A Wealden Iron Furnace

I was approached by Jeremy Hodgkinson of the Wealden Iron Research Group (WIRG) asking for assistance with the excavation of an iron furnace that had been found during one of their forays. In excavating a number of test pits to date a large slagheap, they had encountered the top of a furnace. The three sherds of pottery found in the test pits were East Sussex Ware, suggesting a late Iron Age or Romano-British date for the furnace and slagheap.

Over two weekends in October accompanied by a small number of MSFAT members, and ably assisted by enthusiastic WIRG members I directed a small excavation to uncover and record the furnace. The furnace appears to be substantially intact, and is located on a natural slope above a small stream. A platform had been cut into the slope to level the area, and the furnace had been constructed within a small rounded cut into the natural sandstone. The furnace appeared to be of the domed variety, although the upper part of its structure was missing, and was constructed from clay. The clay had been used as a lining against the sandstone, and then used to build the oval furnace structure, projecting out from the slope. A number of pieces of fired clay with rounded surfaces and finger mark indentations were found. The inner surface of the clay lining was lined with slag, and pieces of vitrified slag were adhering to the surviving wall of the furnace in places.

Inside the furnace a tumble of collapsed structure was first removed, and revealed below it a charcoal-rich layer of burnt material, presumably from the last firing of the furnace, and below that the fired clay floor of the furnace. Careful cleaning around the furnace revealed evidence for the rebuilding or re-lining of the furnace, perhaps as many as four times.

In front of the furnace was a large pit, although this area was very disturbed by rabbit diggings. The partial excavation of the pit revealed that it was much deeper and larger than the tap slag pits usually found associated with Wealden furnaces. The pit produced another few pieces of East Sussex Ware pottery. The opportunity was also taken to excavate two small test pits on two further terraces a little lower down the slope. One of these test pits located a compact area of slag, which may have been associated with smithing activity and another sherd of East Sussex Ware pottery.

Unfortunately we were not able to complete the excavation of the furnace in the time available, and will be returning next spring to complete the work. However, initial observations suggest that this is a large furnace, and may possibly have similarities with those excavated at Laxton in Northamptonshire (Crew 1998). The furnace appears to be the domed variety and would therefore probably date to the latter half of the 1^st century BC or the first half of the 1^st century AD (Cleere 1987).

Chris Butler

References.

            Crew, P.  1998        Laxton revisited: a first report on the 1998 excavations, Historical Metallurgy 32/2,  49-53

Cleere, H.F. 1987   ‘The Iron-smelting Furnace’ in ‘Excavations in Rocks Woods, Withyham, 1982’

Harding, A.F., and Ostója-Zogorski, J.  Sussex Archaeol. Collect. 125, 11-32.