Weald means wilderness or forest.
many were built in the following decades in the Weald, where the iron industry perhaps reached its peak about 1590.
The first British furnaces outside the Weald appeared during the 1550s,
and many were built in the remainder of that century and the following ones.
The ironmasters of the Weald continued producing cast irons until the 1760s,
and armament was one of the main uses of irons after the Restoration.
The very first British furnaces beyond the Weald appeared during the 1550s,
and many were developed in the rest of that century and the subsequent ones.
They remained few in number until about 1530 but
many were built in the following decades in the Weald, where the iron industry perhaps reached its peak about 1590.
All that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in south-east England within the counties of Kent,
Sussex and Surrey, most probably in the region known as the Weald.