A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



years before they had stopped their mills by 

 combination to bring down the price of rags. 



The Wycombe mill-owners claimed to make 

 the best kinds of white writing and printing 

 paper. The price varied from 3*. to 2os. a 

 ream, and the Paper Act of 1690 aimed at 

 preventing their making it over 4.1. a ream. 17 

 Some makers did make this good paper, but the 

 greater part was probably of a cheaper kind, since 

 in mentioning the paper-mills near Wycombe 

 and Marlow in 1725, Defoe 18 said that printing 

 paper was made ' good of its kind and cheap such 

 as generally is made use of in printing our news- 

 papers, journals, &c., and smaller pamphlets, 

 but not much fine or large for bound books or 

 writing.' During the i8th century, however, 



many improvements were made in the manufac- 

 ture. These were due largely to the efforts of 

 Mr. John Bates, a paper-maker at Wycombe 

 Marsh. His chief discovery was a method of pro- 

 ducing paper for mezzotints and other engraved 

 plates, which was equal to the French paper for 

 the same purpose, and for this he received the 

 gold medal of the Society of Arts in lySy. 18 



Besides the invention of this special paper, 

 other manufacturers at the close of the i8th 

 century were making only papers dt luxe. The 

 Rye Mill at High Wycombe, for instance, 

 which has been in existence for certainly a hun- 

 dred years and probably for longer, has always 

 produced paper of this class for writing, drawing, 

 ledgers, and bank notes. 20 



TANNING AND SHOEMAKING 



Several tan-yards used to exist in the county, 

 but they are now closed and there is only 

 one firm of tanners in Buckingham at the 

 present day. So important were the tan-yards 

 of the town of Buckingham that the tanners 

 formed one of the four companies to which all 

 the burgesses of the borough belonged. 1 In 

 1831, 2 131 men were employed in the business 

 there, but no other tanneries are mentioned. 

 At Olney, however, the tan-yards must have 

 been working at that time, 8 and it was noted 

 for the excellence of its leather in all parts of 

 the kingdom. Leather tanning seems to have 

 been given up some thirty years ago, when the 

 tan-yard, worked by Mr. Joseph Palmer for oak- 

 bark tanning, was closed. His yard, however, 

 has been purchased within the last few years by 

 Messrs. W. E. & J. Pebody, Ltd., and the works 

 re-constructed, being old-fashioned and disused 

 for many years. The process of chrome tanning 

 is now carried on by the firm at the Olney 

 yard. 



The manufacture of boots and shoes, which has 

 developed at Olney during the last twenty years, 

 was not established till after the tan-yard was 

 closed, so that its growth can have no connexion 

 with the tannery. 



Boot and shoe-making is also the most im- 

 portant trade of the town of Chesham. One of 



17 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. v, 74. 



18 Defoe, Tour in Gt. Brit. (1725), ii, 70, 71. 



19 Robert Gibbs, Worthies of Bucks. 30 ; T. Lang- 

 ley, Hist. ofHund. ofDesbonugh. 



80 Information supplied by Messrs. T. H. Saunders 

 & Co. Ltd., Rye Mill, High Wycombe. 



1 Brown Willis, Hut. and Antiq. of the Town, etc. 

 of Buckingham. 



1 Pop. Ret. 1831, i, 35. 



3 From information kindly given by Messrs. W. E. 

 & J. Pebody, Ltd. Cowper Tannery, Olney. 



the chief manufacturers at the present time states 

 that there has been an industry there for many 

 generations, and that it was probably due to the 

 existence of several tan-yards in the town. 

 These latter have been given up a very long 

 time, owing doubtless to the later mode of pro- 

 ducing leather by much larger firms in London 

 and other leather centres, and to the large quan- 

 tity of leather imported. In the i6th century 

 the shoemakers at High Wycombe succeeded in 

 closing the market to ' foreign ' shoemakers, 4 but 

 at the close of the reign of Elizabeth a new 

 order was made by the mayor and bailiffs, in 

 which the restriction against showing goods in 

 the market was specially removed from the 

 victualling and shoemaking trades. There is, 

 however, no mention of any particular locality 

 in which shoes were made in any quantity. 



Early in the igth century a great many 

 hands were employed at Chesham in the shoe- 

 making trade, the goods manufactured being 

 sent in the main to the London market.* It is 

 curious, however, that shoemaking does not ap- 

 pear among the handicrafts or manufactures of 

 the county in the census of 1831.' A few years, 

 later the trade was flourishing, 7 and by 1862 

 it had assumed very considerable proportions, 

 the goods being both sent to London and ex- 

 ported to foreign countries. 8 For many years 

 all the boots and shoes were made by hand 

 throughout, and the work was done in the homes 

 of the workers. This is still the case to the 

 extent that hand-work is produced, but 

 there are few, if any, young ' hand sewn ' men 

 in the town. When boots began to be riveted > 



* Wycombe Borough Records. 

 4 Lysons, Magna Brit, i, 536. 

 'Pop. Ret. 1831,!, 34. 



7 Lipscomb, Hist, of Such, iii, 263. 



8 Sheahan, Hist, and Topog. of Bucks. 838. 



112 



