The property known as Wiremill is located at the north-western edge of the parish of Felbridge, being at one time part of the Felbridge Place estate until the break up and sale of the estate from 1911. The whole area surrounding Wiremill is steeped in history but this document sets out to chart only the development of the site of Wiremill, from its first identified mention in the mid 1500’s until the ‘pub’ of the present day. It will cover the development and various uses of the building over the centuries and the people who have owned and occupied the site. This document will touch upon the land and other properties that have been linked with Wiremill over the years but the history and development of the surrounding area is involved and complicated with more than enough material to form a separate document in the future.

Introduction
Wiremill is situated at the northern end of a lake that was created by the construction of a pond-bay, damming one of the tributaries of the River Eden in the 1560’s. The pond-bay is 178 ¾ yards (165 meters) in length and when the pond was in full water it would have been in excess of 9 feet (3 meters) deep, a substantial volume of water. The lake, which in antiquity was referred to as merely a ‘pond’, once stretched from the man-made pond-bay, south-west to the edge of the main London road, now the A22, at the foot of Woodcock Hill. This pond was just over twenty-five acres of water with surrounding marsh, but over the years, particularly during the last century, it has decreased by half. This reduction in expanse of water is largely due to the changing uses of the Wiremill property.

The course of the tributary has always passed close to the site of Wiremill, wending its way through Felbridge towards Lingfield where it joins the River Eden and there is evidence to suggest that the river was the source of power for a watermill in this area from at least the mid 1500’s. This area once fell under the tithing of Heath Hatch in the manor of Lagham and there are several references to a watermill in the area. In 1559 Nicholas Norton was recorded as the miller grinding ‘sundry grain near lands called Shawnors between New Chapelle and East Grinstead’, being requested to remove ‘trees and boughs in common river called Heggelond Ryver’. Between 1560 and 1563 it was recorded that John Myller ‘keeps the watermill’ and ‘sometimes receives excessive grain’ but ‘conducteth himself well and uprightly in his calling’. John Myller was succeeded by John Rodgers in 1563, being described as the ‘common miller there and keeper of a watermill’, but there is no mention of a miller from 1564 for the remainder of the Court Book. Unfortunately, the earliest surviving Lagham Court Book dates from 1559, therefore it is not possible to ascertain how long the mill had been operating prior to this date, although it is possible that the watermill referred to in the Court Books was a corn mill built on the site of Wiremill, or close to the site of the current building.

A slightly earlier and yet another tantalising document that may possibly refer to the watermill is dated 26th October 1533. This is for a lease of seven years made by Sir George Harper, knight, and William A… [illegible], esquire, administrators of the goods and chattels of Thomas Gaynesford esquire, (deceased), late of Crowhurst in Surrey, to John Cole, and Thomas Holerage of Crowhurst, yeomen, John Tycheborne, gent. and Reynold Holmedon, yeoman, of Lingfield, for a: ‘Forge and hammersmith in the parish of Crowhurst, late the property of Thomas Gaynesford, with all houses, cottage buildings, ways, bayes, ponds, waters and streams belonging to the same. Also, the right to fish once every three years. Also, all wood, trees and underwood growing in the woodland called Hedgecourt Park in the parishes of Godstone, Tandridge and East Grinstead, being the property of Sir John Gage, knight, now Lord Chamberlain’. The rent for this hammer mill with the rights to the fish and woodland amounted to £80 to be paid half yearly. An addition to the lease, written at a later date, states ‘Late bought of the said Sir John Gage by Thomas Gaynesford by indenture dated 4th March 1550’, paying in 1556, £33 6s 8d per half year. It is unclear exactly what was ‘late bought’ from Sir John Gage as the value of the rent is less than half the value of the property and rights in the original lease, perhaps it refers to just the woodland in Hedgecourt Park, although that was still part of the Gage holdings in 1562 when John Thorpe first leased Hedgecourt from the Gages.

There are three reasons why the lease of 1533 may relate to the mill on the site of what is today called Wiremill.
1), The lease refers to a ‘hammersmith’ or hammer mill, the known operation of the mill on the site of Wiremill by the 1560’s.
2), Under the terms of the lease the leasee of the ‘hammersmith’ was entitled to ‘all wood, trees and underwoods growing in the woodland called Hedgecourt Park’. The entitlement to the use of the wood from Hedgecourt was also included in later leases for the hammer mill on the site of Wiremill.
3), There is no evidence for a hammer mill in Crowhurst, a parish not too distant from the tithing of Heath Hatch in which the site of Wiremill is located.

