Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs The Forest of Dean Iron Industry 1st to 4th centuries A.D. Thesis How to cite: Walters, Bryan (1993). The Forest of Dean Iron Industry 1st to 4th centuries A.D. MPhil thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1992 Bryan Walters https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0001017e Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk THE FOREST OE DEAN IRON INDUSTRY 1st to 4th Centuries A.D. M :P h il. Thesis, 199a. BR\ AN WALTERS <9LjMf%EL4"adL 1 15 ) 4 ^ 3 THE OPEN UNIVERSITY Faculty of Arts : Classical Studies (Roman Britain) ProQuest Number: 27701222 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 27701222 Published by ProQuest LLO (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 TtE FOREST OF DEAN IRON INDUSTRY 1st to 4th CENTURIES AD This thesis examines the considerable volume of new archaeological evidence revealed by field survey, aerial survey and excavation in recent years west of the Severn in Gloucestershire, along the lower Wye Valley and in south Herefordshire where it borders Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire. Without its vast iron resource of rich hematites Roman Dean would have been unremarkable. Its iron industry proved to be central to the development of high status buildings and a sophisticated conmunications system involving Roman military-constructed roads and its river boundaries, the Severn and the Wye. The thesis is therefore as much about Roman Dean as it is about the iron industry. Recent evidence has made possible an hypothesis concerning the administration of the industry, not merely that the resources came under state control but that the area was probably an Imperial Estate with the central woodlands reserved as an Imperial Forest for hunting. There is no longer any doubt tliat, unlike the Wealden iron industry, Dean ores were, moved over sometimes considerable distances to the smelting and smithing sites in and outside of Dean. So were its iron products - in the first century supplying a mainly Roman military market and during the second century a rapidly^ expanding civilian market. Estimates are made for iron production and manpower requirements for each of the four centuries under review and evidence is presented for a major recession in the early third century AD which resulted in the closure of some of the largest and oldest iron-working centres and from which the industry never fully recovered during the period of Roman occupation. 6C NEWENTv. 3 CASTLEFIELD GLÇÛCESTER iT lO W E R I LYDBROOK # POPES H ill COLEFORD PARK 0 ROMAN MIUTARY SITES ILASTON / Û ROMAN TEMPLES •RING IRON-ORE OUTCROPS # SITE OF HIGH STATUS BUILDING. VILLA ETC. "^Dl / KNOWN ROMAN ROADS NUMBERED ACCORDING TO I.D. MARGARVS ROMAN ROADS IN BRITAIN' OONTENTS PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY 3. MAPS, GRAPHS, PLANS etc. (Location in Text) 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ROMAN PERIOD IRONWORKING SITES WITH OPERATING PERIODS 5. GAZETTEER OF SITES REFERRED TO IN TEXT 1 6. THE GEOLOGY OF DEAN . 29 6.1 DESCRIPTION 29 6.2 THE COMPOSITION OF DEAN ORES 30 7. THE GBOMORPHOLOGY OF DEAN 30 7.1 DESCRIPTION AND LOCATION OF ORE OUTCROPS .30 8. KNOWN TECHNOLOGY OF LOCAL IRON PRODUCTION 34 8.1 ORE EXTRACTION 34 8.2 ORE PREPARATION 35 8.3 ORE SMELTING 36 8.4 RE-WORKING THE BLOOM (Primary Smithing) 38 9. THE PRE-ROMAN IRON INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN 39 9.1 SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS AND SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES 39 9.2 PRE-ROMAN IRONWORKING AROUND DEAN 40 10. THE ROMAN IRON INDUSTRY IN AND AROUND DEAN 45 10.1 FIRST CENTURY IRON PRODUCTION FOR THE ROMAN MILITARY 45 10.2 ARICQNIUM 47 10.3 SUPPLEMENTARY SMELTING AT VILLAGE SITES IN DEAN? . 53 10.4 BLESTIUM - MONMOUTH. 58 10.5 WEST OF WYE FIRST CENTURY IRONWORKING SITES 62 10.6 A CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION IN THE FLAVIAN PERIOD? . 66 10.7 AN EARLY FUCHÆ BUILDING OF HIGH STATUS AT BLAKENEY 67 10.8 LATER FIRST CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS 72 10.9 SOME PROBABLE REASONS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE 72 11. DEAN IRON INDUSTRY IN THE SECOND CENTURY AD 76 11.1 SECOND CENTURY EXPANSION 77 11.2 ARICONIUM 77 11.3 BLESTIUM - MONMOUTH 78 11.4 SOUTH HEREFORDSHIRE IRONWORKING SITES WEST OF THE WYE 80 11.5 A MAJOR NEW IRONWORKING SETTLEMENT AT NEWENT 82 11.6 DWELLINGS OF HIGHER STATUS AND THEIR LOCATION 84 11.7 SUNWARY OF PROBABLE REASONS FOR SECOND CENTURY EXPANSION 90 12 . THIRD CENTURY DECLINE IN THE DEAN IRON INDUSTRY 93 12.1 CLOSURE OF MAJOR IRONWORKING SITES ' 93 12.2 REVIEW OF SECOND CENTURY PRODUCTION 93 12.3 NEWENT - A CIVILIAN ENTREPRENEURIAL ENTERPRISE? 