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Site Name:
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Millbrook |
OS Reference:
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TQ 4410 2960
Click here to view on Where's The Path |
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Parish:
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Maresfield |
Former Parish:
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Hundred:
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District:
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Wealden |
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County:
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East Sussex |
River Basin:
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Medway |
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Site Type:
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Bloomery |
Period:
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Saxon |
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Century:
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09 |
Geology:
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Ashdown Beds |
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Geology notes:
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Earliest known date:
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Latest known date:
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Dating evidence:
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Radiocarbon AD 666-907 (86.3% conf. OxCal v.4.2.3).
Archaeomagnetic AD 800-920 (1981).
A few sherds of flint-tempered pottery were found stratified among the waste slag and furnace lining, the fabric being less coarse than late-Iron Age sherds found at Garden Hill (q.v.) nearby.
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Site Description:
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Scheduled Monument Number:
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HER Reference:
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MES4587 (ANA) |
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Bay Height (m.):
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Bay Length (m.):
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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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Yes |
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Excavation Details:
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Pipelaying on Ashdown Forest revealed an iron working site dated by associated pottery to the Saxon period and by archaeomagnetism and C-14 dating to the ninth century. A bowl furnace, hearths and slag heap were excavated as a rescue excavation in 1980 by the Wealden Iron Research Group. Finds were deposited in Barbican House Museum, Lewes. The furnace type suggests continuity with traditions seen in those from the north European homelands of the Saxons, and is fundamentally different from the slag-tapping furnaces of the Romano-British period.
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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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Tylecote, R. F.. (1986) The Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles. The Institute of Metals. London
(for this site see page(s) 186)
Tebbutt, C. F.. (1982) A Middle-Saxon iron smelting site at Millbrook, Ashdown Forest, Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections. 120. pp. 19-35
Tebbutt, C. F.. (1981) Ashdown Forest (Millbrook) Saxon bloomery. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. 2nd series, 1. pp. 17-20
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Persons with known connections to this site:
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Documents:
(click to download)
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Images:
(click on a thumbnail to view)
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