58 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



Ford was one of those who have helped in the re- 

 building of our Church, and his bequest is, to a 

 certain extent, an evidence of its poverty and need at 

 that time. 



What, then, if there was but a single large mansion 

 on the Harting soil at this period besides the moated 

 house of Sir A. Windsor at Down Park, and if, more- 

 over, the Church and buildings were so chargeable to 

 the new Squire, could have constituted the value of 

 ^40,000 of our money paid upon Edmond Ford's 

 entrance to the manors of Harting ? 



Probably the great and increasing value of the iron 

 forges at West Harting and Nyewood, supplied as 

 they were with abundant fuel from the contiguous 

 forests of the lowlands and Harting Combe, the coal 

 of the period ; while the same tracts sent timber for 

 the Queen's navy of good sturdy oak and ash, the 

 southern direction of which stream of supply is still 

 perhaps marked by the sign of the Ship inn at South 

 Harting. It is curious that at Cowdray the inward 

 central shaft of a winding staircase is formed of a 

 ship's foremast one of several indications of the pre- 

 valence of the shipbuilding trade which was fed in 

 this neighbourhood. 



In 1591* there was a special inquiry concerning the 

 woods in Harting Combe and iron-works in Rogate, 

 and a certain iron mill called "Hammer or Iron Ham- 

 mer Myll."f The supplies for the navy were falling 

 short, while Rogate, which represented the northern 

 or iron industry, was taking more than its fair share 

 of wood for smelting, and one Richard Michelborne 

 was alleged to have committed "great spoile and 

 waste of sounde tymber trees of oke (oak) in Harting 

 Combe and Nywood. The witnesses were of Rogate, 



* Inquisitions, 33 Elizae. No. 2305. Record office, 

 f Children of William Barber, servant to John Alwyn of 

 " The Hammer" baptized 28th May, 1630. Harting Register. 

 J " Nyewood silver," 6/8, half a mark, still paid to East Hart- 



