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Summary

A group of bowl furnaces and pits, many containing iron slag were excavated as part of a programme of archaeological works along the route of a gas pipeline. No datable finds were recovered but radiocarbon dates from charcoal samples give a general date range of 400-200BC placing the complex in the Middle Iron Age.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Iron Age iron working site to north of Lower Ashridge

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PIT (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD)
• BOWL FURNACE (Early Iron Age to Middle Iron Age - 400 BC to 200 BC) + Sci.Date

Full description

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume I Text, 53-4, 166 (Report - non-specific). SDV347992.

The site comprised clay-lined furnaces with abundant iron slag and a number of other pits. No material dating evidence was found but a calibrated radiocarbon date of 391-210BC was returned from furnace 16.07.008 suggesting that the complex is Iron Age.

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume II Illustrations, Fig. 55 (Report - non-specific). SDV347993.

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume III Site Gazetteer, FTC16.07 (Report - non-specific). SDV347994.

A series of features were recorded during archaeological works along the route of a gas pipeline including six bowl furnaces and pits containing slag, hammerscale and magnetical material. One was radiocarbon dated to the Iron Age. There were also nine ditches.

Mudd, A. + Joyce, S., 2014, The Archaeology of the South-West Reinforcement Gas Pipeline, Devon. Investigations in 2005-2007, 95-100, 115-117 (Monograph). SDV359340.

Site 26. Tigley A, Dartington. No preparatory geophysical survey, fieldwalking or trial trenching had been undertaken on this plot. The archaeological features comprised a group of iron smelting furnaces and pits of less secure function, many containing abundant iron slag. There were also three small ditches which many have been associated. The furnaces were not well preserved, surviving only as pits with no evidence of their above ground forms. Several were also intercutting. No datable finds were recovered but six calibrated radiocarbon dates were returned from charcoal samples from the furnaces giving a general date range of 400-200BC placing the complex in the Middle Iron Age. It is considered to be one of the best recorded examples of an iron smelting site of this period. See report for full details.

Crew, P. + Quinnell, H., 2022, A Hoard of Iron Currency Bars from Coffinswell, South Devon, 70 (Article in Serial). SDV365464.

The Tigley A site had a cluster of eight non-tapping furnaces within a round house, with C14 dates of 4th to 3rd century BC. There were only some 18kg of slag which had low phosphorus, suggested to have been smelted from a rock ore, but this material was all found within a narrow trench and Starley rightly speculates that this could have been a much larger and more significant early ironworking site.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds

• FDV6196 - SLAG (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD)

Associated Events

• EDV5439 - Archaeological Investigations Along Gas Pipeline, South-West Reinforcement Project

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