Wrought iron rail heads

[michael]

I’ve got some wrought iron railings which have one or two of the railheads missing. I don’t know when these railings were installed but my building is Georgian with Victorian additions and embellishments so the railings would be from one of these two periods. Is there anybody out there that has a full pattern book of railheads from these periods? And is there anybody that still makes a full range in wrought iron. I'm sure there were hundreds if not thousands of patterns made so finding the exact one will be difficult. I know that one option would be to cut off one of my existing railheads and send it off to a foundry for reproduction but I would like to avoid this if there is already a foundry out there with a full range from original pattern books in stock. I’ve seen a few websites of companies that manufacture railings to order but they all seem to be made in steel nowadays and their rail head patterns are very limited. All I need is to buy a specific pattern of rail head to match mine “off the shelf” if possible and my local blacksmith will be able to do the rest.

 

[Anita]

We used a manufacturer from Burnley to replace railheads at our last proerty if I remember correctly, and they had quite a selection of railheads. My other half has just told me that they were called Rourke's.

 

[michael]

Thanks Anita
I’ve just had a look at Rourke’s website.
Unfortunately, they to, have a very limited selection of railheads none of which match mine. I guess I’ll just have to keep looking but many thanks again for your suggestion.

 

[Nemesis]

Are these cast or wrought?

It sounds as though these are cast if you think they are stock patterns. Wrought would require a smith to copy.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/directory/gt.htm

Some firms listed there, although there are others.

 

[michael]

Not sure if wrought or cast iron. What was the usual manufacturing process for railings in the Georgian and Victorian periods? I understand that wrought iron can be easily welded and my local blacksmith was able to carry out a few on site repairs with his arc welding kit. Also I don’t know if it helps in identifying the metal but these railings were originally rusty on the outside but when cut through the metal was as good as new just one or two millimetres below the surface.

 

[dandrew]

I would have thought that your railings were most likely to be cast iron, given their Georgian or Victorian probable origin.

Britannia do a nice range of railing heads and finials, but these are mostly cast aluminium, with some in steel.

Their website is http://www.britannia.uk.com