More information : [TQ 6646 2967] Iron Age and Roman Pottery Found T.I.(1) A Roman bloomery 1 1/8 miles north of Ticehurst Road Station [now Stonegate Station TQ 658 271] is in a deep gill, the sides of which are largely ashes and cinder. Pottery finds from the site include Castor and Samian ware, and range from the second half of the 2nd cent. to the early 4th cent. Plus several pre-Roman pieces, one with a definite Belgic pattern. Other finds were a Roman tile stamped CLBR, a coin of Faustina the younger, and a Roman clay lamp. Pottery and a Roman tile from the site are in Lewes Museum.(2) Excavations over the years from 1960-68 revealed both residential and industrial quarters with timber structures and industrial installations. The main working area, some 150 ft square, indicates use in the late 1st and the whole of the 2nd centuries. One particular feature was a high temperature hearth (see plan) 7. but it is an open question as to whether it was used for forging or for ore-roasting - probably the latter. The industrial quarter possessed a road of hand packed iron slag leading from the furnaces to the tip heap.(6-10) Further excavations of the 'industrial area' were undertaken in 1968, in which the road was traced for another 40 ft. It would appear that by the early 3rd c the whole area was being used as a rubbish dump and that industrial activities had ceased by c 220 or transferred elsewhere, but the occupation continued. About the end of the 3rd c, however, the refuse area appears to have been resettled. In the rubbish spread no fewer than 22 tiles bearing the stamp of the Classis Britannica were found, which may indicate a change of ownership or control in the early 3rd c. Other finds comprised a bronze-melting crucible, bronze fibulae, lead patteras, coins, glass and an iron shovel - probably Roman. (See plan).(11) TQ 663294 Bardown bloomery. Beside its road leading down to the tip heap stood a substantial mid 2nd c timber-framed workshop with 2 dumps of charcoal resting on its clay floor. An area of heavy burning found in 1967 close to this building can now be interpreted as a permanent charcoal-burning hearth. An ore-roasting furnace found in 1962 also lay close at hand, while an area inside the workshop which had been exposed to fairly high temperatures is interpreted as a forging hearth. The workshop was either demolished or allowed to fall down, and the road spread over its former NE margin. By the first half of the 3rd c the whole area had become a dump for rubbish. No fewer than 22 stamped tiles of the Classis Britannica occurred in this layer.(12) TQ 662290 In the residential area of Bardown considerable traces of timber-framed buildings occurred, some with iron slag cobbled floors. At least 2 phases appeared, the earlier of the same half of the 2nd c, the later covering the early part of the 3rd c. The buildings were domestic and were associated with a baking oven of the later period, built of tile wasters, one which bore a fragmentary stamp of the Roman fleet (CL BR). Apart from pottery, small finds were few. The only coin found, on a later phase floor, was a denarius of Trajan AD 105.(13) TQ 663294 The first Classis Britannica tile found on this inland iron-site was discovered in 1951. Since 1965 Henry Cleer has brought to light 24 more tiles and present evidence suggests that the site was in action from AD 140-220.(14) Commander Beatty, landowner, Bardown House, indicated the area of the 1960-68 excavations, (the industrial and residential sites) centred at TQ 66322928. The excavations were filled in yearly and only the last year's site is still visible as a thinly-covered area within a pasture field. The sites lie upon a gentle, northerly slope below steeper slopes to the top of a ridge, and above very steep slopes to the river Limden. Upon these latter slopes is the industrial tip, centred at TQ 66312938 and extending along the slopes for some 50.0m and composed of black earth containing heavy concentrations of bloomery cinder, ash and charcoal. The river bed is littered for some distance downstream with cinder. Below the tip is a pondbay, 40.0m in length, and up to 3.0m in height on the upstream side, and 5.0m in height on the downstream side. The river has made a wide breach at the N end of the bay. There are no signs of an overspill channel, and no post-Md slag or cinder was found below the bay. Surveyed at 1:2500.(15) An interim report on excavations 1960 -1968.(16) Includes ore pits on the edge of the main working area and outcropping into the sides of the stream. Also evidence of further pits in surrounding fields. (17)
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