Furnace Wood

History and Development of Furnace Wood

Furnace Wood, a residential area partially in the parishes of Horne and Worth with ninety-two properties, is bounded by the Crawley Down Garage and Gatwick Parking on the west, Cuttinglye on the south, Gibbshaven Farm on the east and Felcot Farm on the north, with exits onto Felbridge Road and the Copthorne Road.  As the name suggests, the area was historically situated within woodland, although over the years this has substantially diminished, especially with residential development turning the wooded surroundings into sites for houses and gardens.

 

This document will chart the development of the area beginning with its first inhabitants in pre-history, through the industrial phases of milling and the iron industry that operated in the area from the medieval period until the middle of the 19th century, before being turned over to the breeding of game birds, and ultimate development as residential plots in the early 20th century.     

 

Geology and Topography

Furnace Wood is situated in what is known as the Weald, an area of land wedged between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs.  The Weald is made up of three separate sections, at the centre is the High Weald that is sandstone based, around the edges is the Low Weald that is clay based, with the Greensand Ridge that stretches around the north and west of the Weald and includes the Weald’s highest points. 

 

The Weald is the eroded remains of a geological structure, an anticline or dome of layered Cretaceous rocks cut through by weathering to expose layers as sandstone ridges and clay valleys.  The oldest exposed rocks at the centre of the anticline are correlated with the Perbeck Beds of the Jurassic period (208 to 144 million years ago).  Above these, the Cretaceous rocks, include the Wealden Group of alternating sands and clays – Ashdown sand, Wadhurst clay, Tunbridge Wells sand (collectively known as the Hastings Beds) and overlain by the Lower Greensand and Gault [clay] Formations, consisting of Gault clay and Greensand.  The rocks of the central part of the anticline include hard sandstone, and these form hills now called the High Weald. The peripheral areas are mostly of softer sandstone and clays and form a gentler rolling landscape, the Low Weald.

 

The Furnace Wood area is made up of Upper Greensand and Gault  that was formed during the Cretaceous period (100 million years ago), the layers being deposited beneath the sea and brought to the surface by the Wealden Anticline.  For first 20 million years of the Cretaceous, the Weald was part of a vast freshwater to brackish swamp or lake, its northern extremity being the North Downs with the London area forming low-lying land.  To the south the swamp extended almost to the European Continent.  Rivers drained into the swamp from all directions bringing with them deposits of mud, silt and sand that subsequently compressed under the accumulations of later deposits, forming layers of silt and sand.  The climate was warm and fossil plant remains indicate that the swamp and its bordering lands supported vegetation that consisted of primitive plants such as gymnosperms, ferns and horsetails.  There were also dinosaurs, one of the nearest being found at Philpotts Quarry at West Hoathly.

 

The area subsequently subsided and sea broke into the swap and the beds were buried beneath marine sands and clays of Lower Greensand, Gault and Upper Greensand, then in turn as the sea spread across Northern Europe during later Cretaceous times, these were overlain with chalk.  At the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago), subsidence gave rise to an uplift, with the Wealden area emerging above sea level in the Tertiary period (65 to 2.6 million years ago).  Since then, rivers have transported weathered debris out to sea, eroding the layers that had built up during the Cretaceous period and streams have incised into narrow steep-sided valleys (probably during the last glacial stage of the current Quaternary period) creating ghylls (ravines).  The resulting erosion gave rise to the characteristic landscape of the area, clay beds over sandstone covered with woodland.  Thus the area took the name ‘Weald’ from Old English weald meaning forest. 

 

The Furnace Wood area is typical of this form of Wealden landscape with a ghyll running through a steep sided valley between Cuttinglye Wood to the south and Furnace Wood to the north, although now not obvious as the valley has been flooded by damming the stream creating Furnace Lake (see under iron industry below). 

 

Pre-History

Settlements in the heavily wooded Weald were widely scattered and there is no evidence that the Furnace Wood area was ever settled at an early date.  However, this does not mean that the woodland was not utilised by early man and there is evidence that sometime around 2,500 BC people were at least visiting the area, as two Beaker arrowheads (one complete and one partially broken) have been found within the grounds of Ferndene, Lake View Road (TQ351398). 

 

Beaker arrowheads have a very distinctive shape being barbed and tanged worked flint, although to date none of their tell-tale pottery fragments have been found in the area.  The Beaker people, so named after their distinctive inverted bell-shaped pottery, spread across Western Europe from the late Neolithic period arriving in Britain in about 2,500 BC.  Their culture straddles the end of the Stone Age and beginning of the Bronze Age.  Leaving little or no trace of any habitation structures, the presence of two arrowheads suggests that at some time between 2,500 BC and 1,700 BC at least one of the Beaker people passed through the Furnace Wood area, losing two arrowheads on route.  As a point of interest comparable design beaker arrowheads have been found in the Horsham area.

 

On the strength of the Beaker arrowhead finds and the fact that the flint from which they were made is not found in the area, several test pits have since been dug resulting in several more pieces of worked flint being found.  Flint could be easily transported to the Furnace Wood area from either the North Downs or the South Downs, both within about twenty miles. 

 

There have also been worked flints found within the grounds of Oaklands, Lake View Road (TQ349395).  The finds include dozens of primary and secondary waste flakes as well as a point and a thumbnail or button scraper, the latter being of an early Bronze Age style.  To find these types of waste flakes suggests the tools were being made here.

 

Roman

Unfortunately there is no evidence that the Furnace Wood area saw any Roman activity.  However, there is evidence that the Romans were working iron reserves exposed in the deeply cut stream bed at least three sites along the stream that feeds the lake in Furnace Wood.  The nearest site was at Smithford [for further information see Handout, Roman Legacy of Felbridge, SJC 11/01], about half a mile away, also a site has been found between Thicket Cottage and Ascotts, and another at Imberhorne.  To find evidence of Roman iron making activity at three sites along the stream could potentially mean that they could have been working further along the same stream in the Furnace Wood area now covered by the lake.        

 

Medieval

It is likely that Furnace Wood formed part of the manor of Hedgecourt from its creation in the 13th century.  By the late 15th century the Furnace Wood area was known by the name of Millewood appearing in a 21-year lease dated 8th April 1485 made between William Gage esq [of the manor of Hedgecourt] and Andrew Bernlys of Worth for ‘a parcel of land called Smythford in Eastgrensted and Worth in the shire of Sussex, and a wood called Millewood in Worth and in the parish of Walksted in the shire of Surrey’ at a rent of 15 shillings.  Antiquarians suggest that Walksted is a mistaken version of Walkenstede (1446) or Walkemstede (1487), a Surrey parish that later became Walkensted alias Godstone (1548) and eventually just Godstone.  Today Millewood lies in Worth in Sussex and Horne in Surrey. 

 

To be called Millewood would also suggest that perhaps the area took its name from a mill in the vicinity and with a watercourse running through the wood a mill could well have been powered by water.  There are two ways a stream can be harnessed to give a large enough head of water to operate a watermill, either by the construction of a leat (an artificial watercourse) or a dam.  It is purely speculation, but from map evidence and the lay of the land there is no evidence for the presence of a leat therefore it is more likely that a dam existed.  Unfortunately the only document relating to this period is the 1485 lease therefore it has not been possible to find any evidence to prove the theory regarding the naming of Millewood.

 

16th – 18th century

The first half of the 16th century saw major changes in Furnace Wood with the birth of an industrial age – iron founding, and by the middle of the 1500’s the water course running through Furnace Wood had been modified to serve this new industry.  A high dam across the watercourse was needed to supply the head of water required to power the blast furnace that was constructed in Furnace Wood.  It is not known if this modified an earlier smaller dam that could have been used for the earlier watermill.

 

It has not yet been possible to determine the exact date of the construction of the blast furnace but Sir John Gage, lord of the manor of Hedgecourt who held the Furnace Wood area, is recorded as already owning a blast furnace at Maresfield and Hedgecourt at the time he took on the Crown ironworks in Ashdown Forest in 1554.  On this basis the assumption is that the furnace at Furnace Wood was up and running by 1554.  Documents about the furnace are rare but in 1567 a 21-year lease was granted by Sir Edward Gage, the lord of the manor of Hedgecourt, to John Fawkner of Waldron and John French of Chiddingly, both yeomen, for ‘a furnace with houses, buildings, erected by the leasees upon Edward Gage’s ground called Myllwood [Furnace Wood] in Worth, being part of the manor of Hedgecourt, and upon a piece of ground called Coddinglighe [Cuttinglye] adjoining Myllwood, with ponds, mill dams, banks and bays’.  This lease would suggest that besides the furnace and associated buildings, Fawkner and French had constructed ‘houses’, although to date no evidence of these dwellings have been found within the  Furnace Wood area.   

 

To run the furnace, Fawkner and French were entitled yearly, upon request, ‘as much wood in Edward Gage’s woods within the manors of Burstow, Shovelstrode and Hedgecourt, and woods called Millwood and Coddinglighe to the sum of £120 or £100 at the least, paying any above £100 and under £120 at the rate of 12d for every cord of wood (except the wood in Hedgecourt Park), and of the woods in Hedgecourt Park at the rate of 3s for every wainload of coal [charcoal] of the assize of 12 quarters’.  They were also at liberty to ‘dig and take within the said manors so much mine [iron ore] as shall amount to 600 loads at the least or more to the sum of 1,000 loads paying for each load between 600 and 1,000 16d a load’.  There is some evidence of mine pits within the Furnace Wood area, although it is generally believed that the ore was quarried from a site adjacent to the blast furnace itself.

 

It is perhaps interesting to note that the emergence of the iron industry in Furnace Wood not only altered the watercourse that ran through it but also changed the wooded landscape of the area beyond recognition.  It is known that wood within Myllwood was used to construct the furnace as in 1600 there is documentary evidence of accounts of aged eye-witnesses remembering that wood in the area was ‘being used to build the furnace at Hedgecourt’.  It is also known that in 1601 John and Thomas Thorpe were heavily fined for illegally entering Millwood and Cuddinglye where they ‘had cut down, stibbed and rooted up most part of the woods’ for which they were fined £3,000 plus a further £1,000 for ‘decayed stubbs cut down, of 2,000 great and sound trees to the value of £1,000’.  A survey of Furnace Wood today confirms that there are no mature trees of any species dating to the 1700’s, the oldest trees in the vacinity are oak and beech on the boundary of the former Cuttinglye Park that pre-date the 1700’s.

 

Apart from using wood from the trees of the area to construct the furnace, it would have been used to make charcoal for fuel to fire the furnace and the likelihood is that the area would have been cleared of all remaining mature trees and replanted with young trees that could be managed and regularly coppiced to provide a sustainable source of wood for turning into charcoal [for further information on charcoal see Handout, Charcoal Burning and the Felbridge Area, SJC 05/02].  Managing woodland would have been far more cost effective than using mature trees as fuel as once they’d been felled they had gone.  Coppiced woodland supplied a renewable source of wood for charcoaling.

