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Many cannon balls have been found at the foot [[File:0078-Upstream-from-boring-mill.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Site of the bank by metal detectors. There was an older proving bank in a nearby wood.<br />Boring Mill upstream]]There are 20 tons or so of iron borings in the stream at the Boring Mill site. In the photo: Douglas Anderson, wheelwright, who made the gun carriage for the Royal Engineers Indian Gun. and Peter Davies, retired civil servant and assistant to landowner Peter Reed. Mr Davies has a special interest in muzzle loading guns such as Brown Bess.<br />
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Waldron furnace, constructed at Furnace Farm, was in operation by 1560 and remained in business for some 200 years, producing first cannonballs and iron bars ready for the forge (known as pig-iron) but by the 18th century, cannon. The water wheel powering the furnace bellows was driven by a pond fed by the millstream, and the large pond, or dam, can still be seen.<br />
<gallery caption= widths="300px350px" heights="300px350px" perrow="2">
File:0075-Furnace-House-Waldern.jpg|Furnace Farm, Waldron
File:0076-Large-furnace-pond.jpg|Large furnace pond in front of the house
</gallery>
'''This was the site of Hanson's Foundry and Furnace. Gun trunnions were make marked with a 'W'.''' <gallery caption= widths="300px" heights="300px" perrow="2">[[File:0077-Cannon-proving-bank.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Cannon proving bank]]<br />File:0078-Upstream-from-boring-mill.jpg|Site Many cannon balls have been found at the foot of the Boring Mill upstreambank by metal detectors. There was an older proving bank in a nearby wood.<br /gallery>
Most landowners, particularly the Fullers, had interests in iron founding and they managed their woodland as coppice to produce the enormous amounts 0f of charcoal needed for the blast furnaces. It has been estimated that between 4 four and 5 five thousand acres of coppice was needed to keep each forge and furnace combination in continuous use.<br />
The Fuller's forge at Old Heathfield was built in 1693 and lasted about a hundred years. The site is very large and has a huge man-made 'proving' bank at the base of which many cannonballs have been found. It also had a small quarry for test firing cannon and two boring mills on the stream. As at Waldron, these streams still run red with iron oxide from the massive deposits of congealed borings left in the stream beds. <br />
The Fullers also employed a Master Wheelwright among other highly skilled crafsmen, and interestingly there is still a fully-functioning wheelwright's shop on the site today, operated by Douglas Andrews, who has himself constructed a new gun-carriage for an Islamic trophy gun ordered by a the Colonel in of the Royal Engineers.<br />
The Fuller's forge and foundry was constructed on a particularly difficult site. If it rained too much the site would flood and if it was too dry there was a lack of fast-flowing water in the stream to generate power. In a reply dated 17th October 1754 to the Prince of Severino, who was pressing for a firm delivery date for some guns he had ordered, John Fuller wrote , : ''my furnace is a fickle mistress and must be humoured, her favours are not to be depended upon''.
