A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



have given far more attention to all the pastimes 

 of the countryside, bull-baiting, cock-fighting 

 and boxing, than to their business. Hence the 

 Long Crendon needle-trade gradually died out 

 and the trade in sewing needles was practically 

 lost. 



Several makers made a speciality of large 

 needles, however ; sail and packing and netting 

 needles were made in considerable quantities, and 

 a revival of the trade took place about 1848. 

 A John Harris had set up for himself and was 

 more energetic in business than others ; machinery 

 was also introduced by him and some of the 

 Shrimptons. A London firm, Kirby Beard & Co., 

 started a factory at Crendon, where they had 

 long been customers of the needle-makers. The 

 lack of railway communication, however, proved 

 fatal to their undertaking, and in 1862 they 



moved to Redditch, taking with them four-fifths 

 of the needle-makers. Almost immediately 

 afterwards the railway was opened to Thame, 

 but it was too late to affect the manufacture at 

 Long Crendon, and even the trade of large 

 needles was obtained by the Redditch makers. 



Emigration had, however, been going on slowly 

 for many years; as early as 1824, Jonas 

 Shrimpton journeyed to Alcester, Studley, and 

 Redditch to observe the state of the manufacture 

 there. He advised the Crendon makers to 

 bestir themselves, but nothing, as has been said, 

 was done, and some of the younger men 

 migrated in the next few years. Even in 1861, 

 while Kirby Beard & Go's, factory was still open, 

 the population of the village was declining, the 

 cause being migration of the needle-makers to 

 seek work in other parts of the country. 12 



TEXTILE INDUSTRIES 



A considerable amount of wool was grown 

 in Buckinghamshire as early as the I3th cen- 

 tury and consequently many men were engaged 

 in the wool trade. The wool grown by the 

 monks at Biddlesden, Ankerwyke, and Notley is 

 mentioned by Pegolotti. 1 Buckingham was a 

 staple town for wool in the time of Edward III, 

 till the staple was removed to Calais. It was 

 then amongst the towns which petitioned Parlia- 

 ment in 1525 for relief, their trade having been 

 destroyed. 1 * In the xyth century Buckingham 

 still seems to have been a centre of the trade, and 

 possessed both a wool hall and wool market, the 

 profits belonging to Christ's Hospital, founded by 

 Queen Elizabeth. 2 In 1731, these profits only 

 amounted to ^5 a year. 3 A wool fair was also 

 held at Great Marlow, but it fell into disuse in 

 the first half of the i gth century. 



Wool merchants in the i6th century were, 

 however, sternly repressed, no individual being 

 allowed to buy more wool than he could weave 

 himself. In 1577 the ' broggers' of wool were 

 bound over in 100 apiece, 'that neither they 

 nor their heirs shall at any time hereafter buy or 

 bargain any manner of wools that grow or 

 hath grown within the county of Buckingham, 

 but only such quantity of wools as they by 

 themselves or their apprentices shall yearly make 

 in his own mansion house.' * The cloth trade 

 never assumed very large proportions in the 

 county, but a certain amount of weaving and 

 fulling was done, presumably for local use. 



11 Pop. Ret. 1 86 1. 



1 Cunningham, The Growth of Engl. Indus, and 

 Commerce, i, 629. 



la Browne Willis, Hist, and Antiq. of the Town, Hund. 

 and Deanery of Buckingham (1755), 46. 



1 Ibid. 86. " Ibid. 



4 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 28. 



Early in the I4th century the governing body 

 of the borough of Wycombe tried to attract the 

 trade to their town by remitting a tax on looms. 6 

 The effort seems to have been successful, and the 

 records of the borough contain many orders with 

 regard to weaving, fulling and dyeing. 8 These 

 trades were gradually limited to the burgesses of 

 the borough, foreigners being forbidden to carry 

 them on without making a heavy payment. 

 Even amongst the town craftsmen there were 

 strict rules for their government. 7 Besides ap- 

 prenticeship rules, no one man might carry on 

 more than one of the three trades at the same 

 time. 8 Early in the I7th century foreign 

 craftsmen paid 6d. for every loom working, but 

 how often the fine was to be paid was not 

 specified. The increasing strictness of these 

 orders was probably due to the failing condition 

 of the cloth trade. In 1623 this was commented 

 on by the Justices of the Peace and the Mayor 

 of Wycombe 9 and the poor in the town suffered 

 a great deal of misery. 



The fullers seem to have suffered even earlier 

 from the loss of their trade. Various fulling 

 mills are mentioned in accounts of the bailiffs of 

 manors in the I4th and I5th centuries, 10 but in 

 the following century, for instance, at Taplow, 

 when the mills were rebuilt in the reign of 

 Henry VIII, certain old fulling-mill stock was 

 found. Many years later a witness, in an inquisi- 

 tion taken in 1613 about these mills, suggested 

 that the name of an eyot or island in the Thames 

 called ' Tenter Eight ' took its name from the 



Ibid. 



6 Wycombe Borough Records. 

 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 



9 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxlii, 44. 



10 Mins. Accts. bdle. 761, no. 4 ; bdle 763, no. 9 ; 

 bdle. 653, no. 10565 ; bdle. 654, no. 10577 > 

 bdle. 655, no. 10597. 



128 