What is known is that from the 1560’s there are references to ‘Swanne of the Hammer Mill’ in the area now known as Wiremill and that a hammer mill had been constructed on the site of Wiremill by 1561, known as Woodcock Hammer or Forge. It is possible that a corn mill could have been converted as a hammer mill but the river, as the source of water power, would have been inadequate resulting in the construction of the bay to retain a large volume of water. However, this alone would still not have provided enough water and a second pond located further up stream at Hedgecourt acted as a reservoir for the hammer pond at Woodcock Forge. The water at Hedgecourt also ran a watermill for grinding corn but Woodcock Forge held the rights to the water. [For further details see Hedgecourt Mills and Mill Cottages, SJC 12/99, and Hedgecourt Watermill and Cottages, SJC 07/04 Handouts]

Woodcock Forge
It has long been believed that the Woodcock Forge was built by Jack Dancey of Turners Hill, along with the building or re-modelling of Hedgecourt Mill. The construction of Woodcock Forge, together with a furnace further up stream from Hedgecourt in Myllwood (Furnace Wood), known at a later date as Warren Furnace, mark the beginning of a thriving iron industry in Felbridge that was to last until the 1780’s. The furnace also required water as a source of power to run the bellows, and like at Hedgecourt Mill and Woodcock Forge, a pond was created by the construction of a bay across the river. Thus the three large lakes in the Felbridge area, all man-made, had been created by the late 1500’s to serve the burgeoning iron industry. [For further details see Warren Furnace, SJC01/11, Handout]

Woodcock Forge would have processed cast or pig iron produced at the furnace by hammering to produce bar or wrought iron. The furnace primarily cast ordnance, mortars and cannons, but would also have produced large cast bars of iron known as ‘sows’ and ‘pigs’ that would have been taken to the Woodcock Forge. The sow was the long cast bar which had smaller bars – pigs, running off each side. These would then be hammered, producing bar or wrought iron that was strong, not prone to cracking like cast iron, and which could then be made into everyday iron implements, tools and household equipment.

A hammer forge powered by water, was the earliest and simplest mechanised method of working iron, the hammer being the largest item of equipment at a forge. The essential principle of a hammer was that the helve, a timber beam bound with iron hoops, was set in an iron pivot, called the hurst, mounted on timber posts. A cast-iron head weighing between 7 and 8 cwt (315-360 kg) was fitted at one end of the helve, falling on the work placed on the anvil. Cams, large wooden pegs, fixed in a drum lifted the helve. The shaft on which this was mounted formed the axle of the water wheel. The cams either lifted the helve or forced the tail of the helve downwards. An additional feature was a rabbet, a timber mounted above the hurst end of the structure that acted as a spring, supplementing the weight of the head in its downward movement. The whole mechanism being supported by a heavy timber frame built into the forge.

The hammer at the Woodcock Forge was operated by water passing over an over-shot wheel taking water from the top of the wheel and falling from a height on the buckets. The axle of the wheel in turn revolved the drum, as the drum revolved so a cam engaged under the head of the hammer until the point that it could no longer support the hammer. As the cam revolved past the point of support, the cast-iron hammer head was released and dropped onto the iron on the anvil, the hammer head awaiting the engagement of the next cam. During the hammering process, the iron was removed from the anvil and heated in a hearth at intervals, making the iron malleable. The temperature of the heating hearth was maintained by the use of bellows providing a regular stream of air into the forging area, run by a second over-shot waterwheel. This process of hammering and heating the cast or pig iron continued until the point at which it had been converted into bar or wrought iron.

The following is a fascinating description of working iron at a hammer or forge mill in the 1650’s given in Old English Mills and Inns written by R Thurston Hopkins:

In every forge or hammer there are two fires at least, the one they call the finery, the other the chafery.

At the finery, by the working of the hammer, they bring it into blooms and anconies thus:

The sow, at first, they roll into the fire, and melt off a piece of about three-fourths of a hundred weight, which, so soon as it is broken off, is called a loop.

This loop they take out with their shingling tongs and beat it with iron sledges upon an iron plate near the fire, that so it may not fall in pieces, but be in a capacity to be carried under the hammer. Under which they, then removing it, and drawing a little water, beat it with the hammer very gently, which forces cinder and dross out of the matter: afterwards, by degrees, drawing more water, they beat it thicker and stronger till they bring it to a bloom, which is a four-square mass of about two foot long. This operation they call shingling the loop.

This done, they immediately return it to the finery again, and after two or three heats and working they bring it to an ancomy; the figure whereof is, in the middle, a bar about three feet long, of that shape they intend the whole bar to be made of it; at both ends a square piece left rough to be wrought at the chaffery.

