Wealden Iron Industry

Long held to have been cast at Lamberhurst, the iron railings or fence erected around St Paul’s Cathedral in the early eighteenth century was probably the first such structure in England to be made of cast iron and was remarkable both for that and for its mode of construction, which included threaded components. It was a very costly project and, largely through the personality of Richard Jones, the contractor, was attended by a degree of controversy. The account which follows sets out the background to their commissioning, identifies the principal individuals involved and provides, for the first time, details of their design and assembly.

Geophysical survey of two low mounds in a field to the east of Iron Acton was undertaken following their recognition as bloomery mounds. Each mound is approximately 10x15 m and marked by darker soil than the surrounding area. The slag assemblage includes dense cakes of tapped slag, irregular granular slag masses and thin dense concavo-convex sheets of slag with rusty upper (concave) surfaces. This assemblage indicates that smelting was being undertaken, but not bloomsmithing. Associated finds of pre-early modem age were limited to a single fragment of "puddingstone" quernstone. The geophysical data are strongly influenced by the modern ploughing and lack clear evidence for furnace survival

The will of Margaret Ludlam's father Edward, a yeoman of Rotherham, was written in 1823 and proved in 1825. It is the only known source for problems associated with his daughter's marriage. Edward at least seems to have been convinced that his daughter and her husband stood little chance of reuniting as a functioning couple and made provisions accordingly.

The will shines some light on the consequences that might occur in the event of marital difficulties, particularly if a family could provide appropriate resources to mitigate the circumstances. In this instance, it seems that the marriage recommenced at some point - when is unknown. Unusually, their only known child was born nineteen years after their marriage.

Records of founders of ferrous and non-ferrous domestic vessels in the Weald of south-east England have not received much attention, but there was an active trade in the 16th to 18th century associated with the ironworks in the region. This summary identifies some significant craftsmen.

The geology of the Weald provided the raison d'être for iron production in the region for more than 1000 years. The prospection, extraction and processing of its ore were significant factors of production. From archaeological and documentary evidence the changing methods and scale are described together with other developments in iron making in the region.

The watching brief revealed no evidence of any large scale bloomery within the excavated areas. It is likely that metal working evidence may be located closer to the river Esk and to the woods to the south; both areas were located just outside the monitored area. It was notable that there was no residual metal working waste found across the site. The stratigraphic matrix of the site was incredibly clean, no residual pottery or other domestic waste was observed within the silty sandy alluvial soils. To the south of the site was evidence of a paleochannel and a gravel deposit, both were situated in the exact locations determined during the 2007 geophysical survey. 

The earliest archaeological evidence on site was contained within a small, bloomery/burned post hole that revealed a backfill rich in burned oak charcoal and iron smelting tap slag.  The tap slag was dated to between 1322-1500. Another cobble filled pit was found within a similar archaeological level to the burned pit/post hole but contained no dating evidence. The tap slag is dated to the period contemporary with Danby Castle and it is likely there was a connection between both sites due to the absence of any other large institution.

A drainage system that had undergone two phases of improvement was observed traversing the site from east to west, as indicated on the 1853 Ordnance Survey Map. A 17th-18th century stone capped drain was later improved with additional 19th century parallel clay field pipes.  Further to this, at ground level, directly above the drainage system, a clay lined ditch had been dug to further accommodate the flow of water down from the moors towards the river Esk.  This drainage system is likely associated with Danby Lodge.

This reviews Men of Iron, M.W. Flinn's 1962 analysis of Swalwell Ironworks and the Crowley organisation of which it formed part, in the light of new information and a different approach. Ambrose Crowley III (1658-1713) developed a major mercantile iron business, supplied by his factories on Tyneside. The fi rst major works, at Winlaton Mill, was started in the 1690s. Swalwell was set up by a separate company, but acquired by Crowley in 1707; he added a forge, Grand Warehouse, and workshops to the pre-existing slitting mill, and his son John (1689-1728) added steel furnaces and a foundry. Further workshop ranges were added until the mid-18th century. The works declined from the later 18th century under the Millington family; an increased emphasis on steel-making from the 1810s heralded conversion into a steelworks and specialist engineering works after buy-out by the fi nal manager for the Millingtons. This works in turn was rebuilt in the 1880s, using gas furnaces and producing alloy steels. The processes of growth and decline were longer and more complex than believed by Flinn, and less completely centred on the achievements of Sir Ambrose Crowley.

