Monument record 0123100000 - NEWSETS WOOD, ST LEONARDS

Dimensions - Radius 5350 cm Height 0122
Plan Form - CIRCULAR
MOUND OF SLAG COVERED WITH BEECH TREES. LARGE MASSES OF HIGH-IRON SLAG, CHARCOAL AND SAND. NO DATEABLE FINDS (B1).
In a wood belonging to Brown's Farm, about 3/4 mile NE of the Bray's Wood camp (SP 90 SW 3) and perhaps connected with it, is a mound of slag, some 112 yards in circumference and four feet deep at the centre, the remains of a large iron foundry. A cart-track has been cut through the mound and wood-ash removed. Charcoal for smelting the ore and sand for making moulds was found but there were no signs of pottery, implements or coins, nor was there any trace of a building. Approximately 3/4 of a mile NE of Bray's Wood lies Newsets Wood, SP 924 059, possibly the wood mentioned in Recs Bucks I. Cindry Bottom Wood, SP 918 055, may be a significant name in this connection. See SP 90 NW4 for a possibly related site. No trace of any iron working was found in the area. The discovery may have been a natural mound containing iron-stained brickearth and sand which is still quarried in the area. ALTHOUGH PRECISE LOCATION NOT GIVEN FOR ABOVE, PROBABLY NEWSETS WOOD (B1-2).