Sussex Archaeological Collections 140

Excavations at Dean Way, Storrington revealed a plimpsest agricultural landscape incorporating elements dating from at least the first millennium BC to the twentieth century. Evidence of earlier activity, in the form of Late Mesolithic microliths and a range of Neolithic flintwork, was found as largely residual material in later contexts. Analysis determined four phases of development on the site. Phase 1 was long-lived, and represent intermittent domestic and agricultural activity over an extended period, possibly from as early as the Mid-Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. Phase 2, a rectilinear field system and again long-lived, was possibly Late Iron Age in origin, but might have been considerably later. Phase 3, parallel field boundaries and tracks, appears to have been of later medieval date and onwards, and Phase 4, plough and topsoils, is relatively recent. Includes:

Visual inspection of the pipeline easement during construction of a wastewater pipeline north of Itford Farm revealed a number of cut features in the chalk bedrock. Excavation revealed one of the features to be an Early Saxon sunken-floored building (grubenhaus) of fifth- to sixth-century date, from which a small but interesting assemblage of pottery was recovered. A boundary ditch of probable Saxo-Norman date was also investigated. Further features proved to be natural solution hollows in the chalk. No other structures were observed within the easement, but the discovery indicates the longevity of settlement at Itford Farm, and provides an interesting, albeit small-scale, example of shifting settlement patterns within the Ouse Valley. Includes:

Using documentary evidence, the article details the history of Queenstock Furnace in Buxted, shown to have been built under the auspices of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, probably in 1490, at Iron Plat on the Uckfield Stream, within Morton's lordship of South Malling. It was the site at which William Levett cast guns from 1543 onwards. The technique of casting iron guns vertically in stave-lined pits had been used in the duchy of Jülich in 1539 and 1540, and it is suggested that it was brought to Normandy in 1540 and to the Weald in 1543, as a result of the alliances of both Francis I and Henry VIII with William de La Marck, Duke of Cleves.