Seend Ironstone Quarry And Road Cutting (grid reference ST937610) is a 3 acres (1.2 ha) Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Seend in Wiltshire, notified in 1965. Iron ore was quarried and smelted in Seend from the 1850s with three blast furnaces fifty feet high, and employed 300 men. The antiquarian John Aubrey wrote that he discovered iron ore as early as 1666 when it rained so much that it washed away the sand from the ore and the later bright sun reflected on it. Due to the high level of deforestation in the 17th century there was not enough wood to smelt it. The arrival of coal in the 19th century made this possible and mining rights were leased just below the Bell Inn in 1856 where 10,000 tons of ore were mined. The site also had blast furnaces and smelting facilities. T