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Site Name:
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Pippingford Furnaces |
OS Reference:
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TQ 4500 3160
Click here to view on Where's The Path |
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Parish:
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Hartfield |
Former Parish:
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Hundred:
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Hartfield |
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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Gunfoundry, Furnace, Boring Mill |
Period:
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Modern |
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Century:
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18, 17 |
Geology:
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Ashdown Beds |
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Geology notes:
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Earliest known date:
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1696 |
Latest known date:
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1724 |
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Dating evidence:
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There were two contemporary furnaces on this site. The first furnace was built very close to the site of the Steel Forge, on Steel Forge River. The Steel Forge pond, marked on a map of 1692 (SAS Map Cat p.7 accn 1398 stack 2/f) appears to be slightly downstream (north) of the furnace bay. No furnace is mentioned in a survey of 1693 (ESRO Add. MSS 4084/4) but in 1696, when this part of Ashdown Forest was enclosed, a furnace had been built on land belonging to Alexander Staples and sold, with the manor of Duddleswell, to James Hooper and Francis Diggs (Tebbutt 1977:12-13). In 1717 Charles Hooper, James Hooper's brother and executor, leased a furnace here to Charles Manning of Dartford (ESRO Add. MSS 683), who had cast guns for the Office of Ordnance in 1704/5 (Brown 1999, 36) indicating that Manning had held the tenancy since at least then. He was allowed timber to repair the furnace. In 1723 some of Manning's gun tackle was sold (ESRO SAS RF15/27, f.207). On Budgen's map of 1724 'New Furnace' is marked, but it is not known whether this had been 'new' in 1696, or whether the later furnace found on the site was thus known, and whether this was built in 1717. No ironworking is indicated on a map of 1738 (SAS ibid). In the 1717 list a furnace in Ashdown Forest is mentioned, but without an output figure.
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Site Description:
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Bay: L 125m H 3.5m Breached by stream at E end.
Water system: Pond dry.
Working areas: (Two furnaces - see excavation report).
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Scheduled Monument Number:
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1002223 (ES 394) |
HER Reference:
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MES5195 (ANA) |
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Bay Height (m.):
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3.5 |
Bay Length (m.):
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125 |
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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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See excavation report in Post-Medieval Archaeology 9 (1975), 1-37.
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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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Hulme, E. W.. (1929) Statistical History of the Iron Trade of England and Wales, 1717-1750. Transactions of the Newcomen Society. 9. pp. 12-35
(for this site see page(s) 22)
Tylecote, R. F.. (1986) The Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles. The Institute of Metals. London
(for this site see page(s) 214, 217, 221)
Tebbutt, C. F.. (1977) Some new dating evidence for Pippingford Furnace, Sussex. Post-Medieval Archaeology. 11. pp. 106
Crossley, D. W.. (1977) Pippingford cannon: New data. Post-Medieval Archaeology. 11. pp. 106
Cleere, H. F. and Crossley, D. W.. (1995) The iron industry of the Weald. Merton Priory Press. Cardiff
(for this site see page(s) 350)
Crossley, D. W.. (1975) Cannon-manufacture at Pippingford, Sussex: the excavation of two iron furnaces of c.1717. Post-Medieval Archaeology. 9. pp. 1-37
Tebbutt, C. F.. (1977) Iron Sites on Ashdown Forest. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. First series, 11. pp. 9-13
(for this site see page(s) 12-3)
Brown, R. R.. (1999) Notes from the Board of Ordnance Papers 1705-20. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. Second series, 19. pp. 34-46
(for this site see page(s) 36)
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Persons with known connections to this site:
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Diggs, Francis - Co-owner/ironmaster 1696-bef 1706
Hooper, Charles - Owner 1706-?
Hooper, James - Co-owner/ironmaster 1696-1706
Manning, Charles - Lessee/ironmaster bef 1705-19
Staples, Alexander - Owner in 1696
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Documents:
(click to download)
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Images:
(click on a thumbnail to view)
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