A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Haye, a third part of the profits had always been 

 sent to Agnes, but since the death of Ralf, Thomas 

 and Isabel had had no profits from the mine. 11 



Much has been made of the Lewes murage 

 grant in 1266, the inhabitants of the borough 

 being empowered to levy a toll of one penny on 

 every horse-load or cart-load of iron brought into 

 the town ; one writer even says ' this obviously 

 pre-supposes an already flourishing trade in iron'; 12 

 but as an identical toll was to be levied on lead 

 and tin, neither of which was ever found in the 

 county, the argument is clearly unsound. Iron, 

 as a necessary of life to civilized men, would 

 naturally be brought into a market town such as 

 Lewes, but it was probably for the most part 

 foreign, as large quantities of Spanish iron were 

 being imported at Winchelsea about I27O. 13 

 By the beginning of the thirteenth century, 

 however, there is evidence of activity in the 

 Sussex iron manufacture, as in 1 300 the gild of 

 ironmongers in London made formal complaint 

 against the ' smiths of the Wealds (de Waldis) ' 

 most of whom were probably Sussex men that 

 they brought into the city iron rims for wheels 

 too short for use, and accordingly three iron rods 

 were made of the standard length and breadth, 

 and notice was issued to all smiths that they 

 should conform to the standard. 14 In 1327 the 

 sheriff was paid 4. 3*. $d. for 1,000 horse-shoes 

 and an extra 35. for carriage of the same from 

 Roffey, near Horsham, where they were made, 

 to Shoreham. 15 The fact of these shoes being 

 made at Roffey renders it probable that the 

 3,000 horse-shoes and 29,000 nails furnished by 

 the sheriff in I32O 16 were also of local pro- 

 duction, while this was certainly the case as 

 regards the 6,000 arrows, with heads well 

 sharpened, provided in 1338, as the payment of 

 14. ioj. 4^. included carriage from Horsham. 17 

 In 1347, however, when the sheriff had to 

 provide 266 sheaves of arrows, he obtained only 

 1 50 sheaves at Horsham and bought the remaining 

 1 1 6 at London Bridge. 18 For some little time 

 evidence of iron- working in Sussex is very scanty, 

 but to about the middle of the fourteenth 

 century may be assigned the cast-iron monu- 

 mental slab in Burwash church, bearing an 

 ornamental cross and the inscription ORATE 

 p ANNEMA JHONE COLINS. 19 This probably com- 

 memorates a member of the family of Collins 

 who were at a later date owners of the Socknersh 



11 Assize R. 912. 



11 Suss. Arch. Coll. xlvi, 3. 



13 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1031, Nos. 19-21. 



14 Liber. Cuit. (Rolls Ser.), i, 85. 



15 Saw. Arch. Coll. xvii, 1 1 7. 



16 Ibid, ii, 178. 



17 Ibid, xvii, 1 17. 



18 Pipe R. 20 Edw. III. 



19 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 178, and plate. Iron grave- 

 slabs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are 

 numerous in Sussex, e.g. at Uckfield, Mayfield, Sedles- 

 combe, and especially at Wadhurst. 



forges. Towards the end of this century, in 

 1379, the poll-tax returns show that the industry 

 was flourishing in Crawley, as William Rokenham, 

 ' factor ferri,' was assessed at the very high rate 

 of 6s. Sd. t and another ' factor ferri,' William 

 Danecombe, at 40^. ; there were also two 

 smiths and a farrier (femur) in the same vill. 20 

 The returns do not give such positive evidence 

 in any other vill, but the occurrence of a charcoal 

 burner and six smiths at Lindfield suggests that 

 irpn was worked in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood. 



For the fifteenth century we have little 

 documentary evidence, but there are a number 

 of firebacks and andirons, especially noteworthy 

 being a pair of the latter terminating in human 

 heads with the characteristic caps of the period, 

 which were until recently at Michelham priory. 21 

 There was also at Eridge as late as 1790 a 

 hooped bombard or mortar of the early part of 

 this century, traditionally held to have been the 

 first made in England ; 22 another mortar of 

 about the same date was found in the moat of 

 Bodiam Castle, and is now at Woolwich ; the 

 interior of this is of cast iron, and the outer body 

 of wrought iron. 23 Both these may have been 

 of local manufacture, but the greater part of the 

 iron ordnance for the French wars of Henry VI 

 was apparently made in London. 2 * One of the 

 chief works in the county at this time was at 

 Buxted, and there is at Lambeth a note of the 

 payment of 6y Os. 2d. to 'y e lernefounders of 

 Buxstede ' in I492. 25 To about the same period, 

 namely, between 1493 and 1500, belongs the 

 complaint of ' Pieter Roberd alias Graunt Pierre 

 yernefounder dwellyng in Hertfelde.' In this he 

 set forth that he had entered into partnership 

 with one ' Harry Mayer otherwise Harry Fyner 

 of Southwarke, goldsmythe,' and had sent him 

 52 tons 7^ cwt. of iron at 3 the ton, and had 

 also done various repairs, but the said Harry had 

 caused him to be arrested and ' fetyred w* grete 

 yernes ' on an action for debt for 20, and had 

 done him other injuries. 28 



With the reign of Henry VIII we enter upon 

 what we may call the historic period of the 

 Sussex iron industry, when it ceases to be a local 

 and assumes the character of a national industry. 

 It will therefore be as well at this point to 

 consider some of the details of the process of 

 manufacture. The deposits of iron ore lie widely 

 diffused throughout the whole geological district 

 of 'the Hastings sands,' stretching westwards 

 and north from Hastings, and bounded by the 



10 Lay Subs. *-. 



" Figured in Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 180. 



22 Ibid. 182 ; Archaeologia, x, 472. 



23 Suss. Arch. Coll. xlvi, 15-16. 



24 See, e.g. Foreign R. 12 Hen. VI, m. D. ; 13 

 Hen. VI, m. L. 



** Lambeth Court R. 1352, schedule. 

 26 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 222, No. 112. 



242 



