INDUSTRIES 



had formerly been worth 235. 4^/. 71 The en- 

 croachments of the sea continued ; at least one 

 salt-cote at Rye, which was working in I32O, 72 

 being submerged before 1342, and by 1350 it 

 would seem that the output of the Sussex pans 

 had so far diminished that it was worth while 

 to send salt from la Baie de Bourgneuf in Poitou 

 to Winchelsea, although the freight was 15^. 

 the quarter. 74 In 1357 also there is mention of 

 salt being brought by ship into Shoreham for sale, 75 

 but its place of origin is not given. To restore 

 the industry assistance appears to have been 

 called in from outside, as in 1440 John de 

 Schiedame was given licence to export tin to 

 Germany as a reward for having assisted in de- 

 veloping the manufacture of salt at Winchelsea. 78 

 The price of salt appears to have remained con- 

 stant, for in 1 400 it was selling in Winchelsea at 

 32^. the quarter, 77 and in 1500 it stood at the 

 same price in Hastings. 78 Between 1457 an( ^ 

 1475 a few entries relative to the export of salt 

 from Rye occur, 79 and in 1573 a ship left the 

 same port for Dantzig with a cargo of salt, 80 but 

 this was possibly not of local manufacture, as in 

 1574 the mayor and jurats complained of the 

 great scarcity of salt in the district, and mentioned 

 that vessels laden with salt had called at the port, 

 but owing to a recent prohibition they were un- 

 able to avail themselves thereof. 81 The industry 

 appears to have been almost dead at this time, 

 and, although a ' salt boyler ' was living in Rye 

 in i632, 82 it must have been finally killed for the 

 time being in 1638, when the Sussex ports un- 

 successfully opposed the grant of a monopoly for 

 the manufacture of salt at Shields. 83 A revival 

 took place in the western part of the county, but 

 when, and in what circumstances, does not appear 

 to be known ; extensive saltworks were, how- 

 ever, in use at Appledram down to the middle of 

 the nineteenth century, 84 and two salt-workers 

 were returned in the census of 1871, but as one 

 was over 55 years old and the other over 75 it is 

 probable that they were survivors of the extinct 

 works at Appledram. 



The county of Sussex being still very heavily 

 wooded, and having been in former days still 

 more so, it is natural that the TIMBER industry 

 in its many branches should always have been of 

 much importance. The excellence of Sussex 



71 Inq. Non. (Rec. Com.), 389. 

 71 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 507*. 



73 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1028, No. n. 



74 Close, 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 2. 



75 Mem. R., K.R. Mich. 3 1 Edw. III. 



76 Cat. French R. 19 Hen. VI, m. 4. 



77 Cooper, Hist, of Winchelsea, 205. 



78 Mins. Accts. Hen. VII, No. 862. 



79 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 493-4. 



80 Ibid, xiii, App. pt. iv, 30. 



81 Ibid. 36. 



ra Suss. Rec. Sac. i, 198. 



83 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 205-8. 



84 Suss. Arch. Coll. xviii, 85. 



oak caused it to be in constant demand, not only 

 for local building and repairs, but also outside the 

 county, large quantities being used at Dover in 

 King John's reign, 85 and again early in the four- 

 teenth century. 86 Two oaks were also sent from 

 Worth Forest in 1337 to the Tower, 87 and the 

 shingles for the roof of Westminster Hall came 

 from this county in I3I2. 88 It is not, however, 

 easy to obtain any details of the regular timber 

 trade. About 1490 Shoreham and Rye exported 

 considerable quantities of logs, laths, and ' sawe 

 borde,' 89 the latter commodity occurring also at 

 Arundel in I55O. 90 When the inhabitants of 

 Rye complained in 1577 of the threatened 

 destruction of the adjacent woods by the new 

 iron foundry at Westfield, Lord Buckhurst 

 replied that they had no right to complain, as 

 within the last two years they had themselves 

 exported 'not so little as 1,000 tons of timber.' 91 

 It is probable that most of the timber here re- 

 ferred to was exported in the form of billets, a 

 form of fuel for which Rye and Winchelsea early 

 became famous. In 1307 the sheriff of Sussex 

 was ordered to prepare 2O,OOO great billets of 

 wood and send them to Boulogne, 92 and a return 

 for the years 1323-6 shows that the purchases of 

 billets made by foreigners at Rye and Winchelsea 

 were extremely large. 93 In 1430 a tax, or 

 ' maltode,' was levied at Rye on vessels loading 

 with these billets, the payment being \d. per 

 thousand, or I d. if the billets were laid on the 

 ' strond ' : the suggestive addition is made that 

 anyone cursing a collector of maltodes should be 

 fined 3*. \d. 94 The value of these billets was 

 about 3i. 95 or 2J. 6^/. 96 the thousand, but the 

 growth of the iron industry, with the consequent 

 destruction of wood, rapidly forced the price up, 

 so that in 1580 the charge at Brighton for ' billet 

 or tale wood ' had risen from 25. 6d. the hundred 

 (weight) to 8*. 97 It would seem that as a con- 

 sequence of the rise in price there was tendency 

 to reduce the size of the billets, for in 1581 the 

 authorities at Hastings, Winchelsea, and Rye 

 determined 



that such billets called by the name of Winchelsea 

 billets for Calais may be made for those towns as for- 

 merly, so that they keep the ancient size, for that kind 

 of billet is the fittest for those towns and for shipping 

 and carrying along the Ports to the aforesaid towns ; 



the further proviso being made that any infringe- 

 ment of the assize should entail forfeiture, to be 



"Ibid, iii, 4, 7; xxii, 235. 

 1 Ibid, xvii, 1 1 6. 



87 Ibid. 



18 Close, 6 Edw. II, m. 15. 

 89 Customs Accts. Sf., sf. 90 Ibid. -f 



91 Hilt. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 57. 

 "Close, i Edw. II, m. 16. 



93 Customs Accts. Sf.. 



94 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 489^. 



95 Ct. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 206, No. 59. 



96 Customs Accts. 3f-. 



97 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 51. 



233 30 



