SIAS Newsletter 5

 

NEWSLETTER No. 5.     Edited by A.J. Haselfoot     January 1975.

SIAS NEWS
Maps. 
A complete set of 2½" O.S. maps covering the whole of Sussex has now been purchased. These are available for short-term loan to any member on application to the General Secretary,

New Books
 "The Sussex Landscape" by Peter Brandon, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974, price £3.95 is the Sussex title in The Making of the English Landscape series which sets out to describe the marks made by man on his surroundings. The book is a "must" for both the straight and the industrial archaeologist and we in Sussex are fortunate that Dr. Brandon who is the Editor of Sussex Archeological Collections, has been able to prepare this study, From the industrial angle there is much to sharpen our eyes as we move about the county, The prehistoric flint-axe industry is well brought out, as are the lime and iron industries, but Dr. Brandon places the salt-boiling remains much later into the medieval times than would be expected from Saxon records of 785 AD covering such operations in East Sussex. Altogether the book contains many further pointers towards the further research and recording which lies in our court to pursue. W.R.B.
East Grinstead. We have received from the East Grinstead Society, whose chairman is M.J. Leppard, one of our members, a pack of 5 postcards showing photographs of East Grinstead at the end of last century and the beginning of this century. These are well produced and are of considerable interest to local historians. Street scenes, a shop, the railway station'and the fire-engine are illustrated. They may be obtained from the Treasurer' of the Society at Barclay's Bank, East Grinstead, for 25p; per pack, postage extra. Individual cards are not available by post.

A Ram Pump at Fulking
Fulking is a tiny hamlet. Although not important enough to have its own church, it has had a separate existence for more than eight centuries. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name of "Fockinges". Passing through Fulking from east to west, a sound of running water greets the ear. It comes from a spring pouring out of the hillside, and by the road there is a building housing a ram pump. On the building is a tablet with some words from Psalms; 104 and 107:
"HE SENDETH SPRINGS INTO THE VALLEYS WHICH RUN AMONG THE HILLS. 0, THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS."
John Ruskin was often seen at Fulking; it. is said that he loved to see the sunsets there. Among his gifts was that of being a geologist and his advice was sought by some local friends about the village water supply. He helped to harness the spring to their use, and the pumphouse by the roadside was part of the supply arrangements which continued until a new supply was provided in 1953. There is a small fountain in the village which bore the following inscription (no longer decipherable);
" TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN HONOUR OF JOHN RUSKIN PSALM LXXVIII
THAT THEY MIGHT SET THEIR HOPE IN GOD AND NOT FORGET BUT KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS WHO BROUGHT STREAMS ALSO OUT OF THE ROCK"
It is not known who erected the tablet and fountain.

