Claim: Cinderford Ironworks the first coke-fired blast furnace to be built in the Forest of Dean and it is unknown who the financial backers were and copper-ore was brought in by mule.
Evidence: The first coke-fired blast furnace was constructed in 1709 at Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire. Cinderford Ironworks, also known as Cinderford Furnace, was a coke-fired blast furnace, built in 1795, just west of Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England.