Industrial Biography

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It is probable that the "blomes" referred to in this agreement were
the bloomeries or fires in which the iron was made; and that the
"olyveres" were forges or erections, each of which contained so many
bloomeries, but were of limited durability, and probably perished in
the using.
...]
though the manufacture near that place has long since ceased.

Although the making of iron was thus carried on in various parts of
England in the Middle Ages, the quantity produced was altogether
insufficient to meet the ordinary demand, as it appears from our
early records to have long continued one of the principal articles
imported from foreign countries. English iron was not only dearer,
but it was much inferior in quality to that manufactured abroad; and
hence all the best arms and tools continued to be made of foreign
iron. Indeed the scarcity of this metal occasionally led to great
inconvenience, and to prevent its rising in price Parliament enacted,
in 1354, that no iron, either wrought or unwrought, should be
exported, under heavy penalties. For nearly two hundred years--that
is, throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries--the English
market was principally supplied with iron and steel from Spain and
Germany; the foreign merchants of the Steelyard doing a large and
profitable trade in those commodities. While the woollen and other
branches of trade were making considerable progress, the manufacture
of iron stood still. Among the lists of articles, the importation of
which was prohibited in Edward IV.'s reign, with a view to the
protection of domestic manufactures, we find no mention of iron,
which was still, as a matter of necessity, allowed to come freely
from abroad.

The first indications of revival in the iron manufacture showed
themselves in Sussex, a district in which the Romans had established
extensive works, and where smelting operations were carried on to a
partial extent in the neighbourhood of Lewes, in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, where the iron was principally made into nails
and horse-shoes. The county abounds in ironstone, which is contained
in the sandstone beds of the Forest ridge, lying between the chalk
and oolite of the district, called by geologists the Hastings sand.
The beds run in a north-westerly direction, by Ashburnham and
Heathfield, to Crowborough and thereabouts. In early times the region
was covered with wood, and was known as the Great Forest of Anderida.
The Weald, or wild wood, abounded in oaks of great size, suitable for
smelting ore; and the proximity of the mineral to the timber, as well
as the situation of the district in the neighbourhood of the capital,
sufficiently account for the Sussex iron-works being among the most
important which existed in England previous to the discovery of
smelting by pit-coal.

The iron manufacturers of the south were especially busy during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their works were established near
to the beds of ore, and in places where water-power existed, or could
be provided by artificial means. Hence the numerous artificial ponds
which are still to be found all over the Sussex iron district. Dams
of earth, called "pond-bays," were thrown across watercourses, with
convenient outlets built of masonry, wherein was set the great wheel
which worked the hammer or blew the furnace. Portions of the
adjoining forest-land were granted or leased to the iron-smelters;
and the many places still known by the name of "Chart" in the Weald,
probably mark the lands chartered for the purpose of supplying the
iron-works with their necessary fuel. The cast-iron tombstones and
slabs in many Sussex churchyards,--the andirons and chimney backs*
[footnote...
The back of a grate has recently been found, cast by Richard Leonard
at Brede Furnace in 1636. It is curious as containing a
representation of the founder with his dog and cups; a drawing of the
furnace, with the wheelbarrow and other implements for the casting,
and on a shield the pincers and other marks of the blacksmith.
Leonard was tenant of the Sackville furnace at Little
Udimore.--Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol.xii.
...]
still found in old Sussex mansions and farm-houses, and such names as
Furnace Place, Cinder Hill, Forge Farm, and Hammer Pond, which are of
very frequent occurrence throughout the county, clearly mark the
extent and activity of this ancient branch of industry.*
[footnote ...
For an interesting account of the early iron industry of Sussex see
M. A. LOWER'S Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian,
and Metrical. London, 1854.
...]
Steel was also manufactured at several places in the county, more
particularly at Steel-Forge Land, Warbleton, and at Robertsbridge.
The steel was said to be of good quality, resembling Swedish--both
alike depending for their excellence on the exclusive use of charcoal
in smelting the ore,--iron so produced maintaining its superiority
over coal-smelted iron to this day.

