An Iron Age Bloomery Iron-smelting Industry on the Mid Kent Downs

The recent discovery of a Middle to Late Iron Age bloomery iron-smelting site, revealed during archaeological works associated with the M2 Junction 5 improvement scheme in north-west Kent, has highlighted the possibility that the Stockbury Valley was the focus of a substantial ironworking industry during this period. Moreover, the waste slag assemblages recovered from the M2 Junction 5 scheme and several other sites around Stockbury appear to show an industry that employed elements of the prehistoric tradition (largely non-tapping) and the Roman tradition (tapping), producing tapped and non-tapped slag in the same smelt.