 

The blast furnace operated for about seventy five years with one of the last entries referring to it being found in the general accounts for the manor of Hedgecourt in 1628 with Richard Thorpe paying rent for a ‘farm, furnace, ponds and woods’.  Certainly in the 31-year lease between Sir John Gage and Richard Thorpe of Hedgecourt, dated 2nd February 1629, there is no mention of a furnace in Myllwood, only Myllwood itself, even though the ‘iron forge or iron works called Woodcock Hammer or Woodcock Works’ (that had been worked in conjunction with the blast furnace) is itemised [for further information see Handout, Wiremill, SJC 03/06].  More evidence to confirm that the furnace had ceased operating can be found in 1723, when to Joseph Marchant, the miller at Hedgecourt watermill, was granted a 21-years lease on ‘the pond between Millwood and Cuttlingleys called Millwood Pond, and the passage of the water from the Mill Pond to Hedgecourt Pond’ [for further information see Handout, Hedgecourt Mill Cottages, SJC 07/04].  To be able to lease Millwood Pond and the watercourse suggests that the water was not needed to power anything below the dam until it reached Hedgecourt watermill, therefore no blast furnace.

 

The final and most conclusive evidence that the blast furnace had long since ceased operating and had disappeared is its absence (even in ruinous form) from the Bourd map of 1748, commissioned by Edward Evelyn to show the bounds of his estate formed in 1747 through the purchase and amalgamation of the manor of Hedgecourt with the lands that he already owned in Felbridge [for further information see Handout, The Commonplace Book of Colonel Edward Evelyn, JIC/SJC 09/07].  The Bourd map depicts the Furnace Wood area as enclosed woodland called The Warren.  Entrance into The Warren is via a trackway and gate to the northwest of Felcot Farm with a second gated entrance/exit at the west end of the pond bay.  The schedule attached to the Bourd map states The Warren to be 99a 3r 20p and Furnace Millpond to be 14a 0r 11p extending from the bay south then turning eastward and running to Great Furnace Field at the eastern boundary of Furnace Wood.  Cuttinglys Wood was recorded as 164a 1r 20p.  For the Furnace Wood area to be called The Warren would suggest that it was being used as a ‘warren’, which historically meant a piece of enclosed land used for breeding game, although by the mid 18th century it was more likely to have meant an area of uncultivated land in which rabbits bred freely or were numerous.

 

It is important to note that the Bourd map is very detailed and otherwise shows all dwellings, outbuildings, barns, water or wind mills and even field gates, and there is nothing depicted in the Furnace Wood area other than trees, the pond and watercourse, and the two gated entrance/exits.  This would imply that by 1748 the furnace and associated buildings must have disappeared, as it is evident that John Bourd must have visited the area to have drawn the watercourse so accurately.  However, within ten years of the map being commissioned, the furnace had been re-built and was being operated by Edward Raby and Alexander Master, taking its name from the area, being known as Warren furnace.

 

The Gardner and Gream map of 1795 shows the layout of the new furnace site together with a dwelling on the site of the house that is today known as Furnace, and by this date there is a trackway from Gibbshaven leading to the furnace site that also branches northwest joining a trackway that leads directly northward from the furnace site (see below – footpath 45b) that crosses the stream and skirts along the boundary of what is today the site of Gatwick Parking joining the Copthorne Road at Snow Hill opposite the junction to Burstow.  The 1805 Draft O/S map clearly shows the trackway leading from the furnace site being joined by the northwest branching trackway, unfortunately the relationship between these two afore mentioned tracks in not clear on the 1795.  However, what is obvious is that the track leading northward from the furnace site appeared after the closure of the first furnace and could only have related to the second furnace or the replacement corn mill.  It is also obvious from the 1805 O/S map that the Mill Pond had receded a considerable distance from the eastern boundary of Furnace Wood.

 

In 1795 the site of the furnace is entitled Furnace Mill which may suggest it had been converted as a corn mill, although the Draft O/S map still calls it Warren Furnace.  The furnace site can be seen located to the north of the dam or pond bay and at the far east of the watercourse with a small building to the near east of the watercourse.  The bay measured 100ft (80m) and when repairs were made in 1919 (see below) it was found that the bay holding up the stream to form the pond had originally been made of clay and that it had been raised at different periods in time and then faced with masonry.  It was suggested that the bay had also experienced many problems with leakage during its life time; also the date of 1799 was found on one of the stones.

 

In 1979 a survey was carried out on the site of Warren furnace by the Wealden Iron Research Group and it was found that to the far east of the watercourse there was a prominent depression that may have been the remains of the wheel pit, close to a brick-arched culvert at the base of the bay, although it was felt that this may relate to the later use of the site as a corn mill.  Close by was a disturbed area of large pieces of brickwork, laid as flooring, up to eight courses thick, which may be the remains of the furnace tower or a later structure.  The site of the small building to the west of the furnace tower/mill had a large area of concreted, rusted metal that was interpreted as possible boring swarf suggesting the site of a boring mill that is known to have operated from the furnace area in the 1760’s when canon were brought by Knights Carriers from Gravetye to Warren furnace to be finished.

 

The survey also found a ditch that coincided with a watercourse in the same position as that depicted on the Bourd map of 1748, suggesting that this was part of the original water management system associated with the first furnace or even the preceding mill.  There was also a deep ditch that ran from the current stream in a north-westerly direction that was aligned with a deeper watercourse at the north of the site that eventually rejoined the stream.  There were also a series of stone or brick-lined shafts in a line between the wheel pit and a surviving water course at the north east of the site.  These were interpreted as inspection or maintenance access points along a conduit taking water from the wheel pit, with the water diverted underground through a culvert the ground surface could be utilised for workshop and storage, and provide turning and parking space for wagons visiting the site.

 

This second phase of heavy industry in the Furnace Wood area appears to have lasted for just eighteen years under Raby and Master (eventually just Raby), with the addition of casting bronze as well as iron from 1770.  However, in 1774 Warren furnace was taken over by Joseph Wright &Thomas Prickett who ceased operations on the site around 1776 [for further details on the furnace site see Handout, Warren Furnace, SJC01/00]. 

 

By 1778 the area had become known as Furnace Wood being depicted as such on the Yeakell & Gardner map.  As for the fate of the site of the furnace that gave its name to the area, there are no surviving documents to establish what happened in the last years of the 18th century.  The Gardner & Gream map of 1795 calls the site Furnace Mill which could refer to the furnace/boring mill or equally a corn mill and the date stone of 1799 found in the bay is believed by some to be the date at which the site had been converted for use as a corn mill which is known to have operated at the location during the first half of the 19th century, although it should be remembered that the Draft O/S map referred to the site as Warren Furnace as late as 1805.   

 

One thing that is certain is that when either of the furnaces were in operation they would have been in blast continuously from October to March making the ambience of Furnace Wood very different to today.  The scene would have been not too dissimilar to the painting of Coalbrookdale at night by Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the younger, fiery, dirty and busy with traffic carrying cast iron and canon from the site and scrap bronze, ‘coles’ and timber for charcoal to the site, particularly in the second phase.  The air would have been heavy with the smoke that escaped from the blast tower and there would have been a red glow in the sky above the furnace, seen through coppiced and managed woodland.  There would also have been a significant work force housed somewhere in a Shanty Town in the vicinity, although no site has yet been conclusively located.  Even during the non-blasting months of April to September the area would have been a hive of activity with repairs being made to the furnace, woodland management and charcoal production ready for the next blasting season. 

 

Today there are a significant number of coppiced sweet chestnut trees dotted throughout Furnace Wood that show signs of woodland management.  This may have been in support of the end of the second phase of the iron industry (if the trees were exceptionally slow growing which is possible as there is a very shallow depth of top soil in Furnace Wood) or a time after the iron industry had ceased when the woodland was managed/cleared for either timber or general charcoal making.  Obvious examples of these coppiced sweet chestnut trees can be seen in the front boundaries of the properties known as Meadow View and Vulcan Springs (both in Lake View Road) and in the boundary of the plot running round the bend opposite Vulcan Springs towards Cherry Cottage in Furnace Farm Road.  These trees have a largish bowl with three to five coppiced limbs each measuring between 5ft 7ins (1.7m) and 6ft 11ins (2.1m) giving an average of 6ft 3ins (1.9m) in circumference.  Based on an established growth table of measurements this means that the sweet chestnuts were last coppiced in about 1930. 

 

19th century

There is no conclusive information about the corn mill at the furnace site until 1832 when John Saunders was the miller working the mill along with watermills at Hedgecourt and Wiremill [see Handouts, Hedgecourt Mill Cottages, SJC07/04 and Wiremill, SJC 03/06].  In 1839 the mill on the former site of the furnace, the Mill Pond, Furnace Cottages and Mill Plat (pasture) were recorded in the Worth tithe as in the occupation of John Saunders.  The Worth tithe map depicts Furnace Cottages in plot 156, a building on the site of the old furnace (probably the corn mill) in plot 157 together with a small building on the site believed to have been the boring mill.  Unfortunately the tithe apportionment only lists this plot as pasture making no mention of the building’s usage.  However, the Mill Pond had expanded with the easterly edge past the eastern boundary of Furnace Wood, being part way along Great Furnace Field.

 

In 1841 the census records only one property in Furnace Wood known as ‘Furness Mill’ (now Furnace), the old workmen’s cottages dating to about 1758 when the iron industry was operated for the second time in the area.  In 1841 Furnace Mill was in the occupation of Alexander Collins, listed as miller.  Alexander had been born in Godstone in 1780, the son of Alexander Collins and his wife Sarah née Richardson, and had married Sarah Hall on 23rd December 1813.  Sarah had been born in 1793, the daughter of William Hall and his wife Sarah née Wicking.  Alexander and Sarah Collins had at least two children, Harriet born in 1814 and Jane born in 1816 and at the date of their baptisms, Alexander was recorded as being a miller of Godstone.  In 1835, daughter Harriet married John Saunders the miller of the watermills at Furnace, Hedgecourt and Wiremill and in 1842 daughter Jane married John’s brother, Henry Saunders. 

 

In 1851, Furnace Mill House was still the only property within Furnace Wood, being in the occupation of William Hall and his family.  William who had been born in Godstone in 1799, the son of William Hall and his wife Catherine née Eyton.  William married Mary Longhurst in Albourne in 1822, Mary having been born in about 1801 in Warnham, Sussex.  William and Mary Hall had at least eleven children including Mary born about 1826, Sarah born about 1830, William and Henry born about 1832, Alec born about 1834, Allan born about 1835, George born about 1838, Fanny born in 1840, Elizabeth born in 1842, Jane born in 1843 and James born in 1844.  In 1841 the Hall family were living in Copthorne, Sussex (near to Tully’s Farm) but had moved to Furnace Wood by 1851 where William was working as a wood reeve who, by definition, was a steward or overseer of a wood, which would suggest that Furnace Wood was being managed at this date, either for timber, coppice or charcoal burning. 

 

Lodging in the Hall household was Alexander Collins who had been living in the property in 1841.  The census records Alexander as still working as a miller but at this date Alexander’s wife Sarah was not residing with him and was working as a house servant in the Sturt household at West Hoathly.  Within four years Alexander had died, aged seventy-four in 1855.  As for Furnace Mill it was still in the tenancy of John Saunders of Hedgecourt watermill, Furnace Mill House being sub-let to the Hall family.  It is not known who took over the milling operation after the death of Alexander Collins but a possible candidate was George Gorringe, a miller residing with John Saunders at Hedgecourt Mill Cottages in 1851 [for further information see Handout, Hedgecourt Mill Cottages, SJC 07/04].   

