Bibliography - Sussex Weald
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The Vale Lands of the Weald of Sussex, by William Marshall, published 1798 in Rural Economy of the Southern Counties (vol. 2, article, pp.92-163)   View Online

The Sea Coast of Sussex, by William Marshall, published 1798 in Rural Economy of the Southern Counties (vol. 2, article, pp.218-246)   View Online

On the Geological Structure of the Wealden District and of the Bas Boulonnais, by William Hopkins, published 1845 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-7, issue 1, article, pp.1-51)   View Online

Geologists have long recognized the fact of the approximate parallelism of lines of dislocation in those districts in which systems of such lines are found to exist; and in my memoir on Physical Geology, published in vol. vi. part 1. of the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, I have shown that such parallelism would, in many cases and under the most simple and probable con­ditions, be the necessary consequence of the simultaneous action of an elevating force acting beneath extensive portions of the crust of the globe. I also demon­strated that two systems of parallel dislocations might be produced by the same elevating force, the direction of the one system being perpendicular to that of the other. I also pointed out the circumstances under which, according to theory, there would be a necessary deviation from parallelism in these systems, and I indi­cated the relations which such deviations would bear, in certain general cases, to the boundary of the disturbed district, and to the particular configuration of its surface. On these points I proceeded farther, in theory, than geologists had gone in observation. There are still few districts, even in those countries with which we are geologically best acquainted, where observations have been made in suffi­cient detail to bring this subject, as a branch of descriptive geology, to the point to which I have carried it in theory.
Under these circumstances my attention was directed to the district of the Weald in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The Geology of the Weald, parts of the Counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hants., by William Topley, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E., published 1875 (London: Longmans & Co.) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries   View Online

On Sub-Wealden Exploration, by Henry Willett, F.G.S. and Others, published 1875 (The British Association for the Advancement of Science) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

The Great Forest of Sussex, by Thomas H. B. Graham, published 1893 in The Gentleman's Magazine (vol. 274, Jan to Jun, article, pp.260-271, London: Chatto & Windus)   View Online

List of Wealden and Purbeck-Wealden Fossils, compiled by Charles Dawson, published 1898 (7 pp., Brighton) accessible at: British Library

The Wonderful Weald and The quest of the crock of gold, by Arthur Beckett, published 1911 (London: Mills & Boon) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Historical Geography of the Wealden Iron Industry, by Mary Cecilia Delany, published 1921 (London: Benn Brothers Ltd.) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/502338] & West Sussex Libraries

Notes on the geology and structure of the country around Tunbridge Wells: With report of excursion to Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, High Rocks and Eridge. Saturday, May 20th, 1922, by Henry B. Milner, M.A., D.I.C., F.G.S., published 1923 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 34 issue 1, article, pp.47-55)   View Online

The following notes describe the geology of some forty square miles of country in the vicinity of Tunbridge Wells, stretching northward almost to Tonbridge and southward to Eridge and Boarshead in Sussex, and as far as Groombridge and Ashurst to the west, of which some of the main features were investigated by members of the Association during the excursion. The six-inch mapping of this area is a continuation of the author's work in the Weald, of which some results have already been published in these proceedings.
The Tunbridge Wells country presents many geological features meriting the attention of those interested in the Weald. Much to be learned from a detailed study of the Lower Cretaceous rocks as developed here, and from their modes of occurrence, has a wider significance than would at first be apparent from casual inspection; thus certain phases in the course of the evolution of the Weald as a whole are realised, the nature of the evidence permitting of a ready appreciation of the factors involved.
The normal Wealden sequence comprises (in descending order) Weald Clay (1200ft.), Tunbridge Wells Sand (180ft.), Wadhurst Clay (150ft.), and Ashdown Sand (400ft.); all four divisionsoccur in this region. In the paper above referred to, the author drew attention to the great practical value accruing from a petrographic study of the individual Wealden beds as an aid to geological mapping. The rocks of the district, by their general barrenness of fossils and by the marked similarities shown frequently by the clays and sands, serve to emphasize this point, especially in cases of repetition or elimination of beds by faulting, a prominent feature of the area. Consequently in the following paragraphs stress is laid on the petrographic criteria which have contributed so largely to the identification and differentiation of horizons in the field.

The Wonderful Weald and The quest of the crock of gold, by Arthur Beckett, published 1924 (3rd revised edition, London: Methuen & Co.) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12317][Lib 80] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Geology of the country between Goudhurst (Kent) and Ticehurst (Sussex): With special reference to the Excursion to Goudhurst, Lamberhurst Cousleywood and Wadhurst, Saturday, June 21st, 1924. Weald Research Committee Report No. 1, by H. B. Milner, M.A., D.I.C., F.G.S., published 1924 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 35 issue 4, article, pp.383-394)   View Online

The country included in this area lies to the east of Tunbridge Wells, and embraces the picturesque East Sussex-Kent borderland with the villages of Goudhurst, Lamberhurst, Wadhurst and Ticehurst, comprising a district of thirty-five square miles. It lies principally in the southern part of the Medway basin, though it also takes in a portion of the watershed between that and the Rother basin, the divide being formed by the high ground of Ashdown Forest (Crowborough) and Rotherfield to the west, continuing eastward to Wadhurst, Ticehurst, Cranbrook and beyond. Geologically and tectonically the main features of interest centre round the compound Crowborough-Ticehurst fold, extremely fractured in its eastern development, and in the relationship of that fold to the more northerly Chiddingstone-Pembury anticline, already alluded to in a previous paper.

Sheila Kaye-Smith and the Weald Country, by Robert Thurston Hopkins, published 1925 (ix + 225 pp., London: Cecil Palmer) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12467][Lib 15597] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Two Wealden Promontory Forts, by Eliot Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., F.S.A. and E. Cecil Curwen, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., published 1925 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 66, article, pp.177-180) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2151] & The Keep [LIB/500284] & S.A.S. library

Timber Exports from the Weald during the Fourteenth Century, by R. A. Pelham, B.A., published 1928 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 69, article, pp.170-182) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2154] & The Keep [LIB/500287] & S.A.S. library

Sussex from the Air. 3 - Wolstonbury & 4 - Chanctonbury and The Weald, by E. Cecil Curwen, M.A., F.S.A., published 1930 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. IV no. 9, article, pp.754-759) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2308][Lib 2309] & The Keep [LIB/500173]

Wealden Iron: a monograph on the former Ironworks in the counties of Sussex, Surrey and Kent, by Ernest Straker, published 1931 (xiv + 487 pp., London: G. Bell & Sons) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8299][Lib 2542] & The Keep [LIB/502224] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Wealden Glass: The Surrey and Sussex Glass Industry, 1226-1615, by S. E. Winbolt, published 1933 (Hove: Combridges) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2546][Lib 5996][Lib 8305] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

We congratulate Mr. Winbolt on his very pleasing volume, which contains the results of his very thorough investigation of a subject which owes its existence as a definite study very largely to his own efforts.
A great proportion of the book has already been made public through the good offices of The Sussex County Magazine, but there are several additional chapters giving the fullest particulars of the technique of glass-making, with many excellent illustrations, details of finds, as well as an appendix giving the actual methods used in glass-making as described in treatise by Theophilus, a very early authority.
The illustrations throughout are most interesting and to the point. The whole book is well got up and is an excellent specimen of the monograph in which present-day research embodies itself.

The Sandgate Beds of the Western Weald: Weald Research Committee Report, No. 17, by J. F. Kirkaldy, M.Sc., F.G.S., published 1933 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 44 issue 3, article, pp.270-311)   View Online

Our present knowledge of the Lower Greensand of the Weald is somewhat disconnected. The main facts conceming these beds are familiar; but owing to the absence of any general survey comparable with the special Memoirs of H.M. Geological Survey on the Jurassic and the Upper Cretaceous rocks, much remains to be done in the collection of local detail and also in the discussion of questions of correlation and other matters which need to be considered from a broad, regional point of view. In the well-known coast section between Hythe and Folkestone in Kent, the Lower Greensand has been divided into four main lithological units, the Folkestone Sands, the Sandgate Beds, the Hythe Beds, and the Atherfield Clay.

Roman Roads in the Sussex Weald , by Ivan D. Margary, published February 1933 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. IV no. 5, article, pp.99-100) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2203][Lib 8222][Lib 8861] & The Keep [LIB/500206] & S.A.S. library

Willekin of the Weald, by S.N.Q. contributor, published May 1933 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. IV no. 6, reply, pp.188-189) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2203][Lib 8222][Lib 8861] & The Keep [LIB/500206] & S.A.S. library

British Regional Geology: The Wealden District, by F. H. Edmunds, published 1935 (London: H.M.S.O.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Downs and Weald: A Social Geography of South-East England, by J. F. P. Thornhill, published 1935 (London: Christophers) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

The overstep of the sandgate Beds in the Eastern Weald, by John Francis Kirkaldy, published January 1937 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 93, issue 1-4, article, pp.94-126)   View Online

Comparatively little work has been done on the Lower Greensand of the eastern Weald for the last fifty years, whilst the current maps of H.M. Geological Survey are based on the original survey made under Topley prior to 1875. The general succession and fauna of the beds are fairly well known in East Kent, but in East Sussex, where the beds are thin, great difficulty has been found in the past in subdividing them and correlating them with the lithological subdivisions recognizable in other parts of the Weald.
Detailed mapping of the outcrop has, however, shown that in the extreme east of Sussex the Sandgate Beds overstep the Hythe Beds to rest on the Weald Clay. A similar overstep is traceable in the Boulonnais and in the boreholes of the East Kent coalfield.

