Publications
Hammer and Furnace Ponds: Relics of the Wealden Iron Industry, by Helen Pearce, published 11 March 2011 (108 pp., Pomegranate Press, ISBN-10: 1907242155 & ISBN-13: 9781907242151) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries View Online
Abstract:They beautify the woodlands of the Kent and Sussex High Weald and adjacent parts of Surrey, but they were created to power what has been described as the country's first industrial revolution. This walker-friendly guide to the rich crop of surviving hammer and furnace ponds in the area traces the history of iron exploitation from pre-Roman times, but concentrates on the 16th and 17th centuries when the Weald throbbed to the sound of trip hammers. Fortunes were made by iron-masters such as the Fullers of Brightling, the Barhams of Wadhurst and the Streatfeildes of Chiddingstone, and several of their grand houses survive in the landscape as a testimony to their wealth. Guns for government ordnance or sale to foreign governments were the major line, but the foundries turned out a range of products, from firebacks to grave slabs. This is the first popular guide to the subject in recent years and includes a complete gazetteer of the surviving ponds with map references and access details, a list of relevant museums, a glossary of terms and ideas for further reading.