When cannon came to be employed in war, the nearness of Sussex to
London and the Cinque Forts gave it a great advantage over the
remoter iron-producing districts in the north and west of England,
and for a long time the iron-works of this county enjoyed almost a
monopoly of the manufacture. The metal was still too precious to be
used for cannon balls, which were hewn of stone from quarries on
Maidstone Heath. Iron was only available, and that in limited
quantities, for the fabrication of the cannon themselves, and
wrought-iron was chiefly used for the purpose. An old mortar which
formerly lay on Eridge Green, near Frant, is said to have been the
first mortar made in England;*
[footnote...
Archaeologia, vol. x. 472.
...]
only the chamber was cast, while the tube consisted of bars
strongly hooped together. Although the local distich says that

"Master Huggett and his man John
They did cast the first cannon,"

there is every reason to believe that both cannons and mortars were
made in Sussex before Huggett's time; the old hooped guns in the
Tower being of the date of Henry VI. The first cast-iron cannons of
English manufacture were made at Buxtead, in Sussex, in 1543, by
Ralph Hogge, master founder, who employed as his principal assistant
one Peter Baude, a Frenchman. Gun-founding was a French invention,
and Mr. Lower supposes that Hogge brought over Baude from France to
teach his workmen the method of casting the guns. About the same time
Hogge employed a skilled Flemish gunsmith named Peter Van Collet,
who, according to Stowe, "devised or caused to be made certain mortar
pieces, being at the mouth from eleven to nine inches wide, for the
use whereof the said Peter caused to be made certain hollow shot of
cast-iron to be stuffed with fyrework, whereof the bigger sort for
the same has screws of iron to receive a match to carry fyre for to
break in small pieces the said hollow shot, whereof the smallest
piece hitting a man would kill or spoil him." In short, Peter Van
Collet here introduced the manufacture of the explosive shell in the
form in which it continued to be used down to our own day.

Baude, the Frenchman, afterwards set up business on his own account,
making many guns, both of brass and iron, some of which are still
preserved in the Tower.*
[footnote...
One of these, 6 1/2 feet long, and of 2 1/2 inches bore, manufactured
in 1543, bears the cast inscription of Petrus Baude Gallus operis
artifex.
...]
Other workmen, learning the trade from him, also began to manufacture
on their own account; one of Baude's servants, named John Johnson,
and after him his son Thomas, becoming famous for the excellence of
their cast-iron guns. The Hogges continued the business for several
generations, and became a wealthy county family. Huggett was another
cannon maker of repute; and Owen became celebrated for his brass
culverins. Mr. Lower mentions, as a curious instance of the tenacity
with which families continue to follow a particular vocation, that
many persons of the name of Huggett still carry on the trade of
blacksmith in East Sussex. But most of the early workmen at the
Sussex iron-works, as in other branches of skilled industry in
England during the sixteenth century, were foreigners-- Flemish and
French--many of whom had taken refuge in this country from the
religious persecutions then raging abroad, while others, of special
skill, were invited over by the iron manufacturers to instruct their
workmen in the art of metal-founding.*
[footnote...
Mr. Lower says," Many foreigners were brought over to carry on the
works; which perhaps may account for the number of Frenchmen and
Germans whose names appear in our parish registers about the middle of
the sixteenth century ."-- Contributions to Literature, 108.
...]

As much wealth was gained by the pursuit of the revived iron
manufacture in Sussex, iron-mills rapidly extended over the
ore-yielding district. The landed proprietors entered with zeal into
this new branch of industry, and when wood ran short, they did not
hesitate to sacrifice their ancestral oaks to provide fuel for the
furnaces. Mr. Lower says even the most ancient families, such as the
Nevilles, Howards, Percys, Stanleys, Montagues, Pelhams, Ashburnhams,
Sidneys, Sackvilles, Dacres, and Finches, prosecuted the manufacture
with all the apparent ardour of Birmingham and Wolverhampton men in
modern times. William Penn, the courtier Quaker, had iron-furnaces at
Hawkhurst and other places in Sussex. The ruins of the Ashburnham
forge, situated a few miles to the north-east of Battle, still serve
to indicate the extent of the manufacture. At the upper part of the
valley in which the works were situated, an artificial lake was
formed by constructing an embankment across the watercourse
descending from the higher ground,*
[footnote ...
The embankment and sluices of the furnace-pond at the upper part of
the valley continue to be maintained, the lake being used by the
present Lord Ashburnham as a preserve for fish and water-fowl.
...]
and thus a sufficient fall of water was procured for the purpose of
blowing the furnaces, the site of which is still marked by
surrounding mounds of iron cinders and charcoal waste. Three quarters
of a mile lower down the valley stood the forge, also provided with
water-power for working the hammer; and some of the old buildings are
still standing, among others the boring-house, of small size, now
used as an ordinary labourer's cottage, where the guns were bored.
The machine was a mere upright drill worked by the water-wheel, which
was only eighteen inches across the breast. The property belonged, as
it still does, to the Ashburnham family, who are said to have derived
great wealth from the manufacture of guns at their works, which were
among the last carried on in Sussex. The Ashburnham iron was
distinguished for its toughness, and was said to be equal to the best
Spanish or Swedish iron.