 

In May 1855, the Furnace Wood area, as part of the Felbridge Park estate, was put up for by Lady Selina Charlotte Jenkinson, Viscountess Milton, a descendent of Edward Evelyn who had formed the estate in 1747 (see above).  The area that is today known as Furnace Wood (partially in Horne and partially in Worth)  appears within 486 acres of ‘Woodlands’ and 79 acres of ‘Waters’ in Horne and Worth, together with a small plot of land (plot 137) in Worth.

 


The Woodland consisted of: 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Horne

 

 

 

Parish of Worth

 

829

Bottom Furnace Wood

 16. 01. 33

 

158

Furnace Wood

 86. 01. 04  

 

 

 

 

156

Cottage and Garden

 00. 02. 19

 

 

 

 

Total

 

103.01. 16

 

Bottom Furnace Wood refers to the area around Brook Nook.  The sale catalogue makes note that ‘The Woodlands in Worth (about 90 acres) pay no Tithe’, and as a general observation states that ‘The Woods may be in a few years greatly improved by replanting certain parts – more particularly where they are suited for Chestnut, Ash and Larch’.

 

The Waters consisted of:

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Worth

 

155

Furnace Wood Pond

 16. 00. 04

Total

 

 16. 00. 04

The sale catalogue makes note that ‘The Waters, in which, of course, the Fish and Fowl are reserved to the Proprietor, with the Game on the Estate’.  It is interesting to note that the Mill Pond was the largest acreage it had ever been, extending past the eastern boundary of Furnace Wood as it had done in 1839.  Evidence for the end bowl of the lake at this date can still be seen today at the southern boundary of Great Furnace Field.  Another observation is that between 1805 and 1855 the cause of the problematic leaking bay must have been resolved.

 

Plot 157, consisted of:

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Worth

 

157

Mill Plot

 01. 03. 33

Total

 

 01. 03. 33

In 1855 plot 157 was part of forty-seven acres of land held with Hedgecourt Mill in the occupation of Mr. John Saunders [for further information see Handout, Hedgecourt Mill Cottages, SJC 07/04].  It is interesting to note that the description records plot 157 as pasture although the map still shows the small building (possible boring mill) close to the stream.

 

The Felbridge Park estate, including the Furnace Wood area, was purchased by George Gatty of Crowhurst, Sussex, who took up residence at the mansion house in 1856 [for further information see Handout, Felbridge Place, SJC 10/99].  Shortly after the purchase of the Felbridge estate the pond bay at Furnace Millpond collapsed and the mill ceased to operate, although map evidence suggests that not all the water drained from the lake as in 1874 the O/S map depicts the ‘Old Mill Pond’ as 2.106 acres.  Local legend puts the date of collapse around 1865 stating that there was a small place by the dam where a woman kept pigs (possibly the small building formerly the boring mill?) that got washed away when it burst.

 

By 1861 Furnace House had been converted as two cottages, and the end nearest the Mill Pond was home to James Cockrell, a game keeper, and his family.  James Cockrell had been born in East Grinstead in 1816, the son of William and Dinah Cockerall, and had married Hannah Agent in East Grinstead in 1837.  Hannah had been born in East Grinstead in December 1815, the daughter of Stephen and Ann Agent.  James and Hannah had at least five children including, William born in 1839, Ann born in 1842, John born in 1844, Susanna born in 1847 and Eliza born in 1852.  The first two children were born in Lingfield and the remaining children in East Grinstead.

 

By 1871 the Cockrell family had moved to the Snow Hill area, moving to Blindley Heath by 1881 where James and Hannah remained until their deaths.  After the Cockrell family had moved to Snow Hill they were succeeded at Furnace Cottages by Charles Towes and his family.

 


The second cottage was occupied by Charles White, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Susan.  Charles White had been born in Lincolnshire in about 1829 and Susan born in Goudhurst, Kent in about 1832, but unfortunately there are no more details on the couple except that they had moved from the cottages by 1871 being succeeded by William Howard and his family.

 

In 1871 one of Furnace Cottages (still two cottages), was in the occupation of Charles Towes and his family.  Charles Towes had been born in West Hoathly in about 1842, the son of William and Maria Towes.  By 1861 William Towes and family had moved to the Snow Hill area, living at Shephard Grove, where Charles was working as an agricultural labourer.  Charles Towes married Emily Creasey in 1864, Emily having been born in 1844 the daughter of Thomas Creasy and his wife Mary Ann née Holland.  Emily was also the sister of George Creasey who occupied the adjoining cottage from about 1875 (see below).  Charles and Emily had at least ten children including; William born in 1865, James born in 1868, Emily Elizabeth born in 1870, Charles born in 1873, Mary Ann born in 1875, Martin born in 1877, Alfred born in 1880, May born in 1884, Agnes Maria born in 1886 and Alice Olive born in 1888.

 

The Towes family had moved from Furnace Cottages by 1891 and were living in Sandy Lane, Crawley Down, near Down Park Lodge, Charles still working as an agricultural labourer and by 1901 the Towes family had moved to Lowlands Farm in Newchapel where Charles was listed as a farmer [for further information see Handout, Lowlands, JIC/SJC 05/06].  As for Furnace Cottages, they are recorded as uninhabited in the 1891 census. 

 


In 1871 the second Furnace Cottage was occupied by William Howard, recorded as an under game keeper.  William had been born in Godstone in 1836, the son of John Howard and his wife Philadelphia née Payne.  William married Lucy Arnold between July and September 1864, Lucy having been born about 1841 the daughter of George and Elizabeth Arnold of Pembury Green near Copthorne Common in Worth.  William and Lucy had at least five children including; William born in 1868, James born in 1970, Thomas born in 1873, Edwin born in 1875 and Edith Lucy born in 1878.  All the children’s births were registered at East Grinstead, although the last two children were born in Lingfield, Surrey, implying that the Howard family had left Furnace Cottages by 1875, and in 1881 the family were living at East Park where William was working as an agricultural labourer.  

 

Observations of Furnace Wood at this date, based on the O/S map of 1874, are that there was a well defined garden area around Furnace Cottages and that the residents must have been using the Vulcan spring as their water source. There are two reasons for this, firstly there was no well depicted within the cottage enclosure and secondly, there was a well defined path leading to the spring from the cottages and at this date the spring was recorded as a well.  The 1874 map still shows the four established trackways but these have been joined by numerous other trackways running diagonally across the wood leading to the boundary, but not across the boundary.  These trackways may relate to woodland management or the fact that Furnace Wood was being used to rear game for the Felbridge estate now under the ownership of the Gatty family.  There was also a large turning circle at the furnace/mill site at the end of the trackway leading out to Snow Hill; this was probably related to quarrying at the Old Quarry adjacent to the furnace/mill site.

 

By 1875 William Howard had moved from Furnace Cottages being succeeded by George Creasey and his family, George recorded as a ‘gardener living at The Furnace’, although by 1881 George was working as a farm labourer.  George Creasey had been born in February 1830, the son of Thomas Creasey and his wife Mary Ann née Holland, and was the brother of Emily Towes née Creasey (see above).  George married Mary Ann Deacon in 1857, Mary Ann being born in 1831.  George and Mary Ann had at least six children including; Philadelphia born in 1859, Martin William born in 1861, Mary Ann born in 1862, George born in 1864, Fred born in 1868 and Fanny born in 1870, all baptised at St John’s Church, Felbridge.  Fanny married Arthur Edward Stripp and they later took over the occupancy of Furnace Cottage (see below). 

 

Sadly Mary Ann Creasey died in 1871, aged only forty, leaving several young children.  Within four years George Creasey took a second wife, Fanny Taylor whom he married on 17th July 1875 at All Saint’s Church, Crawley Down.  Fanny had been born in Brighton in 1828, and had a son named James born in 1868 (fathered by William Conquest although no marriage has been found), who also joined the Creasey household.  As a point of interest, James became a gamekeeper, married Emily Annie Holman and settled in the Felbridge area.

 

The Creasey family remained at Furnace Cottages until sometime between 1881 and 1891 when George and Fanny moved to 1, Warren Cottages, Crawley Down Road (now part of Vine Cottage), George recorded as working as an agricultural labourer.  

 


Observations of Furnace Wood in the late 19th century are that in 1891 the pair of cottages were unoccupied, although the track leading from them down to the Vulcan spring was clearly shown on the 1895 O/S map suggesting that the cottages were only briefly uninhabited.  The Mill Pond was depicted as marshy ground and empty of water suggesting that the remainder of the bay had collapsed since 1874.  The turning circle at the furnace/mill site was still depicted on the 1895 map suggesting that the quarry was still in use, although this was the last date to show evidence for quarrying as by 1910 the turning circle had completely disappeared.


20th century

Sometime between 1891 and 1901 Arthur Edward Stripp and his family had moved into one of Furnace Cottages, by then called Furnace House.  Arthur had been born in 1869, the son of Thomas Stripp and his wife Sarah Salome née Goring, of Yew Tree Farm off Copthorne Road, Felbridge.  Arthur married Fanny Creasey on 15th July 1893 at St John’s Church, Felbridge, and Fanny was the daughter of George Creasey who had been in the occupation of Furnace Cottages from at least 1875 until after 1881 (see above).  Arthur and Fanny had at least seven children including, Florence Fanny born in 1894, Eva Mary born in 1896, Leonard Osborn born in 1898, Ambrose Frederick born in 1899, Laura Mable born in 1903, Ivy May born in 1905 and Roland William born in 1907, all at Furnace House.

 

In 1901 Arthur Stripp was working as a labourer on a farm (name of which had not yet been established) and by 1911, still living at Furnace House he was working as a cowman on a farm.  At that date the property was listed as having four rooms plus the usual kitchen/utility area.  The Stripp family remained at Furnace House until its sale around 1919 when the property was purchased by Lionel and Beatrice Robinson (see below), and the Stripp family eventually moved to several properties that were built in Furnace Wood (see A stroll round Furnace Wood in the 1930’s to 1950’s below).

 

In 1911 the Stripp family had been joined by neighbours Horace Wheatley and his family in what had then reverted to Furnace Cottages, and his half of the property was also recorded as having four rooms plus kitchen /utility area.  Horace Frederick Wheatley had been born between October and December 1884 in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and married Alice Mary Breed in 1906 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.  Alice had been born between July and September 1886 in Hitchin.  In 1911 Horace and Alice had one son, William born about 1907, and Horace was working as a gamekeeper, being probably the last to keep in Furnace Wood.   

 

At the beginning of the 20th century Furnace Wood remained unchanged, still owned by Charles Gatty, being used for raising game as it had been during the last years of the 19th century.  However, Charles Gatty died in 1903 and the Felbridge estate was left to two of his cousins, Charles Lane Sayer and Alfred Leighton Sayer.  The Sayers held onto the estate for eight years until 1910 when the Felbridge estate was sold to Emma Harvey, who together with the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd, began to auction off sections of the estate, the first auction held in May 1911 [for further information see Handout, The Break-up and Sale of the Felbridge Estate, SJC 01/11]. 

