INDUSTRIES 



another of the family ten years later.*- The 

 precise time when the sword factory passed from 

 the company into the sole proprietorship of 

 Robert Oley is uncertain, but within the last 

 few years a great deal of the property in Shotley 

 Bridge belonged to descendants of the Oleys. 

 Many houses still possess steels and knives bearing 

 the name, and a curious horn with very elaborate 

 keys of ironwork said to have been in their 

 possession is still to be seen. A German inscrip- 

 tion with the date 169 1 is legible on a stone 

 over the door of a house in close proximity to 

 where the first sword factory stood : — 



Des Herren segen machet Reich ohn alle Sorg 

 w.in du zughleich in deinem stand Treuw und 

 Fleisig Bist und duest was Du Befohlen ist. 1 69 1 . 



Another and more interesting inscription has now 

 completely disappeared : — 



Deutschland . 

 die Stadt Ge . 

 .... Eingan. 



ver vatterland s . 

 . Heer Beht . . 



. . se 

 . und 



Possibly the completed inscription was : — 



Deutschland ist unsuer Vatterland Soligen ist 

 die Stadt Gehasset Der Herr behiite deinen 

 Ausgang und Eingang.'^ 



It is futile to speculate whether the German 

 sword-makers came on their own initiative or 

 were driven here by religious persecution or came 

 at the request of some company, who knew that 

 the waters of the Derwent were admirably 

 adapted to temper steel, and that the proximity 

 of coal and iron rendered the situation ideal for 

 that particular industry, though the most authentic 

 evidence supports the last theory, but the whole 

 neighbourhood bears witness to their presence. 

 The house where William Oley lived, with its 

 inscription, 



Cutlers Hall 



W ° A 17S7 



still stands, though now divided into two houses ; 

 a cottage now occupies the site of the first mill, 

 but some distance from Shotley Bridge, about 

 300 yards below Allansford Bridge, a little higher 

 than the farm-house, there are some interesting 

 remains of a hexagonal furnace, the bricks show- 

 ing signs of extreme heat, and the slag in the 

 immediate neighbourhood proving that iron was 

 smelted there. A little higher than the furnace 

 some faint traces of a calcining kiln may be 

 seen, though the remains are not so evident 

 as when Mr. Lax wrote his historical poems, the 

 notes to which contain much interesting tradition 



"' Ebchester Reg. 6 Dec. 1716 ; 28 Jan. 1726. 



^ Surtees, Hist. o/Dur. ii, 287, 294. Surtees asserts 

 that they were driven from their country by religious 

 persecution, but I have found no evidence to support 

 this theory. 



2 ■ 289 



concerning Mohlls, Oleys, Vooz, and Bertrams.*^ 

 In the Delves colliery many indications of the 

 old method of working coal are to be seen ; 

 tradition points to the Germans as working both 

 coal and ironstone, and some probability is lent 

 to this by the absence of any information that 

 can account for the subsidence in any other way. 

 Nothing is known of any other workers in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. The Oleys were the 

 sword-makers, the Moles — for Mohll soon became 

 corrupted into Mole — ground the swords ; tradi- 

 tion says that the Vooz managed the trade with 

 Germany, for blades were often imported and 

 fitted with hilts at Shotley Bridge. At one time 

 there must have been a great output of these 

 weapons, but it is difficult to find one now ; an 

 excellent specimen, however, is preserved in the 

 Black Gate Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for 

 a description of which I am indebted to Mr. 

 Parker Brewis : — 



Shotley Bridge Sword at the Black Gate 

 Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 



This sword weighs I lb. 1 2 02. and is 3 ft. and J in. 

 long over all. 



The Blade is two-edged, and 301- in. in length 

 and I J in. broad at its base, tapering to fin. at 

 I in. from the point. It is of Vesica section and 

 slightly fluted in the forte, having one sh.ilIow central 

 groove (probably this central groove accounts for the 

 term hollow being applied to these swords "), 5-| in. 

 long on each side, in one of these is the word 

 'shotley' and in the other ' bridge,' and beyond the 

 groove on either side is the running fox, or wolf, 

 mark, having the feet to the same edge as the tops of 

 the letters. (PI. I, figs. I and 2.). 



Inscriptions on sword blades read from hilt to point, 

 but when so viewed the Fox mark is almost always 

 upside down. This m.ay be accounted for by the fact 

 that it was originally in the nature of an assaye mark, 

 and was not then put on by the maker of the blade, 

 but by the Guild in the market place. It was granted 

 by the Archduke Albert in 1349 to the Armourers' 

 Guild at Passau, a Bavarian town on the Danube, but 

 by the fifteenth century it had become a very common 

 mark on the swords made at Solingen. These blades 

 were imported into England in such quantities that the 

 common name for a sword was ' Fox,' thus Shakespeare 

 says ' Thou diest on point of fox,' King Henry F, and 

 in Webster's White Devil ' O what blade is't r A 

 Toledo, or an English Fox ? ' &c. Perhaps the 

 occurrence of this mark on the Shotley Bridge swords 

 may be accounted for by the German origin of their 

 makers. The Fox mark is also very common on 

 Ferrara blades. 



The Hilt is of brass, and appears to be contemporary 

 with the blade ; it consists of counter curved quillon 

 prolonged forward into a knuckle-bow, from either 

 side of which springs a counter guard which coalesces 

 with a shell guard on either side of the quillon. These 

 two shells are also of cast brass, and are ornamented 



" I am indebted to Mr. C. F. Scott for showing me 

 these furnaces and also for much information concern- 

 ing the subject. 



'■^ Sessions Record, Jan. 1703. 



37 



