This thread got me thinking... then researching, because I had never considered where Hounslow got its iron ore from; or London - for that matter. I suppose if pushed I would have said - without reference - from Sweden.
However, there were vast amounts of ironstone in the clay beds of The Weald.
Where the (**
**) is the Weald?
It is an area centered around Tunbridge Wells stretching across the counties south of London.
And, there were huge numbers of trees in the Hampshire forest for coke.
Blast furnaces and finery forges were in existence by the 1490s and by the time of Henry VIII the area was a center of armaments manufacture: cannons. So it can be relatively accurately presupposed that it was supplying Greenwich, then Hounslow, and then Oxford.
But by the time of the Restoration, Swedish bar iron was being used.
Sweden may well have supplied Greenwich before that - it was certainly very accessible. Does anybody know? If so, then the Restoration date may be erroneous.
Does anybody know?