Fuller Furnace I

Hammer and Furnace Ponds: Relics of the Wealden Iron Industry

 An introduction and guide 

By Helen Pearce (Pomegranate Press, Lewes, East Sussex; 2011)

This well researched book provides a concise history of Wealden Iron Industry and a gazetteer of hammer and furnace ponds in East & West Sussex, Kent and Surrey.  Included is a list of museums with relevant artifacts in their collections. It mentions a Fuller falconet or small cannon at the Tunbridge Wells Museum which is currently closed for renovations.

An abbreviated version of the book can be read at Helen Pearce’s website here: http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/index.htm . The site is periodically updated with revised and new information.

Page 76

Heathfield

TQ 594196

Ex 123 (Ordnance Survey Explorer Map)

Private Property – no access

John Fuller of Brightling built Heathfield Furnace in 1693. He was a primary ordnance supplier to Ireland, Sardinia and Naples as well as the British government: two of his guns stand by the Tower of London.  The ironworks ceased production in 1793.  The furnace pond was near the hamlet of Old Heathfield, but has since been drained and the bay damaged.  A chain of four pen ponds survives upstream within the private Heathfield Park.  Originally there were twelve according to a 1795 estate map. (Cleere & Crossley, 1995: 335), presumably necessary due to local watershed difficulties.

Another small pen pond survives together with part of the old brick spillway at TQ 594196, down a muddy public footpath. Old Heathfield can be reached by travelling west along the B2069 road, turning right down School Hill just before Cade Street . John Fuller’s great-grandson was the infamous ‘Mad Jack’ Fuller, who built several follies around the Brightling area.

Fuller one-pounder at Anne of Cleves Museum, Lewes.