An Index of C.B.A. Cards
In the latter half of 1974 the Programme Secretary undertook the keeping of the C.B,A. cards so far completed and recorded, as the basis on which will be built up a central Archive for the Society.
There follows the first list of cards, relating to West Sussex.
The aim in publishing them in the "Newsletter" is two-fold; first, to indicate to members just what has been recorded already, to eliminate wasteful duplication of effort, and secondly, to let serious students and historians know what is available from this source.
It is hoped that both these aims will encourage an increased number of completed C.B.A. cards to be submitted. (Any member needing the 'blank' cards can obtain them from A.J. Haselfoot, Esq.)
The cards relating to East Sussex will appear in future issues of the "Newsletter".
C. B. A. CARDS: WEST SUSSEX
PARISH/TOWN l" O,S. M.R. SUBJECT REPORTER ST.
ALDINGBOURNE SU,925041 . Watermill F. W. Gregory
BARNHAM SU.968038 . Windmill F. W. Gregory
BILLINGSHURST TQ.072271, . Rowner Watermill F. W. Gregory (D) 
BOGNOR REGIS OS Parcel
No.220 . Ice House J. M. Monahan
CHICHESTER SU.836067 , Gothick Lodge J. A. Mudge
DUNCTON SU.945164 . Game Larder J. A. Mudge
DUNCTON SU.961163 . Lime Kiln R. H. Fox
DUNCTON SU,964166 . Watermill F. W. Gregory
EAST WITTERING SZ.797972 . Windmill F. W. Gregory
EARNLEY SZ.817983 .. Windmill " "
EBERNOE SU.981281 . Watermill/Wassel Mill " "
FUNTINGTON SU.807074 . W. Ashling Watermill " "
FUNTINGTON SU.812064 . Ratham Watermill " "
HALNAKER SU.925596 . Windmill " "
HENFIELD TQ.264118 . Woods Watermill " "
HORSHAM TQ.168303 . Town Watermill " "
IFIELD TQ.244364 . Ifield Watermill " "
KINGSTON-ON-SEA TQ.233050 . Malthouse A. Barrit (D)
LOXWOOD TQ.046311 . Brewhurst Watermill F. W. Gregory
LURGASHALL SU.940259 . Watermill " "
MIDHURST SU.889220 . North Watermill " "
PAGHAM SZ.892988 . Nyetimber Windmill " "
PARHAM TQ.046143 . Rackham Watermill " "
PULBOROUGH TQ.077203 . Farm Barn J. A. Mudge
PULBOROUGH TQ.078179 . Nutbourne Windmill F. W. Gregory
SELSEY SZ.843934 . Medmerry Windmill " "
SHIPLEY TQ.144218 . Shipley Windmill
SOUTH HARTING SU.765210 . Hurst Watermill " "
STEYNING TQ.173114 . Court Watermill " "
STORRINGTON TQ.088144 . Gatley's Watermill " "
SULLINGTON - . Tithe Barn C. Brady
SULLINGTON TQ.098142 . Old Windshaft R. H. Fox
TROTTON SU.830222 . Terwick Watermills (2) F. W. Gregory
WARNHAM TQ.168323 . Watermill " "
WASHINGTON TQ.119123 . Lime Kilns R. H. Fox
WORTHING TQ.122067 . High Salvington Windmill F. W. Gregory 
Reference 
Column No.5: ST. is an abbreviation of the word 'Status"; a "(D)" denotes that the Subject of the card has been "Destroyed" since the card was completed.
NB. Will the member who sent in the C.B.A. card and photograph of the new Boiler-house at the Horder Centre for Arthritis, at Crowborough, East Sussex, please let me have his or her name and if possible the 1" Ordnanace Survey Map Ref. so that proper acknowledgement may be made when the East Sussex list is published

