With its huge iron-ore reserves and ready supply of timber, the Forest of Dean had been an area of national importance in the production of iron, using charcoal, for hundreds of years.

It was not until the last decade of the 18th century that coke-fired furnaces began to make an appearance in the Forest of Dean, with Cinderford, Whitecliff and Parkend Ironworks being built almost simultaneously.

[5] Halford was not satisfied with the output the ironworks were achieving and in 1808 he approached David Mushet, a noted Scottish metallurgist, offering to pay him for his advice on a major rebuilding of the works.

The Forest of Dean Local History Society attribute it mainly to a difference of opinion with Halford,[7] though letters between the two, from 1810 to 1812,[8] show them as being on good terms after the split.

[9] However, Forest of Dean historian, Ian Standing, points out that it was Halford who bought Mushet's shares upon his departure and he attributes the most likely cause to be technical problems due to a 'combination of difficult ore and an expensive and unsuitable coke'.