A Wealden Ridgeway , by Ernest Straker, F.S.A., published May 1937 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. VI no. 6, article, pp.171-173) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12537][Lib 8863][Lib 8224] & The Keep [LIB/500208] & S.A.S. library

A Wealden Ridgeway (ref. p.171), by I. D. Margary, published August 1937 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. VI no. 7, reply, p.224) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12537][Lib 8863][Lib 8224] & The Keep [LIB/500208] & S.A.S. library

The Sussex Weald and Other Poems, by Rev. Albert J. Treloar, B.D., published 1938 (Northampton: City Press) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries   View Online

Notes of the Geology of the country around Haslemere and Midhurst, by J. F. Kirkaldy, M.Sc., F.G.S. and S. W. Wooldridge, D.Sc., F.G.S., published 1938 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 49 issue 2, article, pp.135-147)   View Online

A traverse from Haslemere to Midhurst involves the crossing of nearly 1,000 feet of the Lower Cretaceous beds and reveals the structure and physiography of the Weald in somewhat unusual light. We have made observations on this area for some ten years, and on the occasion of the Field Meeting the opportunity was taken of co-ordinating these observations and presenting a brief connected account of the geology of the district as a whole.

Charcoal Burning in the Weald, by late W. Ruskin Butterfield, published 1938 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. XII no. 9, article, pp.602-606) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2317] & The Keep [LIB/500183]

Unnamed Hill Ranges of the Weald, by L. C. W. Bonacina, published September 1938 in Geography (vol. 23, no. 3, article, pp.186-187, Geographical Association)   View Online

Wealden Ironworks in 1574, by Ernest Straker, F.S.A., published November 1938 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. VII no. 4, article, pp.97-103) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12536][Lib 8864][Lib 2206] & The Keep [LIB/500209] & S.A.S. library

The geomorphology of the rivers of the Southern Weald: Weald Research Committee Communication No. 28, by J. F. Kirkaldy, M.Sc., F.G.S. and A. J. Bull, Ph.D., F.G.S., published 1940 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 51 issue 2, article, pp.115-150)   View Online

In a recent communication one of the authors dealt with the evidence of periods of 'still-stand' shown by the bevelled spurs of the South Downs. The present paper is an attempt to extend the investigation over a wider area and through a greater period of geological time. It is hoped that by combining the evidence of the Downland spurs with that of the drainage plan, longitudinal profiles and drift deposits of the rivers Cuckmere, Ouse, Adur and Rother-Arun and the raised beaches and infilled valleys of the Coastal Plain of Sussex, a clearer picture than hitherto available of the events of the later stages of geological time in the Southern Weald will be obtained.

A Wealden soil bed with Equisetites lyelli (Mantell), by P. Allen, B.Sc., published 1941 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 52 issue 4, article, pp.362-374)   View Online

This modern-looking horsetail was first described and figured by Mantell in 1833. Since then the only important contributions to our knowledge of the plant have been made by Seward [11, pp. 24-27]. Until recently Equisetites lyelli was known only from stem fragments whose relations to the whole plant were uncertain, and from apical buds and leaf sheathes from different-sized and differently-proportioned stems. In 1938 the author located near the base of the Wadhurst Clay in the Weald, an extensive fossil soil bed containing E. lyelli. The subterranean parts of the plants are there preserved as casts in their original position of growth, and the detached aerial portions of the erect stems occur as fragments in the 1-2 ft. of overlying sediment.
It has thus been possible to obtain for the first time a fairly complete idea of the main features of the plant as a whole. In this paper a description of these features is given and certain geological aspects of the new evidence are considered.

Wealden iron ore and the history of its industry: Weald Research Communication, No. 32, by G. S. Sweeting, D.I.C., F.G.S., published 1944 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 55 issue 1, article, pp.1-20)   View Online

In 1925 and 1930, the writer contributed two small papers to the Proceedings on the geology of various areas in East Sussex from which much iron ore had been extracted in earlier times. In the 1930 paper, some notes were added on "The Wealden Iron Ore," and attention is, therefore, directed to this communication, particularly for chemical analyses of the ore.
To picture South East England with its present quiet and beautiful surroundings as an area of noise and smoke-laden skies would be a difficult matter. Such, however, were the conditions which prevailed in Sussex, Kent and Surrey during Tudor days. Sussex and Kent had from very early times been important producers of iron, and they were destined to become for a time the seat of the largest iron trade in the British Isles.
Iron being the most plentiful and accessible of the metals, it follows that it would be naturally one of the first to be employed by an early race. Though we have no certain knowledge of the beginning of the iron ore industry in South East England, we know that in early times the iron ore in the Weald was of such importance as to be noticed by Caesar before the Christian era, and by Strabo in 20 A.D. The Romans extracted iron on a large scale as is seen by the size of their workings; in fact, during their occupation, there was much activity all over the Weald and iron became one of its chief exports. This is proved by the abundant heaps of iron slag found at Maresfield, Westfield, Seddlescombe, Crowhurst and Ashburnham in Sussex, and at Cowden and Tenterden in Kent.

Notes on Wealden fossil soil-beds, by P. Allen, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D., F.G.S., published 1946 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 57 issue 4, article, pp.303-314)   View Online

The following appear to be the more significant of the new facts:

1. Both soil- and rootlet-beds are frequent in the strata examined. It follows that the basin of deposition must have been shallow during much of Lower Wealden time.
2. All but one of the soil-beds occur in transitional strata of very similar aspect. The upward change involved may be from dominantly arenaceous to dominantly argillaceous facies, or vice versa - which, appears to be irrelevant. Evidently, the conditions necessary for colonisation (by horsetails, at least) were strictly limited. The nature of the strata lead to the conclusion that colonisation was controlled by one or more of the following factors: depth of water, amount of movement of the water, size-distribution of the sedimentary particles, chemical nature of the sediment, rate of accumulation of the sediment. That other factors were sometimes limiting is shown by the occasional presence of similar transitional strata without horsetails.
3. Though the data are scanty, there are indications of a positive correlation between the lithological similarity of the soil-beds and the taxonomic similarity of the plants they contain.
4. The bulk of the recognisable plant-tissues are preserved as ferruginous substances. Carbonised and 'coalified' remains are unusual at all the horizons. Doubtless a phase of oxidising conditions formed part of the history of each.
5. Contemporaneous erosion was not normally severe. Where considerable, it was confined to the frontal (S.E.) margin of the delta-complex

An Early Trans-Wealden Trackway, by I. D. Margery, published August 1946 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XI no. 3, article, pp.62-64) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8229][Lib 2210] & The Keep [LIB/500213] & S.A.S. library

Flint Scrapers from the Weald, by G. P. Burstow, published November 1947 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XI no. 8, note, p.175) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8229][Lib 2210] & The Keep [LIB/500213] & S.A.S. library

Roman Ways in the Weald, by Ivan D. Margary, M.A., F.S.A. with a Foreward by O. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., published 1948 (287 pp., London: Phoenix House) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500162] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

It is probably true to say that Mr. Margary has done more to set the study of Roman roads on an objective and scientific basis than any previous student of the subject, and this in spite of the fact that his work has been practically confined to the geographical area of the Weald in the south-east corner of England. This is because he has set a standard of objectivity and scientific method which will be a minimum requirement in future research. In Sussex alone he has by such methods discovered and recorded well over 100 miles of previously unknown, and in some cases unsuspected, Roman roads - a feat of which any archaeologist might well be proud. The importance of this work lies not so much in the thrill of discovery, nor even in the ability to add detail to the map of Roman Britain, as in the light these new discoveries throw on the social and economic problems of the Romano-British countryside. For while the wealth of the Weald lay in iron, that of the Downs consisted in corn, and the distribution of the Roman roads in the Weald shows how the Romans exploited both.
287 pages, 15 plate and numerous maps.

A Geographic Study of Roads through the Sussex-Surrey Weald to the Coast, 1700-1900, by Gwendolen J. Fuller, 1950 at University of London (Ph.D. thesis)

Wealden Iron, by G. H. Kenyon, published November 1952 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XIII nos. 11 & 12, article, pp.234-241) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8231] & The Keep [LIB/500215] & S.A.S. library

Weald of Kent and Sussex, by Sheila Kaye-Smith, published 1953 (viii + 232 pp., London: Robert Hale Ltd.) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

The Weald, by Sidney William Wooldridge and Frederick Goldring, published 1953 (London: Collins)

A Contribution to the Historical Geography of the Western Weald, by E. M. Yates, 1953 at University of London (M.Sc. Thesis)

Wealden Iron, by G. H. Kenyon, published November 1953 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XIII nos. 15 & 16, note, pp.321-322) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8231] & The Keep [LIB/500215] & S.A.S. library

Building Styles in the Weald, by Joseph S. Gordon, published 12 July 1956 in Country Life (article, pp.73-74)

Geology of the Central Weald: The Hastings Beds, by Percival Allen, published 1958 (Geologists' Association Guide no. 24, Geologist's Association)

Subdivision of the Weald Clay in Sussex, by J. W. Reeves, published 1958 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 69 issue 1, article, pp.1-16)   View Online

The monotonous nature and paucity of good exposures have discouraged attempts at subdivision of the Weald Clay in Sussex for more than a century. Using the oldest and youngest of a series of red clay bands occurring throughout the area as Index Horizons, the formation has been divided into three Groups. These are Group I, buff grey, Group II, red, and Group III, yellow. The detailed mapping of the Index Horizons and other beds has produced definite figures for thicknesses of the strata, and shown a very large increase in thickness as the formation is traced to the west and north-west from Eastbourne to Horsham. The Groups are lithological and have not yet been placed in any palaeontological zoning.