Note. At the finery, three load of the biggest coals go to make one tun of iron. At the chafery, they only draw out the two ends sutable to what was drawn out at the finery in the middle, and so finish the bar.
Note 1. One load of the smaller coals will draw out one tun at the chafery.
Note 2. They expect that one man and a boy, at the finery, should make two tuns of iron in a week; two men at the chafery should take up, i.e., make or work, five or six tun in a week.

At the Woodcock Forge, there was one over-shot wheel on the east wall and another on the west, one operating the hammer and the other the bellows to heat the forge.

The original hammer mill structure probably equates to the building closest to the pond-bay, running along the line of the bay, east/west, however, the building has been extended and altered over the years and there is very little evidence to say that any of the original structure still survives.

The Thorpes
The first clear reference to the identity of an owner of the Woodcock Forge can be found in a list of furnaces and forges operating in 1574, when John Thorpe of Hedgecourt, gentleman, worked the forge in conjunction with the furnace in Myllwood. John Thorpe first appears in the Felbridge area in 1562 when he was resident and collecting the rents for Hedgecourt Manor. Five years later in 1567, there is a lease between John Thorpe and Sir Edward Gage for the demesne lands of Hedgecourt which included ‘lands called the Park of Hedgecourte, Coddinglighe Park, Sharnowrs, Gages Meades, Cowpers Hill, Tanners, Smythforde Courte, the Tylt, Honnyes, Warnars Crofts and the Myllwood, with all barns, stables, stalls and other buildings in the park, mills and mill-dams, in Godstone, Horne, Tandridge, [East] Grinstead and Worth’. One of the mills and mill dams must be that of the Woodcock hammer mill, being that it is located in or near Sharnowrs, another mill being that of Hedgecourt. Evidence suggests that John Thorpe was leasing most of the woodland around Woodcock but there is no direct evidence that he was tenant of the either Woodcock Forge or the furnace in Myllwood in 1567. He was also referred to in connection with the ‘iron mill of Hedgecourt’; this has been assumed to refer to the furnace at Myllwood (later Warren furnace) as it is believed that Hedgecourt mill has always operated as a flour mill. However, it is also possible that it refers to the ‘iron mill’ known as Woodcock Forge, lying adjacent to Hedgecourt.

From these early leases it is evident that the Gage family were the landowners of the Wiremill area when John Thorpe leased the demesne lands of Hedgecourt, the Thorpe family moving from Cudworth manor in Newdigate, Surrey, around 1562. John Thorpe may have already had knowledge of the iron industry, as Newdigate could boast of ironworks from 1533, when Ewood Furnace and Forge, which had already been established by the Nevill family, was leased to George and Christopher Darrell, along with the manor of Ewood. The Darrell family were recusants, retaining their Catholic faith and refusing to conform to the Anglican Church. As such they were liable to fines resulting in a portion of the manor being sold off to cover mounting debts, and when George Darrell died in 1567 he was recorded as being of ‘reduced circumstances’. His brother Christopher retained the ironworks but the circumstances surrounding the date of 1567 may bear some significance for the Thorpe family’s decision to re-new the lease on the Hedgecourt area.

Apart from the Woodcock Forge and the furnace in Myllwood, John Thorpe was later to have connections with the Vachery ironworks in Cranleigh, Surrey, as the deeds of 1580 record that he was the nominal owner having been conveyed land, including the ironworks, by Sir Edward Bray and his son Reynolde. At that date the Vachery ironworks were leased to John Gardyner, alias Lambert, probably in partnership with John Duffield of East Grinstead.

In 1586, John Thorpe purchased the following from William Swanne, senior (probably ‘Swanne of the Hammer Mill’ as referred to in the 1560’s), 1 messuage, 10 acres of land, 5 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 20 acres of wood and 5 acres of land wholly covered with water. It is known from later transactions of the Thorpe family that this holding formed part of the Woodcock forge area and probably refers to land to the east and south of the lake, Wire Mill Wood and the old cottage that now forms part of Mill End House. This area travelled separately to Woodcock Forge until 1748 when both areas became part of the holding of the Edward Evelyn.

Between 1598 and 1606, the rent for Woodcock Forge was paid by Thomas Thorpe son of John. In 1629, John Gage, leased property including the ‘iron forge or iron works called Woodcock Hammer or Woodcock Works’ to Richard Thorpe of Worth, gentleman, for the term of thirty-one years for £400, with a rental of £100. Richard Thorpe was the son of Thomas Thorpe and lived at Gibbs at Fenne on Hedgecourt Common, now Gibbshaven Farm in Furnace Wood. As gentlemen, John, Thomas and Richard Thorpe were unlikely to have ‘worked’ either the forge or furnace directly but would have overseen the running of the ironworks. Richard Thorpe, son of the above mentioned Richard, continued to hold Woodcock Forge until 1651, when it was subject to a sheriff’s seizure at the suit of the Gage estate for a debt of £50 and £3 costs. At this date Thorpe’s interest was sold to Simon Everenden of Cliffe near Lewes, a gentleman, by the Gage estate.

