A ribbon-cutting was held for the Warwick Furnace cannon in its new shelter.
A Revolutionary War cannon built and buried at Warwick Furnace now has a permanent home in a shelter at the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust’s Thomas P. Bentley Nature Preserve.
The cannon is one of four that were recently unearthed on the grounds of the former Warwick Furnace, which pivoted from making flat iron plates for Franklin stoves to cannons during the war with Britain. When the British captured Philadelphia, several remaining cannons at Warwick Furnace were buried to prevent them from getting into enemy hands.
When the remains of the Warwick Furnace had become part of the nature preserve, Ray Bentley, a French and Pickering supporter, and Jim Moore, a member of the board of directors of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, decided to search for the buried cannons. Within two months, they found all four.
“We dug up these cannons that were made and buried over 200 years ago and we stand here today looking out over a landscape that is very similar to what it was then,” said Bill Gladden, the executive director of the trust.
Now one of those cannons is back home. A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of the shelter at its location off Warwick Furnace Road.