Bibliography - W.I.R.G.: 2nd Series Bulletin No. 4, 1984
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Wealden Iron Research Group: Second Series Bulletin No. 4, 1984, edited by D. W. Crossley, published 1984 (Wealden Iron Research Group, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

Field Notes, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, report, pp.2-3, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

• Charcoal burner's hut (?)
• Bloomery site near Garden Hill
• Hartfield
• Runham Farm, Lenham, Kent

Cast iron plates from Burwash, by C. F. and M. Tebbutt, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, pp.3-4, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

In November 1983, after a message from Hastings Museum, we visited Mrs Watson, Poundsford Farm, Burwash (TQ 637225) who had some massive cast iron objects of unknown use. Their shape was puzzling, but we surmised that they must relate to a furnace, forge, or possibly lime kiln. Later we learned that Mr W. Beswick had inspected them some ten years previously but was not certain as to their use.

A late Roman gold coin from High Hurstwood, East Sussex, by David Rudling, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, p.5, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

In 1982 a gold solidus of the emperor Honorius (A.D.393-423) was discovered by Mr Llewellyn, in one of the fields which he farms, adjacent to Perryman's Lane, High Hurstwood (approximate location: TQ 486261).

West End Furnace, Chiddingfold, Surrey, by J. S. Hodgkinson, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, pp.6-7, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

In December 1982, the reconstruction of the road bridge 10m downstream from the bay of this furnace (SU 939344) exposed a section through the road on the south side of the stream. In the section below the modern road surface, about 3.5m above the stream, was a layer of clay and, below that, a layer of iron slag, indicating an earlier road surface.

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

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.

Hawkesden Forge Ironmasters' House, by Margaret Bolt, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, p.11, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

Hawkesden Forge (TQ 623266) is remote from any other habitation or public road and the fine timber-framed house, standing just downstream of the south end of the bay, must have been built by whoever was operating the forge or possibly a furnace, for there is glassy slag as well as forge cinder here. According to Straker (Wealden Iron, 294-5) its origin is likely to have been in the sixteenth century.
We have to thank our member Anne Dalton for contacting the present occupier of the house and obtaining permission for a survey to be made. This was done by Margaret Holt of the Wealden Buildings Study Group, to whom we are grateful.

Aliens in the ironworking areas of the Weald: The Subsidy Rolls 1524-1603, by Brian G. Awty, published 1984 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 4, article, pp.13-78, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

According to Giuseppi's Guide to the Public Records the Subsidy was 'a tax which from the reign of Richard II was imposed on persons according to the reputed value (on a very moderate estimate) of their estates, at the rate of 4s. in the pound for lands and 2s. 8d. for goods, those of aliens being valued at a double rate'. In practice things were not always so simple. In the mid-1520s, the Subsidy was combined with a kind of poll tax, resulting in the most comprehensive assessment of the century for Sussex. It gave rise to the sort of complexities and anomalies described by J. Cornwall in the introduction to his Sussex Record Society volume on that Subsidy. Later, during the financial crisis of Edward VI's reign we are looking at what are in fact 'reliefs' rather than subsidies. In some cases the rolls record only the amounts contributed, so that the actual assessment can only be arrived at by calculation. Because of this and because only just over ten per cent of the aliens were affluent enough to pay on goods, it seems simpler to reverse Cornwall's procedure by stating the tax paid rather than the value assessed. The proportion of aliens qualifying to pay on land was minute - Nicholas Jarrett is the only one who springs to mind.