An Excursion to the Central Weald, by H. C.K. Henderson and E. C. F. Bird, published January 1958 in Geography (vol. 43, no. 1, article, pp.18-30, Geographical Association)   View Online

Burwash and the Sussex Weald, by James Goodwin, published c.1960 (170 pp., published by the author) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Wealden Landscape in the early seventeenth century and its antecedents, by J. L. M. Gulley, 1960 at University of London (Ph.D. thesis)

The Great Rebuilding in the Weald, by J. L. M. Gulley, published 1961 in Gwerin: A Half-Yearly Journal of Folk Life (vol. 3, issue 3, article, pp.126-141)   View Online

Some sections in the Lower Gault of the Weald, by H. G. Owen, published 1963 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 74 issue 1, article, pp.35-53)   View Online

Sections in the dentatus Zone of the Lower Gault in the Weald are described. The presence of the eodentatus Subzone at the Coney Hill sand-pit, Barrow Green, is recorded and a comparison is made with deposits of this Subzone exposed at the Shere By-Pass and at Folkestone. The benettianus Subzone exposed at Shere and in the Sevenoaks Brick Works are described and correlated with other known or possible occurrences in the Weald. The expansion of deposits of the dentatus-spathi Subzone in the northern Weald when traced westwards from Folkestone is demonstrated. In Kent and east Surrey the deposits are greatly condensed. In west Surrey the degree of condensation becomes less, and in east Hampshire the dentatus-spathi Subzone is little condensed and forms the bulk of the Lower Gault. In the Selborne area it appears that the transgression during the cristatum and basal orbignyi Subzones has removed all Lower Gault sediments above the dentatus-spathi Subzone. In Sussex there is evidence of an easterly condensation within deposits of this Subzone, and the presence of a nodule bed, comparable to the dentatus nodule bed at Folkestone, is recorded in the English Channel off Beachy Head.

Framed buildings of the Weald, by Reginald Thomas Mason, published 1964 (96 pp., Horsham: Coach Publishing House) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 28] & The Keep [LIB/502127] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Iron ore workings in the Weald Clay of the Western Weald, by B. C. Worssam, published 1964 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 75 issue 4, article, pp.529-546)   View Online

The location and extent of a belt of old workings for clay ironstone on the outcrop of the Weald Clay of parts of western Surrey and Sussex are described, and related to the stratigraphy and geological structure. Historical evidence for iron-working in the western part of the Weald is referred to. For the first time an estimate is made of the total production of ore from a worked ironstone bed in the Weald Clay. It is concluded that exhaustion of iron ore supplies was a factor in the decline of the iron industry in the western part of the Weald.

Gypsum Mining in the High Weald, by P. B. Ellis and V. Turnock, published April 1964 in Geography (vol. 49, no. 2, article, pp.127-128, Geographical Association)   View Online

Roman Ways in the Weald, by Ivan D. Margary, M.A., F.S.A. with a Foreward by O. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., published 1965 (3rd revised edition, 296 pp., London: Phoenix House) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

It is quite unnecessary to review at length a book which has long been established as a classic, essential to all who are interested in Roman Sussex. But we may congratulate the author, and ourselves, that a third impression has been issued. The more so as this enables Mr. Margary to make a few corrections, mostly confirmations of suggested routes, and to add an account of the road from Chichester to Silchester, unknown at the time of his earlier editions. The skill of the author's diagnoses and the lucidity of his descriptions are admirable. One would like to know how the Roman surveyors started their work; how they knew the exact positions of Silchester to the north-west and London to the north-east. For the first mile or so of the road from the north gate of Chichester is on the true alignment to Silchester, although this was abandoned after Lavant for a wide diversion to avoid unsuitable ground: similarly, Stane Street between Hardham and the border of Surrey is aligned on London Bridge, though the actual course of the Street diverges slightly from the true alignment at either end of this section.

The Glass Industry of the Weald, by G. H. Kenyon, published 1967 (231 pp., Leicester: Leicester University Press) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2545] & The Keep [LIB/502219] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The medieval glass-making industry was a closely localised one centred upon Chiddingfold and Wisborough Green, on the Surrey-Sussex border, in a remote and densely forested region on heavy clay. The use of the timber for fuel may have attracted it. Two main types of glass have been distinguished: 'Early' from 14th to mid-16th Century, and 'Late,' better, glass under the leadership of the Frenchman Jean Carré, 1567-1618, after which the industry migrated to coal areas.
It was investigated first by Rev. T. S. Cooper, of Chiddingfold, about 1900, and then by S. E. Winbolt whose 'Wealden Glass' is the only book hitherto published (1933) about the industry. This book was largely a reprinting of articles in the old 'Sussex County Magazine' and later work, in which Kenyon had taken a leading part, since he lived close by in Kirdford, showed the need for a more detailed study. This we now have in this thorough, well-balanced and interesting volume.
Chapters give an account of the early history, raw materials used, the structures and furnaces (only very fragmentary remains appear for the buildings were mere shacks), types of glass made, the administration of the industry and its marketing, and extensive notes on the glass-making families. There follows a detailed schedule and description of all the 42 sites at present known in the area, also of a few in other parts of Sussex and elsewhere in England.
The book has been very well produced by printers at Aylesbury for the Leicester University Press, with commendable accuracy. There were good reasons, no doubt, for going so far afield for this. The plates are clear and those showing the old industry working are most interesting, but they are all segregated in a bunch. There is a useful index.

Geology of the Weald, by J. F. Kirkaldy, published 1967 in Geologists' Association Guide (no. 29, article)

Forestry in the Weald: Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Eastern Hampshire, by C. A. Barrington, published 1968 (Forestry Commision booklet no. 22, 31 pp., London: H.M.S.O., ISBN-13: 9780117100015) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Subdivision of the Weald Clay in North Sussex, in Surrey and Kent, by J. W. Reeves, published 1968 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 79 issue 4, article, pp.457-476)   View Online

The subdivision of the Weald Clay into three Groups, using the oldest and newest of a succession of red clay bands, so effective in Sussex, is only possible in the extreme west of this northern part of the Weald: in an area lying roughly between the Victoria-Brighton and the Lewes-Croydon railway lines and in Kent over some eighteen square miles, of which Headcorn is approximately the centre.
Over the whole of some fifty square miles of the outcrop to the north of Tunbridge Wells, red clays appear to be completely absent, although the other normal beds of the formation occur. Elsewhere parts of the three Groups have been traced. Red clays are occasionally recorded in the exploratory borings for the Kent Coalfield. The majority of these occur in the Hastings Beds. They form useful index horizons in attempted correlation.
The thickness of the Weald Clay decreases as it is traced eastward across the area, gradually at first and then more rapidly over the last few square miles. That a decrease is taking place to the north is shown from records of borings.

Framed buildings of the Weald, by Reginald Thomas Mason, published 1969 (2nd revised & enlarged edition, 111 pp. & 20 pp. of plates, Horsham: Coach Publishing House) accessible at: R.I.B.A. Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The buildings of England. West Kent and the Weald, by John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, published 1969 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Wealden Iron: a monograph on the former Iron works in the counties of Sussex, Surrey and Kent, by Ernest Straker, published 1969 (reprint, xvi + 487 pp., Newton Abbott: David & Charles) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Medieval Clearances in the East Sussex Weald, by P. F. Brandon, published December 1969 in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (vol. 48, article, pp.135-153, ISSN: 00202754)   View Online

An attempt is made to define the extent and establish the chronology of the medieval clearances of woodland within a fragment of the Sussex Weald in relation to edaphic and other factors. The amount of clearing at different stages is first examined. The location of the cleared land is then delineated as accurately as the documentary evidence allows and an estimate is made of the extent of residual woodlands and waste c. 1500. Three case studies have been made of particularly well-documented areas as samples of the evolving agrarian landscape. In these case-studies, the value of post-medieval documents in throwing light on earlier developments is demonstrated.

Preliminary survey of the Iron Industry of the Western Weald, by P. J. Ovenden, published Spring 1969 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 1, article, pp.10-11) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The Weald, by Sidney William Wooldridge and Frederick Goldring, published 1972 (288 pp., London: Harper Collins Distribution Services, ISBN-10: 0002132508 & ISBN-13: 9780002132503) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Weald is one of the most wooded areas of the British Isles and although densely populated it preserves many of its natural beauties. A country of rolling downs, quiet woods and green fields, the Weald occupies the greater part of the counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, with a fringe of Hampshire. It has a marked community of its own, yet within the rim of chalk downs that forms its natural boundary is a remarkable diversity of sandy heathlands to rich loams, from waterless chalklands to tidal marshes.
Professor Wooldrige put the results of a lifetime's research and exploration into this New Naturalists volume. It remains an unrivalled introduction to the understanding and enjoyment of this lovely region and of its natural history in the widest sense.

Gideon Algernon Mantell LLD FRCS FRS (1790-1852). Surgeon and geologist: "Wizard of the Weald"., by A. D. Morris, published February 1972 in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (vol 65, issue 2, article, pp.215-221) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/504062]   Download PDF

Rails Across the Weald, by Surr Carl Newton, published 1 April 1972 (24 pp., Lewes: East Sussex County Council, ISBN-10: 0900348046 & ISBN-13: 9780900348044) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/504702] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Materials found on Wealden Iron sites, by Dennis Hemsley, published Spring 1972 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 3, article, p.7) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

Chemistry and the Wealden Iron Industry, by P. J. Ovenden, published Summer 1972 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 4, article, pp.3-10) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The future development of industrial archaeology, particularly in the study of bygone technology, may well depend on the systematic application of chemistry, metallurgy, and mineralogy. Since smelting is a chemical process that may be of archaeological interest, the systematic application of chemistry to the Wealden iron industry cannot be avoided for much longer. What is required is not the odd analysis to round off a paper on a hitherto unknown site, but a standard scheme to be applied without exception, whereby a comprehensive body of data may be steadily built up with a view to resolving the more general archaeological problems. It is the purpose of this article to discuss the nature of these problems, and to indicate the type of chemical information and some of the difficulties in the way.