Richard Thorpe, however, still retained the property purchased from William Swanne until 1668, and in January 1652, he leased the ‘parcel of land covered with water being part of a pond called Woodcocke Pond, with liberty to flow it with water as formerly, together with a cottage theretofore used as a Forgeman’s house and the parcel of land theretofore used with the forge called Woodcocke Forge and all bays and banks’ to Simon Everenden, for the term of eight years for the rental of £5. The terms of this lease do not include the forge itself, however, in October 1652 a new lease was granted by Thomas Gage bart. to Simon Everenden for ‘the site of the manor of Hedgecourt with lands, waters and iron forge and premises’ for the term of twenty-one years.

There are two points of interest in the Thorpe/Everenden lease:
1) ‘Cottage used as a Forgeman’s house’, this implies that as well as the Forge there was a dwelling house for the forge-man that worked the Forge. The most likely property for the ‘Forgeman’s house’ now forms part of Mill End House, formerly known as Ben Ezra and before that as The Old Cottage, which is located near the east end of the pond-bay.
2) There is no mention of the Forge building itself confirming that it was not the property of Thorpe to lease.

The Gage/Everenden lease, nine months after the Thorpe/Everenden lease, refers to ‘waters and iron forge and premises’ confirming that the Gage family owned the actual forge and that the Thorpes had only been leasing it from them. However, in a deed of recovery dated August 1654, Mary Gage, the widow of Thomas Gage bart., together with the executors of his will and Simon Everenden sought to recover debts owed by James Littleton of Cowden, Kent, gentleman. The debts in question were £12 for the rent of Woodcock Forge and £83 12s 6d for wood, both debts outstanding from 24th June 1654. This deed implies that Woodcock Forge was, at this date, in the occupancy of James Littleton. Unfortunately no information has yet come to light linking Littleton with the iron industry. The 1654 deed requested that the value of the debt should be paid to John Newnham of West Hoathly, gentleman, suggesting that John Newnham then took on the Woodcock forge at this date.

John Newnham
In the late 1600’s John Newnham held large tracts of land in the Felbridge/Crawley Down/Lingfield area, although evidence suggests that he only held the Woodcock Forge for about ten years. However, on his departure in 1664 he did not leave the iron industry or break his associations with the Gage family as he is recorded as leasing Maresfield Forge from them in 1669. Maresfield Forge in Sussex had been built in 1574, being leased to John Fawkenor. As a point of interest, John Fawkenor along with John French had helped set up the furnace in Myllwood (later known as the Warren furnace), for Sir Edward Gage when he first ventured into the iron industry in the 1560’s. It is not known how long John Newham held Maresfield Forge but in 1691 he was recorded as occupying Pounsley Furnace in Framfield, Sussex, supplying shells and shot the Board of Ordnance until at least 1707. However, John Newham formerly of Woodcock Forge had died by April 1693, suggesting that perhaps a son called John continued supplying the Board of Ordnance after his death.

Jeremy Johnson
In April 1664, Jeremy Johnson the younger of Charlwood, Surrey, gentleman, took on a six-year lease for the Woodcock Forge from Sir John Gage. The lease gives a good description of what went with the Forge – ‘forge and forge-pond called Woodcock Forge in Godstone with the Forge-man’s house, gardens, land and a cottage formerly used as a Forge-man’s house; the land actually used with the Forge; land in Godstone leased to John Gage by Richard Thorpe, lately occupied by John Newnham, gentleman, under a lease by Thomas Gage bart., the father of John Gage; the iron-house or warehouse’. The lease included a schedule of tools, unfortunately not itemised. The tenant was to have the cinders from the Forge to repair the forge pond-bay and was to sell or dispose of the rest. John Gage also gave timber from his manor of Hedgecourt for the repair of the Forge and also from his manor of Shovelstrode in East Grinstead ‘if insufficient’.

It is clear from this lease that by 1664 a second property had been built near Woodcock forge to accommodate the forge man, superseding the ‘cottage formerly used as a Forgeman’s house’, unfortunately the exact location of the new Forgeman’s house is not known.

