Little Farningham (also recorded as Little Farningham Farm, Cranbrook) was a Romano-British bloomery iron-smelting site in the High Weald, active broadly from the later 1st through the 2nd/early 3rd century AD. It was a modest but well-organised production centre exploiting the Wadhurst Clay siderite ores and abundant woodland charcoal characteristic of Wealden iron working.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site lies within the western/central Weald iron-producing zone whose output in the 1st–2nd centuries is widely thought to have contributed to the broader regional economy, possibly with some link to the Classis Britannica industry concentrated further south-east around Beauport Park and Bardown, though no stamped tile or direct fleet association has been demonstrated here. It is one of a cluster of smaller Wealden bloomeries that illustrate the scale and density of Roman iron production in this part of Britannia.
Investigation by Henry Cleere and others recorded substantial slag deposits, bloomery furnace remains, and associated occupation debris including pottery dating the working phase to the Roman period. Beyond these slag-heap and furnace observations and surface-collected ceramics, no large-scale modern excavation has been published, and the site's full layout and any associated settlement remain poorly defined.
Little Farningham (also recorded as Little Farningham Farm, Cranbrook) was a Romano-British bloomery iron-smelting site in the High Weald, active broadly from the later 1st through the 2nd/early 3rd century AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a production site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Little Farningham Roman iron production site is classified as a Roman production site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Paved ford crossing the line of the Roman road at Iden Green (3 km), Romano-British site S of Bodiam Bridge (10.2 km), Bardown Roman industrial site (14.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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