Pre-Roman

The pre-Roman settlement was one of sparse occupation based on major defended enclosures along the northern edge of the High Weald with smaller enclosures deeper within it, such as the hill-fort at Garden Hill south of Colemans Hatch Road. These smaller enclosures with iron-making and other evidence suggest that Iron Age colonizers saw the area primarily as a source of iron. 

This would have been used for tools and hunting equipment. So when the Romans invaded Britain in AD 43 the Weald already had a well-established tradition of iron-making, using very small, clay furnaces for iron-smelting. 
 

Roman Era

The Romans also saw the Weald's economic potential for iron-making and with growing markets in south-east England generated by the building of towns, villas and farms the industry grew, achieving high levels of output at its peak. 

There is evidence in Ashdown Forest of Roman furnaces at Garden Hill, Pippingford Park and elsewhere. Like other sites in the western Weald, these are thought to have been private, commercial operations set up by entrepreneurs to produce iron goods for nearby civilian markets. This was in contrast to Roman iron production in the eastern Weald into Kent, which is thought to have been state-controlled and linked to the needs of the Roman military. 

The trunk road between London and Lewes, partly built with iron slag from local furnaces would have served to carry the Forest's iron products to the Roman province's  mercantile centre at London, and the densely populated agricultural areas of the South Downs and the coastal plain around Chichester. 

Tudors and Stuarts

The local iron industry underwent a massive resurgence in Tudor and early Stuart times as a result of the introduction of the blast furnace from northern France. Blast furnaces were much larger and more permanent structures than previous furnaces, and produced much greater quantities of iron. They made much greater demands on local resources, in particular wood, iron ore and water (to operate the bellows and forges in what was now a two-stage smelting and forging process). Because of the huge demand for water, they were generally located in deep valleys where streams could be dammed to provide a sufficient, consistent flow. Such resources were things that Ashdown Forest and the surrounding area possessed in abundance.

Ashdown Forest became the site of Britain's second blast furnace when the works at Newbridge, south of Coleman's Hatch at the foot of Kidd's Hill, began operation in 1496. (Britain's earliest known blast furnace, a few miles away at Queenstock, Buxted, began operation at the end of 1490). The Newbridge furnace, constructed at the commission of Henry VII for the production of heavy metalwork for gun carriages for his war against the Scots, was designed and initially run by French immigrants. 

The Crown's involvement with Newbridge continued until a replacement, larger furnace was built in 1539 on the western edge of Ashdown Forest at Stumbles. Other works set up around this time in or near the Forest include a steel forge at Pippingford Park, around 1505, and a furnace and forge at Parrock, Hartfield, in 1513. Unfortunately, there is little visible trace of any of these sites today but it is possible to visit the site of Newbridge furnace, off Kidd's Hill, where there is an information board, and to see a number of identifiable features.

The industry grew very rapidly in Ashdown Forest and elsewhere in the High Weald during the 16th century. The area became particularly noted for the casting of cannons for the British navy. 

The iron-master and gun founder Ralph Hogge, who in 1543 had cast the first iron cannon in England at Buxted, drew his raw materials from the southern part of the forest. The rapid expansion of the iron industry and its huge demand for raw materials, particularly the cutting of trees for making charcoal, is likely to have had a major early impact on Ashdown Forest by depleting its woodlands, although it is likely that in due course production of wood through coppice management, in common with the practice generally in the High Weald, will have been required to ensure a more sustainable supply.