Jeremy Johnson was born around 1635 and married his wife, Alice, around 1667, settling in East Grinstead where they had nine children, the first, a son, born in 1668. In 1669 the Johnson family were recorded as living at 26-28 High Street, East Grinstead moving to 1-2 Judges Terrace by 1674. In 1670 the Hearth Tax records that he had ten hearths implying that he was a man of some wealth, but it is not known whether this refers to his High Street house or Judges Terrace house. Much of his wealth was made through the iron industry during his tenure of the Woodcock Forge between 1664 and 1710. He was an up-standing member of the East Grinstead community and during his life he was an overseer for the poor in 1678 and served as a bailiff or holder of public office in 1679.

In December 1696, Jeremy Johnson increased his property holding by the purchase of ‘two messuages, barns, buildings and land called Hammer Lands (70 acres)’ that he occupied, from John Finch of Steyning, a maltster, for the sum of £483. This property became known as Forge Farm and was only held for a few years before Jeremy Johnson conveyed the property in February 1700 to the Joseph Gage of Sherborn in Oxfordshire, William Goreing of Burton and Henry Gage of Bentley, Framfield in Sussex, (executors of John Gage, deceased), and trustees of his infant son Thomas Gage for the sum of £440.

Jeremy Johnson died in 1707 and his wife Alice in 1719, both being buried at St Swithun’s Church in East Grinstead. However, in 1717 the Woodcock Forge was still listed as ‘Mr Johnson’s forge’, implying that either his wife was running the business in his name, or possibly a son was running the business. By the date of his youngest daughter’s death in 1723, the Johnson family had acquired a coat of arms that are displayed on her monument in Hurstpierpoint church where she is buried. The arms are: argent a pheon [arrow-head with an inner engrailed edge] between 3 voided lozenges gules. In 1747, 1-2 Judges Terrace, ‘late of Phillipa Johnson’, was purchased by William Purchase being described as: ‘a burgage, yard, and garden of ¼ acre’. This implies that either an unmarried daughter had been living in the house or a widowed daughter-in-law, thus ending the Johnson association with 1-2 Judges Terrace. The personal details used here about Jeremy Johnson and his family were published in the East Grinstead Bulletin, no.77.

In 1664, when Jeremy Johnson took on the tenure of the Woodcock Forge, the lease refers to timber ‘for the repair of the Forge’ implying that the Forge may have seen better days and was in a bad state of repair. One reason for the dilapidated state of the Woodcock Forge may be that the iron industry as a whole had been in decline in the Wealden area.

It is well documented that the iron industry of the Weald doubled in size between 1548 and 1573, during which time both Woodcock Forge and the furnace in Myllwood were constructed. However, by 1653 the number of operating forges had dropped from 58 to 45 and operating furnaces from 52 to 36. Some of the decline in numbers of forges can be attributed to furnaces making more castings and less pig iron therefore having the knock-on effect of reducing the number of forges required to process the iron. By 1667, three years after Jeremy Johnson took on the Woodcock Forge, the number of forges had dropped to 17, those that had survived producing smaller quantities of bar iron than in the earlier hey-day of the industry. By 1717 the number of operating forges had dropped still further to just 13, one still operating being the Woodcock Forge referred to as ‘Mr Johnson’s forge’. On average, these forges were converting only half the quantity of pig iron worked compared to that in 1667. In 1717 and 1718, the output of the Woodcock Forge was recorded as 40 tons per annum, but it is not known if this figure had dropped, increased or remained the same over the years as unfortunately there are no earlier surviving output figures to compare with.

The reduction in bar iron production of the forges reflects the difficulties that Wealden forge-masters were facing due to good quality foreign bar iron being imported from the Continent and the Baltic. The low prices of the Continental producers enabled them to compete with local Wealden producers, particularly in London, and the South and East coastal areas. In addition to the imported bar iron, competition was growing from the Midland forges whose bars were also competitively priced with a wide range of qualities.

In October 1664, whilst Jeremy Johnson was in the tenure of the Woodcock Forge, Richard Thorpe of Gibshaven in Worth and his brother George Thorpe, both gentlemen, leased ‘a messuage called Forgeman’s House, adjoining Woodcock Hammer, with floodgates and all their land usually flowed with water by the hammer-pond’ to John Gage, for a term of seven years. Three years later, John Gage secured an annuity by leasing property in this area including the ‘forge or iron-mill called Woodcock Hammer’ to William Rooper of St Giles in the Field, London, esquire, and Thomas Pellet of Bignor, Sussex, gentleman, for 99 years. This action was purely for raising capital for the annuity.

