The earliest known industrial works in the area was in about 1810, when copper smelting was started by the Bristol Brass Company. The flue up the hillside to the chimney at the top of the hill is believed to have been built later to give good draught conditions for the furnaces. Copper ore was brought by boat, mainly from Cornwall and north Devon and coal was sourced locally. The copper produced was mostly used with calamine (zinc ore) from the Mendips in the manufacture of brass at Baptist Mills and other sites in Bristol. There was a copper smelting works near where the Bull Inn now stands from about 1710, but a new works was built below the hill at the end of the century; we think that the chimney at the top of Troopers Hill was built for this works. It is certain that the chimney was built before 1826, since it is shown in a drawing of this date commissioned by GW Braikenridge as part of a view from Arnos Court. By the end of the 1800s the chimney was being used by Stone & Tinson who had a chemical works on the site of the copper smelter. It seems that they continued to use the chimney until about the time of the First World War.