Many new men also became enriched, and founded county families; the
Fuller family frankly avowing their origin in the singular motto of
Carbone et forcipibus--literally, by charcoal and tongs.*
[footnote...
Reminding one of the odd motto assumed by Gillespie, the tobacconist
of Edinburgh, founder of Gillespie's Hospital, on whose
carriage-panels was emblazoned a Scotch mull, with the motto,

"Wha wad ha' thocht it,
That noses could ha' bought it!"

It is just possible that the Fullers may have taken their motto from
the words employed by Juvenal in describing the father of Demosthenes,
who was a blacksmith and a sword-cutler --

"Quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus,
A carbone et forcipibus gladiosque parante
Incude et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit."

...]

Men then went into Sussex to push their fortunes at the forges, as
they now do in Wales or Staffordshire; and they succeeded then, as
they do now, by dint of application, industry, and energy. The Sussex
Archaeological Papers for 1860 contain a curious record of such an
adventurer, in the history of the founder of the Gale family. Leonard
Gale was born in 1620 at Riverhead, near Sevenoaks, where his father
pursued the trade of a blacksmith. When the youth had reached his
seventeenth year, his father and mother, with five of their sons and
daughters, died of the plague, Leonard and his brother being the only
members of the family that survived. The patrimony of 200L. left them
was soon spent; after which Leonard paid off his servants, and took
to work diligently at his father's trade. Saving a little money, he
determined to go down into Sussex, where we shortly find him working
the St. Leonard's Forge, and afterwards the Tensley Forge near
Crawley, and the Cowden Iron-works, which then bore a high
reputation. After forty years' labour, he accumulated a good fortune,
which he left to his son of the same name, who went on iron-forging,
and eventually became a county gentleman, owner of the house and
estate of Crabbett near Worth, and Member of Parliament for East
Grinstead.

Several of the new families, however, after occupying a high position
in the county, again subsided into the labouring class, illustrating
the Lancashire proverb of "Twice clogs, once boots," the sons
squandering what the father's had gathered, and falling back into the
ranks again. Thus the great Fowles family of Riverhall disappeared
altogether from Sussex. One of them built the fine mansion of
Riverhall, noble even in decay. Another had a grant of free warren
from King James over his estates in Wadhurst, Frant, Rotherfield, and
Mayfield. Mr. Lower says the fourth in descent from this person kept
the turnpike-gate at Wadhurst, and that the last of the family, a
day-labourer, emigrated to America in 1839, carrying with him, as the
sole relic of his family greatness, the royal grant of free warren
given to his ancestor. The Barhams and Mansers were also great
iron-men, officiating as high sheriffs of the county at different
times, and occupying spacious mansions. One branch of these families
terminated, Mr. Lower says, with Nicholas Barham, who died in the
workhouse at Wadhurst in 1788; and another continues to be
represented by a wheelwright at Wadhurst of the same name.

The iron manufacture of Sussex reached its height towards the close
of the reign of Elizabeth, when the trade became so prosperous that,
instead of importing iron, England began to export it in considerable
quantities, in the shape of iron ordnance. Sir Thomas Leighton and
Sir Henry Neville had obtained patents from the queen, which enabled
them to send their ordnance abroad, the conseqnence of which was that
the Spaniards were found arming their ships and fighting us with guns
of our own manufacture. Sir Walter Raleigh, calling attention to the
subject in the House of Commons, said, "I am sure heretofore one ship
of Her Majesty's was able to beat ten Spaniards, but now, by reason
of our own ordnance, we are hardly matcht one to one." Proclamations
were issued forbidding the export of iron and brass ordnance, and a
bill was brought into Parliament to put a stop to the trade; but, not
withstanding these prohibitions, the Sussex guns long continued to be
smuggled out of the country in considerable numbers. "It is almost
incredible," says Camden, "how many guns are made of the iron in this
county. Count Gondomar (the Spanish ambassador) well knew their
goodness when he so often begged of King James the boon to export
them." Though the king refused his sanction, it appears that Sir
Anthony Shirley of Weston, an extensive iron-master, succeeded in
forwarding to the King of Spain a hundred pieces of cannon.

