Bibliography - W.I.R.G.: 1st Series Bulletin No. 5, Winter 1973
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Wealden Iron Research Group: First Series Bulletin No. 5, Winter 1973, edited by David Crossley, published 1973 (Wealden Iron Research Group) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

Ore for the Wealden Iron Industry, by Bernard Worssam, published 1973 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 5, article, pp.1-3) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The principal ore for the Wealden iron industry, and the one on which certainly the blast furnace if not also the bloomery industry is based, is known as clay ironstone, and more specifically as siderite mudstone.

Combeswell Bloomery - A magnetometer survey, by Peter Ovenden, published 1973 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 5, article, pp.4-7) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The site (SU 9015 3535) of this bloomery is a derelict field at the bottom of a small, steep-sided valley under the sandstone escarpment north of Haslemere. No surface features are to be seen except a scattering of tap-slag (Straker, type B) in a nearby ditch. Since this is not an uncommon situation with early bloomery sites it would not be inappropriate to describe, in some detail, the manner and results of a survey, made earlier this year, with a proton magnetometer kindly loaned by the Oceanography Department of Southampton University.

Chingley Furnace, by David Crossley, published 1973 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 5, article, pp.8-10) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The furnace, sited at (N.G.R.) TQ 684 327 is known from documentary references to have been in operation in 1565 and 1574, and to have been derelict in 1588. It is doubtful whether it was subsequently rebuilt. It smelted iron ore from the adjacent Furnace Pit Shaw with charcoal from local woodlands. This year's excavation completed work begun in 1969-70, and the site will be flooded when the Bewl Dam is built.

The Use of Bloomery Slag in Blast Furnaces, by David Butler, published 1973 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 5, article, pp.10-11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

In the bloomery furnace flux was not normally added to the furnace burden; the latter consisted only of ore and charcoal. However to obtain a bloom of iron it is necessary for the unwanted parts of the ore to be removed in the form of a free running slag. For this purpose iron oxide in the ore acts as a flux, and at the low temperatures prevailing in the bloomery a considerable quantity of the iron oxide content of the ore is required to form a free running slag. The iron oxide so used as a flux is not available for the production of iron and consequently the efficiency of the bloomery process suffers.

Wealden Fortified Camps and the Iron Industry, by C. F. Tebbutt, published 1973 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 5, article, pp.11-12) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

Thoughts on the title of this article were prompted by a recent visit by Mr and Mrs E.W. Holden and myself to that most interesting earthwork known as Piper's Copse, near Kirdford, Sussex (SU 978 295). This was first surveyed by G.H. Kenyon in 1935, who carried out a small excavation there with S.E. Winbolt soon afterwards (see Sussex Arch. Collections 77 (1936) pp.245-9; further notes on the site were contributed by Mr Kenyon in S.A.C. 86 (1947) p.xxxix, and 99 (1961) p.248; also in Sussex Notes and Queries May 1969; and by Winbolt in The Times of August 5th 1935.)