INDUSTRIES 



I 



CHOUGH stress has already been laid 

 upon the variety of the natural 

 resources of Gloucestershire, only 

 those acquainted with it would 

 realize to what an extent these 

 have tended to make it an industrial county. 

 Over 60,000 of its inhabitants at the present 

 day arc pursuing industrial occupations, as com- 

 pared with 25,000 engaged in agriculture. Nor 

 is this manufacturing class chiefly centred in 

 Bristol and Gloucester. Probably few counties 

 have so many rural industries, some of them 

 contained in large factories in country towns, 

 some of them conducted by one man in a mere 

 village. 



Gloucestershire industries fall chronologically 

 and categorically into three divisions. The first 

 comprises the period of industries based on 

 natural resources, supplemented only by the 

 simplest means of communication roads. The 

 second, from the I7th to the igth century, 

 includes the period of canals, when foreign pro- 

 ducts and influence made industries less local ; 

 the third, thq period of railways, when a new 

 and exotic set of industries was introduced. 



Among natural resources, the influence of the 

 pastures and water-power of the Cotswolds in 

 giving rise to the woollen industry has been dealt 

 with under the ' Social and Economic History ' 

 of the county, from which it is impossible to 

 dissociate it. Almost equal in importance have 

 been the mineral resources. The coal and iron 

 mines of Bristol and the Forest of Dean will be 

 fully spoken of further on. But the abundance 

 of clay and building stone scattered over Glou- 

 cestershire has not been without effect upon its 

 history. A considerable manufacture of bricks, 

 tiles, and pottery is carried on from local resources, 

 the clay being found in the Alluvium, or deposit 

 of the Severn and Avon, and in the Lower and 

 Middle Lias of the Vale and the Cotswolds 

 respectively. The former beds are little worked 

 owing to their comparative difficulty of access, 

 except at Tewkesbury and in the neighbourhood 

 of Gloucester, but the number of old pits in the 

 Severn banks testifies to a common use of the 

 alluvium in the past. 



Stone, rather than brick, has however been 

 the favourite building material of the past, and 

 some 2,OOO men are at this day engaged in 

 quarrying. Red Millstone Grit and Pennant 

 Sandstone are worked in the Bristol region, and 

 Mountain Limestone and Conglomerate near 



Clifton, the latter having been used in the build- 

 ing of Clifton College. In the Cotswolds the 

 abundance of building-stone found in the Inferior 

 Oolite gave rise to considerable architectural 

 skill at so early a date as the I5th century, and 

 the local material employed harmonizes with 

 the scenery to a striking degree. It has also 

 occasioned the use of stone rather than hedge- 

 rows for enclosures a very marked feature of 

 the hill district at the present day. The lime- 

 stone provides roofing material, and where 

 these stone tiles, or 'slats,' have been used and 

 have weathered in harmony with the walls of 

 the building, the whole effect is singularly com- 

 plete. That these building materials were early 

 utilized and valued is shown by the frequent 

 mention in Court Rolls of the letting of 

 ' quarrs ' (still the local pronunciation) and ' tyle- 

 pitts." Tiling and ' slatting ' were certainly 

 commoner than thatching, to judge from these 

 records, a few extracts from which may give 

 some idea of the materials and cost of building in 

 mediaeval Gloucestershire. 



In 1460 a new hall and ' crosschamber * were 

 built for the abbess of Sion, on her manor of 

 Cheltenham and Slaughter, for the sum of ^55 

 odd 1 : 



' * 



Wages of carpenters 14 ft Of 



sawyers 1 8 O 5 



tiler 2 13 5 



lathers 2 13 to 



labourers 476^ 



dauber 21810 



Timber I 19 10 



Planb 0114 



Saw 009 



Nails o 12 5.^ 



Moss 024 



Lath-nails 0150 



Straw o i 6 



Guestone 083 



Crests 098 



Splitting laths, &c 0188 



Carriage of stuff 4 5 6 J 



Total 



55 



This house was presumably wattled, and the 

 moss and straw were for the dauber. The laths 

 were probably to bear the ' slats ' for the roof. 

 At this day the latter are laid on light wooden 



1 Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 853, No. 



189 



