Another sunny Sunday morning and a 7am start for a three and a half mile bike ride from Ifield West to the site of the 16th century Worth Furnace. For the first part of the journey, we crossed Berrymeade Bridge into Bewbush and then followed Broadfield Brook to the stadium, crossed the A23 and climbed Tilgate Drive to Smith & Western where we made our first stop overlooking the lake.

After taking some water on board we picked our way through the preparations for this mornings Race For Life, making our way to the eastern most footbridge crossing over the motorway before carefully taking the rough track from the bridge to the bottom of Parish Lane where it meets the railway. We were disappointed to find that the track down to the Balcombe tunnel was behind locked gates, so we crossed the railway to see if we could follow the bridleway on the eastern side of the railway which leads to the bridge closer to the tunnel (which many centuries ago would have been part of Crawley Lane - the route from Balcombe to Crawley passing Highley Manor). On joining the bridleway, there was a notice advising that the track was closed due to the poor quality of the ground, but assuming this was a sign placed in order to avoid litigation, and noticing that it was well worn, we went ahead anyway, only to come to a standstill after 300 yards or so when they track became too overgrown to navigate any further.

With the tunnel out of the question we retraced our steps, stopping just short of the railway bridge and leaving our bikes for a 30 metre walk northwards to the site of the pond bay (dam) of the old Worth Furnace. It is thought that Worth Furnace, where guns and shot were forged from the mid 1540s, was the most important iron works in the area and though the site was much disturbed when the railway cut through in the 1840s, there is still plenty to see. The area east of the railway is a large flat plain, which was clearly the pond bed, and the pond bay is not an earthwork that can be missed, standing some three metres high in places with a depth of similar proportions. It was hard to see how wide the bay is, but I would estimate in excess of 100 metres. It is, of course, now breached by the stream (Stanford Brook), in which slag can be seen in abundance. 450 year old industrial waste in a little woodland stream. The forge is known to have still been operational in 1582, but there is no documentary evidence beyond that date. I have marked the Worth Furnace images below.

Returning to our bikes, we started the long pedal up Parish lane, and it was very much an UP, towards Pease Pottage. Having negotiated the hordes of bargain hunters leaving the car boot sale early (it was only 9:30 by this time) we crossed the motorway and turned north along the Old Brighton Road, pausing at what was the East Lodge to Cottesmore school for a rest before turning west towards the school along the track and past the scout camp.

After passing the school we turned across the golf course, circling the burnt out remains of the Cottesmore Golf & Country Club building, before coasting downhill and into Buchan Park where we took 5 minutes on the bench overlooking the lake before remounting and crossing into Bewbush via the footbridge, returning to Ifield West via the site of the old Bewbush Mill and the footcrossing over the railway.

SITE OF WORTH FURNACE

The pond bed

The pond bay (dam) (1)

The pond bay (dam) (2)

The pond bay (dam) (3)

A lump of 450 year old furnace slag

The pond bay (dam) (4)