|
Site Name:
|
Newbridge Furnace and Forge |
OS Reference:
|
TQ 4560 3250
Click here to view on Where's The Path |
|
Parish:
|
Hartfield |
Former Parish:
|
|
|
Hundred:
|
Hartfield |
District:
|
Wealden |
|
County:
|
East Sussex |
River Basin:
|
Medway |
|
Site Type:
|
Gunfoundry, Furnace, Forge |
Period:
|
Modern, Medieval |
|
Century:
|
17, 16, 15 |
Geology:
|
Ashdown Beds |
|
Geology notes:
|
|
|
Earliest known date:
|
1496 |
Latest known date:
|
1603 |
|
Dating evidence:
|
Finds of bloomery-type slag may suggest use of this site prior to the establishment of the blast furnace in 1496.
Built in 1496 by Henry Fyner, a Southwark goldsmith (TNA, C 66/579 m.23r). By the following year it was leased to Peter Roberts, a Frenchman also known as Graunt Pierre, but he was imprisoned for debt in 1498 and the leased passed to Pauncelett Symart. In 1512 Lord Abergavenny sold to Lambert Symart sufficient wood to make 20 loads of charcoal, but the same year the tenancy was taken by Humphrey Walker, the king's gunfounder. He died in 1516. The furnace was leased to Thomas Boleyn in 1525 (TNA DL 29/445/7160), after being untenanted since 1518 when the 'farmer' had been one Ewen. An account during the tenancy of William Nysell (TNA E 32/197), probably of 1539, records costs and yields in an unsatisfactory form (Straker, 1931, 249). It shows the furnace and forge to have been some distance apart. It also indicates that this furnace was very small, with only 160 tons' annual production. A Duchy of Lancaster deposition shows that the furnace was decayed by 1539, and that it had been resited outside the forest a place called the Stumlegh; presumably Stumblets (q.v.). The forge remained in good repair (TNA, DL 3/36/5). Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse, leased Ashdown Forest, including the ironworks, in 1546 (TNA, DL 14/1). In 1574 Henry Bowyer had a royal furnace and forge in Ashdown Forest; in one version of the list this is identified as a double furnace at Newbridge, possibly where he had begun to cast ordnance by 1577. The last reference is in 1603 (TNA DL 29/451/7250, 459/7420).
|
|
Site Description:
|
Bay: L 180m H 2m/3m Breached by road and Newbridge Mill leat; partly removed W of road. E end has earthworks suggesting a possible spillway. W end forms a semicircle, part of which was probably designed to protect the working area from spillway flooding. Two gaps in the semi-circular portion may indicate inlets to wheelpits.
Water system: Pond dry. Present restored spillway probably on original site. Two dry hollows within the semi-circular part of the bay, with dry ditches to main stream, may indicate wheelpits and tail-races.
Working area: The semi-circular portion of the bay contains forge cinder and bloomery-type tap slag. N of destroyed length of bay, next to the road, is a scatter of glassy slag and charcoal. Large quantities of glassy slag are known to have been removed from small field to N, and considerable quantities were noted during the construction of a horse exercise manège in the field south of Moss Cottages.
|
|
Scheduled Monument Number:
|
1002227 (ES 399) |
HER Reference:
|
MES5186 & 16859 (ANA) |
|
Bay Height (m.):
|
3 |
Bay Length (m.):
|
180 |
|
Classis Britannica tiles:
|
No |
Samian pottery:
|
No |
|
Cylindrical slag plugs:
|
No |
Two-finery forge:
|
No |
|
Excavation?:
|
No |
|
|
Excavation Details:
|
|
|
Description of site vegetation:
|
Mixed woodland
|
|
Slag Heap Area (m. sq) :
|
|
Slag heap grade (Hodgkinson 1999):
|
|
|
Persons Involved in Discovery:
|
|
|
|
|
|
References:
|
Straker, E. (1931) Wealden Iron. Bell. London
(for this site see page(s) 248-50)
anon.. (1973) Inventory of Iron Sites visited by WIRG. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. 1st series, 6. pp. 17-31
(for this site see page(s) 25-6)
Cleere, H. F. and Crossley, D. W.. (1995) The iron industry of the Weald. Merton Priory Press. Cardiff
(for this site see page(s) 112-3, 117, 346, 389)
Schubert, H. R.. (1952) The first English blast-furnace. Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute. 170. pp. 108-110
Teesdale, E. B.. (1986) The 1574 lists of ironworks in the Weald. A re-examination. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. Second series, 6. pp. 7-41
(for this site see page(s) 29)
|
|
Persons with known connections to this site:
|
Boleyn, Thomas - Lessee 1525-39
Bowyer, Henry - Lessee/ironmaster in 1574
Browne, Anthony - Lessee 1546-8
Ewen, unknown - Tenant/ironmaster 1516-18
Fournier, Simon - Tenant/ironmaster 1529-39
Fremyng, Peter - iron worker in 1544
Fyner, Henry - Builder and ironmaster 1496
Gage, John - Lessee 1554-6
Hayden, George - ?Lessee 1567-98
Layne, Thomas - working at the forge in 1544
Lenarde, James - working at the forge in 1544
Mottynge, Charles - working at the forge in 1544
Nysell, William - Tenant/ironmaster bef 1539-46?
Roberts, Peter - Tenant/founder 1497-8
Sackville, Richard - Lessee 1563-6
Sackville, Thomas - Lessee 1566-1603
Symart, Pauncelett - Lessee/ironmaster 1498-1512
The Crown - Owner 1496-54
Tyler, Nicholas - working at the forge in 1544
Walker, Humphrey - Lessee/ironmaster 1512-19
|
Documents:
(click to download)
|
|
Images:
(click on a thumbnail to view)
|
|
|
