Publications
Birchenbridge Forge - a new site identified, by T. E. Evans and J. S. Hodgkinson, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, pp.7-10, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559] Download PDF
Abstract:The first documentary reference to this site is in a survey of the timber and woods belonging to Sir John Caryll in 1598. It was part of the manors of Chesworth and Sedgwick which belonged, like the Forest of St. Leonard, to the Dukes of Norfolk and were confiscated, then restored, and then confiscated again, during their chequered careers under the Tudors. The Carylls, who were extensive proprietors of ironworks, having no less than six furnaces and four forges in the early seventeenth century, leased the manors of Chesworth and Sedgwick from the Crown, in succession to Sir Thomas Fynes, following the attainder of the Duke of Norfolk in 1572. The forge is not mentioned in the 1574 lists of ironworks and probably dates from the period between 1574 and 1598, during which time Edward Caryll and then his nephew, Sir John Caryll, acquired or took control of the forges and furnaces in St. Leonard's Forest, and at Gosden, Burningfold and Pallingham.