The Finches
In April 1668, John Finch the miller at Hedgecourt Mill, purchased 74 acres of land and two houses and a barn at Woodcock Forge being ‘lately the estates of Richard Thorpe of Gibshaven and his brother George Thorpe. This purchase saw the end of the Thorpe’s interest in this area that had begun nearly one hundred years earlier in 1567, replaced by the interest of the Finch family that was to last for just short of thirty years. In June 1669, John Finch leased the Forgeman’s House adjoining Woodcock Forge with ‘all floodgates, waters and watercourses’ to John Gage of Firle for the term of seven years.

In February 1672, John Gage of Firle, with John Finch of Worth, a yeoman, assigned two separate plots to Gabriel Leach of New Inn, Middlesex, gentleman, in trust for Thomas Taylor of St Andrew, Holborn, London, for the sum of £280. The two plots included:
1) The Forgeman’s house adjoining Woodcock Forge in Godstone and thirty acres of wood next to Woodcock Pond called Hammerwood (later known as Wiremill Wood).
2) Sixteen acres of land below the Woodcock Hammer pond-bay, the Forgeman’s house and part of the pond-bay, together with Woodcock House, barn and twenty-eight acres of land occupied by John Stephens; and a piece of land next to the hammer-pond ‘usually flowed with water’

This lease refers to the two Forgeman’s houses, as well as a property referred to as Woodcock House. As the forging industry in general was in decline at this date, it would seem unlikely that the two Forgeman’s houses indicated two forge men were working the Woodcock Forge; a more likely scenario was that the new house had been built to replace the original property. As already established, the two forgeman’s houses refer to the house now called Mill End House and one other, the location of which has not yet been established. Evidence suggests that it could be the property called Woodcock House now known as Legend, the property standing to the north of the pond-bay, west of Wiremill. There is no mention of the Woodcock Forge in the lease, this having been in the tenure of Jeremy Johnson since 1664.

In 1685, John Finch died and his probate inventory records the property he was holding at the time of his death within the house now called Legend. The Lagham Court Book records that his only daughter Elizabeth, wife of Nicholas Ditcher, tenants of the manor of Walkhamsted (Godstone), was ‘intitled to the lands called Woodcocks’, and that she was to pay a herriot of one cow to the value of £4. However, in January 1691, John Finch of Steyning, a yeoman, mortgaged ‘2 messuages and 100 acres called Hammer Lands in Godstone’ recently left him in the will of John Finch of Godstone, to Jeremy Johnson of East Grinstead, the gentleman holding the tenure of the Woodcock Forge, for £50. ‘Hammer Lands’ in this context refers to ‘lands called Woodcock’ as both names appear to be used for the same area.

In June 1694 John Finch and Richard Finch his father, a miller, both of Steyning, made a settlement of lease and release to Ralph Drake of Cliffords Inn, London, gentleman, in trust for John Finch. This settlement included the two messuages, barn and the ‘Hammer Lands or Hammerland Farm’ of fifty-five acres in Godstone that had recently been left to John Finch in the will of John Finch the miller of Hedgecourt. The occupiers of the property were recorded as being David Maynard, Edward Martin and John Finch. Two years later, the Finch interest in the area ceased when John Finch of Steyning, conveyed the two messuages, barns, buildings and the land called Hammer Lands in Godstone, now seventy acres, to Jeremy Johnson the occupier of the lands and holder of the Woodcock Forge. As previously stated Jeremy Johnson only held the two messages, barn and Hammerlands Farm for four years, conveying the property to the executors of John Gage of Firle, deceased, and trustees of his son and heir Thomas Gage in 1700.

Thomas Stanford
It is not clear how long the Woodcock Forge remained in the hands of the Johnson family although the Fuller’s list of 1717 records it as being ‘Mr Johnson’s forge’. As already ascertained, Jeremy Johnson died in 1707 so for the Forge to still be in the name of Johnson implies that either his wife continued the business or that the Forge had been taken on by a son or relation. What is known is that in 1718 the output of the Forge was 40 tons, the same as the previous year, and that by 1729 Thomas Stanford was ‘converting sows’ from Heathfield furnace at Woodcock. A possible reason for converting pig iron from as far a-field as Heathfield is that although the furnace in Myllwood, (Furnace Wood), was closer there is evidence to suggest that it had ceased operating around 1627.

