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	WEALDEN IRON RESEARCH GROUP www.wealdeniron.org.uk Registered Charity No. 281485

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FIND OUT MORE about the Wealden Iron Industry

Anne of Cleves House, Lewes, Sussex

The best museum display devoted to the Iron Industry of the Weald is in Anne of Cleves House Museum in Lewes, which is run by the Sussex Archeological Society. This shows you how iron ore, mined locally was smelted in water-powered blast furnaces to make iron and how cannon was cast. There is also on display a boring bar recovered from a garden at Stream Furnace Mill, Chiddingly.

Visit the museum's website to find out about opening times and admissions.

Ordnance and Cannon

Fort Nelson was built to protect Portsmouth harbour against the threat of invasion, but is now a Royal Armouries Museum. It has an impressive collection of weaponry through the centuries, including cannon made at furnaces in the Weald.

Visit the museum's website to find out opening times and admissions.

Iron ordnance cast in the Weald.

A 'Brass' ie bronze mortar cast by William Bowen, a Wealden founder, in the 1760s.

Firebacks
Hastings Museum has an extensive collection of iron firebacks, mostly made at furnaces in the Weald. Firebacks were cast by pouring molten iron into a sand mould. The mould was created by first making a wooden replica of the desired design and pressing this blank into a tray of damp sand, although very early examples had small objects pressed in to the sand, even pieces of rope to make a date or initials.
A mid sixteenth century fireback, using rope and two small wooden designs pressed into the sand mould several times.

Visit Hastings Museum's website to find out opening times and admissions.

Anne of Cleves House also has a substantial collection of firebacks and two rare, original wooden fireback patterns.

Iron Graveslabs
This is not an important commercial product of the Wealden furnaces, but in the 17th century several people associated with the Iron Industry had iron graveslabs made using the same method as for firebacks, instead of using the usual carved stone monument. There are several churches in Sussex with them but the largest number surviving in the church are at St.Peter & St.Paul, Wadhurst.