INDUSTRIES 



production is very large in proportion to the num- 

 ber both of manufacturers and of operatives. 



The Golden Valley Paper Mills, now in the 

 possession of Mr. C. K. Smith, were founded about 

 fifty years ago on the site of the brass-mills at 

 Bitton. 1 The number of hands averages about 

 200, and the output was, in September, 1906, 

 about fifty tons weekly the machinery working 

 by day and night. The qualities of paper made 

 arc tub-sized and engine-sized writing papers, 

 envelope papers, drawing papers, and account- 

 book papers. 



Messrs. Evans, Adlard and Co., Postlip Mills, 

 Winchcombe, are one of the largest and best- 

 known of the British firms who manufacture 

 blotting paper. Founded more than one hundred 

 years ago * at a time when water-power was a 

 necessity, the Postlip Mills were worked by the 

 stream that is still used in the actual process of 



manufacture. The motive-power is now sup- 

 plied by a 200 h.p. engine. Blotting-paper of 

 every possible colour and quality, above the low 

 grades, is made by the hundred hands employed in 

 these mills and is exported in large quantities to 

 Canada, the United States, and the Continent, 

 in addition to its use in government offices, 

 &c., at home. The firm also manufactures 

 a pure filtration paper of its own for chemists ; 

 seidlitz paper, black needle paper, photo- 

 graphic paper, besides a special tub-sized, loft- 

 dried paper used for exposing samples of different 

 kinds. 



There is a large paper-bag manufacture in 

 the county, represented by Wellington & Co. in 

 Gloucester, and by some four firms in Bristol, 

 and wall-papers and cardboard boxes are also 

 largely made; 178 males and 1,657 females 

 were in 1901 engaged in these manufactures. 



LEATHER 



In 1904 over 13,000 persons in Gloucester- 

 shire were employed in leather manufactures, 

 which included 460 tanners, 475 curriers, 

 547 saddlers, 94 glove-makers, and 11,540 

 bootmakers.* Tanning in particular has had a 

 lengthy history in Gloucestershire, owing to the 

 readiness with which hides could always be 

 procured by river, and to the plentiful supply of 

 oak-bark along the Severn and Wye. In Glou- 

 cester the records of tanning stretch back to 

 very early times. From 1230 onwards tanners 

 occur occasionally among lists of citizens. The 

 building of Tanners' Hall in Hare Lane bears 

 evidence to the importance of the trade, and in 

 1541 the Tanners' Gild drew up its ordinances. 

 These, by the way, show that women, as well 

 as men, were employed in the lanyards. No 

 master was to keep ' a shopp or standinge bothe 

 in the markett of Gloucester, to sell clowte 

 leather,' nor was any member to buy ' clowte 

 leather ' to sell again. 4 



At Tewkesbury early details as to the abbey 

 tannery are preserved in the kitchener's accounts. 

 For instance, in 1385 the kitchener purchased 

 307 hides for ^28 2s. 6</., and sold 373 ; 70*. 

 worth of bark was bought, and 8s. 8d. worth of 

 lime, while small sums were paid to the mender 

 of vats and sieves, and ' to the cook at the time 

 of larding.' ' By the 1 6th century various depen- 



1 H. T. Ellacombe, Hut. of Bitton, 232. 



' Rudder says, in 1779, that fine writing-paper was 

 then made at ' Postlip, in the parish of Winchcombe, 

 Quenington, and Abbcnhall," and brown paper at a 

 few other places. Hist, of Gloucestershire, 63. 



' British and Foreign Trade and Industry (2nd ser.), 

 1904 (c.d. 2337). 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. ix, 527-9 (Records 

 of Corp. of Glouc.). 



5 Tetvkeibury Tearly Reg. ii, 274-80. 



dent leather industries had grown up in Tewkes- 

 bury, which possessed a company of cordwainers 

 and shoemakers, besides ' whittawyers, glovers, 

 pouch-makers, and point^-or shoelace makers.' 



Gloucester had not, apparently, a gild of 

 cordwainers at an early date, though it had its 

 single cobblers and glovers, who were fairly 

 numerous from the I3th to the I5th century. 

 Bristol, on the contrary, had a Cordwainers' 

 or Coziers* Gild at least as soon as the 151!] 

 century. Its ordinances of 1407 have been 

 already quoted.* At the same date provision 

 was made for inspecting the trade and pre- 

 venting the use of ' false leathers, dishonestly 

 tanned or curried, called sole-leather or over- 

 leather.' Before setting up as a craftsman, every 

 apprentice must be, certified as 'able and well- 

 instructed in sewing, yarking (or preparing), and 

 cutting, as pertaineth to the said craft.' No 

 member was to tan leather for strangers/ In 

 the 1 6th century 'points' were also being made 

 at Bristol. 8 By the i8th century the lanyards 

 there were important. At Tewkesbury the 

 tanning trade is extinct, though it was still plied 

 within living memory. Early in the igth cen- 

 tury Edmund Rudge, a Tewkesbury tanner, had 

 a great character as a miser. Though reputed 

 to be worth ,100,000, he and his brother lived 

 in the meanest way, feeding upon the 'rumps 

 and bars ' of their hides. He used to go weekly 

 to Gloucester to purchase his own skins, which he 

 wheeled to the quay himself by barrow-loads.* 



There are still tanneries at Gloucester, and at 

 Newnham, Winchcombe, and Leonard Stanley, 

 but by far the largest business is now carried on 



See ante, ' Social and Economic History.' 

 ' Bickley, Little Red Book of Bristol, ii, 101-14. 

 ' Acts of P.O. (new ser.), viii (1571-75), 286. 

 ' Teiokesburj Yearly Reg. ii, 147-8. 



209 



