Margetts, A; (2021) Medieval and later Wealden iron workings at Ifield Forge and Mill, Crawley, West Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections , 158 pp. 121-145. 10.5284/1000334.

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Abstract

Archaeological investigations at Ifield Pond demonstrate the persistence of industrial land use within the historic landscape. During the medieval and early post-medieval periods, the streamside environment was chosen for the siting of furnaces and for the location of a finery forge. While the efforts of ironworkers were curtailed by war and economic impracticality, their engineering of the natural landscape endured. The water power created for the industry sustained two mills, the latest of which survives to the present day. The investigations at Ifield facilitated the first excavation of the site of a Wealden finery forge in around a quarter of a century. As well as the 16th–17th-century forge building, wheel pit and dam, the fieldwork also revealed mechanisms for draining the hammer pond, the first physical evidence of such features from an ironworking site.

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