Blacklands

[Peter J Brown]

Hi, I'm interested in the origins off the name Blacklands. There are a number off places around Hastings that use that name and I'm asking do you know where or how or the origins off the name?

[Richard]

'Blacklands' was a fairly common name often associated with iron-smelting areas.
The main iron-producing area of the country was situated in the Weald and was exploited from Roman times onwards, especially at Beauport Park.
Small-scale iron production, was originally undertaken via the most basic and primitive of furnaces, typically called 'Bloomeries', where iron-ore was smelted, with local charcoal, to produce the iron (bloom) and with the waste 'slag' being knocked off from it.
The crude iron had to be refined further, several times, whilst the slag was later used as a source of road-making materials.
Our particular name of 'Blacklands' seems to have passed on to a local Farm close to Alexandra Park and St Helens Park Road and hence, after much speculative development in mid-late Victorian times, to the place-name we know today.
It was also termed 'The Paradise' possibly by those wishing to make it sound more appealing, yet the name 'Blacklands' has held sway.