                                   

Furnace Wood does not appear in the first sale catalogue in 1911 but it was advertised for sale in the second auction held in 1914 as part of Lot 22, Furnace Wood and Cuttinglye Wood, the description being:

These properties possess in a very marked degree the woodland characteristics of the neighbourhood and as sporting propositions alone are worthy of high recommendation.  The bulk of the land lies within the Sussex county boundary, and is back from the main roads; hence it is advantageously situated and of suitable character for preserving game and generally as a shooting estate.  The Felbridge Water stream runs through the woods from east to west, changing its course towards the north in what some years ago was a pond of considerable size, but which latterly has been filled.

 

Furnace Wood has a frontage to the Crawley Down road, and Cuttinglye Wood abuts on Sandy lane the south-east.  Both woods are well intersected with paths and accommodation tracks.  In Furnace Wood is a cottage and also an old quarry of the celebrated Felbridge stone.  The total area of both woods is about two hundred and ninety-seven acres.

 

Schedule

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Horne

 

 

 

Parish of Worth

 

703

Woodland

 16.000

 

134

Pasture

    2.112

695

Waste

   2.500

 

135

Pasture

    3.497

696

Wood and Waste

    1.445

 

136

Pasture

    2.173

697

Wood

      .700

 

137a

Building

      .045

698

Pasture

    4.856

 

137b

Roadway

      .065

701

Pasture

    1.371

 

199

Rough Grass

    1.090

702

Pasture

      .870

 

200

Furnace & Cuttinglye Woods

297.737

 

 

 

 

271

Roadway

     .766

 

 

 

 

270

Pasture

   7.986

 

 

 

 

274

Two Cottages & Gardens

     .618

 

 

 

 

Total

 

325.831

 

Comparing the 1914 schedule with that of 1855, the first thing to note is that Lot 22 was made up of a combination of two named woodlands (Furnace Wood and Cuttinglye Wood), a lake area that was by then dry after the dam had burst (see above), together with several plots of pasture, wood/waste and roadways. 

 

In 1855 Cuttinglye Wood had been advertised as Lot 3, separate from the other woodlands that had included Furnace Wood, which formed part of Lot 1 – the Mansion and Domain of Felbridge.  The description for Lot 3 in 1855 was as follows:

 

AN EXTENSIVE AND VERY IMPROVABLE WOOD,

IN THE PARISH OF WORTH

 

FREEHOLD AND TITHE FREE

 

Known as “CUTTINGLEYS WOOD”

Containing 171a 2r 22p

LITTLE MORE OR LESS

 

It lies South-westward of Lot 1 and the Furnace Road and Wood, upon the Road from Felbridge to Three Bridges and about 2 miles from East Grinstead.

 

It forms a capital Game Preserve, and united with Lot 2 [Smithfields Farm], a valuable and very desirable Investment.

 

 

A second attempt was made to sell Furnace Wood (as part of Lot 22, The Cuttinglye Estate) in 1918 when it was again put up for auction, the description being:

Cuttinglye Estate and Furnace Wood should be especially attractive to sportsmen.  The southern portion of Cuttinglye Estate undulating, rising in the northern portion to a tableland.  The estate is 305 acres in extent, and includes a fishing lake of 12 acres in which a highly favourable report points out the possibilities of developing trout fishing.  Mr F G Richmond, who is recognised as one of the highest authorities on trout culture, has examined the stream, Felbridge Water, and the lake, and has given an opinion which should be of great interest and value to perspective purchasers of this property.   Mr Richmond has inspected the lake twice, and though its bed in now dry, he is confirmed in his opinion that it presents exceptional advantages for the formation of a piece of sporting water for the production of good trout fishing.

 

Repairing the dam, putting the pond in order and stocking it, thus turning the waste land into a source of revenue, would in his judgement be a thoroughly sound undertaking from a business point of view.

 

The water swarms with fresh water shrimp, the staple food of trout in the West of England.  Owing, moreover, to the fact that the land has for a long time lain fallow, very exceptional results in the way the trout growth are likely to follow during the first four years after the land is flooded.

 

Trout Lake.  Two courses, which have been defined by Mr. Richmond, are open for dealing with Furness Lake.  The dam can be re-made, and the outlet and sluices built; and the pond bottom can be treated in such a way that at the expiration of the first spurt of growth the pond will be in the best possible condition.  Or, if the purchaser prefers the other course, which would involve less expense than the first, such arrangements could be made as would raise the water to the minimum height needed to make a trout pond, thus demonstrate visibly and practically its capacities for the future.

 

The present stream running into the pond forms good spawning and breeding ground, and Mr Richmond anticipates that there is likely to be a fair annual re-stocking from this source alone.

 

Mr Richmond’s full report may be seen at the offices of the Vendors, and his detailed specification for the construction of the dam, sluice gratings etc., and his estimates of the cost of stocking the pond and planting the bed with molluscs and caddis, are at the disposal of any purchaser who desires to develop the fishing possibilities of the pond.

 

The Felbridge Water could also be converted for trout, or the stream and pond could be adapted to water gardening.

 

Furnace Wood has a frontage to the Crawley Down road, and Cuttinglye Wood abuts on Sandy Lane on the south-east.  In Furnace Wood are two cottages and also a quarry for the celebrated Felbridge stone.  The total area is about two hundred and ninety seven acres.

 

The estate will enjoy the advantage of Company’s water.

 

Grange Road station is within ten minutes’ walk and East Grinstead is within two miles.

 

A large part of the land commands a southern aspect and the whole is delightfully wooded.

 

Beautiful Sussex.  The property has especial attractions for purchasers of residential sites.  It adjoins the favourite Crawley Down district.

 

The Property, as a whole, affords a most attractive investment, whether to syndicates, Builders, or others, for speedy and progressive development.

 

There is a keen demand for detached and self-contained Sites and for Residences of a cost from £1,000 upwards.

 

The Crawley Down district, which this Estate adjoins, is evidence of the favour and popularity enjoyed by part of the confines of East Grinstead.  The Vendors would sell as a whole and will afford very generous terms to responsible purchasers.      

 

Schedule

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Horne

 

 

 

Parish of Worth

 

703

Woodland

 16.000

 

137a

Building

      .045

695

Waste

   2.500

 

137b

Roadway

      .065

696

Wood and Waste

    1.445

 

199

Rough Grass

    1.090

697

Wood

      .700

 

200

Furnace & Cuttinglye Woods

297.737

698

Pasture

    4.856

 

271

Roadway

     .766

701

Pasture

    1.371

 

270

Pasture

   7.986

 

 

 

 

274

Two Cottages & Gardens

     .618

 

 

 

 

Total

 

305.442

 

It is interesting to note that the description states that the estate amounted to ‘about two hundred and ninety seven acres’, the same as in 1914, whilst the schedule records ‘305.442’ acres.  The loss of 20.389 acres from 1914 equates to plots 696, 698, 701 in Horne and plots 134 to 137b in Worth, the area to the west of Furnace Wood on the south side of Copthorne Road (now the site of the Crawley Down Garage and Gatwick Parking).  As a point of interest, these plots had originally formed the holding in the occupation of ‘Widow Potter’ in 1855.  There seems to be some confusion over these plots as in the revised sale catalogue of 1918 the schedule again includes the 20.389 acres making a total of 325.831 acres, the same as in 1914.  Unfortunately it has not yet been possible to establish when these plots were actually sold although it is known that they were sold as a separate entity, being now outside what is considered to be Furnace Wood.

 

In the revised edition of the 1918 sale catalogue the description for the Cuttinglye Estate is very similar to that of the first 1918 sale catalogue although it only briefly mentions that a report had been compiled about the viability of the lake sustaining trout in the opinion of Mr Richmond, and does not go into great detail.  However, Furnace Wood does not enjoy equal status with Cuttinglye as in the earlier sale catalogue, being only mentioned in the description – ‘In Furnace Wood are two cottages and a picturesque quarry of the celebrated Felbridge building stone’.  One other difference is that the text states that ‘The Estate enjoys the advantages of Company’s water’ in the revised edition, implying that mains water had been connected sometime between the two sale catalogue publication dates.   

 

Using the 1914 and 1918 schedules, with the removal of the 20.389 acres of pasture (see above), together with 171a 2r 22p of woodland, the known area of Cuttinglye Wood which had remained unchanged since 1855, the residential area that has now become known as Furnace Wood, encompasses the following (based on the 1914/18 schedule plots):

 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Plan No.

Description

Area

 

Parish of Horne

 

 

 

Parish of Worth

 

703

Woodland

  16.000

 

199

Rough Grass

    1.090

695

Waste

    2.500

 

200

Furnace Wood

126.187

 

 

 

 

271

Roadway

      .766

 

 

 

 

270

Pasture

    7.986

 

 

 

 

274

Two Cottages & Gardens

      .618

 

 

 

 

Total

 

155.147

 

It would seem that no one was interested in buying the whole estate, especially as the only access into Furnace Wood were the two original trackways, one at the northwest of Felcot Farm, off the track leading from Copthorne road to Felcot Farm, and the other extending off the pond bay, together with the two slightly later trackways, one leading from Gibbshaven and the other from the furnace/mill site towards Snow Hill, none of which were particularly direct, passed over other people’s properties and did not join a major road.  Cuttinglye had similar problems, although there were two accesses off Hophurst Hill, one off Hophurst Lane and another off Sandy Lane in Crawley Down.  To resolve the access issue of Furnace Wood the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd purchased two and a half acres of land at the north of Furnace Wood on 2nd April 1919 for the sum of £70 from the Cadleys who owned Felcot Farm [for further details see Handout, Felcot Farm, JIC/SJC 05/08].  Ownership of this parcel of Felcot Farm allowed for the current access to be cut into Furnace Wood creating the Lake View Road entrance used today.  It should be remembered that the lay-by from which access to Furnace Wood is now gained was, in 1919, the route of the main A264 before it was diverted to its current line in the late 1960’s to straighten the dangerous ‘S’ bend.

Still unsold at the end of April 1919, the Cuttinglye estate, including Furnace Wood, was put up as collateral security for a loan of £22,000 made by the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd, to enable them to re-pay monies owed to the Fuidge Manor Estate in Devon.  However, it was from about this date that sections of Furnace Wood eventually began to sell, probably due to the new access into the area off the Copthorne Road. 

 

From a map of the time (Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace), Cuttinglye Wood formed plot 1 (50 acres), with a further 23 plots (ranging from 2 ½ acres up to 7 acres) adjoining three newly established trackways through Furnace Wood, now known as Furnace Farm Road, Felcot Road and Lake View Road.  The map shows that in Furnace Wood plot 3 (the site of Deep Acre and Meadow View on west side of Lake View Road), plot 5 (the site of Safari, Edgeworth, Roma, Linden and Danecroft on the west side of Lake View Road), and plot 12 (the site of Ye Oaks, Penrose, Rowanhurst, and Timber Tops on the east side of Lake View Road and Autumn, Ringwood, Witham, Danewood, The Birches, The Maze and Dilkusha on the west side of Felcot Road ) had already been sold.  Plot 2 (the site of the old quarry, Vulcan Springs and Millwood on the west side of Lake View Road) was reserved, and plot 8 (now the site of Rickstones and Brooknook), although not sold or reserved, indicated the proposed development of two buildings and a private road on the plot.