Despite the closure of the furnace in Myllwood, and general decline of forges, the Woodcock Forge appears to have continued its output of 40 tons per annum until at least 1736 when it was included in the Fuller’s list of forges and furnaces for that year. In May 1738, Thomas Stanford appears in a twenty-one year lease between William Gage and Edward Evelyn for ‘a piece of land with the coppices, dwelling house and barn and 65 acres, purchased of Mr Jeremy Johnson by the trustees of Thomas Gage, deceased; and another barn and 21 acres lying about the Forge or Hammer occupied by Thomas Stanford’. However, nothing more is known about Thomas Stanford and, to date, there is no evidence of him connected to any other iron working in the Wealden area after 1738. At the same date, Sir William Gage was paying 4d quit rent on Woodcock alias Hammerlands, then in the occupation of John Stenning, the name being recorded as being still in occupation in 1778, although by then under the ownership of James Evelyn who was paying 2s 4d quit rent suggesting that Hammerlands had increased in size over the intervening forty years.

Samuel Baker
In 1742, Samuel Baker was recorded as paying rent for the Woodcock Forge implying that Thomas Stanford no longer held the Forge. There are Bakers connected with the iron industry of the Weald, although no connections have yet been established between them and Samuel Baker. In the 1560’s Bakers had worked ores on the northern fringe of the Weald around Hawkhurst and Sissinghurst and held Biddenden hammer from around 1574 to around 1650. Bakers had also held several iron works in the Mayfield area including Mayfield furnace and Old Mill furnace, and held shares in Hamsell furnace and Bircham forge in Rotherfield.

In 1744, William Gage died and his manor of Hedgecourt was acquired by Edward Evelyn at the cost of £8,250. Three years later, in 1747, Sir John Evelyn leased from Sir Francis Pool, the executor of William Gage, deceased, various farms and mills including ‘the Forge Pond in Godstone and the Forge in Godstone called Woodcock Hammer with the Forgeman’s house and lands in the occupation of Samuel Baker, 4 acres’. By 1748, this property had been incorporated as part of the Felbridge estate by Edward Evelyn, (a relation of Sir John Evelyn), replacing the Gage family as the landowners for the entire Hedgecourt and Felbridge area. The lease of 1747 confirms that Samuel Baker still held the forge but by 1758 Woodcock Forge was in the hands of Edward Raby and Alexander Master. It is not known where Samuel Baker moved to after leaving the Woodcock forge, but in 1765 he took on Hawksden forge and furnace in Mayfield remaining there until 1776.

The Raby’s
Evidence suggests that Edward Raby, who acquired the Woodcock Forge in 1758 and the furnace in Myllwood (Furnace Wood) sometime before 1762, was the son of Edward Raby who had been apprenticed to Ambrose Cowley in 1693. Edward Raby senior was the son of William Raby a smith from Swinford in Worcester. On the completion of his apprenticeship in 1701, Edward Raby senior appears to have set up his own company Raby & Co in Stourbridge, as well as becoming an agent for Ambrose Cowley’s ironmongery business in Stourbridge, a position that carried considerable responsibilities. Edward Raby senior’s position in Stourbridge put him at the heart of a thriving iron industry giving him an opportunity to gain a wide knowledge and vital contacts.

Edward Raby, (of Woodcock Forge and Warren Furnace), married Mary Master, the daughter of Alexander Master in 1746, Mary bringing £15,000 to the marriage. From the marriage license Edward Raby was 23 years old, (therefore born circa 1723), being described as the son of Edward Raby, ‘late of London, deceased’. Edward and Mary Raby had a large family, the eldest being Alexander born in 1747, followed by six brothers and five sisters, although only 5 of their children survived to adulthood.

Edward Raby worked with his father-in-law Alexander Master in the lucrative ironmongery business. When Alexander Master died in 1744, Edward Raby went into partnership with his brother-in-law Alexander Master continuing to run the family business. Between 1749 and 1750, the Raby family moved from West Smithfield to Southwark retaining the business premises in Smithfield. During the 1740’s and 50’s the business took an upturn supplying the domestic iron market after the end of nine years of overseas war.

In 1758, Raby & Master supplied the Board of Ordnance with various gauges of bar iron, staff iron and rolled plate, all products of the forging process implying that this was their line of business. Also around 1758, Raby & Master acquired the tenancy of the Woodcock Forge and that of the furnace in Myllwood (Furnace Wood) by 1762, both situated in the area of the Weald that was fast becoming the principal source for heavy guns for Government service. Their arrival heralded the second phase of the furnace in Myllwood that became known as the Warren furnace, which then continued to operate until about 1774. Evidence suggests that Master stayed with the ironmongery side of the business and Raby took on the skill of founding.

