INDUSTRIES 



INTRODUCTION 





IN treating the industrial history of a county 

 it is necessary to select for examination 

 such industries as are either peculiar to 

 that district or are noticeable for their 

 great development or the possession of 

 some peculiar feature. It is clearly impossible, 

 even if it were desirable, to chronicle every 

 reference to ' the butcher, the baker and candle- 

 stick-maker ' the latter, by the way, a 

 trade of which the rarity should have preserved 

 it from the contempt which seems to have 

 attached to it even as early as 1611, when a 

 goldsmith of Rye ' said the harbor makers were 

 brewers and bakers, shepherds and silver candle- 

 stick-makers, carters and hogschops, and divers 

 other bad speaches.' 1 In Sussex one industry stands 

 out pre-eminent the manufacture of iron ; 

 but although very large quantities of iron 

 were produced in the shape of bars, ordnance, 

 chimney-backs and similar objects, no particular 

 metal-working industries appear to have arisen ; 

 nailers are occasionally mentioned, as at Ashburn- 

 ham in I574 3 and at Horsted Keynes in 1592,' 

 edge-tool-makers occur at Crowhurst in 1594* 

 and Waldron in i627, 5 and a sickle-maker at Frant 

 in 1644, while in 1599 Ralf Willerd of East 

 Grinstead described himself as an 'armourer.' 7 

 These are but incidental references ; there was, 

 however, an important manufacture of NEEDLES 

 at Chichester, which town is even said to have 

 practically ' monopolised the trade of England 

 in needle-making ' at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. 8 The date at which this 

 industry was established is not known, though 

 Dallaway mentions 8 that a John le Nedeler was 

 an official at Chichester in early times, and a 

 Richard le Nedler occurs there in 1308. 10 Very 

 few facts concerning this trade are recoverable, 

 but it seems that the needle-makers resided mainly 

 in the suburb of St. Pancras, and that when this 



1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 147. 

 ' Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxiii, 57. 



* Suss. Rec. Sue. i, 13. ' Ibid. 21. 

 5 Levies Wills (Index Soc.). 



Ibid. r Ibid. 



8 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxii, 223. 



9 Hist, of Rape of Chick. 204. 



10 Coram Rege R. 3 Edw. II, Mil. m. 19. 



was destroyed during the siege of Chichester in 

 1642 the industry received a blow from which it 

 never recovered. 11 One of the manufacturers 

 whose business appears to have survived this 

 period was Robert Hichcock, who in 1667 

 issued a halfpenny token bearing the arms of the 

 needle-makers. At a later date, in 1685, the 

 Rumboldswyke registers contain the marriage of 

 Thomas Belchamber of St. Olave's, Chichester, 

 needle-maker ; } " but soon after this the competi- 

 tion of the rising manufacturing towns in the 

 north, which produced an inferior but far cheaper 

 type of needle, began to be felt, and Spershott, 

 writing of the year 1725, said, 'I remember there 

 were also many master needle-makers who kept 

 journeymen and apprentices at work, but now 

 are reduced to one.' n By the end of the 

 eighteenth century the industry had ' dwindled 

 almost to nothing,' 14 and shortly afterwards 

 became extinct. 



The mineral wealth of Sussex was always 

 confined to its iron, though it may be noticed 

 that in 1570 Sir Thomas Smith endeavoured to 

 remedy this by some experiments made at Win- 

 chelsea in the transmutation of iron into copper. 15 

 The soil of the county, however, besides yielding 

 excellent clay for pottery and bricks, contains a 

 considerable supply of stone, its QUARRIES, though 

 now little worked, having been of some impor- 

 tance in the past. The most interesting variety 

 of stone in some ways, though by no means the 

 most important commercially, is that known as 

 ' Sussex marble ' ; it is a calcareous stone formed 

 by a deposit of freshwater shells, of which the 

 remains are clearly visible, and takes a high polish, 

 being used with excellent effect for ornamental 

 features in the cathedrals of Chichester and Can- 

 terbury and at Petworth House. It is found mainly 

 in the neighbourhood of Petworth and Kirdford. 

 Sandstone appears to have been worked by the 

 Romans at Pulborough for use at Bignor ; 18 and 



11 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxii, 223. 

 " Ex inf. Rev. Canon Deedes. 

 " Suss. Arch. Coll. xxx, 149. 



14 The Chick. Guide (ed. 1794), 30. 



15 Strype, Life of Sir T. Smith, 101. 



16 Suss. Arch. Coll. xi, 136. 



229 



