INDUSTRIES 



will make a sow of six or seven hundred pounds 

 weight, at last it will contain so much as will 

 make a sow of two thousand pound.' Conse- 

 quently the hearth had to be renewed after every 

 period of blowing. 



The iron having been cast into sows had next 

 to be worked at the forge before becoming a 

 marketable commodity. The forge, iron-mill, or 

 hammer, was a building containing two open 

 hearths, the ' finery ' and the ' chafery,' and a 

 great hammer of some seven or eight hundred- 

 weight worked by a waterwheel : 



At the finery . . . they melt off (from the sow) a 

 piece of about three-fourths of a hundredweight, 

 which ... is called a loop. This loop they take 

 out with their shingling-tongs, and beat it with iron 

 sledges upon an iron plate near the fire, that so it 

 may not fall in pieces, but be in a capacity to be 

 carried under the hammer. Under which they, then 

 removing it, and drawing a little water, beat it with 

 the hammer very gently, which forces cinder and 

 dross out of the matter ; afterwards by degrees draw- 

 ing more water, they beat it thicker and stronger till 

 they bring it to a bloom, which is a four-square mass of 

 about 2 ft. long. This operation they call shingling 

 the hop. This done they . . . bring it to an ancony, 

 the figure whereof is, in the middle, a bar about 3 ft. 

 long, of that shape they intend the whole bar to be 

 made of it ; at both ends a square piece left rough to 

 be wrought at the chafery. At the chafery they only 

 draw out the two ends suitable to what was drawn 

 out at the finery in the middle and so finish the bar. 59 



The greater part of the iron manufactured in 

 Sussex, apart from ordnance, was disposed of in 

 bars, and it would seem that these were often 

 made of such a size that they could be easily 

 worked into ploughshares, the term ' share- 

 mouldes' being of frequent occurrence in 

 accounts. Thus in 1705 there were sent to 

 Maidstone 27 tons of iron from Waldron fur- 

 nace, 40 'it being all shearemouldes except one 

 ton of clout iron that Mr. Ludd had ; theire was 

 1388 barres of y e said 27 ton of iron.' Other 

 forms of iron bars were ' longe tire iron ' pre- 

 sumably iron tires for wheels, similar to those 

 about which complaint was made in 1300 

 ' short broades ' and ' meane broades.' There are 

 also occasional payments for the making of small 

 quantities of ' scrapp iron,' that is to say bars 

 made out of old iron and ' scrappes ' ; this was 

 charged at a higher rate, being counted ' dowble 

 worke,' 41 and there was the additional expense of 

 selecting suitable material, 11 in. being paid 

 in 1648 at Brightling to ' Russell the scrapper 

 for pickinge of soe much iron as made three 

 tunne and 1 7 hundred at 3" p tunne.' 42 All 



39 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 200-2. For an interesting 

 seventeenth-century inventory of implements used 

 in iron-working see ibid, xxxii, 29 



40 Add. MS. 33154, fol. 53. 



41 Ibid. 33156, fol. 65. 

 43 Ibid. 33155, sub anno. 



this was wrought iron, but a certain amount of 

 casting was also done at most furnaces, hammers 

 and anvils being of common occurrence, and a 

 certain number of firebacks being also made. 

 One of the earliest surviving ironmasters' accounts, 

 that of 1 548 for Worth Forest, 43 enters ' the value 

 of iiij plates for Chymnyes at y e furnes at 

 iijj. iiij^. the peece, xiijj. i\ijd.\ while those of 

 Waldron furnace for 1708 44 record the payment 

 of icw. 'for 2 large plates for Halland Halle,' 

 and of 125. 6d. 'for casting 5 small plates for 

 farm houses.' 



Returning now to the general history of the 

 Sussex iron industry, we find, in addition to such 

 works as have already been mentioned, that there 

 were iron mills of some standing in the forest 

 of Ashdown early in the reign of Henry VIII, 

 as in 1523 the steward of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster's lands in Sussex 46 enters '^14 13*. 4^. 

 from the farm of the iron mills in the forest of 

 Asshedowne not received, because they are in 

 the king's hands unoccupied, with all the imple- 

 ments and necessaries belonging thereto, because 

 no one will take them on farm,' and they con- 

 tinued for some years unworked until one of 

 them was leased to the earl of Wiltshire for a 

 term of twenty-one years. 46 Upon the death of 

 the earl in 15393 survey 46a was made of some of 

 his property, including ' The yron mylles called 

 Newebridge in the nether end of the Forest of 

 Asshedon,' in connexion with which the sur- 

 veyors report : 



One Nysell hath assignment of this mill of my 

 Lord Wiltsh', & yeres to come vij or thereabout. 

 The myll well repaired in all things. 



M d . that to melt the Sowes in ij forges or 

 Fynories ther must be iiij persones and at the Forge 

 to melt the Blomes ther must be ij psones. So ar 

 ther at every forge ij psones whereof the oone holdeth 

 the work at the hamo' and the second kepeth the 

 work hot. 



M d that oone man cannot kepe the hamo r bicause 

 the work must be kept in suche hete that they may 

 not shifte handes. 



They ar paid for every tonnes hameryng 6 s 8 d viz to 

 the hamor man and his man for every tonnes 

 drawing into Barres 6 s 8 d the said forgemen or 

 Fynors. 



M d that they paie to the lord of the soill for 

 licence to dyg or myne for core for every loode j d . 

 xiiij lood of orre or myne will make j tonne of yron. 

 The dygging of every tonne aft' viij d the lood dothe 

 amount to ix ! iiij d . The cariage of every lood to 

 the furnace iiij d amount in the tonne iij s viiij d for 

 cariage of a tonne of Soues to the forge x d . 



For xj lood of Cole delivered at the Furnace to 

 mak the tonne of Iron into Sowes for every load 



iij s xxxiij 5 , 



43 Exch. K.R. Accts. 501, No. 3. 

 "Add. MS. 33154, fol. 87. 



45 Mins. Accts. bdle. 446, No. 7157. 



46 Ibid. No. 7185. 



46a For. Proc. (T.R.), No. 197. 



245 