102 12.4 FROM DECLINE TO A MODEST STABILITY 103 12.5 THE END OF THE OLD AND THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CENTURY 108 13. THE FCXJRTH CENTURY IN. WYE/DEAN 110 13.1 AN IMPRESSION OF OCCUPATION AND ACTIVITY . 110 13.3 THE END OF AN ERA r THE LATE FOURTH,CENTURY 124 14. POST ROMAN DEAN 125 15. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EXPLOITATION OF DEAN'S IRON AND TIMBER RESOURCES FIRST TO FOURTH CENTURIES AD 127 15.1 THE EXPLOITATION OF DEAN'S IRON RESOURCES 127 16. THE EXPLOITATION OF DEAN'S TIMBER 128 17. MANiPOWER AND THE IRON INDUSTRY ' 132 17.1 THE ORE-SMELTING INDUSTRY 132 17.2 THE ORE-MINING INDUSTRY 134 17.3 THE CHARCOAL INDUSTRY 134 17.4 TRANSPORTATION AND THE IRON INDUSTRY 135 18. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 135 18.1 AVAILABLE METHODS 135 18.2 WYE/DEAN'S ROADS AND PORTS IN ROMAN TIMES 140 19. THE DISTRIBUTION OF CRUDE ORE 144 19.1 DISTRIBUTION FROM VILLA SITES 145 20. ADMINISTRATION OF THE IRON INDUSTRY 146 21. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY 154 1. INIBODUCriON This thesis brings together the considerable volume of new archaeological evidence revealed by field survey, aerial survey, mines’ research and excavation in recent years in Dean, south Herefordshire and in Monmouthshire where it borders the Wye Valley, It also examines previously published archaeological material and antiquarian observations about the ancient iron industry of the region. Without its vast iron and timber resources Roman Dean would have been unremarkable. Its iron industry was central to the development of high status buildings and a so^^sticated communications' system. Unlike the Wealden iron industry. Dean ores were moved over sometimes considerable distances to smelting and sndthing sites in and outside of Dean. So were its iron products - in the first century AD. supplying a mainly Roman military market, and during the second century a rapidly expanding civilian market. Who controlled ' Dean's resources and how the region was administered is still unclear, however, the available information offers circumstantial evidence v^ich is discussed herein. It has been possible to offer tentative estimates of the quantities of ore which were mined and then smelted on a few major ironworking sites. Until more experiments have been undertaken in smithing iron blooms smelted in reconstructions of Roman-type furnaces, it has been considered prudent not to offer estimates of the amount of smithed iron that was produced and eventually forged into artefacts. Results from the few experiments that have been published are so widely variable that any estimate offered in this study would be nothing more than speculation. I wish to acknowledge the investigative archaeological work undertaken over many years by members of Dean Archaeological Group, The Forest of Dean Local History Society, Monmouth Archaeological Society and the Archaeological Section of the Woolhope Field Club. Specific acknowledgement must be made of my indebtedness to Professor Peter Salway and Dr.Henry Cleere who have ' patiently and helpfully guided me through this project and to Dr.C.Bulyn-Jones whose very kind support has been much appreciated. I am also most grateful that Àrofessor W.H.Manning and Dr.T^Potter caused me to reconsider much of what I had prepared in an earlier draft. Bryan Walters 1992 Forest of Dean. 2. ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY BAR British Archaeological Reports, Oxford. BBl Black Burnished pottery from Dorset sources. EGAS Bristol & Gloucs. Archaeological Society. CBA Council for British Archaeology. DAG Dean Archaeological Group. FoD Forest of Dean. GADARG Gloucester & District Archaeological Research Group. GRO Gloucestershire Record Office. Hist.Met.Soc. The Historical Metallurgy Society. HMSO Her Majesty's Stationery Office. lA Iron Age. Inst. Institute. J. Journal. ( IHS Local History Society, MAS Monmouth Archaeological Society. Nura.Chron. Numismatic Chronicle. Per s. Comm. Personal Communication. PRO Public Record Office (London). R-B Romano-British. SVW , Severn Valley Wares. Trans. Transactions. Son^tiraes: Translated (by).. WNFC . Woolhope Naturalists Field Club (Herefs.) GLOSSARY FIELD SURVEY - Is here defined, along with fieldwalking, as indicating the total survey of a ploij^ed field surface with retrieval of all visible artefactual evidence.