 

Although there is no indication on the map, shortly after its publication, part of plot 1 was purchased by Lionel and Beatrice Robinson, including Furnace Cottages,  Furnace Lake and the land abutting the lake on the north side (the sites of Furnace Lodge, Forge Cottage, Furnace Bungalow, and Furnace).  The Robinsons also acquired (date not yet established) part of the reserved plot that included the old quarry and the site of the furnace/mill.   

 

Early 20th century settlers

Lionel and Beatrice Robinson

Lionel Inglis Robinson was born between July and September 1877 in Hampton Wick, Middlesex, one of sixteen children of Mark Heaton Robinson and his wife Emma Louisa née Webb.  Mark Robinson, after a short stint as a brewery manager and clerk in the Admiralty at Whitehall, spent most of his life working as an engineer, initially mechanical but by 1901 electrical.  Lionel seems to have followed in his father’s foot-steps and by the early 1900’s was in partnership with George Leonard Addenbrooks in Lionel Robinson & Co, electrical instrument makers and manufacturers with outlets in Westminster and Bayswater, the company being mutually dissolved in December 1902.  However, in February 1903 Lionel set up a similar business in partnership with Rupert Greaves Williams-Ellis.  Lionel also took out at least two patents during his life time, one in 1922 on improvements relating to coverings of wires and cables and a second in 1928 relating to safety razors.

 

Lionel Robinson married Beatrice Yates Grant in Kendal, Westmorland, on 16th June 1904; Beatrice having been born in Kendal in 1877.  The couple seem to have had just one child, Geoffrey Seafield Robinson born on 7th March 1906, the birth being register at Kingston, but by 1911 the Robinson family were living in Guildford, Surrey.  Around 1920, Lionel purchased Furnace Cottages and part of plot 1 of the Cuttinglye and Furnace Woods estate, although it has not yet been possible to establish how much of the fifty-acre plot he purchased or the exact date.

 

Lionel Robinson was responsible for the renovation of Furnace Cottages, extending and converting them as one large house known as Furnace.  The grounds were also landscaped to create extensive gardens and Lionel had the dam rebuilt to re-form the lake, reputedly by Prisoners of War housed in Cuttinglye Wood (although this local story may relate to an earlier attempt made during the 1910’s).  The old quarry was turned into the Robinson’s vegetable garden being sheltered on most sides by the quarry face.  There is little or no evidence of the quarry now as it was filled in as a gentle slope by the current owner in 1976. 

 

The Robinsons were also responsible for the construction of Furnace Lodge to the east of Furnace and later, Forge Cottage opposite the end of Felcot Road, built as accommodation for Helen Broderick the Robinson’s chauffeuse/secretary.  Other members of staff included, Gertrude Lymm (known as Gertie) who worked as cook/housekeeper and Ada Bloomer who was in service in the Robinson household until her marriage.

 

Sadly in August 1936 Beatrice Robinson accidentally drowned whilst swimming in the lake, being buried in the churchyard at St John’s, Felbridge, on 19th August, aged just fifty-nine.  In remembrance of his wife, Lionel had a small stained glass portrait of Beatrice set into the window of the library which is still there to this day.  Lionel remained at Furnace until his death (aged ninety) in 1967, being buried with Beatrice at St John’s on 15th September.  At the time of his death his son Geoffrey was living at Furnace Lodge. 

 

Other early settlers include Francis L Agate, C D Bissett, Thomas Henry Poplett, William Shinn, E Soames, and Auguste Francois Etienne Subtil.  Unfortunately, being quite recent history it has not been possible to find much information on some of these early settlers, but what has been gleaned follows.  

 

Francis Leonard Agate was born in Edmonton in 1884, the son of Alfred and Sarah.  In 1901 the Agate family, which included Francis, Ernest (born about 1887) and Percy (born about 1891) were living at Lordship Lane, Tottenham, where Alfred was working as a nurseryman operating the White Stone Nursery.  There is no obvious marriage for Francis.  However, around 1920 Francis Agate purchased plot 5 of the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map (now the sites of Safari, Edgeworth, Roma, Linden and Danecroft in Lake View Road) amounting to an estimated five acres.

 

C D Bissett (no identity known) purchased plot 10 around 1920 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map amounting to three and three quarter acres, now the undeveloped site at the junction of Furnace Farm Road with Lake View Road.

 

Thomas Henry Poplett (who still has descendants living in Furnace Wood) was born in Brighton in 1867, the son of Thomas and Hannah Poplett.  By 1871 the Poplett family had moved to Chelsea, where Thomas senior was working as a house painter and Thomas Henry had acquired a brother, William born in 1868.  By 1891 Thomas Henry, still living with his parents at 49, Onslow Dwellings, Chelsea, was working as a postman at the South Kensington Sorting Office, becoming Head Postman by 1906.  

 

Thomas Henry married Louisa Victoria Elizabeth Rockaerts [Roekaerts] on 25th May 1891, Louisa having been born in 1871 the daughter of Victor and Sylvia Roekaerts.  As a point of interest, Victor, of Belgium birth, was employed as a military musical instrument maker.  Thomas Henry and Louisa had at least four children including, Thomas Victor born in 1893, Claude Albert born in 1899, Alfred Leslie born in 1907 and Doris Kathleen born in 1910, all born in Chelsea. 

 

On 2nd March 1920 Thomas Henry Poplett purchased plot 4 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map, amounting to five and a half acres and encompassing the sites of the properties today known as Oaklands, Glenwood, Jopador and Woodlands on Lake View Road.  On 21st July 1921, very shortly after purchase, Thomas sold part of the plot (now the site of Oaklands and Glenwood) to A H Roberts, and by this date Thomas’s son Claude was registered as holding the site of what is today Jopador.  There is no evidence that Thomas Henry Poplett and his family resided permanently on their plots but they did use them as a week-end holiday retreat, with some former Furnace Wood residents remembering that they used a big bell tent when they stayed.

 

About 1948 Alfred Poplett purchased plot 18 on the Woodlands Sites map (now the sites of Spindles, Woodbury and Woodside) amounting to five acres.  Alfred married Lillian Prescott in 1938 and they made their family home at Woodside where he and his wife spent the rest of their days, Alfred died in 1969 and Lillian in 1976, both being buried at St John’s Church, Felbridge.  Alfred and Lillian had two daughters and their eldest daughter still resides at Woodside.    

 

William Shinn was born in Kensington in 1871, the son of Edward Shinn and Eliza née Milne.  Edward and Eliza had at least eight children (beside William) including, Edward John and Vernon Richard twins born in 1873, Eliza born in 1874, John Wentworth born in 1880, Frederick Lawrence born in 1882 and Donald Gordon born in 1885.  By 1891 the Shinn family were living at 51, Treverton Street, Bayswater, where Alfred senior was working as joiner, William as a postman, Edward as a sorter and Vernon as a telegraph messenger.  By 1901, both Edward and Vernon had joined their brother William as a postman. 

 

Around 1920 William Shinn purchased plot 3 of the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map (now the sites Meadow View and Deep Acre on Lake View Road) amounting to three acres.  It is not known whether William had a property constructed in Furnace Wood but it is known that two of his brothers also moved down to the area, Edward (known as Jack) who had built a small 2-roomed brick built cottage called Nutt Wood (now the site of the property Vulcan Springs), Lake View Road and Vernon who had Cameron Hut built in Cuttinglye Road.  In living memory the footpath to the Vulcan spring (see above) still ran down beside the little brick built cottage.  Edward married Ellen Sophia Bennell in 1899, Ellen having been born in 1871.  In 1901 they were living at 47, Richford Street, London, moving permanently to Furnace Wood (date not yet established) from where Edward eventually died, blind and living the life of a hermit, being buried at All Saint’s Church, Crawley Down, on 10th April 1964.

 

E Soames (identity not yet established) purchased a plot off Furnace Farm Road in Furnace Wood (now the site of The Copse, Jasmine Cottage and Furnace Farm, together with Great Furnace Field, the field running behind The Copse towards Gibbshaven Farm) calling his house Oak Lodge, establishing Furnace Road Poultry Farm that he ran until 1929 [for further details see Handout, Poultry Farming at Felbridge, SJC 05/11]. 

 

Auguste Francois Etienne Subtil was born in Lorraine on 3rd August 1869, although registered as a German subject he always considered himself French.  In 1891 he left his home country and came to England where he began working as a hairdresser in London.  Auguste married Florence Cecilia Miller between January and March 1893 and by 1901 the Subtil family were living at 524, Kings Road, Chelsea.  Auguste and Florence had two sons, Louis Gabriel born in 1893 and George Marcel born in 1900.  In 1922 the Subtil family moved to Kia Ora, plot 21 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map, amounting to five acres.  The Subtils were not the first owners of the plot as they purchased a small cottage and a few outbuildings from a New Zealander (name not yet established) who had made the original purchase of the plot.  As a point of interest, Kia Ora is a Maori greeting meaning ‘be well/healthy’ or simply ‘Hi’.

 

Auguste and his son Louis jointly ran the property as a poultry farm and market garden, supplying chicken, eggs and vegetables to friends and acquaintances back in the London area.      

 

Development            

Originally the first structures to appear in Furnace Wood were wooden sheds, bell tents and even old railway carriages used as week-end/holiday retreats but gradually these were replaced by more permanent structures as people made their homes here.  The builder for much of the early development of Furnace Wood is unknown, but the properties were generally wooden, much like The Ferns in Lake View Road before its recent extension.  The builder of a small wooden bungalow that was similar in design and appearance to The Ferns was Frank William Orchard of Wandsworth in Surrey, who purchased the site of Oaklands and Glen Wood in 1924, building a small wooden structure on the site of Glen Wood in 1925.  On this basis he may have been one of the earliest builders associated the development of Furnace Wood.

 

Later development of Furnace Wood was completed by Gustave Vaernewyck, a Belgian, who purchased plot 12 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map, the site of The Nest (now Chenies) in Lake View Road, which at the time of purchase already had a small wooden building on it that he demolished and replaced with a brick-built typical 1930’s square bungalow much like Homesdale in Lake View Road.  He later built his final home in Furnace Wood, of similar design, on the site of what is today known as Furnace Woods on Furnace Farm Road, formerly part of plot 17 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map (now the sites of The Waldrons and Furnace Woods on Furnace Farm Road, and Little Copse, Bracknell, Heatherlands, Butterflies, Green Hollow and Crosby on Felcot Road).  Another property he was responsible for was Oaklands, a brick and rendered chalet-style bungalow built in 1937 next to the William Orchard’s wooden bungalow. 

 

Another builder working in Furnace Wood from the 1930’s was Albert G Biggs (known as Bertie) who later moved to The Nest when Gustave Vaernewyck moved to Furnace Woods.  Bertie Biggs’ building company was later taken over by Ken Housman of Felcot Farm.  Many of their builds still remain including, Bechers in Felcot Road and Wedgewood, Ridgewood and Broomlands in Lake View Road, being quite distinctive in that they are cottage style bungalows built of brick and part rendered with timbered panels.  However, even with the progressive development of Furnace Wood mains water was not laid on to all properties until the late 1930’s, which was only briefly in use before enemy action in World War II disrupted the supply when the mains were hit by incendiary bombs.  Although the water supply has been re-connected, even today, there is no mains drainage or gas and a fairly erratic electricity supply due to the overhead power cables.