Fulling and Fulling Mills 
by Joseph Pettitt
"Cloth that cometh fro the weuyng is nougt comly to were Tyl it is fulled under fote or in fulling-stokkes, Wasshen wel with water and with taseles cracched Ytouked and ytented." William Langland, Piers Plowman (1377).
Here in a few lines is the core of the matter. In the textile industry fulling was the process which followed weaving; it entailed cleaning, compacting and tentering. Before the introduction of fulling mills the cloth was beaten with bats or trodden with the feet in water troughs; cleaning materials were chamber-lye, crude soap, fullers' earth or just water. Wool when wet felts under compression and so the cloth was compacted. The process caused considerable shrinkage so the cloth was tentered on frames, this process was to be done in public view; overstretched cloth shrank in wear. The use of winches was forbidden in the late Middle Ages though later racklike devices were used. The cloth was held in position by tenterhooks. After this the cloth was often teasled to produce a nap and eventually dyed.
There are three standard words for fulling: - fulling, walking and tucking. So we have the surnames Fuller, Walker and Tucker. "Tuck" derives from an ancient word allied to "tug" and meant to torment; "on tenterhooks" is a metaphor of anguish; ecclesiastical and political authorities found a use for the rack.
Fulling mills were introduced into Britain in the late 12th. century ; for Sussex the earliest date known to the writer is 1309;2 they had disappeared in Sussex by the late 18th. century. The last dates known to the writer are these; 1767 - the date of a will of 'John Peckham, fuller,of Shortbridge, Fletching3; 1784 - the date of a map of the estate of Richard Hart in Uckfield showing by name and drawing a fulling mill a little east-north-east of Clappers Bridge at about TQ.474210; - a mention of the use of fullers' earth from Tillington in neighbouring fulling mills - the date is probably 1793'.4
In such mills the cloth lay in a trough and was beaten with mallets operated by camshafts or wheel-tappets "Stocks" originally meant the troughs but later the "faller" assembly, i.e. the beating devices.
Evidence for fulling must be almost entirely documentary, more especially records of field-names. Visible remains will be nil for pre-mechanised work; a bay with a pond or a broken bay with alluvium upstream might indicate use of water for a cornmill or iron mill or merely a fishpond or ornament. The last two would have spillway gaps but no sluice gaps. A broken bay at the lower end of Devil's Gill just above Sharnden in Mayfield - at TQ.610279 - is called locally, as so often, "the old hammer pond bay"; however, estate documents mentioning 'Where a fulling mill heretofore stood"5 enable one to specify.
The best documentary sources of field-names are the Tithe Apportionment Schedules of c1840, one for each parish with a map often of a scale of 26.6" to the mile. These are late but one often finds specific names such as "Fulling Mill Mead"; "Tenters" or "Tainters" (a common Wealden form) are not specific for mills, some occur away from running water though a search of nearby streams might reveal a bay. Up till recently the writer took "Drying Field" to indicate where the clothes -lines of the "big houses" were, but in Clayton there is (was) a "Fulling Mill and Drying Ground". So the search is opened up again.
"Fullers" is ambiguous but it may not always indicate an occupier with that surname at a time when surnames had lost significance. What does one make of "Fullers Wood" in Waldron, the parish of the ironmaster Fullers . A "Henry le Fullere" of Waldron has been noted in the Lay Subsidy of 1296.7 D. Macleod found a "Weaver's Brook" with a small bay in Heathfield Park and assumed a fulling mill.8 There are numerous "Fullers", "Weavers" and" Dryers" fields.
Was "Tucker" a Wealden craft name and so of relevance in our subject? A will of 1600 mentions a Tucker of Worth.9 So one might investigate "Tuck(ers)" fields. Walker? Helena Hall records "Walker" and "Walker Mill" as in Sussex speech but gives no evidence.10 There are several "Rack" and "Rackley" fields but . . .
One presumes that most parishes had fullers in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods and that most of them operated mills. The list below gives some evidence for this in a part of the East Sussex Weald. The subject is ripe for investigation, as is the whole textile industry of (the) Sussex (Weald), especially in its decline.
The introduction of mills in rural parishes (against the interests of town guildsmen) was probably the main cause of the development of the rural, part-time, domestic, putting-out textile industry, though perhaps in Sussex the industry was more directly developed from those times when men first separated themselves from agriculture to become craftsmen.
Poor Rate records in the early 19th century, which saw the death of handloom weavers all over Britain, give a few fragmentary clues and may contain more. One finds payments for stock (allowed under the Poor Law of Elizabeth I, 1601) - spinning wheels, wool and flax. In Heathfield poor relief was paid to John Read, weaver in the years 1821-3.11 Was his occupation gone? In Ashburnham there was, similarly, a "decayed" weaver names Jas. Burton who was in receipt of Poor Relief inbetween selling cloth to the overseers - for pauper's clothing? Did the textile industry last longest in the workhouse?
Dr. L.F. Salzman found evidence of a small textile factory in Hastings as late as 1871. That was obviously sporadic and probably not a survival but a revival'.
References
1. E.N. Carus-Wilson "An Industrial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century", Economic History Review XI (1941), 1, reprinted in Essays In Economic History ,vol.1, (1954), pp.41-6 . Also R.A. Pelham Fullin Mills (n.d.), No.5 of publications of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings.
2. Mawer and Stanton, Place Names of Sussex, Part Two (1930), p.252, where "fulretta" means "fulling', not "foul stream".
3. East Sussex Record Office, (E.S.R.O.) Archdeaconry of Lewes Wills, A 61,p.547 (courtesy of Mrs; J. Brent).
4. a) Uckfield: Map of Estate; Sussex Archaeological Collections 4,
b) Tillingtone: Rev. Arthur Young General View of the Agriculture of the County of Sussex (1813 but compiled in 1793), p.15..
5. E.g. Sussex Archaeological Trust, PN646 (1725).
6. The Fullers were not in Waldron before the late 16th century.
7. Place Names of Sussex, p. 407.
8. D. Macleod "Some Forgotten Smelting Sites" in Sussex Notes and Queries,I,p.202.
9. L.F. Salzman "Industries" in Victoria County History of Sussex,voL 2,p.257b.
10. Helena Hall's expanded version o W.D. Parish's Dictionary o the Sussex Dialect (1957).
11. E.S.R.O: Parish 372/31/12 (1817-26) 12. See 9.

