Author: Jeremy Hodgkinson

WINTER MEETING 2025

The Wealden Iron Research Group’s 2025 Winter Meeting
will be held at Nutley War Memorial Hall, TN22 3NE,
on Saturday 25th January at 2.30pm.

The speaker will be Dr Andrew Richardson, director of Isle Heritage, who will speak on the Lossenham Project: Settlement and ironworking in the Rother Valley.

The Lossenham Project uncovers the history of the Rother valley, close to the Kent – East Sussex boarder. In the Middle Ages the Rother was an important navigable river flowing past Smallhythe and Appledore to the sea at Romney. Sea-going ships could sail inland as far as Newenden and barges could continue as far as Bodiam. This was a major trading route for the export of iron, timber and wool from the Weald.

From the late 13C, catastrophic storms affected the course of the Rother, eventually preventing larger vessels reaching the shipyards at Smallhythe. The river changed course to flow south of Oxney, now reaching the sea at Rye. Attempts to dredge the original channel and block off the new course opposite Lossenham at Knelle all ultimately failed.

Although much of the focus of the Project lies in finding the hitherto lost Carmelite friary at Lossenham (c. 1243-1538) evidence shows the area was settled in prehistory and is rich in iron sites with 166 known in Rother District alone. At Lossenham Farm an Iron Age bloomery site has been found by the project and radiocarbon dated to between 364-175 BC.

Tea and cake will be served after the presentation – please obtain a token for this on entry, price £4.50.

Non-members welcome

FIELD GROUP FORAYS – SPRING 2025

The following forays have been arranged for January – March 2025:

Saturday 18th January: Follow up visit to Markly Furnace, Rushlake Green.
Meet at the Dunn Village Hall, Rushlake Green (just south of the Horse and Groom PH, TN21 9QE) at 10.30am.

Saturday 22 February (reserve date 1st March): Follow up visit to Frankham Farm, Mark Cross.
Three bloomery site were identified in Sprayfield Wood in February 2024, adding to several sites previously recorded on the farm, none of which has been dated. The object of this foray is to locate the slag heap of one or more of these sites and excavate one or more trenches to recover pottery or charcoal from which an approximate date for the bloomery can be obtained. It is intended that excavation will last one day only.
WIRG Members only (to comply with insurance). If you would like to attend please email the foray leader before 14th February 2025, to be sent further details of directions, times, venue etc.

Saturday 15th March (reserve date 22 March): Sheffield Forest bloomery.
To assess the extent of a previously unrecorded bloomery site and possible other sites in adjacent ghylls. Roman tile has been found in the area. Meeting at 10.30am. Parking at the foray leader’s house is limited to six cars so please contact the the foray leader if you want to attend.

More Paintings of Early-Modern Ironworks

Following on from Tim Smith’s article in Newsletter 77 on the painting of ironworks by the artist Herri met de Bles that hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Grohmann Museum of the School of Engineering in Milwaukee, USA, has a collection of paintings of people in work situations. The collection includes two paintings by Marten van Valckenborch (1534-1612) which show furnaces and forges probably in the Meuse valley of southern Belgium.
Marten and his brother Lucas produced many paintings of similar scenes with ironworks as either the main subject or merely as features in the landscape.

A river valley with iron mining scenes, 1612; Marten van Valckenborch (Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee).

WIRG on ITV News Meridian

WIRG’s experimental bloomery at Pippingford and its display at the Fernhurst Furnace Open Weekend were featured in an item on ITV’s local news broadcast by Meridian on 13 October 2022.

WIRG members Tim Smith, Jeremy Hodgkinson, Judie English and Jonathan Prus were interviewed during filming which took place on consecutive weekends in early September. The video sequence and accompanying text can be accessed here.

A smelt using the new reciprocating blower

In a move towards greater authenticity in our smelting experiments at Pippingford Park we have switched from our vortex blower, which supplies a constant flow of air, to an electrically driven reciprocating pump kindly denoted to WIRG by Peter Crew who conducted numerous experimental smelts using this in North Wales. Designed and built by Roger Miles, using a section of mains water pipe as the cylinder and a motor from a washing machine, the reciprocating pump better simulates blowing with bellows. This would have been the method used in early times, but requires a number of fit personnel to supply air for the duration of a day’s smelt.

Our latest smelt revealed both the change in colour of the flame as reduction takes place with the flame at the start being yellow and luminous as carbon monoxide is burning away, then fades to a more transparent flame as the ore consumes carbon monoxide during reduction. The flame returns to a luminous state during ‘burn down’ once all the ore has been reduced.

A temperature profile during the smelt shows a general fall in temperature while reduction takes place, as this is an endothermic (takes heat) reaction. This is best seen following the red line which is the thermocouple in the hotter position, closest to the reduction region.

A TV reporter from Meridian News filmed part of the smelt, interviewing me, and also Jeremy Hodgkinson, Jonathan Prus and Judie English the following weekend at the Fernhurst Open Day. You can see the filmed sequence HERE

Our final smelt for the season is scheduled for Saturday 8 October.  Should you wish to come, but the weather forecast be wet, check with Tim (01403 710148) on the Friday evening to see if we have had to postpone.

Tim Smith

Click HERE to see a short video of the different stages of the smelt (66.3Mb -Be patient!).

Help Needed – Who owns Roman sites?

Our sponsored PhD student Ethan Greenwood is planning his post-doctoral project, which will look further into Roman sites in the Weald. In these restricted times it will not be possible for him to call on prospective owners of sites to seek access to them, so he is appealing to WIRG members for help in identifying who owns some of these sites.

Details of the Roman sites can be found by following THIS LINK.

If you know a person who owns one or more of these sites, please pass on their contact details (address, phone number or email) to Ethan Greenwood so he can get in touch with them.