Saxon Seaxe Anglo Saxon History
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Map Position
This map shows the position of locations containing 'borough, caeld, ceald, rock, stane, streat, Iron-Working, anderida, bathhouse, castle, portus lemanis' centered on Brede in East Sussex.
Map Logic
This map shows Roman roads shown in black plotted from Ivan D Margary 'Roman Roads in Britain' published in 1955.

The red roads are taken from Ivan D Margary 'Roman ways in the Weald' published in 1948.

The purple roads are theoretical roads based on place names and landscape features.

The bloomeries shown are taken from the Wealden Iron Research Group database

Major Roman locations are shown as icons, please click for more details.
 
Icon Key:
Farm/House
Roman Villa
Roman Watch Tower
Places containing Stone

Roman Industrial Area in the Brede Valley in Sussex

 

The numbers next to the Bloomeries show the century in which details for this site have been found, a 1 means 1st century AD etc a ? means probably Roman but no proof, the bloomery data comes from the Wealden Iron Research Group, the link to their site is at the bottom of the page.

As you can see, a large number of the Roman Bloomeries are located fairly near the main Roman Roads or Trackways, this implies that the iron produced was carried via these routes to the nearest valley points where the pig iron could be carried by barge to the nearest port. Both the Tillingham and Brede valleys seem to have a number of iron working sites especially from the 1st and 2nd centuries.

The nearest port would seem to be near modern Rye or the end of the Brede Valley near to Cadborough cliffs, the name implies a major Roman defensive point, and would be a good place to defend the entrances to both the Brede and Tillingham valleys. There is an area on the modern Winchelsea site called Castle Field which implies a Roman fortified site, and this site opposite Cadborough Cliffs would also be a good place for a Pharos(lighthouse). To complete the defensive layout of the area a further fortified site would need to be on the hill opposite Cadborough near to where Playden graveyard is.

At Battle there is an area called Caldbec(Cold stream) Hill, which would be a good place for a Roman Villa which would oversee the valley with a view to the Winchelsea fort, and with fresh uncontaminated water from the iron processing further down the valley.

One or two of the plotted road routes may have slight alignment issues as places and names have changed over the last 60 years since the books by Ivan D Margary were published, making it very difficult to match locations exactly.

If you zoom out the Forest of Anderida in shaded in green, the high tide changes in the coastline shown in pale blue, and the 5 metre high tide mark on the rivers shown in dark blue.

For the rivers, the 5 meter mark is shown however the tidal reach could be further inland due to the back pressure from the rivers upstream.

Purple lines show proposed changes/potential new Roman Roads based on the landscape/satellite features.

 
Locations Shown on map
Original Name Type CountyCurrent Name
Roman Villa
Bath house Roman Villa Sussex 
Roman Signalling Station
Cadborough Roman Signalling Station Sussex 
Places containing Cold
caldbec Hill Places containing Cold Sussex 
Roman Watch Tower
Castle Field Roman Watch Tower Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Badland Wood Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Baldslow Place Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Beauport Park Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Beauport Park Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 300AD
Iron-Working Beauport Park Bloomery 300AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Burnthouse Wood, Ludley Farm Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Chitcombe Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Chitcombe Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Chitcombe Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Church Farm Field Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Church Field, Old Place Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Church Field, Old Place Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Conster Manor farm Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Crowhurst Park Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Crowhurst Park Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Eastlands Farm Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Footlands Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Footlands Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Footlands Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 300AD
Iron-Working Footlands Bloomery 300AD Sussex 
Bloomery 400AD
Iron-Working Footlands Bloomery 400AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Forewood 1 Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Gilly Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Gilly Wood 2 Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Glossams Place Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Glossams Place Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Godleys Field Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Godleys Field Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Great Park Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Great Park Wood Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Great Park Wood Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Hurst Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Killingan Woods Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Kitchenham Farm Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Kitchenham Farm Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 300AD
Iron-Working Kitchenham Farm Bloomery 300AD Sussex 
Bloomery 400AD
Iron-Working Kitchenham Farm Bloomery 400AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Little Park Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Loneham Farm Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Lower Crutches Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Lower Crutches Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Oaklands Park Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Oaklands Park Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Petley Wood Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 300AD
Iron-Working Petley Wood Bloomery 300AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Pett Barn Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Pett Barn Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Pett Barn 40 Acres Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Pett Barn 40 Acres Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Pickdick Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Platnix Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Primrose Dell Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Bloomery 200AD
Iron-Working Primrose Dell Bloomery 200AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working South Sowdens Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Bloomery 100AD
Iron-Working Thorp's Wood Bloomery 100AD Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Thorps Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Unknown Bloomery
Iron-Working Wimbletotts Wood Unknown Bloomery Sussex 
Places containing Stone
Knellstone Places containing Stone Sussex 
Places containing Stone
Maplestone Fm Places containing Stone Sussex 
Farm/House
Rocks Fm Farm/House Sussex 
Places containing Stone
Stonehouse Places containing Stone Sussex 
Places containing Stone
Stonelink Fm Places containing Stone Sussex 


External References in no particular order :-
Anglo Saxon Chronicles
Online Anglo Saxon dictionary
Online Etymology dictionary
Open Domesday Book - The first free online copy of the Domesday Book
The Ermine Street Guard Roman re-enactment and research Society
The "Kent A" cadastre - page 5 - Peterson 2002
Archaeologia Cantiana Online
Romney Marsh Research Trust
Romney Marsh the Fifth Continent
VillageNet the reference guide to villages in Kent & Sussex
Global warming Flood Maps
The Anglo Saxon Chronicles
Google Maps - the core of the system
GeoPlaner - Useful site for plotting map data
Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars 55BC(Books 4 & 5)
Wikipedia - Caesar's invasions of Britain
Wikipedia - Portus Istus
The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy (Bill Thayers)
Roman Britain.org
Runetree Beowulf
Bayeux Tapestry Online
The Secrets of the Norman Invasion
Chronicles of John of Worcester
Battle Historic Society
Binsted village website(Mearcredesburnan Steðe)
The Spears of Andred
Find British Archaelogical Sites
Wealden Iron Research Group
Topographic Map of the UK

 

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Author: Simon M - Last Updated: 13/03/2024 13:12
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Data is derived from a number or sources including the Ordnance Survey Gazetter data overlayed onto Google Maps