In 1762, Edward’s son Alexander Raby was apprenticed to his uncle Alexander Master but his apprenticeship also covered working in the forge and founding side of the business with his father. Unfortunately, within 2 years the company of Raby & Master had gone bankrupt, evidence suggesting that it was the ironmongery side of the business that was at fault as within a short period of time after the bankruptcy Edward Raby was back in business casting from Warren furnace, whilst still working Woodcock Forge, this time in partnership with Mr Roger, possibly Obadiah Rogers. In the space of fifteen years Raby & Rogers did over £40,000 worth of trade, mostly in ordnance from Warren furnace.

From the accounts of local carriers it is possible to see what activities were being carried out at both Warren furnace and Woodcock Forge. The majority of the entries are for the haulage of mortars and cannon from Warren furnace to Woolwich, but there are also entries for the carriage of ‘coles’ specifically for the Woodcock Forge. Coles referred to as sea coal was brought from London and Brail near Lewes used for drying moulds at the furnace or fuel for the Forge. Carriage from the Woodcock Forge included guns and shot to London. The two main carriers used were Paynes of East Grinstead and Knights, based at Felbridge Water, in the vicinity of Harts Hall. [For further details see Harts Hall, SJC 07/05, Handout].

The following are a few of the accounts from the Knights Carriers dealing with the Woodcock Forge:
1767 Mr Raby’s bill of Coles from the Broil [Brail], Lewes, to Woodcock Forge:
April 9th 3 loade & 2 sacks
18th 3 loade & 1 sack
21st 3 loade all but 2 sacks
25th 3 loade & 3 sacks
May 4th 3 loade & 3 sacks
12th 3 loade of coles
16th 1 loade & 21 sacks of coles
Settled accounts with Mr Raby, due me £0 3s 0d
1769 Jan 2nd 13 inch shells – 34 peases
10 inch shells – 6 peases
32 pounder shot – 22 peases
Brought back from London to the Forge 1 caldron and halfe of coles.
Jan 5th 13 inch shells – 38 peases
10 inch shells – 15 peases
Brought back from London to the Forge – steal £40, 4 bundles of iron
Jan 8th 13 inch shells – 38 peases
10 inch shells – 15 peases
16th Shells & 1 mould and shoat - £80
I mould left at Felbridge.
Feb 7th Cared up to London from the Warren Furnis
1 long 9 pounder gun - 2800
3 6 pounder guns - 4200
7000
Brought back from London to the Forge – 1 caldron & halfe of coles.
March 15th Received of Mr Raby - £12 12s 0d
20th Received of Mr Raby - £ 2 2s 0d

The majority of Edward Raby’s work in the Felbridge area was supplying armaments to the Board of Ordnance but in peace time, with a lack of Government orders, he did a buoyant trade supplying the East India Company and the Merchant service with guns, shot and shells. Ordnance findings from the area include a cannon ball in its rough state before being cleaned up. It is made of cast iron and weighs approximately 12 oz., when cleaned it would probably produce an 8 oz. ball. A scissor mould for making 25 bore shot has also been found, whereby the molten metal, probably lead, would have poured into the mould, which, when cooled, was released by opening the scissor mould handles, producing a ½ inch diameter ball. By 1764, Edward Raby had also taken on Gravetye furnace after its bankruptcy in 1762, casting cannon there which were brought, generally by Knights Carriers, to the Warren furnace to be finished before haulage to London, although Raby gave up Gravetye in 1769. By 1770, Edward Raby had perfected the casting of bronze guns at Warren furnace, which was ultimately to lead to the downfall of his son Alexander Raby.

Edward Raby appears to have died suddenly in 1771 as there is no will and his twenty-three year son Alexander took over the business. Alexander Raby continued to run the business for a further three years before a legal wrangle with the Government forced him to give up Warren furnace and the Woodcock Forge in 1774. The Government maintained that Alexander Raby was using larger moulds than his competitors and was therefore using more bronze, as such the Government demanded compensation for the use of the excess bronze. The wrangle was eventually settled out of court and the business was taken over by Joseph Wright & Thomas Prickett.

It is unclear as to what happened after the business was taken over by Wright & Prickett except that Warren furnace had been abandoned by 1787 and it is assumed that the Woodcock Forge ceased being a hammer mill around the same date. One path that can be followed for the development of the Woodcock Forge site can be found in the Land Tax Records, but unfortunately, at the beginning of the records in 1780 it was included in the lump sum of the Felbridge Estate paid by James Evelyn until his death in 1793 when his son-in-law Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn took over the payment. However, in 1800 the property was listed separately from the estates of Sir George S Evelyn for the first time, being called Wire Mill, taxed at the value of £2 9s 8d. The individual itemisation and change in name to Wire Mill implies that sometime between 1787 and 1800 the Woodcock Forge had been converted as a wire mill.