Holt's Forge

 

  In June, 1870, a freshet, the result of previous heavy rains, overflowed and broke the dam at a point known as Old Forge, on the Jones branch of the Chickahominy River, in New Kent County, Virginia. Trees were overturned, a building  undermined, and a gorge cut, uncovering in its route the remains of an early forge or smelting furnace. The foundation, portions of a chimney, an anvil, a hammer, and six bars of iron were exposed to view- one of the last, bearing in raised letters the inscription "B.G., 1741," which were supposed to indicate the place and date of manufacture; the first of which was assumed to have been Bear Garden furnace, Buckingham County, Virginia. The forge is marked on Fry and Jefferson's Map of Virginia 1765 as Holt's Forge. It must have commenced operations at a period not much later than 1741, if not as early, and was continued until some time during the Revolutionary war.

 Tradition assigns to Col. William Byrd (the second) the credit of erecting and first working the forge, and Mr. William H. Christian, of Richmond, states that in his boyhood he was informed by an old negro man, named Guthridge, that his owner, one Jones, who operated the forge until its destruction, stationed him, then a youth, upon an eminence to watch the movements of the British soldiery who were in the section. Their approach being descried, the buildings were hastily fired and earth thrown upon the ruins to conceal the tools, &c. After the war bar iron was produced so cheaply in other sections that no efforts were made to revive the works. A grist-mill being erected in late years near the site of the forge and driven by water from the pond used for its operations was first called Providence Mills, but such was the force of custom that the residents of the section would retain the old designation, Forge; hence the new and old name has by common consent and usage been united in the component term Providence Forge. 

 "Early Iron Manufacture in Virginia 1619- 1776" By R.A. Brock- (Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society) in Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Volume 8- 1886

An interesting note on this article, after consulting the Fry/Jefferson map, I do not find any mention of a "Holt's Forge." There is a "Holt" located on the map somewhat to the west of Cumberland on the Pamunkey, but the only spot located near present day Providence Forge is "Soane's Bridge." 

Of course this same map also locates Whitehouse just east Brickhouse almost on Weir Creek.