Aliens in Wealden Iron Districts 1524-5, by Joseph Pettitt, published Summer 1972 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 4, article, pp.11-14) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

Straker and Schubert both record the presence of aliens in Hartfield in and after 1496. Such aliens had come from the Continent to work the new (indirect) process of ironmaking in blast furnaces and hammer forges. The writers also made use of parish registers, none earlier than 1538, and naturalization (denization) lists dating from 1544.1 Neither made use of the Subsidy Rolls of 1524-5.2 These may throw light on the spread of the new process. They are taxation lists and comprehend a wide social range from gentry to labourer - and alien. Nobility and clergy were excluded, hence the term "Lay".

Marinus and Wealden Iron, by C. F. Tebbutt, published Summer 1972 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No 4, shorter note, pp.21-22) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

New Look at River Capture and at the Denudation History of the Weald, by B. C. Worssam, published 1973 (Report of the Institute of Geological Sciences, no. 73/17 , London: H.M.S.O.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

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.

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.)

The Roman iron industry of the Weald and its connexions with the Classis Britannica, by Henry Cleere, published 1975 in The Archaeological Journal (vol. 131, article, pp.171-199)   View Online

Although iron working had begun on the Weald margins before the Roman invasion, 36 sites of known RB date can be listed in the High Weald and near the coast. The western group of sites was possibly in the hands of civilians trading to London overland; the eastern group relied primarily on river and sea communications. The Classis Britannica was controlling these eastern sites and the estuarine port at Bodiam between mid-2nd and mid-3rd century. Decline of the Wealden industry was partly due to over-exploitation of resources, but pirate raids may have forced closure (and perhaps removal to the Forest of Dean) in mid-3rd century.

Wealden of the Weald: a new model, by P. Allen, published 1975 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 86 issue 4, article, pp.389-437)   View Online

An alternative to the deltaic model is presented. The Weald is seen as a subsiding graben-basin, with 'Macaraibo' sedimentary features, spasmodically open to the sea and margined by active horsts.
Channel-facies are commoner in the Wealden sand and clay formations than previously suspected. The 'normal' environment was a variable-salinity coastal mudplain with lagoons and sandy water-courses loosely connected north-westwards with the East Anglian Sea. Channel patterns fluctuated across the low ? high sinuosity transition. Periodically, increased riverflow transformed parts of the basin into sandy braidplains, culminating sometimes in coalescent alluvial fans. These interruptions were brief and generated by marginal upfaulting of surrounding blocks combined with attendant climatic changes. Large expanses of alluvial plain were bare of trees and bushes, but supported rich growths of herbaceous pteridophytes where deposition and erosion became inactive temporarily. Herds of dinosaur travelled freely across the basin and maintained themselves in it. The climate was warm, with marked wet and dry seasons and, possibly, diurnal rhythms in precipitation. Its general trend was towards 'amelioration', as though Britain was leaving the Purbeck semiarid zone and moving across the warm temperate belt.
Following mid-Purbeck earth movements and the final Cinder Bed transgression, the London-Kent horsts dominated Hastings times, being the main suppliers of arenaceous sediment and controlling water-salinity by acting as imperfect barriers against further inroads by the northern sea. On two occasions (Ashdown and Lower Tunbridge Wells formations) the channel-networks merged to build up a single braidplain spanning the basin. Bedload from Wessex and the Isle of Wight stopped short at the Hampshire-Sussex border, though some Norman sand may have reached south-east Sussex. During Weald Clay times the London and Kent blocks ceased to be important sources of sediment, the former letting in the muddy 'Snettisham' Sea voluminously. Several of the brackish-marine inundations sprinkled East Anglian sand across the north-west Weald, mixing it with 'London' gravel gathered up in passing. But most of the sand, now sparse, was generated by jolts in distant Cornubia and Armorica, rejuvenating the rivers and causing the Wessex alluvia to probe the western Weald. After their Horsham première the movements weakened, the younger sands reaching less far eastwards and becoming more restricted to their channel systems. Least affected by tectonic and marine influences were the eastern parts of the basin. The regional palaeoslope in the Anglo-French area seems to have tilted northeast, away from the ruptured continental margin, preluding increased spreading rates in the mid-Cretaceous Atlantic.
There is no room in the new model for large-scale classical deltaic processes or for the traditional derivation of the immature 'western' detritus from Hercynian granites (or any other granites). The model removes some previous difficulties, e.g. the small sizes of the London catchments, the rapidity of many sedimentological changes and the paradox that both marine and fluviatile invasions appear to come from the same general direction.
In the field, the well-known 'Rocks' (massive sandstone members) become the merged multistorey networks of braided channel-fills formed during climactic phases of uplift and river-rejuvenation on the basin margins.

The structure of the Weald - a review, by R. D. Lake, published 1975 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 86 issue 4, article, pp.549-557)   View Online

Regional analyses of the structure of sedimentary basins distinguish structures reflecting basement structures from later tensional phase structures within the basin-fill. The effects of overburden-thickness and stratal competence are also considered. In the Weald, discrete structural zones are identified in the strata beneath the Weald Clay which can be related to inferred basement structures, which, in turn, have counterparts in France. Borehole evidence suggests that the Mesozoic structures were initiated at the basement-fill interface rather than forming direct continuations of Palaeozoic structures.

The economic geology of the Weald, by D. E. Highley, published 1975 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 86 issue 4, article, pp.559-569)   View Online

The major proportion of the minerals of economic importance in the Weald is consumed by the construction industry. These minerals include sand and gravel for aggregate, clay for brick manufacture, chalk for cement, limestone (ragstone) for roadstone, and gypsum for plaster, plasterboard and cement manufacture. In addition the Weald is a major source of silica sand, used in glass-making and for foundry purposes, and also of fuller's earth. The geological distribution of these minerals is described, together with an account of their quality, present exploitation and industrial usage.

The soils of the Weald, by S. G. McRae and C. P. Burnham, published 1975 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 86 issue 4, article, pp.593-610)   View Online

The soils of the Weald are determined largely by the nature of the underlying solid geology and the widespread distribution of superficial drift. Thirteen soil associations have been recognised and a map and extended legend are presented. For each association a general account of the soils is given, together with a discussion of the practical utilisation of the soils. Pedological problems worthy of future study are presented.

Wealden Gunfounding: An Analysis of its Demise in the Eighteenth Century, by Howard C. Tomlinson, published August 1976 in The Economic History Review (vol. 29 issue 3, article, pp.383-400)   View Online

Stratigraphy of the Weald Clay, by B. C. Worssam, published 1978 (Report of the Institute of Geological Sciences, no. 78/11, London: H.M.S.O.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Wealden Ironmasters in the Age of Elizabeth, by Jeremy Goring, published 1978 in Wealth and Power in Tudor England (article, Athlone Press, University of London)

The above is the title of a chapter contributed by Dr J. J. Goring to E. W. Ives et al (eds), Wealth and Power in Tudor England (Athlone Press, University of London, 1978), and is a confident and succinct account of his subject. This confidence comes from a thorough and exhaustive research into many of the surviving relevant documents that throw light on the Elizabethan ironmasters, their business methods, financial success or otherwise, social aspirations and religious beliefs.
The author first explains what he regards as the definition of an ironmaster, actually not a contemporary term, and accepts J. W. Gough's definition of an industrial entrepreneur from his The Rise of the Entrepreneur (1969): 'He is more than just a manager; he is a leader in business, an initiator, a policy maker. He must either himself supply capital or have some control over the supply of it. He must also be a producer or developer and be personally involved in his enterprise, although not necessarily alone in it.' The word ironmaster, by Dr Goring's definition, is not applied to people who were merely owners or managers or ironworks but only to those who had a definite stake in the business. From the well-known 1674 lists 61 men were judged to qualify under the above definition. These again can be subdivided into tenants and owner-occupiers, and further subdivisions can be made.

Some Roman Blooms from the Weald, by C. F. Tebbutt, published 1978 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No. 14, report, pp.2-4) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

Following a second report on Cow Park bloomery, Pippingford, in Bulletin 12 (1977) and the completion of its excavation, further details and possible conclusions have become apparent.

The 1574 Lists of Wealden Ironworks, by C. S. Cattell, published 1979 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 117, article, pp.161-172) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7497] & The Keep [LIB/500312] & S.A.S. library

Sources for the History of the Wealden Iron Industry in the Public Record Office. Part 1: Inquisitions, by Sybil M. Jack, published 1980 in Wealden Iron Research Group (First Series No. 17, article, pp.12-14) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506558]   Download PDF

The proposed High Weald Area of outstanding natural beauty: the use of landscape appraisal in the definition of its boundaries, by Margaret A. Anderson, published 1981 in Landscape Research the journal of the Landscape Research Group (vol. 6, issue 2, article, pp.6-10)   View Online

Wealden Bloomery Iron Smelting Furnaces, by Charles Frederick Tebbutt, published 1981 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 119, article, pp.57-64) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7989] & The Keep [LIB/500306] & S.A.S. library

Sources in the Public Record Office for the History of the Wealden Iron Industry - Part 2, by Sybil M. Jack, published 1981 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 1, article, pp.7-11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

Ironworks in lawsuits
Lawsuits are the most likely source of information on the private ownership and use of property in the 16th and 17th centuries, although they are tricky to use except where the judgement can be recovered and matched to the pleadings. The formal proceedings at common law, kept in Latin and according to rules designed for lawyers rather than laymen, may yield valuable material, but they are hard of access, as the contemporary indexes are designed to identify people, not causes.