So active were the Sussex manufacturers, and so brisk was the trade
they carried on, that during the reign of James I. it is supposed
one-half of the whole quantity of iron produced in England was made
there. Simon Sturtevant, in his 'Treatise of Metallica,' published in
1612, estimates the whole number of iron-mills in England and Wales
at 800, of which, he says, "there are foure hundred milnes in Surry,
Kent, and Sussex, as the townsmen of Haslemere have testified and
numbered unto me. But the townsmen of Haslemere must certainly have
been exaggerating, unless they counted smiths' and farriers' shops in
the number of iron-mills. About the same time that Sturtevant's
treatise was published, there appeared a treatise entitled the
'Surveyor's Dialogue,' by one John Norden, the object of which was to
make out a case against the iron-works and their being allowed to
burn up the timber of the country for fuel. Yet Norden does not make
the number of iron-works much more than a third of Sturtevant's
estimate. He says, "I have heard that there are or lately were in
Sussex neere 140 hammers and furnaces for iron, and in it and Surrey
adjoining three or four glasse-houses." Even the smaller number
stated by Norden, however, shows that Sussex was then regarded as the
principal seat of the iron-trade. Camden vividly describes the noise
and bustle of the manufacture--the working of the heavy hammers,
which, "beating upon the iron, fill the neighbourhood round about,
day and night, with continual noise." These hammers were for the most
part worked by the power of water, carefully stored in the artificial
"Hammer-ponds" above described. The hammer-shaft was usually of ash,
about 9 feet long, clamped at intervals with iron hoops. It was
worked by the revolutions of the water-wheel, furnished with
projecting arms or knobs to raise the hammer, which fell as each knob
passed, the rapidity of its action of course depending on the
velocity with which the water-wheel revolved. The forge-blast was
also worked for the most part by water-power. Where the furnaces were
small, the blast was produced by leather bellows worked by hand, or
by a horse walking in a gin. The foot-blasts of the earlier
iron-smelters were so imperfect that but a small proportion of the
ore was reduced, so that the iron-makers of later times, more
particularly in the Forest of Dean, instead of digging for ironstone,
resorted to the beds of ancient scoriae for their principal supply of
the mineral.

Notwithstanding the large number of furnaces in blast throughout the
county of Sussex at the period we refer to, their produce was
comparatively small, and must not be measured by the enormous produce
of modern iron-works; for while an iron-furnace of the present day
will easily turn out 150 tons of pig per week, the best of the older
furnaces did not produce more than from three to four tons. One of
the last extensive contracts executed in Sussex was the casting of
the iron rails which enclose St. Paul's Cathedral. The contract was
thought too large for one iron-master to undertake, and it was
consequently distributed amongst several contractors, though the
principal part of the work was executed at Lamberhurst, near
Tunbridge Wells. But to produce the comparatively small quantity of
iron turned out by the old works, the consumption of timber was
enormous; for the making of every ton of pig-iron required four loads
of timber converted into charcoal fuel, and the making of every ton
of bar-iron required three additional loads. Thus, notwithstanding
the indispensable need of iron, the extension of the manufacture, by
threatening the destruction of the timber of the southern counties,
came to be regarded in the light of a national calamity. Up to a
certain point, the clearing of the Weald of its dense growth of
underwood had been of advantage, by affording better opportunities
for the operations of agriculture. But the "voragious iron-mills"
were proceeding to swallow up everything that would burn, and the old
forest growths were rapidly disappearing. An entire wood was soon
exhausted, and long time was needed before it grew again. At
Lamberhurst alone, though the produce was only about five tons of
iron a-week, the annual consumption of wood was about 200,000 cords!
Wood continued to be the only material used for fuel generally--a
strong prejudice existing against the use of sea-coal for domestic
purposes.*
[footnote...
It was then believed that sea or pit-coal was poisonous when burnt in
dwellings, and that it was especially injurious to the human
complexion. All sorts of diseases were attributed to its use, and at
one time it was even penal to burn it. The Londoners only began to
reconcile themselves to the use of coal when the wood within reach of
the metropolis had been nearly all burnt up, and no other fuel was to
be had.
...]
It therefore began to be feared that there would be no available fuel
left within practicable reach of the metropolis; and the contingency
of having to face the rigorous cold of an English winter without fuel
naturally occasioning much alarm, the action of the Government was
deemed necessary to remedy the apprehended evil.

