Medieval Iron Smelting Demonstration in Sutton Bank National Park

While on their research assignments in north Yorkshire, members of our team were eager to attend a medieval iron smelting demonstration in Sutton Bank. This area of the  UK was an historic site for medieval iron bloomeries and smelting. 

The event was hosted by Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme, a local organization, and led by Yvette A Sanderson, a PhD student and laboratory manager at the University of Sheffield’s Archaeology Department and a friend to the Streethouse team. At this event, students from our Streethouse cohort observed as Yvette constructed a medieval furnace, in which she began to convert iron ore to iron bloomeries. 

Yvettte A Sanderson scrapes out iron blume and waste from bloomery furnace.

Having kept the furnace hot for the duration of the day, the practice of smelting iron began promptly at 3pm. A large crowd gathered, full of various young children who were eager to view the demonstration. The hosts were happy to answer questions about the process and time period. 

Once the iron bloom had formed in the furnace, it was transferred over to Katie Venteress, a talented local artisan blacksmith trained in traditional blacksmithing. Katie began working with the hot iron to change its form. This was an exceptionally interesting process to observe. Equally interesting was the reaction from the public in witnessing this form of historical education before their eyes.

Katie Venteress works a hot iron to change its form. Traditional blacksmithing.

As Katie manipulated the metal with her tools, our team was able to experience the workings of traditional iron ore manufacturing in a medieval context. 

In particular, this was considerably interesting to one individual in our cohort who is interested in pursuing research in a similar fashion during the same time period. 

Medieval blacksmithing methods.

Having the opportunity to witness this Medieval ‘open day’ firsthand was informative and exciting for the entire team of UW / DRAGEN Lab students who attended. They had the opportunity to view and learn about an exciting and historic skillset, from a first-hand perspective. In North America there are few opportunities accessible to the public that display public demonstrations of important historical manufacturing methods, which is important to understand the function and practice of the skill. Being able to attend this event on the second day of a month-long field working trip in England was an incredible and invaluable experience for those who had the opportunity to attend. 

We look forward to taking advantage of further experiential learning opportunities like this while in England to increase our knowledge in various different skillsets during the month-long field placement at Streethouse, UK.