Indications of the presence of a bloomery smelting site adjacent to Bletchingley Wood have already been noted. 1 Trial trenching revealed that the probable site of the furnace lay uphill, further into the field, at TQ 5801 3040. Wood-marked smelting slag was recovered, but no tap slag, suggesting a non-tapping furnace, possibly with a slag pit. A fragment of furnace wall, approximately 300mm by 300mm was found, which was composed of a sandy material with a slagged coating on the concave side. The fragment was not found in situ, but reddened earth beneath it suggested that the furnace might lie close by. No further excavation was undertaken, but the presence of several large boulders was noted in the subsoil; the geology is Ashdown Sand. No datable material was found.

Fifty iron firebacks were ordered for Boughton House, Northamptonshire, by John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, in the 1740s. This short article relates the circumstances of their commissioning, where they were made and by whom, and how they were delivered.

Notes and references 1. WIRG, Wealden Iron, 2nd series 17 (1997), 2. 2. ibid, 4. 3. ibid, 3-4. 4. An alternative date range of AD 240-260 can also be arrived at owing to a crossover in the calibration curve, but the later date range corresponds with other features of the site.

The production of iron by the puddling process continued after Bessemer invented his process for making mild steel, reaching its zenith in the 1870s, then declined rapidly as mild steel was substituted for iron for rails and then shipbuilding. Data on furnace numbers in the Mineral Statistics are used to estimate output of puddled iron and of mild steel from four processes. The total output of all iron and steel processes rose from 5.44M tons in 1875 to 6.0M tons in 1899, but with significantly lower output in the intervening period. Acid Bessemer steel output was at its highest in 1889. Soon after, Open Hearth steel overtook Bessemer steel in importance. Between 1877 and 1899, the roles of puddled iron and mild steel were reversed, with the former falling from 80% of the total to only 20%.

Continuous reheating furnaces are commonly used in the steel industry for annealing strips of steel coils that was laminated in the cold rolling mills process for reconstitution of the grains. These strips must be uniformly reheated following an appropriate profile so that they have the required mechanical and metallurgical properties. In addition, an optimal control of the fuel gases used in the reheating furnaces is desirable in order to reduce the costs of this production input, since it is responsible for one of the most costly portions of this kind of process. This work aims to present an optimal control strategy of the fuel gases used in continuous reheating furnaces of Aperam South America, which initially computes the furnaces energy efficiency, after performs the constraints’ analysis, and finally obtains the optimal control input in order to reduce the natural gas consumption. Experimental results are presented to corroborate the proposed optimal control, highlighting its ...

At the southern end of Uckfield High Street, on the northern bank of the River Uck, lies Grade II-listed Bridge Cottage. The building, which comprises one of the largest Wealden hall houses in the area, has recently been the subject of comprehensive restoration. Bridge Cottage was originally saved from demolition in the 1970s by Uckfield District Preservation Society. Once ownership was secured, repairs
were carried out and excavations, led by Ian Brooker, undertaken. Brooker never succeeded in publishing the results and it was not until Archaeology South-East’s involvement that the earlier excavations could be fully understood. The more recent archaeological work was undertaken in response to the latest renovations
and this article reports on their results. They are significant in showing the development of an individual house plot from the late medieval to post-medieval period. They provide an important analysis of architectural expressions of status and display for a Wealden household of the yeoman class.

Substantial remains of a domed bloomery smelting furnace have been discovered by a team from Archaeology SouthEast during excavations in advance of industrial development northeast of Sidley. Th e site, at TQ 7443 0966, lies to the west of the A2691, Haven Brook Avenue, in a fi eld on ground sloping down to a small stream, a tributary of the Combe Haven. Th e subsoil is Tunbridge Wells Sand, with Wadhurst Clay capping Ashdown Beds immediately to the east. An absence of tap slag suggests a non-tapping process. Blocks of sandstone were used to key the material of which the furnace was constructed into the sandy subsoil. Th is practice was also noted with the bloomery excavated in Little Furnace Wood, Mayfi eld. 1 Samples for dating have been taken. Straker noted nearby bloomeries at Buckholt South (Little Henniker Wood) about 600m NNE of the site, and at Sidley. 2