To check the destruction of wood near London, an Act was passed in
1581 prohibiting its conversion into fuel for the making of iron
within fourteen miles of the Thames, forbidding the erection of new
ironworks within twenty-two miles of London, and restricting the
number of works in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, beyond the above limits.
Similar enactments were made in future Parliaments with the same
object, which had the effect of checking the trade, and several of
the Sussex ironmasters were under the necessity of removing their
works elsewhere. Some of them migrated to Glamorganshire, in South
Wales, because of the abundance of timber as well as ironstone in
that quarter, and there set up their forges, more particularly at
Aberdare and Merthyr Tydvil. Mr. Llewellin has recently published an
interesting account of their proceedings, with descriptions of their
works,*
[footnote ...
Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd Series, No. 34, April, 1863. Art.
"Sussex Ironmasters in Glamorganshire."
...]
remains of which still exist at Llwydcoed, Pontyryns, and other
places in the Aberdare valley. Among the Sussex masters who settled
in Glamorganshire for the purpose of carrying on the iron
manufacture, were Walter Burrell, the friend of John Ray, the
naturalist, one of the Morleys of Glynde in Sussex, the Relfes from
Mayfield, and the Cheneys from Crawley.

Notwithstanding these migrations of enterprising manufacturers, the
iron trade of Sussex continued to exist until the middle of the
seventeenth century, when the waste of timber was again urged upon
the attention of Parliament, and the penalties for infringing the
statutes seem to have been more rigorously enforced. The trade then
suffered a more serious check; and during the civil wars, a heavy
blow was given to it by the destruction of the works belonging to all
royalists, which was accomplished by a division of the army under Sir
William Waller. Most of the Welsh ironworks were razed to the ground
about the same time, and were not again rebuilt. And after the
Restoration, in 1674, all the royal ironworks in the Forest of Dean
were demolished, leaving only such to be supplied with ore as were
beyond the forest limits; the reason alleged for this measure being
lest the iron manufacture should endanger the supply of timber
required for shipbuilding and other necessary purposes.

From this time the iron manufacture of Sussex, as of England
generally, rapidly declined. In 1740 there were only fifty-nine
furnaces in all England, of which ten were in Sussex; and in 1788
there were only two. A few years later, and the Sussex iron furnaces
were blown out altogether. Farnhurst, in western, and Ashburnham, in
eastern Sussex, witnessed the total extinction of the manufacture.
The din of the iron hammer was hushed, the glare of the furnace
faded, the last blast of the bellows was blown, and the district
returned to its original rural solitude. Some of the furnace-ponds
were drained and planted with hops or willows; others formed
beautiful lakes in retired pleasure-grounds; while the remainder were
used to drive flour-mills, as the streams in North Kent, instead of
driving fulling-mills, were employed to work paper-mills. All that
now remains of the old iron-works are the extensive beds of cinders
from which material is occasionally taken to mend the Sussex roads,
and the numerous furnace-ponds, hammer-posts, forges, and cinder
places, which mark the seats of the ancient manufacture.

CHAPTER III.

IRON-SMELTING BY PIT-COAL--DUD DUDLEY.

"God of his Infinite goodness (if we will but take notice of his
goodness unto this Nation) hath made this Country a very Granary for
the supplying of Smiths with Iron, Cole, and Lime made with cole,
which hath much supplied these men with Corn also of late; and from
these men a great part, not only of this Island, but also of his
Majestie's other Kingdoms and Territories, with Iron wares have their
supply, and Wood in these parts almost exhausted, although it were of
late a mighty woodland country."--DUDLEY's Metallum Martis, 1665.

The severe restrictions enforced by the legislature against the use
of wood in iron-smelting had the effect of almost extinguishing the
manufacture. New furnaces ceased to be erected, and many of the old
ones were allowed to fall into decay, until it began to be feared
that this important branch of industry would become completely lost.
The same restrictions alike affected the operations of the glass
manufacture, which, with the aid of foreign artisans, had been
gradually established in England, and was becoming a thriving branch
of trade. It was even proposed that the smelting of iron should be
absolutely prohibited: "many think," said a contemporary writer,
"that there should be NO WORKS ANYWHERE--they do so devour the
woods."

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