Meanings
plural hammer ponds
- historicalThe millpond of an iron forge, especially in the Weald.
In later years the waters were converted into a hammer pond to power the furnaces and hammers of an ironworks.
2009, Clive Chatters, “The Enclosed Countryside”, in Flowers of the Forest: Plants and People in the New Forest National Park, volume 52, Princeton University Press, pages 190-2071 more example
[T]hroughout the Southern Weald, from Hastings to Hind-head, every copse glared with charcoal-heaps, every glen was burrowed with iron diggings, every hammer-pond stamped and gurgled night and day, smelting and forging English iron[.]
1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 25, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 342
Origin
- Middle Englishpond
- Old Englishhamor
- Middle Englishhamer
- Englishhammer pond
From Middle English hamer, Old English hamor, and Middle English pond.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hammer pond. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hammer%20pond
“hammer pond.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hammer%20pond. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hammer pond,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hammer%20pond.
Source: hammer pond on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.