A gun-casting furnace at Scarlets,Cowden, Kent

Abstract

A timber-lined casting pit was installed between 1590 and 1664 at the blast furnace at Scarlets, Cowden, Kent. The methods of construction are similar to those used at Maynards Gate and Pippingford, Sussex. The adjacent floor is a feature paralleled at Pippingford and at Rockley, Yorkshire. The furnace has been thoroughly robbed of its stone, but its position and orientation can be satisfactorily established; evidence was found for refurbishing at the end of the 17th century, yet it seems likely that abandonment came before 1717.