Romans in East Sussex - what did they do for us?

In East Sussex we could argue they provided us with drainage, clean water, (there's a change,) central heating, working loos and metalled roads - with not a pothole in sight. Most famously in our county they were responsible for setting up early iron workings, some of which can still be found buried away in deep woodland.

In 55BC the opportunist Gaius Julius Caesar led his armies beyond the limits of the Roman Empire and into Gaul, saying Rome was under threat from the savage barbarian world. He reached the shores of Brittany. His invasions were followed by those of the Emperor Claudius who is thought to have landed his army at Richborough in Kent in AD 43, close to the Isle of Thanet. Richborough was once an important natural harbour.

Apart from the desire to rule, a principal reason the Romans came into Sussex was to obtain the iron which had been exported by the Celts to Europe. Two dozen pre-Roman ironworking sites have been found, mostly in the east of the county, including one at Bardown just north of Stonegate.

The Romans made full use of the brown and ochre-coloured stone in the Weald and many of their roads here were the means of transport for the ore. They were extensively metalled with slag from iron smelting. The sites of about 113 bloomeries have been identified as Roman, mainly in East Sussex. The Weald in this period was one of the most important iron-producing regions in Roman Britain. Excavations of a few sites have produced tiles of the Classis Britannica, suggesting they were supplying iron for the Roman fleet. Total iron production has been estimated at 750 tons per year, but under 200 tons per year after 250AD.

Hidden in dense woodlands near Wadhurst are the fascinating remains of a Roman ironworking site. The area of around six hectares to the north of Baddown Oast Farm in Stonegate was once used for extracting iron, working the metal, industrial waste and transportation routes. Historic England says this was in use for a significant amount of time and survives relatively well with the main phase of occupation betweenAD120 and AD 250. The High Weald was once one of Britain's industrial hotspots.

Ironworking sites like this have been in operation for centuries as the area was packed with natural resources as well as ideal trading links towards London and the coast. The later industrial revolution took this role away from Sussex as the Midlands, North East and Welsh valleys grew in importance. The Romano British ironworks site near Wadhurst has now been designated a Scheduled Monument by Historic England. Historians have noted it is positioned on the south side of a section of the River Limden which follows a fault line between the Wadhurst clay to the north and Ashdown Sand to the south. The area was exploited for its iron ore as well as for the clay itself which is highly suitable for tile and pottery manufacturing. Most of the buried remains are located across two agricultural fields.

Among the roads which the Romans created to transport goods from London towards the South is the London Lewes Way, a 'lost' road passing through the countryside like a spectre. On the crest of the North Downs it passes through fields and woods, turning to the south-east. The road then undergoes a complete change and passes furtively through Holtye to climb onto Ashdown Forest and once again changes alignment to the south-west. It picks its way across the heathlands to make a final change at Camp Hill and then runs along the wide Ouse valley to Malling Down near Lewes. The fame of the London Lewes Way rests on the preservation at Holtye of a length of the road showing its rutted surface metalled with iron cinders. Another section of the road is preserved behind a low fence on Ashdown Forest near Camp Hill.

The Sussex Greensand Way branches from the London Lewes Way at Barcombe Mills. It runs due west over fields and is briefly in use as a lane in East Chiltington, (a village threatened with extensive housing thanks to landowners, Eton College, much to the horror of residents.) It is marked by a hollow way to the north of the lane to Plumpton Cross while its agger (embankment) runs beside the lane at Plumpton Racecourse towards Streat. It continues unseen north of Ditchling and on through Keymer

There's also a Roman road from Seaford to Ripe which runs from a small Roman settlement at Seaford Head over the South Downs to Ripe wherethere was a Roman land settlement scheme for time-expired soldiers. I wonder if any of their descendants still live there today?

I remember spending some time with a friend who lived in the middle of nowhere, at the top of a slope leading down to woodland at Broadoak(the one near Battle.) Apparently there had been a Roman bloomery in the stream and we dared each other to put on our dressing gowns and investigate the ghostly Roman ironworkers late at night. Neither of us had the courage.

More information can be found in MIles Russell's Roman Sussex and Helen Livingston's In the Footsteps of Caesar, Walking Roman Roads in Britain.

Martin Turner

--Susan King Senior Reporter Sussex Express Mobile 07976 800 195