The Weald: A Geological Field Guide, by Wes Gibbons, published 11 May 1981 (118 pp., Allen & Unwin, ISBN-10: 0045540047 & ISBN-13: 9780045540044) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Continental Origins of Wealden Ironworkers, 1451-1544, by Brian G. Awty, published November 1981 in The Economic History Review (vol. 34 issue 4, article, pp.524-539)   View Online

The Pays de Bray in northern France is shown to be the area whence many ironworkers came to the Weald after 1490. The records of denization (1544) and contemporary Subsidy Rolls are used to show the French places of origin and where in the Weald surviving immigrants were working.

"The Art and Craft of Chicken Cramming": Poultry in the Weald of Sussex, 1850-1950, by Brian Short, published 1982 in Agricultural History Review (vol. 30, no. 1, article, pp.17-30)   Download PDF

Vernacular buildings on early maps of the Weald, by E. M. Yates, published 1982 in Ancient Monuments Society (vol. 26, article, pp.210-226)

Sources in the Public Record Office for the History of the Wealden Iron Industry - Part 3, by Sybil M. Jack, published 1982 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 2, article, pp.21-30) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

Ironworks as Crown Property
If the iron mills stood on the king's own lands, one would expect to find some record of them in one or other of the royal courts. This is also true where mills stood on lands which subsequently came into royal hands and where the records of those lands, or evidence, therefore came to the king. Records relating to property which at some point had been in Crown hands as royal property may be found in the Special Collections. These include rentals and surveys, ministers accounts, court rolls, and even extents, put together from the records of a number of different exchequer departments with a blithe disregard for their archival origins, and the administrative practices which produced them. They include, for example, court rolls for John Gresham's manor of Mayfield from 1546 to the end of Edward VI's reign, but these, alas, only contain formal records of land transfers and no reference to iron mills.

Floodplain Development in, and the Vegetational History of, the Sussex High Weald and some Archaeological Implications, by Robert G. Scaife and P. J. Burrin, published 1983 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 121, article, pp.1-10) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8902] & The Keep [LIB/500308] & S.A.S. library

Marchant's and Hayleigh Farms in Streat and Westmeston: the Development of two Farms on the Weald Clay c.1500 to 1980, by S. Farrant, published 1983 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 121, article, pp.119-128) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8902] & The Keep [LIB/500308] & S.A.S. library

Gentry Wealth on the Weald in the Eighteenth Century: the Fullers of Brightling Park, by R. V. Saville, published 1983 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 121, article, pp.129-148) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8902] & The Keep [LIB/500308] & S.A.S. library

Sources in the Public Record Office for the History of the Wealden Iron Industry - Part 4, by Sybil M. Jack, published 1983 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 3, article, pp.25-32) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

A question above all others concerned with the industry which exercised the minds of Tudor governments was that of the manufacture and sale of ordnance. The traditional story is that Henry VIII encouraged this. He summoned named gunfounders - Peter Bawd and van Cohen - from the continent for the purpose, and iron ordnance was successfully cast at Buxted in 1543. This version we owe to Stowe and to others who were apologists for the Tudor monarchy. Other evidence that Henry was an active moving spirit is hard to find. It is certainly true that Bawd and Cohen had been in his employ as gunfounders - they had been since at least 1538.

Saxon Settlement and Land Division in the Western Weald, by Mark Gardiner, published 1984 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 122, article, pp.75-84) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9140] & The Keep [LIB/500309] & S.A.S. library

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.

Iron industry of the Weald, by Henry Cleere, D. Crossley and B. C. Worssam, published 31 December 1985 (367 pp., Leicester Uniersity Press, ISBN-10: 0718512138 & ISBN-13: 9780718512132) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9491] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The 1574 Lists of Ironworks in the Weald. A Re-examination, by Edmund Teesdale, published 1986 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 6, article, pp.7-41, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506559]   Download PDF

The documents often referred to as 'the 1574 lists' constitute the most extensive and important collection of evidence available as to the size of the Wealden iron industry in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, and as to the ownership, management and location of individual furnaces and forges at that time. The lists consist of a number of documents, all to be found in the State Papers Domestic of Elizabeth I, with the exception of one document of three folios to be found among the Stow manuscripts in the British Library. Several of the documents are, apart from the spelling, so similar in content as to leave no doubt that they are no more than copies. Others reveal significant differences, differences as to personal ownership or management, and the number of works or sites attributed to each individual. These documents have, from time to time, received comment by writers on the Wealden iron industry, but none of the studies made, although helpful in many ways, has been entirely without some confusion or imprecision. The present paper is a fresh attempt to describe, analyse, compare and evaluate the documents, firstly with the object of providing a clearer and more comprehensive guide to the lists than has hitherto existed; and secondly, of reaching some conclusion as to which of the documents contains the most reliable evidence about the owners or managers and the extent of the works they held.

Index to the Gazetteer of Water-powered Sites in The Iron Industry of the Weald, by David Combes, published 1987 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 7, article, pp.38-43, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506560]   Download PDF

The index contains only the names of those persons having a direct interest in a site and for which there is some documentary evidence. Names of persons whose connection is purely circumstantial have been omitted.

Agriculture: The Sussex Weald, by Michael Knight, published 1988 (pamphlet, 48 pp., Brighyon: Manpower Services Commission) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9984] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Marriage in the 'Prohibited Periods' in the Mid-Sussex Weald, 1541-1799, and Marriage by Day of Week, by John Caffyn, published 1988 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 126, article, pp.167-178) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10371] & The Keep [LIB/500303] & S.A.S. library

Building Practices in the Eastern Weald around 1700, by John H. Farrant, published 1988 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 126, historical note, pp.248-251) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10371] & The Keep [LIB/500303] & S.A.S. library

Historic Buildings in Eastern Sussex. Vol 5 - Domestic Building in the Eastern High Weald 1300-1750. Part 1 Wall Construction, by David Martin and Barbara Martin, published 1 February 1989 (142 pp., Hastings Area Archaeological Papers, ISBN-10: 090412410X & ISBN-13: 9780904124101) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Wealden buildings: studies in the timber-framed tradition of building in Kent, Sussex and Surrey in tribute to R.T. Mason, edited by John Warren, published 1990 (xi + 232 pp., Horsham: Coach Publishing, ISBN-10: 0902608061 & ISBN-13: 9780902608061) accessible at: R.I.B.A. Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Archaeology of the Weald - a Survey and a Review, by Mark Gardiner, published 1990 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 128, article, pp.33-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11106] & The Keep [LIB/500301] & S.A.S. library

High Weald in Old Photographs, by Brian Harwood, published 25 October 1990 (160 pp., Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 0862997046 & ISBN-13: 9780862997045) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/503500] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Iron Industry in the Weald, by Mrs. J. M. Turnbull, published December 1990 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 9 no. 4, article, pp.144-147) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11999] & The Keep [LIB/501261] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

The Iron Industry of the Weald including a list of Immigrant Ironworkers c. 1490-1544

Historic Buildings in Eastern Sussex. Vol 6 - Domestic Building in the Eastern High Weald, 1300-1750, by David Martin and Barbara Martin, published 1991 (vii + 188 pp., Hastings Area Archaeological Papers, ISBN-10: 0904124118 & ISBN-13: 9780904124118) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Phosphatic concretions in the Wealden of South-East England, by Kevin Taylor, published 1991 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 102 issue 1, article, pp.67-70)   View Online

Phosphatic concretions are reported from several locations in the Wealden sediments of South-east England. The occurrence of such concretions in the Wealden sediments has not previously been recognised and in some cases in the past they may have been mistaken for siderite concretions. The predominant mineral in these concretions, as determined by X-ray diffraction analysis, is francolite, a hydroxy-carbonate apatite. Both primary concretions from the Weald Clay and reworked examples in the Hastings Beds have been recognised.

The changing use of land in the Weald region of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, 1919-1939. , by Carol Anne Lockwood, 1991 at Sussex University (Ph.D. thesis)

Reconstruction of a Wealden Gun casting Furnace, by R. G. Houghton, published 1991 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 11, article, p.18, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506560]   Download PDF

Gunfounding in the Weald in the Sixteenth Century, by Edmund Teesdale, published December 1991 (142 pp., Trustees of the Royal Armouries, ISBN-10: 0948092173 & ISBN-13: 9780948092176) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13026] & The Keep [LIB/502221] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This is the first study of the formative years of gunfounding in the Weald of Sussex and Kent. It looks in detail at the development of this industry and focuses on the men who developed the technology, analysing their output and success

Small farms in a Sussex Weald parish, 1800-60, by June A. Sheppard, published 1992 in Agricultural History Review (vol. 40, no. 2, article, pp.127-141)   Download PDF

The Sussex Weald is an area where many small farms survived into the nineteenth century, and their fate in Chiddingly parish between 1800 and i860 is explored. They thrived up to 1815; between 1816 and 1842, nearly half were lost, many of the remainder changed from owner- occupancy to tenancy, and a few additional ones appeared on newly-enclosed land; after 1842, changes were few. The timing points to the post-Napoleonic agricultural depression as the fundamental cause of change, mediated by a range of personal and holding characteristics that resulted in varying ability to withstand economic pressure. Changes were greater during this depression, than during those of the early eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries, because the small farmer's cash outgoings, especially in paying his poor rates, frequently exceeded his income.

