|
Site Name:
|
Little Furnace Wood |
OS Reference:
|
TQ 5910 2430
Click here to view on Where's The Path |
|
Parish:
|
Mayfield |
Former Parish:
|
|
|
Hundred:
|
|
District:
|
Wealden |
|
County:
|
East Sussex |
River Basin:
|
Rother |
|
Site Type:
|
Bloomery |
Period:
|
Roman |
|
Century:
|
01, 02 |
Geology:
|
Ashdown Beds |
|
Geology notes:
|
Several hundred metres from any obvious outcrop of ore.
|
|
Earliest known date:
|
0 |
Latest known date:
|
0 |
|
Dating evidence:
|
C14 dates for two bloomery furnaces and an ore roasting pit: Furnace 1 - AD70-250; Furnace 2 - AD70-215; Ore-roasting pit - AD130-320.
Archaeomagnetic dates for two furnaces: Furnace 1 - AD40-60; Furnace 2 - AD60-220. Sherds of East Sussex wares.
|
|
Site Description:
|
A dense concentration of bloomery tap slag and furnace cinder over an area of about 6000 sq metres on the southern slope of a small gill behind Old Mill Cottage, off Newick Lane. Cylindrical 'plugs' of slag 1-2cm in diameter and up to 10cm long were found in some quantity.
|
|
Scheduled Monument Number:
|
|
HER Reference:
|
MES21446 (ANA) |
|
Bay Height (m.):
|
|
Bay Length (m.):
|
|
|
Classis Britannica tiles:
|
No |
Samian pottery:
|
No |
|
Cylindrical slag plugs:
|
Yes |
Two-finery forge:
|
No |
|
Excavation?:
|
Yes |
|
|
Excavation Details:
|
See Butler, 2024. Trial trenching in September 2003 revealed the top of a furnace structure. Full excavation from 2003-7, by WIRG and the Mid-Sussex Field Archaeology Team, revealed a fairly well-preserved domed smelting furnace set into an elongated pit in a bank at the top of the valley side. The size of the furnace, at about 1m wide and over 1m high – both internal measurements – is rather larger than similar furnaces that have been excavated in the Weald. A second bloomery furnace, different in form to the first, and a substantial ore roasting pit have also been found.
|
|
Description of site vegetation:
|
Hazel coppice with oak standards and dense bluebell understorey. Some elder, hawthorn and crab-apple. Recent chestnut coppice to the SW and W. Ash coppice S and SE.
|
|
Slag Heap Area (m. sq) :
|
5980 |
Slag heap grade (Hodgkinson 1999):
|
2 |
|
Persons Involved in Discovery:
|
WIRG Field Group.
|
|
|
|
|
References:
|
Paynter, S.. (2006) Regional variations in bloomery smelting slag of the Iron Age and Romano-British periods. Archaeometry. 48, 2. pp. 271-291
(for this site see page(s) 277-279, 281)
Paynter, S.. (2007) Innovations in bloomery smelting in Iron Age and Romano-British England. Metals and Mines: Studies in Archaeometallurgy. pp. 202-210
(for this site see page(s) 204)
Butler, C.. (2024) Excavation of Romano-British ironworking site at Little Furnace Wood, Mayfield, East Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections. 162. pp. 67-93
Hodgkinson, J. S.. (2003) Field Notes. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. 2nd series, 23. pp. 2-6
(for this site see page(s) 2)
Hodgkinson, J. S.. (2004) Field Notes. Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. 2nd series, 24. pp. 2-5
(for this site see page(s) 4-5)
|
|
Persons with known connections to this site:
|
|
Documents:
(click to download)
|
|
Images:
(click on a thumbnail to view)
|
|
|
