A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



ing is curious. Six triers were sworn and 

 appointed. The leather was forfeited and 

 valued, and the amount divided into three 

 parts, ' as the statute directeth,' x and given 

 to the searchers, to Widow Bonivent, and to 

 the poor of the three parishes. The sealers 

 were not always careful to obey the laws 

 of the borough, and were complained of by 

 the freemen tanners for sealing strangers' 

 leather. The complaint was listened to, 

 but the consideration of it was conveniently 

 postponed, and the sealers seem to have 

 escaped censure. In 1630 the tanners again 

 present their suit, and their leader in con- 

 sideration of $d. paid him promised to save 

 Mr. Mayor harmless of all actions and damages 

 to be brought against him by any foreign 

 tanner. 2 The searchers and sealers of leather 

 seemed to have been so hardly worked that 

 their number wasjncreased in 1633 from two 

 to three, and this arrangement was continued 

 for several years until 1639, when the number 

 was again reduced to two. Possibly this was 

 the most flourishing period (1633-9) f tne 

 trade, which began to decline during the 

 troublous times of the Civil War, when the 

 sieges of Reading, the loans, the billeting of 

 soldiers, and oppressions of both belligerents 

 ruined for a time the trade in the town and 

 county. In the midst of the war tanning 

 was however still carried on. Sealers of 

 leather were appointed in 1645. 3 Two years 

 later the holders of this responsible office were 

 ' put out of their office and the seal taken 

 from them for having abused themselves in 

 their office by sealing green leather. 4 The 

 chronicles of Newbury show that this in- 

 dustry was established there at a very early 

 date. An inquisition 5 of 1297 mentions the 

 existence of tanning mills in the town, and 

 Thomas le Tannur as tenant of the same. 6 

 The Black Death, which inflicted much loss 

 upon the town and neighbourhood, seriously 

 checked the trade of tanning, and depreciated 

 the value of this mill. Before this terrible 

 scourge it was worth 26s. Sd. yearly ; after- 

 wards it yielded nothing on account of the 

 deadly pestilence. 7 Amongst the quakers 

 prosecuted here in 1683 there was one 

 Thomas Hyne of Shaw, tanner ; but there 

 are few references to the trade in the history 

 of this town. 8 At the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century John Hazell had a tannery 



Rec. of Reading, ii. 403. 



Ibid. iii. 36. 



Ibid. iv. 170. Ibid. p. 239. 



Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I. No. 36. 



Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. I. No. 53. 

 "> Ibid. 28 Edw. III. pt. 2, no. 37. 

 8 Money, Hist, of Newbury, p. 300. 



at Donnington, Charles Hote at Greenham 

 Mills and John Lee in Cheap Street, but the 

 industry is now extinct in this district. 



In Hungerford the tanning industry was 

 carried on, and survived the cloth manu- 

 facture, which, as we have already noticed, 

 existed in the town. A large tanyard stood 

 formerly by the Bath Road at the entrance to 

 the town, and the importance of this indus- 

 try is shown by the fact that searchers and 

 sealers of leather were annually appointed 

 by the Hock- tide court. In 1830 William 

 Anning had a tannery in Charnham Street, 

 which, Dr. Mavor reports, ' was on a large scale 

 but the trade is no longer carried on here.' 



At Wantage there were no less than four 

 tanneries, which gave the name to a street in 

 the town called Tanner Street. The tan- 

 yard belonging to Mr. Sylvester which flour- 

 ished at the beginning of the last century was 

 one of the largest in the kingdom and was 

 conducted on the most approved principles. 

 The then ' new art of tanning ' was introduced 

 at great expense but with the best success by 

 the proprietor, assisted by a German named 

 Desmond. A process was discovered by 

 which the hides were made fit for sale in half 

 the time formerly expended upon the tanning, 

 and without the smallest injury to the texture, 

 which was thought to be improved by the 

 speedier process. Many experiments were 

 made in this tannery with different kinds of 

 bark, but oak was found to be the best. 9 

 It is interesting to note that the last relic of 

 these tanneries was removed by the demolition 

 of a wall built entirely of the skulls and part 

 of the horns of animals, whose hides furnished 

 the raw material for these works. The foot- 

 way at Stiles's Almhouses, where the knuckle- 

 bones of sheep form the sides of the paving, 

 is an interesting memento of obsolete trades. 10 



At Abingdon tanning was an ancient 

 industry. Tanners held their stalls in the 

 markets and fairs long before the year 1557, 

 when regulations were made with regard to 

 the price they had to pay for the privilege. 

 They were the chief members of the Company 

 of Skinners, one of the three companies into 

 which the traders of Abingdon were ' sorted 

 and severed ' u ; and minute regulations with 

 regard to the trade are laid down in an old 

 document of unknown date containing ' the 

 articles to be given in Charge to the Grand 

 Jury to enquire of at the Leet & Laweday 

 to be holden for the Borough of Abingdon.' 

 The jury are directed as follows : ' You shall 



393 



Mavor, Agriculture of Berks, p. 469. 

 Wantage, Past and Present, pp. 88, 89. 

 11 Rec. of Abingdon, p. 160. 