The Wealden Glass Industry Revisited, by David Crossley, published 1994 in Indutrial Archeology Review (vol. 17, issue 1, article, pp.64-74) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12761]

Aspects of building construction within the eastern High Weald of Sussex, by D. Martin, D. F. Stenning and D. D. Andrews, published 1994 in Cressing Conference (article, pp.74-78)

Industry in the Countryside: Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century, by Michael Zell, published 24 March 1994 (xv + 257 pp., Cambridge University Press, ISBN-10: 0521445418 & ISBN-13: 9780521445412) accessible at: British Library & East Sussex Libraries

Industry in the Countryside is a wide-ranging and readable study of the nature of manufacturing before the Industrial Revolution. It examines the widely-debated theory of 'proto-industrialisation', drawing on data from the Kentish Weald - an area which was already a centre of cottage industry in the Tudor era and was also the earliest rural manufacturing region to 'de-industrialise'. The book analyses the Wealden textile industry from its workforce to its industrialists and emphasises the ubiquity of dual employment among textile workers. It explores the local context of cottage industry, investigating the pattern of landholding and inheritance, the local farming regime, and the demographic background to rural industrialisation. Zell outlines what type of local economy became the site of this so-called 'proto-industry' and shows the impact of cottage industry on the people of such regions. He concludes by asking, is there anything in the 'proto-industrialisation' model?

Medieval settlement and society in the eastern Sussex Weald before 1420, by Mark Francis Gardiner, 1995 at University of London (Ph.D. thesis)

High Weald Landscape Assessment: East Sussex County Council Landscape Group, published 1995 in Landscape Design, the journal of the Landscape Institute (issue 246, article, pp.37-40)

Iron industry of the Weald, by Henry Cleere, D. W. Crossley and edited by Jeremy Hodgkinson, published 7 April 1995 (revised edition, 424 pp., Merton Priory Press Ltd., ISBN-10: 1898937044 & ISBN-13: 9781898937043) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12860] & The Keep [LIB/502218] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries   Download PDF

The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex form the site of the major concentration of ironmaking in Britain during two distinct periods of the island's history; during the Roman occupation of AD43-400 and in the 16th and 17th centuries. This book surveys the evidence derived from excavation, fieldwork, documentary studies and experimental archæology carried out by the Wealden Iron Research Group. It includes chapters on geology and topography of the region, the iron industry during the successive periods of operation, and the technology of the direct and indirect ironmaking processes, together with a detailed gazetteer of sites.

The geography and peasant rural economy of the eastern Sussex High Weald, 1300-1420, by Mark Gardiner, published 1996 (academia.edu)   View Online

The Geography and Peasant Rural Economy of the Eastern Sussex High Weald, 1300-1420, by Mark Gardiner, published 1996 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 134, article, pp.125-140) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13390] & The Keep [LIB/500296] & S.A.S. library

The Decline of the Ordnance Trade in the Weald: the Seven Years War and its Aftermath, by Jeremy S. Hodgkinson, published 1996 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 134, article, pp.155-168) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13390] & The Keep [LIB/500296] & S.A.S. library

High Weald Landscape Trail, West Sussex, published 1997 (pamphlet, Chichester: West Sussex County Council) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13572]

Forges in the late eighteenth century Weald, by J. S. Hodgkinson, published 1997 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 17, article, pp.13-23, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16400] & The Keep [LIB/506564]   Download PDF

From the second half of the seventeenth century the output of the Wealden iron industry had changed from being concentrated on the production of bar iron, through the close integration of furnaces and forges, to a specialisation in the manufacture of castings and, in particular, ordnance. This trend, which is reflected in the changing proportion of forges to furnaces, is demonstrated in the succession of lists which appeared during the hundred years from 1650. In them the reduction in output of the forges is very evident, and the petitions and pamphlets which often accompanied such lists point to the increasing dominance of Swedish iron in the eastern half of England, the market earlier served, in part, by the Wealden forges. Not only was the iron, that was imported from the Baltic, of a higher grade than the Wealden product but, despite export and import taxes and a long sea journey, was cheaper as well. The Crowleys, themselves manufacturers of ordnance in the Weald, were the largest importers of Swedish iron, at their extensive works on Tyneside. Thus the Wealden forges were deprived of a wider market by cheaper, imported iron, and reduced to working up the limited surplus iron from furnaces, the production of which was geared to casting guns.

The Ashdown Forest Dispute 1876-1882, edited by Brian Short, published April 1997 (vol. 80, vii + 303 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450416 & ISBN-13: 9780854450411) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14342][Lib 13720] & The Keep [LIB/500457][Lib/507863] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This volume presents a revealing case study in the environmental politics of Victorian England. On 13 October 1877 John Miles was cutting litter (bracken, heather, gorse etc.) on Ashdown Forest on behalf of his landlord Bernard Hale, barrister, J.P, Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex, and Ashdown commoner. William Pilbeam, one of Earl de la Warr's keepers, approached him and told him to stop cutting. Miles later recounted 'I went on cutting', thus initiating the Ashdown Forest case, brought by Reginald Windsor, seventh Earl de la Warr as Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell against Hale and Miles, to test the extent of Hale's common rights. Expensive legal opinion was hired by both sides since many commoners were titled and wealthy landowners; and William Augustus Raper, a Battle solicitor, was engaged to assemble evidence on behalf of the defendants. Some of this evidence is transcribed as the main body of text in this volume - over 100 depositions collected by Raper in 1878 and 1879 from elderly Forest residents.
Raper's visits to his informants' cottages were recorded in five small notebooks whose contents are not easily deciphered. This volume presents their full transcription, together with a contextualising introduction to the Forest and its customs and to the complex legal actions of 1876-1882. A short biography of each of the elderly deponents has also been included.
These narratives are invaluable sources for the history of Sussex, for genealogy, and for environmental, legal, economic, social and cultural history. Herein are recounted the main environmental and local political themes of this surviving area of Victorian open Forest, seen quite unusually from the perspective of rural working people.

Romano-British iron production in the Sussex and Kent Weald: a review of current data, by Jeremy Hodgkinson, published 1999 (academia.edu)   Download PDF

A succession of studies over the past sixty years has shown that iron making was well-developed in the Weald in the Romano-British period. Distribution maps showing the extent of the industry in the region have not, hitherto, attempted to indicate a measure of output for individual sites. This revision of data provides such an opportunity.

The buildings of England. West Kent and the Weald, by John Newman, published June 1999 (new edition, 688 pp., Penguin, ISBN-10: 0140710388 & ISBN-13: 9780140710380) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Gunfounding in the Weald, by J. Hodgkinson, published 2000 in Journal of the Ordnance Society (vol. 12, article, pp.31-47)

A gazetteer of medieval iron-making sites in the Weald, by J. S. Hodgkinson, published 2000 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 20, article, pp.23-31, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506567]   Download PDF

In The Iron Industry of the Weald, Cleere and Crossley provided gazetteers of Roman sites and water-powered sites. Medieval sites were identified only in the checklist of bloomeries, and no other details were given. The list below provides a gazetteer of such sites in the same format.

The supply and utilisation of vernacular building timber in the rural Sussex Weald 1500-1800. , by Jayne Claudia Kirk, 2001 at Sussex University (Ph.D. thesis)

The Lordship of Canterbury, iron-founding at Buxted, and the continental antecedents of cannon-founding in the Weald, by Brian G. Awty and Chistopher Whittick, published 2002 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 140, article, pp.71-81) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15109] & The Keep [LIB/500299] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Queenstock Furnace in Buxted is shown to have been built under the auspices of Archbishop John Morton, probably in 1490. The site was at Iron Plat on the Uckfield Stream, within Morton's lordship of South Malling. The furnace was out of blast in 1509, and also apparently in 1537, but it was mentioned again in the 1570s, when it will have been the Buxted site used by the gun founder Ralph Hogge. The furnace had most probably been put in blast again around 1512, will have been the Buxted 'iron mill' used by the Rotherfield ironmaster Roger Machyn in 1524 and was the probable source of the iron railings supplied for Rochester Bridge by Archbishop Warham, who died in 1532. Queenstock, and not Oldlands, was the site at which William Levett cast guns from 1543 onwards. The technique of casting iron guns vertically in stave-lined pits had been used in the duchy of J?lich in 1539 and 1540, and it is suggested that it was brought to Normandy in 1540 and to the Weald in 1543, as a result of the alliances of both Francis I and Henry VIII with William de La Marck, duke of Cleves. In the case of the Weald the intermediary could have been Nicholas Wotton, who in 1539 led the negotiations for Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves, and did not return to England until July 1541, when he took up the office of dean of Canterbury.

Two Middle Bronze Age palstave axes from the western Weald, by David Williams, published 2002 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 140, shorter article, pp.149-150) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15109] & The Keep [LIB/500299] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Building practices in the eastern Weald around 1700: an addendum, by John H. Farrant, published 2002 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 140, shorter article, p.152) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15109] & The Keep [LIB/500299] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Fernhurst Furnace, and other Industrial Sites in the Western Weald, by John Magilton, published 2003 (Chichester District Council, ISBN-10: 0850170133 & ISBN-13: 9780850170139) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14994] & West Sussex Libraries

Landscape Change in the Multi-functional Countryside: a biographical analysis of farmer decision-making in the English High Weald, by I. Bohnet, C. Potter and E. Simmons, published 2003 in Landscape Research the journal of the Landscape Research Group (vol. 28, part 4, article, pp.349-364)   View Online

There is growing recognition that the landscape implications of agricultural restructuring are complex, location specific and subject to various feedback effects. This paper explores how the economic decline of mainstream farming in the English High Weald is redefining the relationship between agriculture and the landscape, encouraging existing farmers to diversify their income base but also creating opportunities for new forms of land occupancy and management in a multi-functional countryside. Through a biographical analysis of a range of different types of land manager, it is illustrated how attitudes to land use and the occupancy of rural land are changing, distinguishing between holdings that are still seen primarily as sites of production by their farming family occupiers and those that are coming to be regarded chiefly as spaces for living by a new category of lifestyle occupier. The implications of this differentiation of the stakeholder community for future landscape management in the United Kingdom and the European Union are explored.