 

In more recent years Ken Housman diversified in his design/builds and examples found in Furnace Wood include Owlswood and April Cottage in Felcot Road, the conversion of The Chestnuts (now Safari) from a small square bungalow to a two storey house and the construction of Birch Grove built as a stop-over house for Japanese businessmen landing at Gatwick, replacing a small bungalow, both in Lake View Road. 


By the 1960’s most of Furnace Wood had been developed as housing, leaving just a few small plots here and there undeveloped; one (part of plot 16 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map) opposite the property known as Lake View had, at one time, a small wooden bungalow on it that unfortunately burnt down in the early 1930’s and was not replaced, another along Felcot Road between The Ferns and Felcot Farm (part of plot 15 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map), another between Felcot Farm and Spirling (part of plot 24 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map) and the whole of plot 10 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map on the bend at the junction between Furnace Farm Road and Lake View Road.  There is also a plot next to Nusa Dua (part of plot 7 on the Woodland sites of Cuttinglye and Furnace map) but this is a more recent sub-division. 

 

With the increased housing came the inevitable increase in the volume of traffic using the road system to access the properties.  Very few non-resident vehicles used the road as the potholes were not an attractive alternative to the main roads.  However, all the vehicles had to pass close to the Farmhouse at Gibbshaven Farm as the road that gave access from the Felbridge Road was the original trackway into Gibbshaven continuing on to the furnace (see above).  As a result the residents, together with Stanley and Freda Ainger (the then owners of Gibbshaven Farm) came to an agreement to re-route the line of the road to the south of Gibbshaven’s old barn, thus removing the passage of vehicles close to the Farmhouse.  This agreement gave the right of access over the diverted road on land belonging to Gibbshaven Farm into Furnace Wood from the Felbridge Road, and at the time of the re-routing there were seventy-three households in Furnace Wood.  An interesting observation from the road re-routing agreement is that the roads were called, Lake View Road, Felcot Road, Chesterfield Close and Furnace Road, there was no Furnace Farm Road.     

 

By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s many of the original Furnace Wood properties were being bought up and either extended or, as in many cases, demolished and rebuilt on a much grander scale to accommodate current ideals of habitation, and this trend is still continuing, although it has slowed with the more recent downturn in the economic climate.

 

In the late 1990’s a problem arose over public usage of the road system through Furnace Wood, West Sussex County Council believing it to be a public vehicular right of way.  However, this matter was resolved quickly and in January 2000 WSCC informed the Furnace Wood residents by letter, that there was no public vehicular right of access from Felbridge Road to Gibbshaven, therefore a vehicle through-route connecting Felbridge Road to the A264 was not available and that they did not consider that the public had a right to drive through the Estate.  This episode also raised residents concerns about the ownership of the road, as only the status of two roads were known, the re-routed road being under the ownership of the owners of Gibbshaven Farm and part of Furnace Farm Road that was owned by the owners of the properties abutting it.  As to the status of the other two roads (Lake View Road and Felcot Road) and part of Furnace Farm Road, ownership of them does not appear to have been included in the deeds to the properties that abut them, only the responsibility of maintenance.  As a result a sub-committee of the Furnace Wood Road Fund Association was formed to look into the ownership.  It was found that the probable owners of the two and a bit roads were the successors in title to the estate companies that originally sold off the plots in Furnace Wood – the East Grinstead Estate Company Ltd and the Felbridge Place Estate, both run by Percy Portway Harvey [for further details see Handout, The Breakup and Sale of the Felbridge Place Estate, SJC 01/11].  All of Percy Harvey’s companies had been wound up by the late 1930’s and no successors in title have been found.  Several recommendations were put forward by the committee but it was decided by the residents that at present no action would be taken in trying to pursue the purchase of the roads which could be a lengthy and costly legal process.   

 

Furnace Wood today

Today the only reminder that this area was once a hive of industrial activity is the name – Furnace Wood.  All the physical evidence has been swallowed up by vegetation and fenced off from public view.  There are a few examples of long-since coppiced sweet chestnut trees that hint at the charcoal industry that also once flourished in the area up until the early 20th century, together with a few patches of charcoal rich soil found in various gardens.  The pot holed road has been superseded by a tarmac surface lined by properties made up of a mix of different housing styles.  The oldest property in Furnace Wood (excluding Gibbshaven Farm and Felcot Farm as they technically lay outside of Furnace Wood) is Furnace House which dates to the revival of the iron industry in the mid 1700’s and the only example left of one of the first properties to be built after the break up of the Furnace Wood area is The Ferns in Lake View Road, a small dwelling typical of those constructed in the 1920’s, and only recently has it been extended.   From an architectural point of view Furnace Wood offers examples of modern housing from nearly every decade of the 20th century up until the present day, with each plot adapting and evolving to suit the needs of its occupants over the years that Furnace Wood has been a residential estate.

 

Memories                  

A stroll round Furnace Wood in the 1930’s to 1950’s

Starting at the entrance from Felbridge Road there was Gibbshaven Farm lived in by Mr and Mrs Prevett snr, then the Cleverley family with children Jim, Janet, Mick and Mary (Doris) and later Mr and Mrs Ainger. Leaving Gibbshaven by Furnace Road on the right there was Chestnut Lodge occupied by Mr Marshal, Wilbess, a brick bungalow lived in by Ted and Grace Bingham, later by Will Fagan and Bessie Hannah, and then Roy Still who had ran a pig farm from the site in the 1950’s.  Next door was Woodside lived in by Mr and Mrs Poplett and their two daughters, Jean and Marion.  The next property was a wooden bungalow occupied by Mr and Mrs Jim Prevett and their son and later by Mrs Newbury (Mrs Poplett’s mother).  Next door was Waldrons lived in by Mr and Mrs (Beris) Waldron-West.  Then there was Furnace Woods a brick bungalow that was built by and as a home for Gustave and Beatrice Vaernewyck, and after Beatrice’s death in 1952, Gustave and his common-law wife Hilda Smith.  Just past the entrance to Felcot Road was Cherry Cottage that was owned by Miss Kathleen Scallan who was a WREN officer during the war when the property was let to the Nicholls family with children Michael and David.  After the war Miss Scallan returned to Cherry Cottage and worked for Marks & Spencers.

Returning to walk back to Gibbshaven Farm, there was Furnace, originally a pair of cottages that had been lived in by the Stripp family before Mr and Mrs Lionel Robinson bought them and converted them into one house in about 1920.  Opposite the entrance to Felcot Road but still within the grounds of Furnace was Forge Cottage lived in by Helen Broderick and Gertrude Lymm.  Then after a long stretch of woodland there was Furnace Lodge lived in by Mr Geoffrey Robinson and his wife and daughter Rosemary, and finally Furnace Farm which was divided into two semi-detached bungalows of brick and wood, Mr Soames on the left and Mr and Mrs George Prevett and son Ernie on the right.

Returning to the bend at the end of Furnace Farm Road was Lake View Road.  On the right hand side, after a large empty piece of woodland, was Wedgwood, a brick built bungalow from the early 1950’s lived in by John and Jose Baldwin.  Then there was Ridgewood a brick built bungalow owned by the Wickenden family (they later ran the sweet shop of the High Street in East Grinstead), and next door was Broomlands, another brick built bungalow.  The next property was a wooden bungalow called The Nest owned by Gustave and Beatrice Waernewyck.  This was replaced by a brick built bungalow in the 1930’s, after which Mr Vaernewyck built Furnace Woods on Furnace Road and moved there, The Nest being taken over by Mr and Mrs Biggs.  Then there was Birch Grove, a wooden bungalow with a veranda lived in by Mrs Hayes and her daughter Sheila.  Next came Ye Oaks a wood and asbestos bungalow lived in by Geoff and Mary Handley (formerly Miss Chatfield).  Then there was Penrose a bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Crump with children Paul and Heather, then a bungalow (on the sites of Rowanhurst and Timber Tops) lived in by Mr Cork snr., next to which was Petersfield a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Cork (Frank and Mary) with children Peter, June and Henry.  Mr Cork was a builder.  This property was followed by a brick bungalow (on the site of Dave Den) lived in by Mr and Mrs Southall and their son Peter. 

To the right of the junction with Felcot Road was a small two-room brick bungalow that dated to before 1930 in which lived Mr Manning, a bit of a hermit.  On the left of the junction was a wooden bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Ripon.  Next to them was a wooden bungalow that burnt down some time before 1940, and finally another wooden bungalow that has most recently been lived in by Lottie and Bruce Harris.  Strolling back up Lake View Road towards the lake the first property on the right was Brook Nook although it was accessed off the Copthorne Road.  There were two wooden bungalows here and the original owners were Mr and Mrs Hoad and their daughter Kate, and later Mr and Mrs Jack Thomas and three of their girls, Win, Betty and Margaret.  Win and her three children, John, David and Jackie, lived in the second bungalow.  Next to Brook Nook was a wooden bungalow that was later replaced by a brick one in which Mr and Mrs Smith lived.  Then there was the Shop, originally wooden now brick with a succession of shop keepers including Mrs Heselden, Mr Luckhurst and Mrs Effie Charlesworth.  Next to the shop was a brick built bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Heselden and son Geoff.  Then there was another wooden bungalow that was later built of brick in which Fred and Effie Charlesworth lived in the 1950’s.  The next property was a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Reynolds and son.  Next door, the Tullet household – Granny and Grandad, followed by a brick bungalow originally lived in by Mr and Mrs Crouch and later by Mr and Mrs Tullet.  Next door was another brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Roland Stripp with sons Ray and Dennis (Mrs Stripp and Mrs Crouch were sisters).

Next to the Stripps was a bungalow lived in by old Mrs Reynolds (I think).  Next to her lived Mr and Mrs Windsor and their daughter Rosemary.  The next property had Miss and Mrs Bryant who were succeeded by Mr and Mrs Cannon and their daughters in the 1940’s.  Next to them was a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Marden and children, Joyce, Muriel and Tony.  Next door was a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Cooper.  Then there was Oaklands, a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Pike and daughters Marion and Avril.  Within their grounds was a wooden bungalow in which Mrs Simpson lived (Mrs Pike’s mother).  After an empty plot of woodland the next property was a wooden bungalow called Woodlands where Mr and Mrs Royce lived with their daughter.  This had a high wire fence and they kept Alsatians.  Nearing the top of Lake View Road was another wooden bungalow in which Mr and Mrs Shinn lived, followed in the 1950’s by Mr and Mrs Spray, and the last property was Vulcan Springs, a two-roomed brick bungalow owned by Mr Jack Shinn. 

