REVIVAL OF THE PAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20300, 6 July 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

REVIVAL OF THE PAST.

A NEW BLACK COUNTRY.

IRONWORKS OF SUSSEX,

In bygone (lays the Sussex Weald with its wealth of forests and streams was dotted with ironworks which supplied guns for the English Navy. Whole tracts of woodland were'cut down and burned to charcoal; ironstone was dug near by, and the streams, dammed into hammer-ponds, gavo the water-power needed to drive the furnace bellows and the hammers needed to forge tho famous charcoal iron which made Sussex prosperous for centuries. At last the gradual depletion of the forests brought legislation to check tho wastage of timber and a new Black Country was formed where coal was plentiful and at first mined easily at or near the surface. Though industry drifted north to tho new coal and iron fields Sussex ironworks lingered on into the nineteenth century, the last furnace being closed down in 1845. To-day (he sites of former activity may be tracked on the map by placo-name? suggesting where iron was worked in past times. They are now, for the most part, hidden nwav "from the tourist track, and only vague memories remain of their former use: but in recent years several attempts have been made to revive the ancient cra ft of working malleable iron into handwrought objects such as Gates, firebars, and other useful things after tho Sussex fashion. . Among these bravo attempts to bring Sussex ironwork bark to pornlaritv is that carried on in the village of Felphnm. near Bopnor. There Ihe force where the blacksmith has worked for over forty years is mainly employed in making various articles of hand-wrought, iron, mainly for domestic uce. _ tin The reason for tho chancre is that, the demand fn '' horse-shoes has shrunk (o curb small proportions that something bad fo he done to keen thine" coing. So the hlaeVsmith and his sturdy son. both skilled in their craft, becan to produce rates of scroll-iron hepnn from sncrrestions derived from ineient rrates lantern* of th P cennino S'nssev pn'tern. firodo<rs and firebars, and door knockers cnrinuslv wrought bv baml Into 1 vn'-ofv of nnttnrns the fare* nnd O fhor detail lining finished with the chisel with wonderful deheaev of treatment and nrtistip effort. The designs are sketched hv the son from ideas irsnired hv aneient work in chiirohrs an' l elsewhere. and he never cfnrfc on a nieeo nf worlt nnt'l ho ran cn H (ho fin.'chod artlYle in his minrVc eve. The r p<;idt is vorlr s"ch no '"V""" rttirrW he nrnifl to po«ec<i ; and WMo hv Tit Mo thn work (Tone at tv-e nl'l v.'llnrro for<*o find. ipfT if"s T<*nv n mr>r» *r InvprS of olrl PnJWK iron wort? '♦nrl