WIRG NEWSLETTER 53 SPRING 2011 NEWSLETTER 53 SPRING 2011 EDITOR: JEREMY HODGKINSON 3, Saxon Road, Worth, Crawley, Sussex, RH10 7SA; Tel: 01293 886278; Email: [email protected] WANTED: NEW SECRETARY WIRG is looking for a new Hon. Secretary, following David Brown’s announcement that he intends to stand down at the 2011 AGM in July. If you feel you would like to get more involved in the running of the Group, and have some time on your hands, please consider offering your services. Hon. Secretary is probably the most important role in the Group, and the job includes taking Minutes at Committee meetings, processing applications from new members and helping to organise meetings. If you are interested, David will be happy to give you more details. His contact details are on the last page. WINTER MEETING 2011 making, as the range of furnaces of all shapes and sizes demonstrated. The pictures and film showed About 30 members met at Nutley Memorial Hall on that there were many different variations of the the 29th January to hear two talks given by WIRG process by which bloomery iron could be made, and members. Simon Stevens recounted the that we are a long way, still, from a clear grasp of how archaeological project he organised with children iron makers in antiquity worked. from the primary school at Newick to investigate the After the talks, the usual, delicious tea laid on site of a possible deserted settlement site that had by Nutley WI provided the opportunity for members been identified by the late Fred Tebbutt. Simon had to chat and exchange news. outlined the project, which was supported financially (and appropriately) by the Tebbutt Research Fund, in Newsletter 52 (Autumn 2010), so an account of his talk here is unnecessary, but he elaborated entertainingly on the delights and pitfalls of working with children, and impressed the audience with some of the survey techniques he had been able to employ with his colleagues from Archaeology South-East. Tim Smith and Brian Herbert, similarly, employed a range of techniques in their presentation of the Group’s involvement in the Historical Metallurgy Society’s Conference on Experimental and Accidental Archaeology, held at West Dean, near Chichester, in early September. In a combination of video and straight delivery, they expanded upon the description Tim had also written in the last Newsletter. WIRG had gone to the conference well Chairman, Shiela Broomfield, with Professor Henry prepared, and it had been an excellent opportunity to Cleere in discussion over a cup of tea meet with others working in experimental iron- CONTENTS Wanted New Secretary page 1 Hammerpond Website 7 Winter Meeting 2011 1 Fireback Book Review 7 Anne Dalton 2 AGM Advance Notice 8 Natural Draught Smelting 2 New Members 8 WIRG Bulletin 31 (2011) 2 WIRG Photo Archive 8 Foray Reports 3 Scarlets Furnace Exhibition 8 Countrywise ITV 5 Fernhurst Furnace Open Days 9 Snape Wood, Wadhurst 5 Tebbutt Research Fund 9 Face the Ironmaster 6 WIRG Contacts 9 The Iron Industry of Roman Britain 6 Editor’s note 9 Archaeological Dig - Crawley 6 WIRG publications 9 WIRG NEWSLETTER 53 SPRING 2011 ANNE DALTON 1920-2011 Many members will be saddened by the passing of Anne Dalton in her 91st year, on 29th January 2011. A regular attender at meetings until last year, Anne had been an active member of WIRG for more than thirty years. She had been a past member of the Committee and had contributed to the Bulletin on a number of occasions. Anne had been a regular forayer until the years caught up with her, and many will recall that what ever piece of kit suddenly became necessary, her rucksack invariably contained it. Much of her life and background was The natural-draught furnace at Rushlake involved in the Diplomatic Service, but she Green became interested in archaeology after she and her late husband moved to Sussex in retirement. Six WIRG smelters took part and were joined by Jake As well as Wealden iron she enjoyed many other Keen (one of the most experienced bloomery smelters historical pursuits, among them a key role as in the country) and who is now interested in leader of groups recording in detail the interiors of convection-only furnaces. The research issues that are the churches at Mayfield and Buxted for the connected with this experiment are: National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS). The shortage on convincing tuyeres in the archaeology Those who knew her delighted in her of Wealden iron straight-forwardness, her probing questions and The manpower (and hence social history) implications her enquiring mind, which led to her