List of possible FULLING MILL sites

PARISH     GR in TQ     EVIDENCE     PARISH     GR in TQ     EVIDENCE 
Albourne     -     2b     Frant     605317     3h
Ardingly     334289     leh     Rotherfield     556296     3h
"     346309     lh     Mayfield-    -  (lb)
"     331323     3h    "    610279    lh   
Clayton     c315312     lh     Wadhurst    611337     3h
Cuckfield     c307271     3h     Buxted     483217     lh
Hurstpierp'nt     -     2ab     Framfield     -     lab 
Keymer     306161     lh     Isfield     -     lb   
Worth     -     2ab     Uckfield     -     (ld)
Plumpton     362146     labh     "     474210     lh 
Barcombe     -     2b     "     462205     lh
E. Grinstead     ?c373383     3h     Chiddingly     547148     lh
Lindfield     c349268     lh     E. Hoathly     c527138     3h
"     348254     3h     Waldron     ?574193     2e
Fletching     429236     3h Arlington    552185    lh
"     444217    3h Hellingly    579123     lh   
 "     451213     lch    or 583122
"     -     (lb) Ticehurst    681301    3h   
 Maresfield     -    2b  Salehurst    c736243     lh   
"     -     2b     " c743238    lg
Withyham     "   Buckhurst    ld  Burwash    -     2h
"     -     (2ab)     Heathfield     595202     if
"     520358     3h     Warbleton     633189     3h 

NOTES
Parishes are ancient ones given in "Sussex Place Names", Mawer & Stenton. 
Grid References, where shown, are all on Sheet TQ.
Assessment of Evidence. Document Ives; Number
CERTAIN - Fulling Mill or Fulling Mill Field 20+(3)
(2) PROBABLE - Fulling Process or Fuller/Ticker as craftsman 8+(1)
(3) POSSIBLE - Tenter/Tainter Field 13
(4) 12 UNCERTAIN sites, where Fuller/Tucker Field may only indicate the name of the occupier, have not been included in the table.
Sources of Evidence (a) Dr. L.F. Salzman (e) Mawer & Stenton
(b) Dr. C. Brent (f) Col. D. Macleod
(c) Mrs. J. Brent (g) Sussex Record Society
(d) Prof. E. Carus-Wilson (h) Various Documents
Promotion If a (3) or (4) site can be proved to have a bay, then promote to (1) If a (3) or (4) site is away from a stream search along adjacent
streams is warranted. If a bay is found possibly promote. Tithe Apporttopentsa c.1840.
Some parishes 25 in the east await examination. Some 2S parishes in the west have proved barren.

