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Site Name:
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Thursley Upper Hammer (and Furnace) |
OS Reference:
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SU 9160 4030
Click here to view on Where's The Path |
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Parish:
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Thursley |
Former Parish:
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Witley |
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Hundred:
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Godalming |
District:
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Waverley |
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County:
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Surrey |
River Basin:
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Wey |
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Site Type:
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Furnace, Forge |
Period:
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Modern |
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Century:
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18, 17 |
Geology:
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Folkestone Beds |
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Geology notes:
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Lower Greensand, Folkestone Formation
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Earliest known date:
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1608 |
Latest known date:
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1719 |
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Dating evidence:
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Identification of the locations and extent of the ironworks on Witley and Thursley Heaths (Thursley Upper Hammer, Thursley Lower Hammer (q.v.), Coldharbour or Horsebane Hammer (q.v.) and perhaps Witley Park Furnace (q.v.)) is confused by the way the respective works have been described in the succession of deeds relating to them. The potential for reinterpretation still exists.
This is likely to have been the first of the Thursley works to have been built, corresponding to the site sometimes described as the upper finery and furnace, but subsequently known as Hammer Pond. Guiseppi (1903, 27) cites a mortgage by Sir George More to Henry Bell of 1617 (Close Rolls, 15 James I p.24, no. 1) in which a deed of 1610 was recited wherein the works, then leased to Sir Edward More, were described as 'lately erected and built' and which is likely to be the site leased by More in 1608 to Edward Parker (SHC LM/349/53). Bell's subsequent purchase of the works in 1623 refers to 'all that Iron forge, iron hammer & iron worke' on Thursley or Witley Heath. The property, including the manor, purchased in 1614-15 (GMR LM/349/100), was settled on Bell's great-nephew Anthony Smith in 1629 (TNA C142/526/54). Bell left the works to Smith in 1634. In a Chancery Bill of 1641 (Giuseppi 1903, 37-42) Francis Wyatt was noted as having leased the works (including a furnace) in 1634. He died the same year and the seven year lease was held by his executor, his wife Timothee, and then her brother, Walter Burrell, and father-in-law, Peter Courthope who, as her executors, let the forge to Burrell's brothers, Thomas and John. Henry Penfould and his son may have been the next lessees at this time, the inventory surviving without the actual lease, and occupying the furnace and upper finery as well as the chafery and lower finery (Godalming Museum, PWD/7/2/3). In 1666 the forges, though not the furnace, were leased to William Yalden for two years. Anthony Smith died in 1669, the works being inherited by his brother, Thomas, who leased the upper and the lower works to Henry Roker of Witley for nine years in 1671 (Godalming Museum, PWD/7/2/5), continuing an earlier lease (now lost). Roker's namesake son leased the Horsebane works 10 years later. Aubrey refers to iron ore and to two forges in Witley Park in 1673 and two great hammer mills in Thursley or Witley parish (Bodleian MS, Aubrey 4 Perambulation of Surrey). Another possible lessee was a Mr Dibble who may have been associated with Abinger Hammer (q.v.) and whose brief inventory was attached to the Penfoulds' inventory (Godalming Museum, PWD/7/2/4). The final lease of the site, presumably by a later Thomas Smith, was to Thomas Hamshere, a local millwright, in 1719. Rocque's map of 1762 (GMR G9025/5) shows the upper site as 'hammer pond'.
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Site Description:
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Bay: L 100m H silted pond/3m.
Water system: The hammer pond, now bisected by the A3 road, is fed by a chain of ponds on a stream which flows north from Gibbet Hill. From the bay the stream flows to the Lower Hammer pond; a second channel bypasses the lower pond, flowing to the Forked Pond, now named Warren Mere. The latter post-dates the 1874 O.S. map, which shows the channel, which does not appear on the Tithe map of 1840, so post-dates the ironworks. The pond bay was breached in December 2013 and the pond has drained.
Working area: Forge cinder present.
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Scheduled Monument Number:
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HER Reference:
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Bay Height (m.):
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3 |
Bay Length (m.):
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100 |
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Classis Britannica tiles:
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No |
Samian pottery:
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No |
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Cylindrical slag plugs:
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No |
Two-finery forge:
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No |
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Excavation?:
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No |
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Excavation Details:
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Description of site vegetation:
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Slag Heap Area (m. sq) :
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Slag heap grade (Hodgkinson 1999):
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Persons Involved in Discovery:
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References:
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Malden, H. E.. (1905) Victoria County History of Surrey, Vol. 2, [inc.] Industries. Constable. London
(for this site see page(s) 273-4)
Graham, D. and Graham A.. (2015) Thursley Upper Hammer Pond. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. Second series, 35. pp. 58-61
Straker, E. (1931) Wealden Iron. Bell. London
(for this site see page(s) 447-8)
Cleere, H. F. and Crossley, D. W.. (1995) The iron industry of the Weald. Merton Priory Press. Cardiff
(for this site see page(s) 359-60)
Giuseppi, M. (1903) Rake in Witley with notes on the ironworks on Witley and Thursley heaths. Surrey Archaeological Collections. 18. pp. 11-60
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Persons with known connections to this site:
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Bell, Henry - Owner/ironmaster 1623-34
Burrell, John - Co-tenant/ironmaster after 1637-41
Burrell, Thomas - Co-tenant/ironmaster after 1637-41
Burrell, Timothee - Lessee 1634-7
Burrell, Walter - Co-trustee, later co-lessee 1637-41
Courthope, Peter - Co-trustee, later co-lessee 1637-41
Dibble, John - Tenant/ironmaster in the late-17th century?
Hamshere, Thomas - Lessee 1719-40?
More, Edward - Lessee c.1610-c.1620
More, George - Owner bef 1610-1623
More, Robert - Co-owner bef 1614-23
Parker, Edward - Lessee/ironmaster 1608-10?
Penfold, Henry - Co-lessee/ironmaster c.1642
Penfold, Henry - Co-lessee/ironmaster c.1642
Roker, Henry - ?Lessee/ironmaster 1675-80
Roker, Henry - Lessee/ironmaster bef 1671-5
Smith, Allen - Owner 1690-95
Smith, Anthony - Owner 1634-69
Smith, Thomas - Owner 1669-90
Smith, Thomas - Owner 1694-1761?
Wyatt, Francis - Lessee/ironmaster in 1634
Yalden, William - Lessee/ironmaster 1666-1668?
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Documents:
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Images:
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