The Wealden iron industry is the result of a combination of the natural materials being available for the making if iron. Those raw materials are:
- ironstone;
- fuel in the form of timber;
- power in the form of streams which could be dammed back into ponds to give enough water-force to work a wheel.
All were found in abundance on the Weald, and the medieval iron-making industry took full advantage of them.
A thousand years before, however, the Romans had made full use of the brown- and ochre-coloured stone in the Cranbrook-Tunbridge Wells area, and many of their roads there are the means of transport for the ore. In 1300, mention is made of iron-smelting at Tudeley ; and by the early 16th Century iron-works existed at Cowden, Ashurst , Tonbridge, Brenchley, Horsmonden, Lamberhurst, Goudhurst, Cranbrook, Hawkhurst, and Biddenden.
Waterpower was the means of operating the bellows in the furnaces and for beating the metal with hammers. Scattered through the Weald are ponds still to be found called ’Furnace Pond’ or ’Hammer Pond’. The iron was used for making household utensils, nails and hinges; and for casting cannon.
The industry was at its peak towards the end of Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Most works were small, but at Brenchley one ironmaster employed 200 men. The wars fought during the reign of Henry VIII increased the need for armaments, and the Weald became the centre of an ‘armaments industry’.
As better ore became available, and the use of coal as a fuel was found to be more efficient, the Wealden ore industry went into decline; and the Industrial Revolution spelt its end.
External links
References
- Kent History Illustrated (Frank W Jessup, 1966) from which these notes are written
