Imagine the Furness of the 1800s: a land where giants of steel ruled, not fire-breathing beasts, but booming factories belching smoke into the sky, and the rhythmic clang of hammers on iron echoing through the valleys. This was the world of Myles Burton Kennedy, a real-life iron giant who strode through the cobbled streets of Ulverston, his boots crunching on the gravel, the scent of coal dust and sea salt clinging to his coat.
But Myles wasn’t the first of his kind. His grandfather, Charles Storr Kennedy, had already laid the foundation of the family fortune, securing leases on mines like Roanhead, where the earth yielded a treasure trove of iron ore – the raw material that fuelled the Industrial Revolution.
Born in 1862, Myles inherited this legacy, along with a hefty chunk of the family business, Kennedy Brothers. While other children chased butterflies through fields of wildflowers, Myles chased profits – iron profits! He wasn’t content just sitting on a pile of ore, though. He was a mover and a shaker, a true chip off the old block. He became the chairman of the North Lonsdale Iron & Steel Company, his voice booming across the factory floor, the heat of the furnaces radiating on his face as he oversaw the production of the finest steel in all of England.
But Myles’s ambition didn’t stop there. He also controlled the Whitehaven Haematite Iron Co., another iron giant under his command. Basically, if you needed iron in Furness, you went to Myles. He was like the Iron King, the master of the mines, the lord of the forges.
And get this, Myles wasn’t just a landlubber. He was a seafarer too! He owned a steam ketch named “Harvest,” its engine chugging rhythmically as it cut through the waves of the Irish Sea, the salty spray misting Myles’s face as he surveyed his iron-laden vessel.
Speaking of empires, Myles built his own – a grand estate called Stone Cross! Imagine its imposing silhouette against the sunset, its windows glowing with warm light, the scent of freshly cut grass and blooming roses wafting through the air. Legend has it, Myles set his sights on another fancy mansion, but the owner was as stubborn as a mule. Negotiations went up in smoke, so Myles, with characteristic determination, decided to build his own! And let me tell you, Stone Cross was a palace fit for an iron king, a testament to his wealth and influence.
But like all empires, the Kennedys’ reign at Stone Cross eventually came to an end. It seems they moved out around 1950, leaving behind a legacy etched in stone and steel. The mansion then took on a new role in the community. Local resident Jack Johnson shared this memory on the Furness Whisper Facebook page:
“Stone Cross was a school before Marl went into there; it was a boys’ school for boys whose parents could not control. Played football against them when I was a kid in the 60s and they used to all go to the pictures at Ulverston on a Saturday morning in their school uniforms.
Can you picture those lads, their laughter echoing through the once-grand halls, the scuff of their shoes on the polished floors, the smell of school dinners lingering in the air? From a family home to a school for unruly boys, Stone Cross has certainly seen it all!
Later, from 1986 to 2002, Stone Cross Mansion served as the head office for Marl International.
Myles passed away in 1928, but his impact on Furness lived on. He helped shape the town into a centre of industry, the heart of iron and steel production.
So next time you see something made of iron, or pass by the grand Stone Cross Mansion, take a moment to imagine the world of Myles Burton Kennedy, the iron giant who, along with his forefathers, tamed the metal and helped build a town.
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