During World War II, nearly every iron railing, gate, pipe and guttering was ripped from cities, towns and villages across Britain to help the Allies.
Thousands of ornate architectural masterpieces, which had stood for nearly 200 years or more, were melted down to make bullets, bombs and ships.
But not quite everywhere.
Stornoway avoided the mass iron cull because it was simply not practical to transport the metal across The Minch to the mainland.
Now, 69 years after the end of the war, the town has entered a new Iron Age.
It has unknowingly found itself as a new national museum, the best-known, significant example of wrought iron work in Scotland.
Historic Scotland has documented hundreds of examples of ironwork – most of which date from between 1860 and 1920 – on Stornoway’s homes.
Now the Western Isles Council has moved to protect many more of the homes with the best examples by including them in a special conservation area.
The local authority decided to extend the protection area to include even more streets.
Ali Davey, a research fellow with Historic Scotland in architectural ironwork, has said that the town is the best known example of the decorative metal masterpieces.
“The streetscape in Stornoway is remarkable – it illustrates how streets across Scotland once looked before the ironwork was removed and was replaced by bare stone copes, privet hedges and poor mild steel replicas of what had once been there,” said Ms Davey, who is also a trustee of the Scottish Ironworks Foundation.
The council’s sustainable development committee heard on Wednesday that a review of the Stornoway Conservation Area boundary had found “a sizeable group of cast iron railings in the Goathill area was a significant omission.”
Following a period of public consultation, there were three objections but “they have been assessed as not being of significant weight to merit an alteration to the proposed extension map,” said the report.
Councillors unanimously agreed to include all the newly discovered “Iron Age” homes in the expanded protected area.
A spokesman for Western Isles Council said: “Stornoway is one of the last places where this historic iron work resource can still be found in situ.
“These railings and other iron work are among the best remaining examples anywhere – in fact are considered the best. We even get railings tourists, who come just to view them.
“It is important that we protect and preserve them for future generations to enjoy.”