The late Victorian period witnessed a growing concern for, on the one hand, environmental protection, and on the other, the 'human fauna', with their vanishing folk heritage, living on the margins of a capitalist rural economy. In connection with the Ashdown Forest legal dispute (1876-1882) over the common rights in this ancient Forest area in the Weald of Sussex, the young solicitor William Augustus Raper interviewed over 100 elderly residents to collect evidence of 60 years' gathering of litter (bracken, heather, etc.). Their depositions reveal much about the ways in which local environmental politics were a constituent part of custom and economy on the Forest, and how such contested rights underpinned the more elite conservation movement at this time. Although gathered for a specific legal case, the evidence reveals much about the interrelations between late-Victorian peasant communities and their environments, but also much about the individuals, and their social, economic and spatial relations. The material is assessed for its relationship to similar 19th-and 20th-century sources and for its use within historical geography, and there is also a discussion of the potential and problems associated with the use of transcribed oral evidence and auto/biographical material more generally. q

An intriguing group of firebacks was produced in the early-18th century, probably in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. What unites them , apart from their stylistic similarity, are the initials 'I' and 'B' on the bottom edge of most of them. Presumed to be those of the founder, they reappear on two examples, more than a decade later, cast at a Hampshire furnace.

An unusual instance of the personalisation of an iron fireback is in the collection of the Sussex Archaeological Society at Anne of Cleves House, Lewes. A fireback bearing the English Stuart royal arms has been cast with the addition of the name ‘IAMES STANDEN’ moulded from the broken handle of a domestic skillet.

This chapter traces the growth of iron production from the pre-Roman period in the Weald of South-East England, describing the smelting technology of the time and quantifying production; it examines the role of the Classis Britannica and the possible existence of an imperial estate in the region.

This article re-assesses the influence that the Sussex ironmasters exerted on the development of the iron industry in Glamorgan in the sixteenth century. The case of Anthony Morley is examined in detail particularly with reference to his background in Sussex, his eventual bankruptcy and premature death in Glamorgan. The role and identity of other Sussex ironmasters who were also operating in Glamorgan at this time is discussed together with the acrimonious disputes which followed the sale of Morley’s assets. Previously unpublished contemporary documents reveal the substantial scale of production and the cost of manufacturing iron in Glamorgan at this time.

Este texto traça a evolução da empresa Siderurgia Nacional, descrevendo as vicissitudes do projecto industrial desde finais dos anos '50 do século XX até ao fim do ciclo do Alto Forno de Paio Pires. O texto mostra como as relações com o Estado e, em particular, as opções governamentais foram determinantes nessa evolução, marcada pela abertura aos mercados europeus e mundiais, privatização e reestruturação dos processos técnicos.

Guimarães, Paulo E. - "Contribuição para a história da Siderurgia Nacional". In Rollo, M. F. (org.), Memórias da Siderurgia: contribuições para a história da indústria siderurgica em Portugal, Lisboa, História, 2005, pp. 69-109

An exploration of a magically protective sign: the X or IXI marks found on metalwork, bone tools and Yorkshire's so-called 'witchposts'. The paper considers the meanings and uses of such marks, highlighting the varying symbolic frameworks within which makers, users and viewers operate. Practical, decorative, symbolic, religious and magical functions can overlap and indeed the use of a mark can be for more than one purpose at one and the same time.

Anne Forster died on 18 January 1592 (New Style) and was buried in the chancel of St George’s church, Crowhurst, beneath an elaborately decorated iron plate. Following her burial a number of different firebacks were cast, each bearing the identical memorial inscription panel that identifies her grave. These have been found at various locations, and this paper considers the surviving examples, the likely motive behind their manufacture, and the possible connections with Anne Forster and her family that occasioned their distribution.

Dated examples of a group of armorial firebacks first described in 1911 mostly bear the initials CT. Links between the Tyler family, a property owned by them and an example of one of the firebacks suggests that the iron founder who made them was from that family.

A study of the iron industry in the Weald of south-east England during the period leading up to, during and just after the Seven Year's War. It examines the organisation of the industry, the ownership and tenancy of its production sites and the risk involved; it considers the products and their markets; it identifies the locations of the sites, the sources and consumption of raw materials, labour and transportation. Appendices detail the main producers, as well as presenting statistics of supply and production.

The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit commissioned this paper in 2011 to help its officers to address their concerns arising from the development of sites involving twentieth-century single-storey dwellings. This paper is a preliminary investigation into the historical significance of such single-storey dwellings; primarily concentrating on those constructed in the first half of the century.

The investigation concentrates on overviewing a number of parishes in the eastern High Weald, either side of the Kent and East Sussex boundary . The aim was to identify a range of examples of the types of single-storey dwellings to be found there, locating them within their historical context and the general housing policy for the period. Needless to say, not every example of the single-storey building in those parishes has been identified — a delightful task for another day.