pursuing of not using bellows, and, projects with great determination. She will be The relative efficiencies of large and small furnaces. greatly missed. Two design ideas were tried out in building this furnace. First, it was set into a bank, rather like the AN EXPERIMENT IN NATURAL-DRAUGHT furnaces at Little Furnace Wood seem to have been. SMELTING Second, the top part was formed of loam and straw daub around a large bundle of sticks. The sticks were Some time ago the idea of a “convecting furnace” was burned out later. Both of these ideas seemed to make tried out at Pippingford, but the furnace was too the process easier, so it might be useful to think of short and the air-holes not quite big enough. If you how either practice might show up in the archaeology. make a bloomery furnace tall enough, a chimney effect should draw enough air in to reach iron- smelting temperatures. Some fairly straightforward Schematic view of the convection- only arithmetic suggests that about two and a half metres furnace described. is high enough, provided that the air inlet is big enough. There are good examples from other parts of the world where bellows do not provide the draught for smelting. brick wall field We tried the tall furnace idea in my garden at Rushlake Green in September and again in ground November. It roared and sucked in the approved manner, but the results were mixed. At the first attempt it was allowed to get very hot as quickly as air possible and the charge of ore melted, ran through the charcoal, and set into a lump. There were some isolated flakes of iron in this lump, but it could not possibly be called a bloom. On the second try the air- There will be at least one more “bellows-free smelt” inlet was constricted to start with, and a smelting and members who want to join in can e-mail me: temperature reached after about four hours. This [email protected] time iron was formed in abundance, but the furnace Jonathan Prus was not hot enough to allow the slag to run freely and no single bloom formed. Air intake control is an WEALDEN IRON important issue! Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group Volume 31, 2nd series, 2011 We will try to forge iron from the second smelt later Contributions to the Editor, David Crossley, on. by 31st March (contact details on back page) 2 WIRG NEWSLETTER 53 SPRING 2011 FORAY REPORTS Strawberry Wood Furnace Field and Strawberry Wood, Some large lumps of slag had been located in a stream in Strawberry Wood having appeared since Benenden the winter’s rains of 2009-10. This site is close to two October 2010 other bloomery sites found in March 2009 at New Barn Shaw and sharing similar geology. The lumps of Furnace Field slag were located in the stream bed within 10m upstream of a newly-restored culvert. A slag heap South of Benenden, local historian Dr Ernie Pollard approximately 0.3m thick and measuring 2.5m long had located a Furnace Field on a 19th century map. A by 1.5m wide was seen in the eroded bank of the visit by Brian Herbert and Reg Houghton some years stream on its NW side. No other slag was found ago failed to find any evidence of a furnace. The within 50m upstream. The search was not continued purpose of this foray was to see if a second search further upstream as it was considered the geology did would shed light on the origin of the name. The not warrant it. geological memoir for Tenterden refers to granules The slag lumps were subsequently removed by of sphaero-siderite in the local clay, and to a pond WIRG member, Victor Kellett, and cleaned. bay possibly associated with the iron industry. David Brown The stream to the east of Furnace Field was searched for slag from about 100m downstream from the south. No slag was found. An earthwork in the Brede High Wood form of a sinuous bank appears to have been spoil November 2010 from excavations on the east bank. A further earthwork having the appearance of and position This foray looked at the main gill in Coneyburrow appropriate for a pond bay, would have dammed the Wood on the eastern side of the Woodland Trust’s stream at the northern end of Furnace Field. Furnace Brede High Woods complex. It had been postponed Field itself could have been the site of a quarry, as its from the previous year due to the weather but this profile did not match that of the bank on the east side day was mild and dry and ten members attended. of the stream, and a certain amount of quarrying had During the archaeological assessment of the site by taken place to the south of Furnace Field on the same Nicola Bannister in 2008/9 bloomery slag was found side of the stream.