The last road in Furnace Wood was Felcot Road so starting from Furnace Farm Road the houses on the right hand side were, Little Coppice a brick house built in the 1950’s by Crannigan.  Next was Bracknell, a brick bungalow built before 1940 lived in by Mr and Mrs Rayfield and children Gordon and Barbara (related to Mr and Mrs Cooper).  Then came Heatherland, this was a brick bungalow built before 1940 and was lived in by Mr and Mrs Cranham and children John, Colin and Jane.  Next was The Spean (now Butterflies), this was home to Mr and Mrs Langman and son Brian and the Misses Thame (I believe).  The next property was Green Hollow, a brick bungalow dating to before 1940 that was home to Ted and Grace Bingham and their children Alan, Roy and Doug.  Then came our property that became sub-divided over the years.  The original house was a wooden bungalow called Kia Ora, built by a New Zealander about 1920; a cellar and well were later added.  This was bought by Mr and Mrs AFE Subtil and son Louis.  Then a wooden house was built on the plot for Louis Subtil and his family.  Lincoln Cottage was built in the 1950’s for Mrs E Subtil and Chapps Wagons for John Subtil.  Also, at the front of the plot a brick bungalow called Oldfield was built in the 1950’s that was lived in by Mr Levy, together with another brick bungalow called Tierraverde.

Next to our plot was a wooden bungalow dating to about 1920 in which lived Mr and Mrs Arthur and grandson Stanley, this was replaced by a brick bungalow in the 1950’s and was lived in by Ken and Betty Houseman (Ken was Stanley’s step-brother and Betty was formerly Betty Thomas of Brook Nook).  Next to this there was St Chads, another 1920’s wooden bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Smith and daughter, then by Mr and Mrs Housman and later the Langman family.  The property was later replaced by a brick bungalow in the 1950’s and was lived in by Alan and Aila Bingham.  Next came a wooden bungalow called April Cottage in which Mrs Tullet lived.  This was re-built in brick by the 1940’s and lived in by Squire and Vearnewyck, and later Mr and Mrs Bill Housman who let it to Dr and Mrs Marmot during the war.  The last property along this side of Felcot Road (after the entrance to Chesterfield Close) was a brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Stripp and their children Victor and Lawrence (Mrs Stripp was formerly Miss Ripon).

Heading back up Felcot Road to Furnace Farm Road there was a plot of woodland, then Heathland, a wooden bungalow.  Next door was another wooden bungalow lived in by Mrs Snooks, succeeded by a Miss and Mrs (name forgotten), and then Walter Guntrip.  Next came Arthur’s Orchard, a brick house built in 1950, and a brick bungalow lived in by Audrey Walters.  Next came a small brick bungalow built before 1940 in which lived Mr and Mrs Cox who let the property to Mr and Mrs Lever and their son Colin, being eventually succeeded by Mrs Dyke.  Next came Ringwood, another pre 1940 brick bungalow lived in by Ralph and Dora Sinden and later Mr and Mrs Henn and children Vera and Roy.  Then came Witham, another pre 1940 brick bungalow lived in by Dick and Phylis Holder and their son David.  Next door was The Pytle, a wooden chalet bungalow that was originally lived in by Mr and Mrs Squire with their niece Evelyn.  They ran a poultry farm with chicken sheds running the full width of their plot that extended up to Arthur’s Orchard.  After the Squires left The Pytle was lived in by Mr and Mrs Jympson and son John (Mr Jympson was the Daily Telegraph film critic Jympson Harman), they were followed at the property by Mr and Mrs Bushe-Caryesford with children Adrian and Margaret-Clare.  Next came The Maze, a wooden bungalow with an earth floor lived in by Mr and Mrs Chatfield and daughter Joan.  Then came St Lawrence, a brick built bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Harris and daughters Jean and Anne.  In the 1940’s it was let to Mr and Mrs Marmot and daughters Judith and Naomi.  Next door was Camber, another brick bungalow lived in by Mr and Mrs Ernest and Elsie Squire.  In the 1940’s it was let to Mr and Mrs Nichols and sons Michael and David, and in the 1950’s was lived in by Don and Evelyn Spray with son Robert.  The last property along Felcot Road was The Sheiling, a brick bungalow lived in by the Misses Tame and their mother.  Later the house was lived in by Mr and Mrs John Bushe-Careysford, and in the 1940’s was let to the Lever family who had a daughter Sheila.

Branching off Felcot Road was Chesterfield Close which had four brick built bungalows, Chesterfield, where Mr and Mrs Chatfield and their son Denis lived.  Another where Mr and Mrs Shoebridge and their son Rex lived, another lived in by Mr and Mrs Drazer (Mrs Drazer being formerly Heather Crump), plus one more but I forget who lived there.

Since leaving the Wood several of the properties have been sub-divided and new houses built.

Betty Salmon, 1931 – 1956

 

Oaklands

In 1932 my father bought Oaklands and 3 acres of woodland.  My mother’s mother, Mrs Simpson, had been looking after 3 grandchildren and helping in my uncle’s shop in Catford and felt she had earned a rest.  When they came to look at the house the bracken was so tall that they had to tunnel through it.  The house was a two roomed, asbestos lined, wooden bungalow on good foundations, with front and back doors and two fireplaces, with a sentry box loo and a shed on tree stumps for washing and keeping things in.  Later my grandmother had a lean-too added to it to store her wood and coal.  My grandmother was delighted with it, and it didn’t take long before my father had made her a garden round the house and she even had some chickens, one of which would come into the house to lay her an egg for breakfast!

About 1937 we had a chalet bungalow built next door and when I was 7 we left Felcourt and came to live in it.  Dad built a garage at the end of the drive and a glass cooking and washing area leading to a greenhouse on the back of the bungalow.  There was no water, no electric light, no main drainage and no cooking facilities.  Dad installed a hydraulic ram in the spring near the brook with pipes leading up the woodland, pumping water into a very tall water tank with a tap at the bottom.  This water had to be filtered through a special ceramic water filter sitting on the kitchen windowsill.  The water had to then be boiled to make it fit to drink.  During the summer, neighbour’s wells ran dry and I remember them coming with pales on a yoke to collect their supplies.

I went to Felbridge School when I was 7.  We had to walk to school in all weathers.  Thick dust on our shoes in the summer, wellies when it rained or in the snow.  There were no buses then.

My sister had been born 5½ years my junior so I got quite used to roaming round on my own.  I was very interested in wild flowers and had a book all about them.  Every time I went out I was looking to see if I could find them.  In the spring there were always large wood ant’s nests in the wood as the ants used to mass then and there was always a strong smell of formic acid in the wood at that time.  I would pick a blue bell and place on their nest and when I came back up from the bottom of the wood, the blue bell would have turned pink from the acid.  I was told that the wood ants had been specially imported by Gatty to feed his pheasants.

When I was old enough to understand about things I remember going down the wood and looking at a very large bridge which went right over the brook.  It was made of planks about 1 foot wide and 6 inches thick, like looking down on a big raft.  I wondered why anyone would build one that was so big over such a small brook.  I then became aware of a roadway from our plot going straight towards the lake.  This I was told was the way the canon were brought out by horse and cart, straight across the bridge on  a right of way out to Snow Hill.  They were then taken to Woolwich Arsenal.  Also, although I never remember seeing it, I was told that there used to be an old stage coach parked off the side of the old road to the lake about two or three gardens up.

Various other things have puzzled me.  The Vulcan spring which seemed bottomless, fed a chute carrying water into the brook which was always cool and irony.  That water didn’t have to be filtered and boiled, it was perfect and I’m still here to prove it.  Many hot days we’ve spent paddling up and down from it.  We also used to rub the orange foam found near the Vulcan spring all over our legs and arms for an instant suntan!

The lake had a large dam which could be regulated so water could come over the top or not.  This I never quite understood.  There was also the remains of a mill down in the dip on the other side of the path that ran beside the lake.

Going back to my nan, she used oil lamps to see and had an oil cooker.  Her washing was done in a big pan perched on top of a primus.  In this she boiled her sheets, hauling them out with a copper-stick.  She had a shallow fireclay sink with a bucket under to catch the drips.  Eventually my father contacted the Horley Electric Supply and so got electricity brought to Furnace Wood.     

We played on a see-saw, a tree balanced on a stump.  We also had a rope swing with a big knot on the bottom which we used to sway backwards and forwards.  We paddled up the stream, built houses in the wood piling bracken and twigs up to make the walls, although we rarely got a roof built on them.  So we continued developing the garden and helping dad dig and plant.  Then war came.

One Saturday afternoon my aunt and uncle from Catford appeared with my 3 cousins, they had brought the children away from unexploded bombs that had landed.  In a few days we got sorted out with sleeping arrangements shared between my nan’s and our house.  Then came rationing, no sweets, only your ration share!  We then all looked forward to aunt and uncle’s visits at the weekends, as having a shop, we got extra sweeties when they came to visit. 

My father was too old to be called up so he went into what was called a reserve occupation.  He became a member of the Air Inspection Directorate.  His job was in passing aircraft fit to fly after having been damaged.  He was moved from factory to factory, Coventry, Bristol, Basingstoke and other aircraft places.  He got home once a month, then sometimes once a fortnight.  Wherever he moved it seemed as if the enemy were following him to the area. We could imagine all sorts of things but had to wait in suspense, but he was lucky.  One day he and his mate decided they would sleep in their own beds rather than go down the shelter.  They had quite a shock after a noisy night when they looked out of the window and found that half the land-lady’s garden had disappeared after being hit by a bomb.

My mother kept rabbits during the war and it was my job to collect food for them.  She belonged to the Women’s Institute and learned how to cure the skins to make fur backed and lined gloves.  It was dad’ job to knock them on the head, and we ate every bit of them, including the head.   

Marion Jones 1936 - 1956

 

Childhood days in Furnace Wood

My first memory of Furnace Wood was when my parents camped in our bell tent on land belonging to one of the Poplett brothers which is now where Jopador stands in Lake View Road.  This was from the early 1940’s.  My parent’s then bought a bungalow called Roma, a few doors away and we came down at weekends, etc. and eventually moved in permanently in 1947, just in time for ‘The’ winter.

‘Uncle’ Alf Poplett and my father used to cycle from Chelsea as young men and camp at Brook Nook.  This is how they came to live in the Wood.  Alf’s brother ‘Uncle’ Tommy Poplett also moved to Chestnut Lodge in Furnace Farm Road, and then Alf moved to Woodside, near to his brother.

The road throughout the Wood was unmade, sand in the summer and mud in the winter.  It was suggested after a few years that the road be upgraded.  This upgrading took the form of clinker from which I still have black scars on my leg when I came off my bike, riding one handed, with an umbrella in the other, on my way to the stables at Brook Nook.

A steam roller was hired to level out and break down the clinker.  Various men worked on the project and the main merry band were as follows; my father Charlie Cannons, Geoff Handley [of Ye Oaks], George Godwin [of Birch Grove], all from Lake View Road, Dick Holder [of Witham] in Felcot Road, and ‘Uncle’ Alf Poplett from Furnace Farm Road.  The final suggestion was a ‘proper’ road to which my father objected as he could foresee fast moving traffic.

‘Uncle’ Jack Shinn, as he was known by the children, lived in a tiny house called Vulcan Springs at the top of Lake View Road.  He had no running water as he used to go to the spring at the bottom of his garden where the water was always icy cold with the iron colour round the edge. 

When crossing the bridge at the Lake it was like taking your life in your hands as the bridge was quite wobbly until a replacement was constructed in later years.

