Southborough & High Brooms Amateur Archaeological Society
Past Excavations
For full information and site reports, please become a member of SHAAS for £5 per year.
​
Please click HERE to be taken to our membership page.
2019- 2023 Powdermill Lane: Georgian and Victorian Corn Mill
The Powder Mill Lane site forms part of a larger industrial setting in Southborough Valley, with forges, gunpowder works and mills active since the Tudor period through to the 20th Century. Water and associated water management has been a driving and critical part of the development (and demise) of industry within the valley.
The 1840 Tithe map shows two small buildings on our Powder Mill Lane site (probably gunpowder works) which were replaced by a later corn mill in 1845, whose development can be traced through map evidence prior to its demolition in 1938.
​
The excavation started in 2019 and continued to 2023 (with a break for Covid-19 in 2020) revealing an “L” shaped building with a waterwheel, which was extended in the 1880s. Having identified Mill walls (at foundation level) we identified numerous brick structures, including brick pillars to support the waterwheel. Over 500 finds have been discovered which include a range of industrial and domestic objects, such as clay pipe stems, glazed pottery and industrial iron implements.
Tithe Map of 1840 – Site appears as two small buildings above “2566”
1898 OS Map (curtesy of National Museum of Scotland). Site is now established as a Corn Mill
Maps showing the location and nature of buildings on the site in 1840 and
the subsequent Brokes Mill (corn mill) buildings in Victorian and Edwardian periods.
2017-18 Powdermill Lane: Forge Building
The Powder Mill Lane site was excavated based on the discovery of a brick wall as part of a revetment which forms part of the northern edge of an old mill pond. The 1840 Tithe map shows a building on our site which was demolished as part of the construction of the Colebrook railway viaduct & associated embankment in 1845. The brick wall in the revetment was probably associated with a waterwheel, indicating industrial use, with power being supplied by the waterwheel which could have been used to drive equipment such as trip hammers. This might also have been the location of an earlier gunpowder mill, as forges and gunpowder works dominated the early industrial landscape of the Southborough valley.
​
A diverse range finds have been located, including a mixture of domestic items, such as clay pipe stems and glazed pottery; industrial items, such as metal tools and railway related equipment; plus a possible fragment of a waterwheel paddle. Findings of slag across the site indicate the presence of metal working forges, including a finery forge, in the vicinity of the site.
2016 Honnington Farm - Medieval Fruit Processing Facility
The Honnington Farm site (Vauxhall Lane) was excavated based on the findings of a geophysical survey, which indicated a rectangular magnetic anomaly (30m x 20m) located parallel to the edge of an old orchard and next to a trackway leading from Southborough to Tonbridge The outcome of the excavation was that the rectangular magnetic anomaly matched the position of a late 19th Century deposit of CBM (Ceramic Building Materials) which contained magnetised material. Based on the location and age of the site, one possible scenario was that the site represented a wooden barn, located at the edge of the orchard and next to a trackway, where produce was collected, packaged and sent to Tonbridge for shipment to London via the then newly established railway.
2014-15 Brokes Wood: Iron Age Bloomery Furnace
This was the first site explored by SHAAS and is located deep among the trees in Brokes Wood. The site includes a primary bloomery furnace dating to the Middle Iron Age c.500BC, plus associated evidence of buildings (via post holes) and secondary (smaller) furnaces. Locally produced charcoal and nearby ironstone would have provided the raw materials to support this industry, which developed as a major iron producer in the Weald area through the Iron Age and Roman period, and later in the 15th to 18th centuries when it dominated production of bar iron (16th century) and later British cannon production (until c. 1770), before declining due to technology changes (eg use of coke) and foreign competition.