The recording of apotropaic circular symbols intended to give protection to agricultural buildings against several possible threats. Most of these are found in England, but are beginning to be found in Tasmanian buildings and most recently in France.

A 'Dutch' style fireback described in 1871 as depicting the rape of Europa, in the context of the recent Franco-Prussian War, is shown instead to have been designed using as its inspiration an engraving of the marriage of two royal dynasties at the close of the Thirty Years' War.

Over 100 ironworking sites of the Roman period have been identified in the Weald of southeast England, although this may be as little as a third of the potential number of sites. They vary in size from sites where the estimated volume of waste is less than 10m3 to a few where it is over 10,000m3. Simple grading by waste volume has identified the small number of sites that were probably responsible for a significant proportion of the production of the whole region. The application of this method of analysis to other regions of iron-making could be similarly instructive.

The Raby family were involved in the iron trade in the West Midlands by the late-17th century but it was in London, and latterly in the Weald of south-east England that the family become prominent. Edward Raby, ironmonger, became a gun-founder during the Seven Years' War providing the background for his son, Alexander, to pursue his career in iron working and coal mining.

A succession of studies over the past sixty years has shown that iron making was well-developed in the Weald in the Romano-British period. Distribution maps showing the extent of the industry in the region have not, hitherto, attempted to indicate a measure of output for individual sites. This revision of data provides such an opportunity.

Archaeological assessment and management plan for the G & C Hoskins Ltd Coke Ovens that were constructed between 1910 and 1915 to manufacture coke for the company's blast furnaces. The failure of these ovens to supply a viable source of coke from local coal was a major factor in the company's decision to relocate its operations to Port Kembla.

Between February and April 2014, an archaeological evaluation was undertaken at Summersales, Crowborough, East Sussex in advance of the creation of a burial site for Crowborough Town Council. Five evaluation trenches were placed to pick up specific areas, relating to the creation of a pond, an area of hard-standing and an area for contemplation as well as two targeted parts of the field proposed for burial plots. The southern sector of this field had already been evaluated by the Assistant County Archaeologist, Greg Chuter, in 2011 and had revealed a medieval field boundary with few artefacts recovered. It was suggested that the north part of this field may contain archaeology relating to iron working, as a small stream borders it to the north boundary, lying amongst a small parcel of woodland which lies beyond the boundary for the area of study.
Firm evidence was revealed of iron working activity in at least two areas, which includes iron smelting and smithing hearths. At least one area has been dated to the medieval period in the western field which consisted of spreads of slag material which contained medieval pottery sherds. This medieval pottery is extremely rare in this particular area of The Weald, with none known to the specialist who analysed these sherds which are dated to 13th to 14th/early 15th centuries. Activity in the central zone consisted of a small smithing hearth filled, in part, with hammerscale and two Late Iron Age pottery sherds. This area contained more spreads of slag material as well. The eastern field contained a single hearth feature of no definite date.
Following on from the evaluation excavation a full magnetometer survey was carried out which revealed the full extent of the industrial activity across the field. The western field contains at least two bloomery furnaces, the central zone has another 5 possible bloomery furnaces as well as other associated activity and the eastern field appears to have a solitary furnace positioned adjacent to the northern edge of the field alongside the stream. In addition there is a row of possible pit features which appear to demarcate the boundary of the central and eastern zones which effectively alienate the western field. Therefore there is a strong possibility that the central and eastern zones may represent one integrated working area suggesting a different phase of activity which may be unrelated to the medieval western zone.

The history of water mills mainly on the Hol Brook in Perry Barr (now in the north of Birmingham) is traced back from the 19th century to the late 15th.  Mills were at various times used as paper mills, wire mills, blade mills.  This is followed by the identification of the sites of ironworks, a furnace and forge and (earlier) bllomsmithies and hammer mills

As a capital (or rather plant) intensive industry, the management problems of the charcoal iron industry differ from many of its contemporaries. The initial entrepreneurs were substantial landowners, but clerks managed the works. By the 1600s, professional ironmasters appeared from their ranks, usually renting ironworks. However, Foley family (with the largest iron businesses) also had a general manager or managing partner. Managers were trained by working as a ‘servant’ to an established one.  Bonds were important for loan finance, securing contract performance, and credit sales, and the repayment of loans (often to finance share capital).