Mr Cooper was the local shoe mender and lived at The Chestnuts in Lake View Road [now the site of Safari], and Mrs Royce sold lettuce etc. from her house at Woodlands.  As in many places, Furnace Wood also had a travelling van selling vegetables among other things.

Opposite Mrs Royce was Broomlands where the Wickenden family (of the East Grinstead sweet shop fame) lived.  They had two boys, Peter then Geoffrey; Margaret came later, after they had moved to Stone Quarry where they had a shop.  Geoffrey and Margaret have recently retired from Wickendens in the High Street, East Grinstead.

All the children of the Wood knew each other and played together at sometime.  Douglas and Roy Bingham from Green Hollow, Felcot Road, used to shout to us in Lake View Road to come and play.  They were known as the Binger Bongers!

My sister Pauline and I used to play with the Baldwins – Jackie, David and Chun [John] who lived in the grounds of Brook Nook where their grandparents, Mr and Mrs Thomas, lived.  It was real Swallows and Amazons stuff as they had a punt and we used to go down the stream, under the road, and into Hedgecourt Lake.  David and Chun had a blown bird egg collection on their wall.

The Mardens’ lived next door to us at Edgeworth and I remember Tony keeping mice and putting them down his neck.  He was related to the Marden family from Gibbshaven Farm.  We used to throw our bikes in the ditch at Gibbshaven and leave them there when we went to catch the bus.  They were always there in the afternoon with nothing taken.

Beryl Ashby, 1947 - 70

 

Oaklands revisited

The first family member to come to Furnace Wood was my great-grandmother, Emmeline Simpson, when she moved into a little wooden bungalow in September 1932.  Although this was well before I was born I still remember the little wooden bungalow as it remained with my family until 1964 when my grandfather sold it along with a quarter of an acre of garden.  My grandparents Vera and William Henry Reid Pike (Harry to his family and friends) had a bungalow built within the grounds of the little wooden bungalow in 1937 and the two properties became known as Oaklands Cottage (my great-grandmother’s wooden bungalow) and Oaklands (my grandparent’s bungalow).

My first memories of Furnace Wood come from my childhood in the early 1960’s when my mother, brothers and I would stay at Oaklands in a caravan in the grounds.  My father never stayed with us but living in Imberhorne Lane he was not a million miles away and was probably working.  I guess it was our ‘summer holiday’ as I only ever remember being woken early by bright sunlight, bird song and the sound of cockerels crowing, as many Furnace Wood families had chicken then.  There was no sound of cars or aeroplanes as there is today.  Days were spent playing in and around the garden and Furnace Wood. 

Oaklands garden used to be dotted with the butts of large sweet chestnut trees that had been felled, some to make space for the bungalows to be built but some that had been felled long before either property appeared.  These large stumps made great climbing frames, especially one in the front garden. 

We often followed my grandfather around as he ‘tidied’ the woodland paths he had created in the two acres of wood at the back of the plot and we often played in the stream at the bottom of the wood.  Oaklands plot had the site of the bridge that crossed the stream allowing canon to be carted from the furnace at the top along the old roadway (still visible today) and out to Snow Hill.  The bridge had long since disappeared so to get to a small plot of land belonging to Oaklands on the other side my grandfather cut steps into the banks of the stream.  These were re-cut every time they got washed away.  Although the bridge had gone I did find a hand wrought nail one day in the stream that may have had something to do with it.  I also found a very large lump of slag shaped roughly like an axe head and I was convinced for years that it was a pre-historic axe head!

We used to fish in the stream using a thin, freshly cut sapling or bough, a ping-pong ball as a float with a hook and line.  I often caught perch; you had to be careful when handling them because of their spiky back fin.  One day my nan cooked my catch, I must say it was the first and last time I ever wanted to eat perch, they were bony and tasted of mud!  There was also bream, big silvery fish; needless to say I never caught one of them.  Perhaps the most amazing fish caught in the stream was the very rare ‘Holly Fish’, caught by one of my brothers.  It was the old tale of ‘the one that got away’ when he returned up the garden without his fishing stuff.  On closer investigation his line, float and hook were found tangled high in the branches of an over-hanging holly tree!

As children we often used to walk along the stream up to the Vulcan spring.  Here we would find the old oak chute with clear spring water flowing along it.  However, if you disturbed a small pool slightly above the chute, bright orange irony water would flow into the stream.  We used to spend a lot of time investigating this area and picking up the glassy treasure trove of slag found in abundance there.  It was a common playground for most of the youngsters in Furnace Wood.  There was always the rickety bridge to negotiate high up over the stream and the quarry with its sheer face dropping away from Lake View Road.

Bonfires were another common feature.  My grandfather regularly had a bonfire and we would generally bake potatoes wrapped in tin foil in the hot ashes, really tasty.  He also had the remains of a decaying piano (one my mother used to practise on in the un-heated wooden bungalow) propped up against a tree near the designated bonfire area and I would play the exposed strings (in desperate need of tuning) like a harp.  I’ve always fancied learning to play the harp.  There was also an amazing dump (the original form of waste disposal in the Wood before the arrival of dustbin men) in the grounds of Oaklands.  Here we would prospect for all sorts of treasures, broken china, pressed glass, old lubricant bottles, medicine bottles, paste jars and Bovril jars, some of which still grace my shelves to this day.

Other memories are the Furnace Wood Stores that operated from the site of Lake View in Lake View Road, the large picture window on the left of the house being the shop premises.  Then there was Mrs Biggs who lived at The Nest (now Chenies), Lake View Road.  In an era when women only wore dresses and skirts, Mrs Biggs wore corduroy trousers, a shirt and a knitted woollen slip-over, and very fine wayward hair if I remember correctly, with a beret. 

There always used to be a steam roller parked down near Ferndene in Lake View Road.  The residents used it to repair the road.  Then a second, newer, bigger steam roller appeared which was parked outside Cherry Cottage in Furnace Road.  The roads were mud and pot-holes with a ditch running either side to carry off excess water.  Residents (the fore-runner of the Furnace Wood Road Fund Association) would fill the pot holes when they got too bad and roller the road flat.  It’s quite ironic that today we have a nice tarmac road with ramps to slow motorists down, the pot holes did a much better job and were far cheaper!

I remember in the 1970’s there was a big to do about a certain public footpath that had been added to the definitive footpath map in 1952 without any notification to the residents of Furnace Wood.  The offending footpath (45B) took the line of the old track leading from Snow Hill to the furnace, running through the back gardens of properties in Lake View Road abutting the stream.  The fracas started when a Rambling Group came through one weekend and cut all the boundary fences proclaiming a right of way which was strongly contested by the residents.  Unfortunately because the footpath had appeared on the definitive footpath map it was legally binding even though it actually passed through a building and the old quarry (no one had actually bothered to come and look at the line of the old road when the footpath status was suggested!).  One resident even piled up a huge heap of manure on the supposed footpath in protest, but unfortunately he was taken to court and fined £70.  What is ironic is that since then a letter has come to light written in 1921 by Percy P Harvey of the Felbridge Place Estate answering the same query about access over the old trackway and he writes: ‘we beg to say that to the best of our belief no public right of way exists giving access to the Quarry at Furnace Wood.  The right of way for access is reserved to ourselves or those deriving under us alone and is therefore private’.  

The Wood has changed a great deal in my lifetime, there is now the constant hum from the A264 and the noise of aircraft, not only flying overhead but also in the early hours (when there is not too much traffic to drown it out) you can even hear the aircraft engines revving up on the runway at Gatwick.  The only sounds you used to hear was bird song and cock’s crowing, oh! and the occasional peacock from either Yew Tree Farm off Copthorne Road, or Chaps Waggon Farm off Felcot Road.  Houses were much smaller and gardens were generally for growing vegetables, and, until the late 1970’s, there were no deer to eat what ever you did plant! 

Stephonie J Clarke 1957 -     

 

Bibliography

The Wealden District by Gallois & Edmunds

The Iron Industry of the Weald, Cleere & Crossley

Prehistoric Flintwork by C Butler

Handout, Roman Legacy of Felbridge, SJC 11/01, FHWS

Gage/Bernlys Lease, 1485, ASA/G13/95, ESRO

Place Names of Surrey by A Mawer & FM Stenton

Gage/Crown ironworks lease, 1554, SAS/G42/13, ESRO

Gage/Fawkner/French lease, 1567, SAS/G13/97, ESRO

Bill of Complaint, 1600, SAS/G43/39, ESRO

Bill of Complaint, 1601, SAS/G16/80A, ESRO

Handout, Charcoal Burning and the Felbridge Area, SJC 05/02, FHWS

General Accounts for the manor of Hedgecourt 1628, SAS/G11/26, ESRO

Handout, Wiremill, SJC 03/06, FHWS

Gage/Marchant lease, 1723, SAS/G43/136, ESRO

Handout, Hedgecourt Mill Cottages, SJC 07/04, FHWS

Bourd map, 1748, FHA

Handout, The Commonplace Book of Colonel Edward Evelyn, JIC/SJC 09/07, FHWS

Wealden Iron Bulletin, 2nd series no. 12, 1992, FHA

Wealden Iron Bulletin, 2nd series no. 17, 1997, FHA

Gardner & Gream map 1795, FHA

Knights Carriers Accounts, 1763 – 1769, FHA

Handout, Warren Furnace, SJC01/00, FHWS

Yeakell & Gardner map, 1778, FHA

Piggot’s Directory 1832, 1839, 1840

Draft O/S map 1805, FHA

Worth tithe map and apportionment, 1839

Census records, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, www.Ancestry.co.uk

Birth, marriage an death records, www.FreeBMD.co.uk

IGI

Parish registers of St John’s Church, Felbridge, FHA

Parish Registers of All Saint’s Church, Crawley Down, FHA

Handout, Lowlands, JIC/SJC 05/06, FHWS

Felbridge Park sale catalogue, 1855, FHS

Plan of Indenture of Felbridge Park, 1856, FHA

Handout, Felbridge Place, SJC 10/99, FHWS

Documented memories of K Housman, FHA

O/S map, 1874, FHA

O/S map 1895, FHA

Handout, The Break-up and Sale of the Felbridge Estate, SJC 01/11, FHWS

Felbridge Place sale catalogue, 1911, FHA

Felbridge Place sale catalogue and map, 1914, FHA

Cuttinglye and its Environs sale catalogue, 1918, FHA

Cuttinglye and its Environs sale catalogue (Revised edition), 1918, FHA

Handout, Felcot Farm, JIC/SJC 05/08, FHWS

Title Deeds for Felcot Farm, FHA

Title deeds for Oaklands, FHA

Woodland Sites. Cuttinglye & Furnace map, c1920

Handout, Poultry Farming at Felbridge, SJC 05/11, FHWS

Furnace Road diversion agreement, 1967, FHA

Handout, The Breakup and Sale of the Felbridge Place Estate, 1911, SJC 01/11, FHWS

WSCC letter re- road status, 2000, FHA

FWRFA minutes, FHA

Documented memories of B Salmon, FHA

Documented memories of M Jones, FHA

Documented memories of B Ashby, FHA

Documented memories of S J Clarke, FHA

Texts of all Handouts referred to in this document can be found on FHG website; www.felbridge.org.uk

SJC 07/11