Furner's Green

Furner's Green
Furner's Green Location withinEast Sussex
OS grid reference	TQ409262
•London	33 miles (53 km)N
Civil parish	Danehill
District	Wealden
Shire county	East Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	UCKFIELD
Postcode district	TN22
Dialling code	01825
Police	Sussex
Fire	East Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Wealden

Furner's Greenis ahamletin thecivil parishofDanehillinEast Sussex,England.

Geography

Furner's Green lies on theGreenwich Meridianabout 9 miles (14 km) north-west ofUckfieldand approximately 7 miles (11 km) to the east ofHaywards Heathon the southern edge ofAshdown Forest.

Geology

Lime kilnsat Annwood Farm ('Handwood Farm' on the 1795Ordnance Surveymap) are shown on the 1875 Ordnance Survey map. Lime would have been used locally to improve the heavy, clay-rich Wealden soil, in the mi xing of mortar for construction, and was also used in Sussex for plasterwork and 'white washing'. There is no evidence oflimestoneoutcropping in this area, but Sussex does have small workable outcrops of 'Sussex Marble' or 'Winklestone' and so it is likely that chalk was imported to this location from the chalk workings of theSouth Downs.The abundance of local timber in the nearby Annwood and Maskett's Wood would have been invaluable for lime manufacture

History

In William Gardener's 1795 map ofSussex(1 inch to a mile scale), which was to some part based on the findings of an earlier (1778) survey by himself and Thomas Yeakell, Furner's Green is called 'Turners Green'.A later anomaly can be found in the 1879 recollections of Thomas Chatfield, a long-time resident of the area, who is reported to call the hamlet 'Furriers Green'

Colin Godman's Farm has been traced back to at least 1550 and reputedly was for a while involved in the smuggling of wool for export. It, and other substantial properties are clearly marked on the 1875 Ordnance Survey map.John Baker-Holroyd(laterBaron Sheffield) is noted as owning the property in 1768 records

The iron industry

Theironworkings at Sheffield Mill are reported in detail by John Shreve, master of works during the reigns ofHenry VIIIandEdward VI.

A lease agreement dating to 1580 refers to the 'decaied Ironworks, sometimes called the furnes for the casting of raw iron there'. On the site there is also a 'corne' mill. The degree of development at Sheffield Mill, simply for grinding corn, was substantial at that time, for mention is made of 'banks, baies, ponds, waters, watercourses, waterlaies, fludgates and waterworcks'. The hammer mill and forge required waterwheels, bellows, coal houses and places in which to work the material. And yet, to visit the site now, evidence of this industrial history is almost gone.

Land ownership

Before selling of properties in the early to mid twentieth century, many of the properties in Furner's Green were part of the Sheffield Park or Danehurst estates.