Kent and Sussex Weald, by Peter Brandon, published 1 September 2003 (280 pp., Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd., ISBN-10: 1860772412 & ISBN-13: 9781860772412) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Wealds of Kent, Surrey and Sussex had detractors over almost all their history but are now regarded as embodying England at its most characteristically delightful. The author explores how places such as Ashdown Forest and wooded west Kent, which were long disliked and even feared, have come to be perceived as jewels of landscape for leisure and recreation. He also traces the unremitting labour of generations of the region's small farmers to clear and settle a great expanse of wild country that has resulted in one of the most notable pieces of man's handiwork in Europe, and which has persisted to an astonishing degree relatively unchanged over a course of some eight centuries or more. This human story began as a saga of man against forest and continued as one of the interaction of man with trees - cared for to provide shipbuilding timber and fuel; to sustain the region's handicrafts; saved from the forester's axe to provide sporting pleasures and planted in pineta, arboreta and 'wild gardens' by Victorian and Edwardian 'nouveaux riches'. This book will enrich the enjoyment of those who reside in the Weald or live in sight of it and is essential reading for those whose interest in it is as landowner, farmer, ecologist, planner, conservationist, councillor or local historian.

Butts Cottage, Kirdford: The Conversion of Trees to Timber in The Rural Sussex Weald, by J. C. Kirk, published 2004 in Vernacular Architecture (vol. 35, article, pp.12-20) accessible at: British Library   View Online

In 1972, VA published an account of Oliver Rackham's survey of a late medieval timber-framed house at Stanton, West Suffolk, in which he deduced from the surviving structure the amount of timber the original had required, its cost, and how many trees of varying ages and sizes had been used to build it. Following the example of Rackham's work, a similar survey of a typical sixteenth-century timber-framed house in the Sussex Weald was carried out, which has not only revealed striking differences between the two regions in the type of trees used and the way in which they were worked, but also valuable information about the early-modern Wealden landscape and contemporary utilisation of its resources.

The early-modern carpenter and timber-framing in the rural Sussex Weald, by J. C. Kirk, published 2004 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 142, article, pp.93-105) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15489] & The Keep [LIB/500360] & S.A.S. library   View Online

The 16th and 17th centuries witnessed the peak of post-medieval iron and glass production in the Sussex Weald together with an upsurge in the building and re-modelling of local houses on such a scale that it has been called by some historians 'The Great Rebuilding'. The link between iron, glass, and construction was the wood and timber industry, which utilized an ancient form of woodland management to provide charcoal for the furnaces and oak for the timber-framed buildings characteristic of the region. There is evidence to suggest, however, that timber from woodland sources was not as freely available as might be thought, and that the use of hedgerow trees, especially for the smaller vernacular house, was a viable alternative. It is possible to tell from tool marks on timbers in a surviving building not only what type of tree was used and how it was worked, but also how many were needed to complete the frame. These facts reflect on the local availability of building timber and thus the contemporary management of timber supplies. The life and work of the carpenter, the figure at the centre of the wood, timber, and construction industries at this time, are not so easily understood. In the absence of written accounts probate inventories have been taken as the most revealing source of information on standards of living and work practices and in the process have added considerably to what is already known of the rural Wealden artisan in early-modern Sussex.

Environmental politics, custom and personal testimony: memory and lifespace on the late Victorian Ashdown Forest, Sussex, by Brian Short, published July 2004 in The Journal of Historical Geography (vol. 30 issue 3, article, pp.470-495)   View Online

The late Victorian period witnessed a growing concern for, on the one hand, environmental protection, and on the other, the 'human fauna', with their vanishing folk heritage, living on the margins of a capitalist rural economy. In connection with the Ashdown Forest legal dispute (1876-1882) over the common rights in this ancient Forest area in the Weald of Sussex, the young solicitor William Augustus Raper interviewed over 100 elderly residents to collect evidence of 60 years' gathering of litter (bracken, heather, etc.). Their depositions reveal much about the ways in which local environmental politics were a constituent part of custom and economy on the Forest, and how such contested rights underpinned the more elite conservation movement at this time. Although gathered for a specific legal case, the evidence reveals much about the interrelations between late-Victorian peasant communities and their environments, but also much about the individuals, and their social, economic and spatial relations. The material is assessed for its relationship to similar 19th- and 20th-century sources and for its use within historical geography, and there is also a discussion of the potential and problems associated with the use of transcribed oral evidence and auto/biographical material more generally.

Rethinking the early medieval settlement of woodlands: evidence from the western Sussex Weald, by Diana Chatwin and Mark Gardiner, published 2005 in Landscape History, the journal of the Society for Landscape Studies (vol. 27, issue 1, article, pp.31-49)   View Online

The assumptions underlying the interpretation of the early medieval settlement of woodland are challenged through a detailed study of the Weald in western Sussex. The patterns of usage of woodland in England were very varied, and each area needs to be looked at individually. Systems of woodland exploitation did not simply develop from extensive to intensive, but may have taken a number of different forms during the early medieval period. In one area of the Weald, near to Horsham, the woodland appears to have been systematically divided up between different estates. This implies that woodland settlement may not always have developed organically, but this type of landscape could have been planned. It is argued that the historical complexity of woodland landscapes has not been recognised because the evidence has been aggregated. Instead, each strand of evidence needs to be evaluated separately.

The acquisition and practice of working-class literacy in the nineteenth-century Sussex Weald , by Barbara Janet Allen, 2005 at Sussex University (Ph.D. thesis)

A Wealden guide I: the Weald Sub-basin, by Jonathan D. Radley, published May 2006 in Geology Today (vol. 22, issue 3, article, pp.109-118)   View Online

The Wealden strata of southern England provide a range of evidence for Early Cretaceous non-marine environments and their inhabitants, and a climate of warm to hot, 'Mediterranean' aspect. Because of its exposure, and its range of facies, distinguishing a variety of sedimentary environments, the Wealden has long fascinated geologists intent on providing an environmental model. This article is one of two intended to give an overview of Wealden environments, providing the geological framework of these strata. In this article, the type-succession in the Weald Sub-basin of south-east England is summarized and briefly interpreted.

A Wealden guide II: the Weald Sub-basin, by Jonathan D. Radley, published 19 September 2006 in Geology Today (vol. 22, issue 5, article, pp.187-193)   View Online

Part 1 of 'A Wealden guide' (Geology Today, 2006, v.22, n.3) provided an introduction to the non-marine Early Cretaceous Wealden strata of southern England, and an account of the succession that outcrops within the Weald Sub-basin. This second article focuses on the Wealden of the Wessex Sub-basin, exposed on the Isle of Wight and Dorset coasts of southern and south-west England.

Farm Buildings of the Weald 1450-1750, by David Martin and Barbara Martin, published 1 June 2007 (181 pp., King's Lynn: Heritage Marketing & Publications Ltd., ISBN-10: 1905223242 & ISBN-13: 9781905223244) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/502310] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

An ancient timber-framed house with its attendant farm buildings nestling amidst a patchwork of tiny hedge-lined fields makes an idyllic country scene. Such views, once common, are now rare. Few farms remain, and even where they do the traditional working buildings have usually been replaced by modern industrial-style sheds. Although the farmhouses survive, numerous gems of vernacular farm architecture - prominent landscape features in their day - have been lost during the past two or three decades, many without even a photograph to record them. This is a particular tragedy in the case of the High Weald of Sussex which was exceptional for the number of its early surviving farm buildings. This volume is a study of these under-rated buildings, and the culmination of twenty five years of research. The aim is to give a clear overview of how the region's barns and ancillary farm buildings wre designed to meet the needs of local agriculture and to indicate how these needs changed during the 300 years up to the mid-18th century. The text is augmented with an extensive selection of archive photographs, perspective views and architectural drawings, many illustrating buildings which no longer exist.

New Classical Houses in an English Arcadia, by Clive Fewins, published 5 July 2007 in Country Life (vol. 201 no. 27, article, pp.112-115) accessible at: British Library

Clive Fewins examines the work of architect Stephen Langer in the Weald of Kent and Sussex, inspired by the local vernacular

Wealden Iron Industry, by Jeremy Hodgkinson, published 14 July 2008 (160 pp., The History Press, ISBN-10: 0752445731 & ISBN-13: 9780752445731) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/502191] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

For two periods of British history - the first part of the Roman occupation and the Tudor and early Stuart periods - the Weald of south-east England was the most productive iron-producing region in the country. Looking across the tranquil Wealden countryside, it is hard to identify anything that hints at its industrial past. Yet 400 years ago, nearly 100 furnaces and forges roared and hammered there, the smoke from charcoal-making curling up from the surrounding woods and the roads bustling with wagons laden with ore and iron sows. Many British naval campaigns, including the Spanish Armada, the wars against the Dutch and The Seven Years' War, relied on Wealden iron cannon; the pressures of conflict driving forward the development of iron-producing technology. For a time the economy of the whole area was dominated by the production of iron and its raw materials, providing employment, generating prosperity and shaping the landscape irrevocably. Drawing on a wealth of local evidence, this book explores the archaeology and history of an area whose iron industry was of international importance.