INDUSTRIAL SITES OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIVER OUSE SOUTH OF LEWES
by Sue Farrant.
Manufacturing industries were generally geared to the needs of agriculture, supplying them whenever possible from the local resources such as chalk from the downs, clay from pockets in the floor of the Ouse valley and tributary valleys in the Downs, wood from the Weald (brought down river).
Chalk from the Downs was used to manufacture lime for cement and for agricultural use. Near Lewes, on the east bank of the river at TQ.425995, a chalk outcrop which had been eroded by the river provided a site for the construction of limekilns, which was conveniently close to a centre of demand, Lewes, and so sited that the river could be used to transport the product which was of relatively low value. Lime was also produced by farmers, who sold the surplus from their kilns to neighbours, incidentally creating the small pits on the lower slopes of the valley's sides as at TQ,437088, just to the south of Mount Caburn.
The other extractive industry utilised the pockets of clay on the floodplain that were suitable for the manufacture of bricks and tiles- such pockets existed near the village of Piddinghoe at TQ.433031 and TQ.433033 now marked by small ponds. The bricks and tiles were fired in a kiln which still stands at TQ.431031, close enough to the river for the products to be conveniently loaded on to a barge.
At Newhaven small craft were built from Wealden timber brought down the Ouse. Several inventories of the equipment of Newhaven boat-builders exist, the contents of which suggest that the craftsmen worked independently. The construction and repair of boats was undertaken on the slip-off slope of the meander which now forms the western channel round Denton Island (the original river course), Here the gentle, alluvial covered incline provided land which was suitable for beaching or launching, Both the angle of the bend and its distance from the river's mouth provided shelter from rough seas and the prevailing south-westerly wind The craft were used to export agricultural produce from the valley. On this site developed the shipbuilding industry of the early 19th century
Newhaven served as the major centre for primary processing for most of the area, although parishes just to the south of Lewes were probably served by Lewes. Inventories for Newhaven mention maltings, a brewery, a windmill for milling, smiths and boat builders and carpenters. Locating the buildings is difficult as the earliest town plan is the tithe map of 1841, on which there are a mill, a brewery and maltings, may be those mentioned in inventories of the previous century,
The only large scale industrial development in the valley to the east of Newhaven was on the flood plain in the parish of Bishopstone at TQ.462002, where a Tidemill was constructed in the mid 18th century. It reached the peak of prosperity in the early 19th century; its origin and development will be discussed in a forthcoming article.
Not until the railway was built between Lewes and Newhaven in 1847 did the Pattern or extent of industrial development in the valley change from that established Ln the 18th century. The railway influenced particularly the extraction of chalk, and the port of Newhaven.
The site of the Lewes Railway Station proved to be advantageous when the decision was made to extend the line to Newhaven. Lewes station is located on a river terrace just to the south east of the town and the extended line could conveniently connect with the line from London to Lewes which ran through the river gap to the east of the main part of Lewes. Thus the line to Newhaven was built down the east side of the Lewes Levels, crossing the course of the river once, just to the south of Lewes
Additional advantages of the east bank route were that a cutting was necessary only at one point, just to the south of the railway bridge, at TQ.425092, and that embanking to control the gradient of the track did not need to be very high as the Company was able to purchase land sufficiently close to the side of the valley to avoid most of the dangers of flooding. The relative flatness of the floodplain, and the availability of river transport for heavy railway sections must have made construction fairly easy; it was quite rapidly completed.
The main line terminates on the east bank, opposite the town of Newhaven; the Company never constructed a line across the river for passengers as they considered the town station on the east bank close enough to this small town although a light railway ran over the swing bridge to serve the west bank quays. The railway had been extended to Newhaven for the purpose of attracting passengers from London to use the cross-channel 'ferry service which the L.B.S.C.R. considered to be worth developing. An additional attraction of the east bank was the availability of a large area of flat land of low agricultural value which could be cheaply improved for the construction of railway workshops, an improved ferry terminus and marine workshops. A gas works was also built and some accommodation for employees. The growth of the town, recorded on .a graph, accelerates rapidly from 1841 due to the increased opportunities for employment offered.
The proximity of the railway to outcrops of the Downs on the east side of the valley suitable for the manufacture of lime and cement was to stimulate the develop-ment of modern, large-scale chalk extraction at Southerham (TQ.426094), and Asheham (TQ.435064), which are still in operation, at South Heighton (called the Newhaven Cement Works, TQ.443037) and at Newhaven (The Meeching Whiting Works, TQ.445004) which closed before the Second World War. All the works were connected to the main railway line by sidings, the Meeching Works sidings ran over the swing bridge at Newhaven. Only at Southerham are sidings still visible, but, as at Asheham, transportation today is by road. Both Southerham and Asheham used barges on the Ouse during the late 19th and early 20th century to transport some of their exports to be loaded into cargo ships in the harbour. Such an arrangement would have been impracticable without the harbour improvements that the L.B.S.C.R. had made to improve the ferry service.
The manufacture of cement necessitated the 'quarrying' of another local raw material, clay. The Newhaven Cement Works at Heighton was supplied by pockets of clay in the floor of the valley just to the south of the chalk quarry, leaving the water-filled depressions that are marked on the sketch map of the complex. Similarly the Meeching works secured their supplies of clay from the immediate locality, creating the area that is now the recreation ground to the east of the chalk quarry, at TQ.446006. At Asheham clay appears to have been extracted just to the north of the present works, at TQ.436066 and TQ.438068. Southerham, however, appears to have extracted clay from a large pit just to the south of Piddinghoe village, at TQ.438028; a tramway was constructed and extended as the extraction proceeded so that the clay could be loaded, via the tramway, into barges which conveyed it up the river to Southerham.
Only at Newhaven have derelict quarries been successfully re-utilized, albeit for an unattractive small industrial estate and as a car-breaker's yard, but neither are unnecessarily obtrusive. The clay pits are, as mentioned before, a recreation ground. Additionally, marked on the accompanying sketch map, is the site of a series of claypits that served a brickyard in the 19th century; this too has been adapted, with suitable landscaping, and forms part of a small park. The quarries at Heighton have become the unsightly residence of a caravan site and a dump. What will ultimately be done when Southerham and Asheham close is undecided but perhaps their place in the local environment will be more successfully evaluated.
The expansion of the port of Newhaven stimulated the shipbuilding industry and a proper yard developed just to the north of the bridge that now leads to Denton Island. The brewery also expanded but the remainder of the industrial development was connected to the L.B.S.C.R. policy of improvement and expansion previously mentioned.
Note. The Newhaven town gasworks was just East of the Northern section of "C".
Windmills include one near Newhaven church, and others in the parishes of Beddingham, Piddinghoe, Rodmell and Kingston (just north of Iford). There was a paper mill on the Southern boundary of Lewes (water-driven). A watermill at Glynde is still stand-ing at TQ.457088. A forge is operative at Rodmelll, behind the garage on the Rodmell cross-roads, TQ.418059, where shoeing of horses may-be seen. The smithy has most of the equipment associated with a typical 19th century forge.

 

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