1) Iron wrought into malleable bars which had a low carbon content.
The term is recorded regularly from 1677 but occurred much earlier in Sussex. In 1596, Thomas Proctor of Warsill near Ripon came to a complicated agreement about establishing ironworks on Lady Anne Clifford’s estate which required him to pay ‘Ł1,000 in profit over six years in cash or bar iron at Ł10 a ton’. In 1730, Edward France, a Sheffield shopkeeper, had A parcel Rod Iron 5. 12. 6, Barr D[itt]o 1. 17. 7, Bar Steel 9. 18. 5. The Wortley Forge accounts of 1695-1702 record bar iron. References in the accounts of Colne Bridge forge include: 1746 Making and Drawing Barr Iron and in 1734 Samuel Littlewood, a Sheffield cutler, had Bar Steel 4 hundred Ł5 .