coastal shipyards of Central Ostrobothnia. According to Viljo S. Määttälä (2000, 163), “the ironworks of Määttälä probably delivered lots of anchors because this also opened the door for export to Stockholm”. As evidence of this, an entry in the bookkeeping of the admiralty states that in 1676 Klemetti Matinpoika Määttälä delivered anchors to the shipyard of the royal admiralty in Stockholm.

Karl Borg, the chaplain of Ylikannus, sent a letter to the Finnish Economic Society in 1800, praising especially Mikko Määttälä’s skills in iron manufacturing and in designing bloomeries and bellows. Borg proposed in his letter that even though iron manufacturing had decreased, it could be revived because of the rich resources of lake iron ore in the region. According to Borg, bellows could be operated with the waterpower from mills that were located on rapids. The charcoal needed for smelting iron ore would be endlessly available in tar-burning pits. Borg’s proposals did not result in action, so iron making as an actual source of livelihood ended (Luho & Luukko 1957, 248).

Photos

Määttälä bloomery in summer 2018

The brook next to the bloomery

Map