INDUSTRIES 



Sir William Grantham's possession ; this bears the 

 date 1792, and the name of Thomas Alcorn of 

 Chailey, for (or possibly by) whom it was made, 

 and well executed festoons and a rhyming inscrip- 

 tion." From about 1827 to about 1848 a 

 number of articles occur bearing the names of 

 members of the family of Norman, who still hold 

 the Chailey potteries. 



Of the articles turned out by the Sussex pot- 

 teries two are peculiar and typical. The first is 

 the famous 'Sussex pig,' known traditionally 

 throughout the county, but now so rare as to be 

 unobtainable except in modern copies. This was 

 a model of a plump and well-conditioned pig, 

 very different from the ungraceful Sussex swine 

 against which Dr. Burton inveighed in I75I, 86 

 standing sturdily upon its four legs, but capable of 

 sitting up when required to serve as a vessel for 

 liquor, its head removingand serv ing as a cup so that, 

 as the oft-repeated joke went, the guest might 

 drink a hogshead of liquor without harmful effects. 

 The other article was a flatfish round flask, one 

 side of which was ornamented with a dial-clock 

 face, while the other side had some conventional 

 decoration, and the edge usually bore an in- 

 scription testifying to the merits of the flask's 

 contents. 



About 1850 a new variety of Sussex pottery 

 sprang up, Mr. W. Mitchell of the old Cadborough 

 works and his son Mr. F. Mitchell, who built 

 the Bellevue Potteries at Rye, introducing the so 

 called ' rustic ware ' which has had and still has 

 a considerable vogue. It is of a peculiar shade 

 of brown, obtained by blending Dorset clay 

 with the native material, 37 and is remarkable 

 for being ornamented with green sprays and 

 clusters of hops, acorns, leaves, or flowers care- 

 fully modelled from nature. 



The clay is mixed, well beaten, sifted with great care, 

 once, twice, three times, and washed in the clay pan. 

 This is filled every spring. When washed the clay 

 looks like cream. It lies in the pan for months, dries, 

 and then is stored for use sufficient to last a year. 

 When used it is weighed, so much to each article, and 

 spun in the old fashioned way upon the wheel . . . 

 The moulded pieces are left to dry until they can bear 

 the weight of ornaments. These are then added, the 

 ware is biscuited, glazed, kiln-dried in seggars and 

 turned out for sale." 



Besides these ornately decorated objects, the Rye 

 potteries now turn out large quantities of simpler 

 fancy articles, the demand for which extends 

 beyond the boundaries of the county. 



BRICKMAKING 



When the use and manufacture of bricks first 

 began in Sussex, after they had fallen into disuse 

 with the ending of the Roman period, is not 

 known, but the county possesses probably the 

 finest early brick edifice in England in Herstmon- 

 ceux castle. Documentary evidence relative to 

 bricks is scanty for the early period ; the church- 

 wardens' accounts at Rye for 1517 record the 

 payment of 8s. <)d. for 6,000 bricks for a chimney, 1 

 which is rather under is. 6d. the 1,000, but 

 other entries to compare with this are lacking, so 

 that we cannot say whether this was a normal 

 price. In 1584 Roger Gratwick is recorded to 

 have burnt ' one clamp of brickes ' in St. Leo- 

 nard's Forest for use in Gosden furnace and in 

 his house at Cowfold. 1 ' Brickmakers occur at 

 Hollington in 1580 and 1590,* at Ringmer in 

 1588 and 1 5 94,* and again in 1640,31 Hailsham 

 in 1603 and 1640, and at Barcombe in i6i9- 4 

 During the eighteenth century references to bricks 

 and their makers become more numerous, and at 

 the end of that century there would seem to have 



36 Suss. Arch. Coll. xlvi, 55. 

 Suss. Industries, 5 . 



86 Ibid, viii, 259. 

 59 Ibid. 4. 



1 Holloway, Hist, of Rye, 480. 



u Exch. Dep. by Com. 27 Eliz. Hil. No. I. 



'' Cal. of Wills at Levies. 



3 Reliquary, Jan. 1903. 



4 Cal. of Wills at Lews. 



been a local boom in the trade, as the Lewes 

 Journal in 1792 recorded that 



so great is the rage for building in this town and 

 neighbourhood that among all the brick kilns within 

 two miles round there cannot be got a quantity of 

 bricks sufficient for finishing our bell tower within the 

 limited time. 4 



About the same time Young recorded ' that : 



Near Petworth a kiln has been lately constructed for 

 supplying the West Indies ; an open-kiln, and a 

 dome-kiln, each holding 28,000 ; they take thirty 

 hours burning with 2,500 bavins, at 9*. per 100 : 

 three men fill in three days and draw in three more. 

 If the demand was brisk the kiln would burn all the 

 year. In 1796 only 300,000 (bricks) and 100,000 

 tiles were made ; sold at 29*. per thousand on the spot, 

 at Arundel 34;. To burn 400,000 requires nine men ; 

 wages \i. 64. per thousand. Size 9 inches, 4, 2^. 



With the prices here given may be compared 

 some of earlier date. In 1 704, T. Gibson and 

 W. Danne supplied 4,500 bricks for rebuilding 

 Waldron furnace at 2os. the i,ooo, 7 and in 

 1692 the accounts for Brightling forge record the 

 payment of 13*. bd. to T. Pankhurst for 1,000 

 tiles 'at his kelle,' that is to say exclusive of 



6 Suss. Arch. Coll. xl, 257. 



6 Agriculture of Suss. 436. 



7 Add. MS. 33154, fol. 36. 



253 



