Romans It is the year CCXII. My name is Sparkatus. I am XV years old and I work sparkatus’s guide to at the Beauport Park bloomery site near roman Numerals the coast. I bet you think we grow HIGH WEALD CCXII I = 1 flowers don’t you? V= 5 The bloomery here at Beauport Park is part of an sparkatus tells his story about the roman iron industry X = 10 How old is enormous and extremely important iron works. It is L = 50 Sparkatus and run by the government, the Roman Imperial State, to C = 100 what is the year? supply iron for the Roman navy, the Classis Britannica. There are worse jobs on the ironworks estate, like keep the fire going day and night. Charcoal gives off D = 500 X + V = ? I have heard it said that this ironworks is the third mining the stone, or working at the bloomery hearths twice as much heat as ordinary wood, so it is just right M = 1000 C + C + X + I + I = ? biggest in the whole of the Roman Empire! where the iron is smelted (which means heating the for smelting iron. ore to separate the iron from the rock). There is another huge My older brother, Logius, is a woodland manager. He Worse jobs than ironworks in the west of the When the iron is heated to has taught me about how the woodland is coppiced. High Weald, but that one is the right temperature it Young trees are cut down to near ground level. When iron-mining? privately owned. turns quite squishy. Once it they regrow they produce several thin trunks rather has cooled a little, the iron than one thick one. Trees cut periodically will keep Cloth-making was another High Weald industry There are lots of iron pits forms a lump. This has to on growing in this way and produce ideal wood for in the Romano British period. Cloth made from and mines around here first be beaten and hammered, making charcoal. sheep’s wool was treated in a special way to made by people working then heated and beaten all remove the oils and dirt. It had to be kneaded hundreds of years ago. Now over again several times, As you can tell, the High Weald is the best place for with a special type of clay, called fuller’s earth, we are opening them up, until it is just right. The producing iron. As well as the iron-rich stone and found in the area. The clay was mixed with and are digging new ones lump of iron is called the wood for fuel, our rivers make it easy to transport iron water and urine then poured into tubs to cover too. The Romans have bloom. (So nothing to do by boat to the ports, then by sea to other parts of the woollen cloth. Slaves had to get into the modern ways to extract the with flowers you see!) Europe. Talking of rivers, when the Romans came tubs and trample the cloth in the mixture! Urine iron ore (pieces of rock here, they built wooden bridges across them. It was also used as a bleach, to whiten and which contain the iron). These jobs are very hot and seems funny that no-one had thought of it before! brighten cloth. Wealthy and powerful Romans dirty work. There is a bath wore bright white togas made from one piece My job is to make charcoal. house with six rooms and Many new roads have been made by the Romans, of material draped over a tunic and held in Tree branches are cut into hot water on the estate, including two important ones which lead to place with ornate pins and brooches. Ordinary lengths and stacked but that is only for the use Londinium. Our roads are broad and straight and are people wore simple tunics. carefully to form a dome, of the foremen and offi- built using stone. Main roads are made stronger with then covered with mud, cers. We ordinary workers left-over iron called slag, which can’t be made into classis britannica sand and leaves from the have to make do with anything else. This makes them good for carrying stamped bricks and woodland floor. The stack is washing ourselves off in the heavy loads. The roads have a slight curve so water tiles have been burned very, very slowly, streams and gills, so we runs off them, much better than the soggy old muddy found at beauport sometimes over a few days. You never quite lose the have a reddish tinge to our skins from the iron in the tracks and routeways we have around here. and cranbrook. smell of smoke in your nostrils, or the taste of it in the water! We use these streams for cooling the iron too. back of your throat. But at least I am out in the woods and can enjoy the sight and sounds of the birds and My father, Dadalus, is a charcoal burner like me. We animals (along with the sounds of hammering from have always lived here in the woods during the the works!). charcoal-making season, as you have be on hand to There are numerous ancient minepits and Roman ironworking sites scattered over the High Weald. Major sites were at Beauport Park, Ashdown Wadhurst Forest Bardown near Wadhurst and Ashdown Forest. Oak has grown in High Sweet Chestnut Weald woodlands for Logius’s was brought here View Roman ironworks artefacts at Battle Museum and thousands of years. by the Romans for exhibitions at: Cranbrook Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Horsham Museum; Rye Castle Museum; Roman ironworking sites Beech has been here food. The roasted Beauport words Tenterden Museum; Tunbridge Wells Museum. Minepits nearly as long but nuts are good to recently it has spread a eat and can be More online at: www.highweald.org/Maximillius – video of a Roman soldier www.highweald.org/learn/local-products/ lot. Wise people say from ground into flour telling his story how-products-are-made/612-wood-to-charcoal.html this is because the for cooking and www.romansinsussex.co.uk www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/IronWorking.php climate has become baking. The wood makes mild and moist. the woods excellent charcoal too. www.wealdeniron.org.uk www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/archaeology.php 100 Iron working sites like that at 250 Iron working sites like that at Beauport Park Saxon Shore Fort at High Weald Beauport Park entered a boom period. fell into decline, possibly because of Pevensey built over-exploitation or deforestation EVENTS AD43 100 200 300 410 43 Romans invaded. 60 Revolt by the British queen, 80 Fishbourne Roman 122 Emperor Hadrian built a 324 Emperor Constantine Romans withdrew Britain became part of Boudicca. London, Colchester Palace was built wall on the Scottish border converted to Christianity from Britain World the Roman Empire and St Albans destroyed.