A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



rate obtainable, and in the Aylesbury district 22s. 

 a week were the best wages obtained while the in- 

 dustry was most successful. 8 Ivinghoe and Ayles- 

 bury were the chief centres of the manufacture 

 in Buckinghamshire. At the former, the Satur- 

 day market was largely for straw-plait, which was 

 still brought to it in considerable quantities in 

 i862. 10 At Aylesbury a plait-market was estab- 

 lished by Mr. Robert Thorpe in 1846 n and suc- 

 ceeded for a time, but was finally given up owing 

 to the drop in prices that shortly occurred. In 

 1862 the following places carried on the industry 

 in the county, Bow Brickhill, Great Brickhill, 

 Little Brickhill, Wavendon, Aston Abbots, 

 Drayton Parslow, Hoggeston, Pitstone, Stewkley, 

 Swanbourne,Whitchurch, Amersham, besides the 

 Ivinghoe and Aylesbury districts. 13 The industry 

 had many different kinds of workers, with a great 



deal of specialization ; there were bleachers, 

 cutters, dyers, flatters, stringers, drawers, and 

 packers each doing their own particular work in 

 making the straw-plait. 13 



Although the end of the French War made 

 straw-plaiting less profitable in England than it 

 had been before, it was not till the removal of the 

 import duties on foreign plait, that the real decay 

 of the industry set in. Buckinghamshire seems to 

 have lost the greater part of its trade in this article 

 sooner than the other straw-plaiting counties, 14 

 but it is still carried on about Ivinghoe and Ed- 

 lesborough. 15 A rough estimate fixes 500 to 

 600 as the number of straw-plaiters in Bucking- 

 hamshire, but the industry is still declining, the 

 demand being very small. The workers, too, 

 prefer factory or domestic service, for both of 

 which there is a great demand. 



BRICKS, TILES AND POTTERY 



In a county possessing but little stone for build- 

 ing, the manufacture of bricks was one of the 

 most important industries. In the rates of wages 

 fixed by the justices of the peace in I562, 1 only 

 five kinds of artificers are especially mentioned, 

 namely, master carpenters and sawyers, brick- 

 layers, tilers and thatchers. Bricklayers and tilers 

 were to receive 8d. a day in summer and 6d. in 

 winter, and their labourers dd. and 5^. 

 respectively, though in fact they received much 

 more. 



In the I yth century, 8 Sir Ralph Verney 

 started a considerable amount of building, and in 

 his correspondence with his steward there are 

 many details about the brick-fields at Claydon. 

 In 1 656 he paid the brick-maker 6s. a thousand for 

 making and burning bricks, I s. a quarter for burn- 

 ing lime, and 51. a hundred for making and burning 

 pavements. The year before he had procured 

 brick pavements from the neighbouring villages. 

 They were 9 in. square and there was some 

 difficulty in the carting of them to Claydon. 

 The steward wrote that if Sir Ralph ' take soe 

 great a quantity, as from 12 or 15 hundred to- 

 gether .... 6 oxen would not well draw 500 

 at a loade, for they are not near twice so heavy 

 as brick and an ordinary cart will bring on 5 or 6 

 hundred of brick at a loade now that wages are 

 good.' The building had to be stopped very soon 



"Gibbs, Hiit. of Aylesbury, 667. 



10 Sheahan, Topog. of Bucks. 694. 



11 Gibbs, Hist, of Aylesbury, 667. 

 11 Sheahan, Topog. of Bucks. 

 "Gibbs, Hist, of Aylesbury, 667. 

 "V.C.H.Beds. ii, 121. 



15 Information kindly supplied by Mr. William Gray, 

 plait merchant, Edlesborough. 

 1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xix, 43. 

 * Memoirs of the Verney family, iii, 132. 



after this owing to financial straits of the Verneys 

 after the Civil War, but Sir Ralph had already 

 ordered 100,000 bricks to be made and the work- 

 men could not be discharged at once. Two years 

 later, however, in 1658, the building was begun 

 afresh ; the brickyard was trenched and as soon 

 as the brickmakers could come, tools, wheel-bar- 

 rows and moulds were delivered to them by their 

 employer. Bricks and tiles were made at the 

 same period at Brill from the earth of Brill Hills * 

 and the brick-fields in the neighbourhood on the 

 line of the Brill Tramway still continue. The 

 earth there was also used for earthenware drain 

 pipes. 



Brick-making was carried on in other parts 

 of the county in early times. In 1831,* 116 

 men were employed in the industry either as 

 masters or workmen, and in 1862 there were 

 brick-fields at Fenny Stratford, Whitchurch, 

 Burnham, Chalfont St. Peter and Hillesden. 6 

 It is curious, however, that the brick-fields at 

 Slough are not mentioned at that date, since they 

 are now the most important in the county and 

 had been established before 1862. 



The town of Slough has grown up very 

 recently ; the demand for houses there and the 

 facilities for the transportation of bricks have both 

 been made by the building of the Great Western 

 Railway. The brick-fields were started about 

 sixty-three years ago by Mr. Thomas Nash and 

 are now owned by a company formed in 1 893 

 under the name of H. & J. Nash, Ltd. The 

 fields extend into the neighbouring parishes 

 of Langley Marish and Iver, and about four- 

 teen million bricks are made annually, steam- 



"Lipscomb, Hist, of Suds, i, 53. 

 * Pop. Ret. 1831, i, 34 



6 Sheahan, Hist, and Topog. of Bucks. 538, 772, 

 815, 827, 281. 



114. 