In 1931 an eccentric stationer and bookbinder, Ernest Straker, published at his own expense a rather idiosyncratic book of nearly 500 pages entitled Wealden Iron. In the Preface he reported that, with the exception of a single brochure, ". . . no work speci!cally dealing with this exceedingly interesting chapter of our industrial history" had previously been published. The following decades saw the sporadic publication of papers dealing with different aspects of this very wide-ranging subject in the Society's Collections and elsewhere, but it was not until 1995 that the next major survey, The Iron Industry of the Weald, appeared. This was the fruit of nearly thirty years' work by the Wealden Iron Research Group (WIRG), founded at an enthusiastic meeting at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
Jeremy Hodgkinson has played an ifluential role in the development and work of WIRG, as a member of its Council for many years and Chairman from 1981 to 2005. He has contributed to fieldwork, excavations, and historical research, and now lectures widely on the industry. His stated objective in writing this book was "to present the story of the industry . . . for the more general reader".
Chapters on geology and raw materials, prehistoric, Roman, and medieval ironmaking, blast furnaces and forges, and iron production in the 16th-19th centuries are followed by others on the economic effects of ironmaking and on products, with special emphasis on cannon production. Two appendices provide guidance on where to see Wealden iron and a list of blast furnaces and finery forges, and there is an excellent bibliography. The book is well illustrated with photographs, maps, plans, and some superb reconstruction drawings by the late Reg Houghton.
The author has admirably achieved his objective of presenting this vanished industry to the general reader. I have just two suggestions for inclusion in the second edition that will assuredly be called for: a list of bloomery sites would be desirable, and also a glossary of ironmaking terms.

The Weald, by Sidney William Wooldridge and Frederick Goldring, published 2009 (288 pp., London: Harper Collins Distribution Services, ISBN-10: 0007316550 & ISBN-13: 9780007316557)

The Weald is one of the most wooded areas of the British Isles and although densely populated it preserves many of its natural beauties. A country of rolling downs, quiet woods and green fields, the Weald occupies the greater part of the counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, with a fringe of Hampshire. It has a marked community of its own, yet within the rim of chalk downs that forms its natural boundary is a remarkable diversity of sandy heathlands to rich loams, from waterless chalklands to tidal marshes.
Professor Wooldrige put the results of a lifetime's research and exploration into this New Naturalists volume. It remains an unrivalled introduction to the understanding and enjoyment of this lovely region and of its natural history in the widest sense.

The Distribution and Dating of Wealden Houses, by Nat Alcock, published 2010 in Vernacular architecture (vol. 41, article, pp.37-44)   View Online

A gazetteer of Wealden houses has been compiled from information provided by Vernacular Architecture Group members. The locations of the houses are mapped and correlated with settlement character, and the distinction between rural and urban Wealden houses reiterated. The forty Wealden houses dated by dendrochronology are also mapped and discussed.

Style and substance in the Weald: Clinton Lodge, East Sussex, by George Plumptre, published 14 July 2010 in Country Life (vol. 204 no. 28, article, pp.72-75)

The Weald Revealed: The Historic Environment Awareness Project, by Lyn Palmer, published August 2010 in Sussex Past & Present (no. 121, article, p.10, ISSN: 1357-7417) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500475] & S.A.S. library   View Online

You may have noticed a small plane buzzing systematically from east to west and back again above the High Weald at the start of this year and last. The plane was collecting information to be used in the Historic Environment Awareness Project, through a LiDAR survey. LiDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) 'sees through' vegetation; more about this fascinating technique and the survey results follows on the facing page.

LiDAR Surveying: Powerful imaging tool exposes hidden features, by Vivienne Blandford, published August 2010 in Sussex Past & Present (no. 121, article, p.11, ISSN: 1357-7417) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500475] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Recent developments of airborne digital survey for environmental mapping are opening a new chapter in the discovery and recording of archaeological sites from the air using LiDAR surveys. LiDAR has the potential to show many archaeological features previously hidden from aerial reconnaissance by woodland cover.

English Wealden fossils, by David J. Batten, published 2011 (Palaeontological Association field guide to fossils, no. 14, ix + 769 pp., Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN-10: 1444367110 & ISBN-13: 9781444367119) accessible at: British Library & East Sussex Libraries

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

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.

The non-marine Lower Cretaceous Wealden strata of southern England, by Jonathan D. Radley and Percival Allen, published 2012 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 123 issue 2, article, pp.235-244)   View Online

The non-marine Lower Cretaceous Wealden strata of the Wessex-Weald Basin (southern England) are introduced, with reference to the depositional model developed by Professor Percival Allen FRS (Allen, 1975). To demonstrate this model and the development of Wealden palaeoenvironments through time, Wealden sites have been selected for the Geological Conservation Review programme. Site selection rationale is briefly outlined.

The Wealden (non-marine Lower Cretaceous) of the Weald Sub-basin, southern England, by Jonathan D. Radley and Percival Allen, published 2012 in The Proceedings of the Geologists' Association London (no. 123 issue 2, article, pp.245-318)   View Online

The Wealden strata (non-marine Lower Cretaceous) of the Weald Sub-basin outcrop in the Weald district of south-east England; the Wealden type-area. The succession is made up of the mixed alluvial-lacustrine-lagoonal Hastings Beds Group below and the predominantly lacustrine-lagoonal Weald Clay Group above. Deposition was strongly influenced by tectonism amongst surrounding massifs, and the warm to hot, periodically wet Wealden climate. Geological Conservation Review sites within the Weald district are dominated by inland sites, but also include extensive coastal cliff and foreshore exposures near Hastings, East Sussex. The Wealden strata have been documented and interpreted since the earliest days of geological enquiry in Great Britain. Collectively, the selected sites demonstrate the key elements of a depositional model for the Wealden of the Weald, developed and published by Professor Percival Allen FRS (1917-2008) in these Proceedings (Allen, 1975). The sites are documented and interpreted, with special reference to research history, chronostratigraphy, structural context, palaeoenvironments, palaeobiology and palaeoclimatology. New directions for research are proposed, as applicable.

Houses of the Weald and Downland: People and Houses of South-East England c. 1300-1900, by Danae Tankard, published 30 April 2012 (224 pp., Carnegie Publishing Ltd., ISBN-10: 1859362001 & ISBN-13: 9781859362006) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/501551] & West Sussex Libraries

For many Sussex Archaeological Society members the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum (WDOAM), opened in 1970, has been a fact of life for many years, and this book comes as a refreshing reminder of the value of that collection and the enormous contribution it is making not only to architectural history but also to social, cultural and economic histories of the South East. The text is based on work undertaken by Danae Tankard as an associate on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership 2005-2008 between the University of Reading and WDOAM. The aim was to research and write the economic and social histories behind ten of the Museum's buildings, with the question to be asked 'what was life like for the people who lived in these houses?' In line with the WDOAM philosophy, none of the occupants were grand, and indeed the book reminds us also of the great service performed by the Museum in the shedding of more light on the lives of those who were on the margins of the poor and more 'middling sort', as well as the more prosperous yeoman households.
The book, well produced by Carnegie Publishing, presents material on eight of the houses (Walderton and the Beeding Toll House are omitted because the findings were too fragmentary), and includes one, Tindall's Cottage, which - at the time of writing this review - is due to be opened to the public for the first time on 'Sussex Day' 16 June 2013. The eight houses included are presented in approximately chronological sequence: the Hangleton medieval peasant house; late 14th-century Boarhunt (from the northern slope of Portsdown, Hampshire); the iconic late-medieval Bayleaf (from Chiddingstone, Kent); the earlymodern Pendean (West Lavington) and Poplar Cottage (Washington); the early 18th-century Tindall's Cottage (Ticehurst); the 19thcentury estate building, Gonville Cottage (Singleton) which is actually off site, and Whittaker's railway cottage of the 1860s (from Ashtead, Surrey).
. . .
Danae Tankard writes in her conclusion that she was impressed with the 'sheer tenacity' with which many people in Kent, Surrey and Sussex survived at all! We should be grateful to her for her well-researched but always readable insight into the lives of our ancestors. There are few quibbles: strangely she does not tell us where the Weald and Downland Museum actually is! It's easy enough, of course, to find that out for ourselves. We don't know why William Goldfinch's probate inventory was shown in the chapter on Bayleaf (pp.64-5) - there seems to be nothing in the text relating to him. One omission is perhaps any reference to the work of Jayne Kirk on the Wealden carpenter (SAC 2004; DPhil Thesis University of Sussex 2002) in the passage on carpenters in connection with Bayleaf.
This book is surely a model for the Sussex Archaeological Society, whose more unfocussed collection of buildings would benefit from similar treatment so that we could present the architectural history but also repopulate our buildings and contextualise them within Sussex society and economy.

Kent: West and the Weald, by John Newman, published 3 July 2012 (An expanded and fully revised edition of John Newman's classic survey of the buildings of West Kent, first published in 1969, Yale University Press, ISBN-10: 030018509X & ISBN-13: 9780300185096) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

East Sussex Turnpikes of the High Weald, by Brian Austen, published 2013 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 43, article, pp.31-47, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/43] & The Keep [LIB/507840]   Download PDF

Percival Allen FRS and the Wealden of southern England, by Jonathan D. Radley, published 18 October 2014 in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (vol. 113, issue 3, article, pp.677-693)   View Online

Percival ('Perce') Allen's lifelong research into Wealden sedimentology and palaeoenvironments (published 1938-2012) is summarized. His initial investigations, principally into the lower Wealden Hastings Group, led to publication of a deltaic model in 1959 involving eustatically controlled lithofacies architecture. This model was eventually replaced by a revised version in which alluvial fan construction was linked to uplift of source massifs. Today, the revised model and its subsequent refinements form the basis of southern English Wealden palaeoenvironmental interpretation, applicable to both the Weald and Wessex sub-basins in southern England. In later years, Percival Allen took a leading role in Wealden geoconservation, identifying and documenting Geological Conservation Review sites as vouchers for Wealden stratigraphy, palaeobiology, sedimentary processes and palaeoenvironments. A previously unpublished report written by Percival Allen is presented: an account of an excursion to Philpots Quarry, West Sussex, south-east England

The development of iron production in the Roman Weald, by Jeremy Hodgkinson, published 31 December 2016 in Agriculture and Industry in South-Eastern Roman Britain (edited by David Bird, pp.282-300, Oxbow Books, ISBN-10: 1785703196 & ISBN-13: 9781785703195)