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BARDOWN MINE PITS

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DESCRIPTION

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Site of a Roman bloomery and iron pits dated from the late 1st century to 220 AD. Excavations have revealed industrial quarters with timber structures and industrial installations. The main working pit area, some 150 ft square, indicates use in the late 1st and the whole of the 2nd centuries. One particular feature was a high temperature hearth but it is an open question as to whether it was used for forging or for ore-roasting - probably the latter. The industrial quarter possessed a road of hand packed iron slag leading from the furnaces to the tip heap. Many stamped tiles of the Classis Britannica were found with Belgic and 2nd-4th century pottery. The site is located close to a 1st to 3rd century settlement.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES

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[TQ 6646 2967] Iron Age and Roman Pottery Found T.I.(1)

A Roman bloomery 1 1/8 miles north of Ticehurst Road Station [now
Stonegate Station TQ 658 271] is in a deep gill, the sides of which
are largely ashes and cinder.
Pottery finds from the site include Castor and Samian ware, and
range from the second half of the 2nd cent. to the early 4th cent.
Plus several pre-Roman pieces, one with a definite Belgic pattern.
Other finds were a Roman tile stamped CLBR, a coin of Faustina the
younger, and a Roman clay lamp.
Pottery and a Roman tile from the site are in Lewes Museum.(2)

Excavations over the years from 1960-68 revealed both residential and
industrial quarters with timber structures and industrial
installations. The main working area, some 150 ft square, indicates
use in the late 1st and the whole of the 2nd centuries. One
particular feature was a high temperature hearth (see plan) 7.
but it is an open question as to whether it was used for forging
or for ore-roasting - probably the latter. The industrial quarter
possessed a road of hand packed iron slag leading from the
furnaces to the tip heap.(6-10)

Further excavations of the 'industrial area' were undertaken in
1968, in which the road was traced for another 40 ft. It would
appear that by the early 3rd c the whole area was being used
as a rubbish dump and that industrial activities had ceased by c
220 or transferred elsewhere, but the occupation continued. About
the end of the 3rd c, however, the refuse area appears to have
been resettled. In the rubbish spread no fewer than 22 tiles bearing
the stamp of the Classis Britannica were found, which may indicate
a change of ownership or control in the early 3rd c. Other finds
comprised a bronze-melting crucible, bronze fibulae, lead patteras,
coins, glass and an iron shovel - probably Roman. (See plan).(11)

TQ 663294 Bardown bloomery. Beside its road leading down to the tip
heap stood a substantial mid 2nd c timber-framed workshop with
2 dumps of charcoal resting on its clay floor. An area of heavy
burning found in 1967 close to this building can now be
interpreted as a permanent charcoal-burning hearth. An
ore-roasting furnace found in 1962 also lay close at hand, while
an area inside the workshop which had been exposed to fairly
high temperatures is interpreted as a forging hearth. The workshop
was either demolished or allowed to fall down, and the road spread
over its former NE margin. By the first half of the 3rd c the
whole area had become a dump for rubbish. No fewer than 22
stamped tiles of the Classis Britannica occurred in this layer.(12)

TQ 662290 In the residential area of Bardown considerable traces
of timber-framed buildings occurred, some with iron slag cobbled
floors. At least 2 phases appeared, the earlier of the same half of
the 2nd c, the later covering the early part of the 3rd c. The
buildings were domestic and were associated with a baking
oven of the later period, built of tile wasters, one which bore a
fragmentary stamp of the Roman fleet (CL BR). Apart from pottery,
small finds were few. The only coin found, on a later phase
floor, was a denarius of Trajan AD 105.(13)

TQ 663294 The first Classis Britannica tile found on this inland
iron-site was discovered in 1951. Since 1965 Henry Cleer has brought
to light 24 more tiles and present evidence suggests that the
site was in action from AD 140-220.(14)

Commander Beatty, landowner, Bardown House, indicated the area
of the 1960-68 excavations, (the industrial and residential
sites) centred at TQ 66322928. The excavations were filled in
yearly and only the last year's site is still visible as a
thinly-covered area within a pasture field. The sites lie upon a
gentle, northerly slope below steeper slopes to the top of a
ridge, and above very steep slopes to the river Limden.
Upon these latter slopes is the industrial tip, centred at TQ
66312938 and extending along the slopes for some 50.0m and composed
of black earth containing heavy concentrations of bloomery cinder,
ash and charcoal.

The river bed is littered for some distance downstream with cinder.
Below the tip is a pondbay, 40.0m in length, and up to 3.0m in
height on the upstream side, and 5.0m in height on the downstream
side. The river has made a wide breach at the N end of the bay.
There are no signs of an overspill channel, and no post-Md slag or
cinder was found below the bay.

Surveyed at 1:2500.(15)

An interim report on excavations 1960 -1968.(16)
Includes ore pits on the edge of the main working area and outcropping into the sides of the stream. Also evidence of further pits in surrounding fields. (17)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" (prov.) 1961

( 2) General reference

Wealden Iron, 1931, p. 296, (Straker E.)

( 3) General reference

Sx. N and Q., 12, 1949, pp. 161/3, (C. N. Anderson)

( 4) General reference

Sx. A.C. 58, 1916, p. 195, (F. Haverfield)

( 5) General reference

Sx., A.C. 91, 1953, p lxvii, No. 32.

( 6) General reference

JRS 53 1963 155 (H F Cleere)

( 7) General reference

ibid 55 1965 220 plan (H F Cleere)

( 8) General reference

ibid 58 1968 203 (H F Cleere)

( 9) General reference

Bull Hist Metallurgy Group No 2 Dec 1963 (H F Cleere)

(10) General reference

ibid Bull No 4 Jan 1965 (H F Cleere)

(11) General reference

Bull Hist Metallurgy Grp 3 No 1 1969 26-7 plan (H F Cleere)

(12) General reference

JRS 59 1969 232 H F Cleere

(13) General reference

CBA Calendar of Excavations Summaries 1969 12 (Henry Cleere)

(14) General reference

Sx AC 107 1969 109 (Gerald Broadribb)

(15) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 29-APR-70

(16) General reference

Sx AS Occasional Paper 1, The Romano-British Industrial Site at Bardown,Wadhurst.(H Cleere)

(17) English Heritage Monuments Protection Programme Industrial Monuments Assessment, Step 3 Reports

Instone E, for the Monuments Protection Programme 1995: The Iron Mining Industry, Volume Two

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