A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



For v lood delivered at the Forges to melt sovves 

 and at the hamor to make a tonne of Iron up every 

 lood iij' xv* 



The Casting ot every tonne at the Furnace into 

 Sowes iij" iiij d Sm a iiij" xx d 



Yf the Stylford were up she wolde mak yerely xl 

 or 1 tonne Sm a Claro xl" or 1" 



Repacons coTbus annis in Bellowes Hamors 

 Andevilles romars lynkes sundry great Spynsars and 

 Skepes xl* or more after as the workemen ar so are 

 the newe instrumentes preserved. 



M d this myll will make yerely if she be well stored 

 and applied every yere iiij" tonne at least. 



M d she is well watered and well repaired. 



A newe furnace pteyning therto lying in the 

 Kynges comon called the Stomlett. 



M d if the yron be caried to London it cost 

 vj 5 viij d the loodes cariage. 



Yf the Tonne be solde at Forge it is comanly 

 solde for v" somtyme vij". So comenly clere of the 

 tonne oone with another at leest xx s . At clere by 

 the yere at lest xx" or at lest xl markes. 



M d they say Iron is fallen in price by reason of no 

 Utterance. 



M d this if it be not well folowed cannot prevaill. 



This myll will spende at fynories & furnaces xij c 

 lood of cole at lest or xv c . 



Ther is another myll called the Stylford myll & 

 xiiij acres of ground val' g ann' iiij 5 viij d molend 

 n' quia prostrat ' 



At this point the manuscript comes to an 

 end, but whether there were any more of 

 these interesting though disjointed notes is not 

 certain. 



The accounts of 1523 mention 'a tenement 

 called a Forge of Stele in the same forest,' 

 then in the hands of John Glande, and in 

 1525 demised to John Bowley, who still 

 held it in I548. 47 This is one of the very 

 scanty references to the manufacture of steel, 

 which was also made at Warbleton, and at 

 Salehurst, where in 1609 John Hawes held the 

 site of the abbey of Robertsbridge with eight 

 steel forges and other buildings for the steel- 

 makers. 48 At Robertsbridge the steel industry 

 appears to have been established by the intro- 

 duction of foreign workmen early in Elizabeth's 

 reign, as in 1567 one John Sharpe of Roberts- 

 bridge, ' naming himself a master of fence,' was 

 complained of for beating certain ' Duchemen ' 

 (i.e. Germans) employed by Sir Henry Sydney 

 in making steel, and using opprobrious language 

 towards them. 49 Another early furnace was that 

 of ' Pannyngrydge,' near Ashburnham, of which 

 the accounts for 1546 are extant, 60 and about the 

 same date Denise Bowyer, widow, obtained a 

 lease of an iron-mill and furnace in Hartfield 

 from one Richard Warner, whose title was sub- 

 sequently challenged by William Saunders as 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 445, No. 7185. 

 "Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 197. 

 " Acts ofP.C. (New Ser.), vii, 333. 

 * Thorpe, Battle Abbey Charters, 143. 



lessee of John Carryll, lord of the manor of 

 Parrock. The dispute led to a pretty quarrel, 

 Saunders and his son-in-law, Thomas Mynn, 

 coming with eight servants ' with swordes, buck- 

 lers, staves, and other warrelyke weapyns, and 

 with sculles upon theyr heddes in maner of 

 warre arrayed,' to remove the bellows and let 

 the water out of the ponds ; which they 

 did after a slight affray in which the worthy 

 widow was said to have taken some part, 

 striking the cart oxen 'overwarte the mus- 

 sells ' with her stick, and encouraging her men 

 to attack one of the others by crying out, 

 ' Downe wyth Greyberde,' and ' Shoote at grey- 

 berde." 1 



The most important event of this period, how- 

 ever, was the introduction of the improved pro- 

 cess of gun-founding, by which cannon were cast 

 in the entire piece and bored, instead of being 

 wrought of separate portions banded together. It 

 was in 1543 that Ralph Hogge, of Buxted, with 

 the assistance of Peter Baude, a Frenchman, cast 

 the first pieces of ordnance thus made in 

 England, according to Holinshed, who was 

 writing at a time when this event must have 

 been within the memory of many persons, and 

 may therefore be relied upon. The manufac- 

 ture of ordnance speedily took a firm hold in the 

 county where it had been thus introduced, and 

 the Lord Admiral Seymour's iron-mills in Worth 

 Forest alone turned out 56 tons I cwt. of 'ordy- 

 naunce of dyvers sorts,' valued at ^560 15*., as 

 well as 52 tons 5 cwt. of shot for the same, 

 worth ^214 15;. 3^., between 1547 an( * Janu- 

 ary I549- 62 The actual cost of making the 

 ordnance was 280, to which has to be added 

 the value of the metal used, a sum of 4. 12s. 3^. 

 ' for making a workhowse for y e gonne founders,' 

 and 69 6s. id. for constructing 'a duble fur- 

 neys ' for the work ; there were also payments 

 of ^9 195. for carrying 16 tons n cwt. of 

 ordnance to the Tower, and of i IDJ. for carriage 

 of 13 tons of shot as far as Southwark, and 



5 tons 15 cwt. thence to the Tower. Particu- 

 lars of the cannon made are given in an inventory 

 of I549, 63 which shows ordnance to the value of 

 j62O, that remaining at the furnace being 

 ' culverens, xiv. ; dim. culverens, xv ' (with 



6 tons 5 cwt. of shot for the same) ; ' Itm. ordy- 

 nance caryed from thens to Southwark, and 

 remanyth ther as foleth, sakers, xv ; ffawkons, 

 vj ; mynnyons, ij ; and dim. culverens, j ; Itm. 

 in shotte for the same xiij tonne.' 



The industry was now growing rapidly in all 

 branches, and for the first time we find iron 

 figuring among the exports of Sussex in 15 SO, 64 

 though its destination in each case was to a home 



51 Star Chamber Proc. ; xxiv, 422 ; xxv, 107 ; 

 xxvii, 30. 



" Exch. K.R. Accts. 501, No. 3. 

 63 Suss. Arch. Coll. xiii, 1 29. 

 " Customs Accts. ST.. 



246 



