A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



monstratensian abbeys of Bay ham and Dureford. 3 

 A century later, in 1454, the price of Sussex 

 wool was fixed at 501. the sack, while that of 

 Kent stood at 3, and of Hampshire at 7 marks. 4 

 Great improvements, however, were wrought 

 during che eighteenth century, at the end of 

 which South Down fleeces were ' second only to 

 those of Hereford and neighbourhood." It is 

 further remarked that : 



Sussex wool is soft and fine, and will make a good 

 cloth in light and full blues and whites, and some 

 other very sound colours ; but in olives, snuffs, &c., 

 will not mill to a firm substance of cloth. A York- 

 shire woollen manufacturer writes, ' We never were 

 in the county of Sussex, but are told the wool of that 

 county varies very much according to the kind of soil 

 the sheep graze on. Sussex wool being the freest 

 from black hairs of any English wool we are ac- 

 quainted with must, on that account, be properest 

 for light-coloured kerseymeres ; and for dark-coloured 

 kerseymeres the same wool is suitable for them as for 

 other plain-wove cloths of the same dark colours." 



When, where, and how the Sussex woollen 

 cloth industry originated cannot be said. Indeed, 

 it may be doubted whether it can be said to have 

 had an origin ; probably spinning and weaving 

 were carried on in every village, and it was only 

 gradually that special districts began to supply 

 special kinds of cloth to the local and, after a 

 time, to the foreign markets. The particular 

 types of cloth which were manufactured in 

 Sussex were kerseys and broadcloths. Win- 

 chelsea appears to have done a small trade in 

 the export of woollen cloth about 1270, and as 

 the same place also imported a good deal of woad 

 it is probable that dyeing was also carried on 

 there. One of the earliest references to a dyer 

 appears to be a mention of one of that trade 

 at Uckfield in 1300,** and another was resident 

 in Rye in 1313,' while in 1341 Stephen le 

 Oghir had a dyer's establishment in Midhurst. 8 

 Lewes, having been appointed in 1363 a port for 

 the shipping of wool, subject to the staple estab- 

 lished at Chichester in 1353,' was naturally a 

 centre of the wool and cloth trades; in 1380 

 the poll-tax 10 shows five wool buyers and six 

 cloth merchants in the borough, as well as a 

 wool merchant, a wool packer, and a weaver in 

 Southover. In the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Lewes, at Piddinghoe, were three weavers of 

 woollen cloth and three shearmen n ; at South- 

 ease one cloth weaver, a woman ; at Rodmell 

 two. Further afield we find weavers of woollen 

 cloth at Crawley, Preston, Perching, and Hurst- 

 pierpoint, at which place was also a clo'th 



1 Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry and Com- 

 merce, 628. 



4 Suss. Arch. Coll. x, 77. 



4 Young, Agriculture of Suss. 359. 



Ibid. 6l Assize R. 934, m. 18 d. 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 5064. 



' Suss. Arch. Coll. xx, 10. ' Ibid, x, 70-1. 



10 Lay Subs. *. " Cissores pannl lanucl. 



merchant. About this time Lewes was cele- 

 brated for the manufacture of wimples, 13 the 

 wimple being the lower part of the female 

 head-dress covering the neck and chin ; one 

 Robert ' le Wympler ' occurs as witness to a 

 number of Lewes deeds of about 1275," and 

 when William Wynter was accused, in 1374, 

 of stealing from Margery Chelsham at Ashburn- 

 ham, a 'keuerchef Lewense' worth 4O</., 14 the 

 reference is probably to a wimple. For the most 

 part, however, the cloth made in the county was 

 of a somewhat coarse nature, similar to that 

 made in Surrey and Hampshire, and known as 

 ' Guildford cloths ' or ' Hampshire kerseys,' the 

 fullers and other clothworkers of the three 

 counties being classed together in 1391 as de- 

 ceitfully stretching their cloth. 1 * The cloth 

 exported from the Sussex ports about 1 490 18 

 was mainly broadcloth and kerseys ; the value 

 of a complete piece of the former, or ' an hole 

 brode clothe,' 24 yards, was 401., but the kerseys 

 were of various measurements, three kerseys, as 

 a rule, containing one whole cloth. ' Fryse,' or 

 frieze, ' cotton russetts,' which were made of 

 wool and not of cotton in the modern sense, and 

 ' course medley ' are also found amongst the 

 woollens exported, while imports of woad and 

 madder and of ' tesyls," or teazle heads, are also 

 significant of the existence of the cloth industry. 

 Regulations were constantly made with the 

 object of maintaining uniformity of measure- 

 ment, the length of the piece of cloth being fixed 

 at 24 yards, while in 1536 an Act was passed 

 directing that all kerseys should be i yard in 

 breadth within the border, orders being issued to 

 the authorities at Chichester to postpone its opera- 

 tion to give the clothworkers time to obtain proper 

 instruments. 17 Against this Act the kersey 

 makers of Sussex and five other counties pro- 

 tested, as owing to most of their trade being 

 with foreign countries such restrictions could not 

 well be borne. 18 To secure that the assize of 

 cloth was duly kept ulnagers were deputed to 

 seal all cloths before their sale, and in 1463 

 Thomas Holme of Petworth was accused of 

 having sold in London six pieces of kersey, each 

 worth 6s. 8d., not sealed with the ulnage seal. 19 

 In 1 564 John Cooke of Petworth, a town noticed 

 by Leland in his Itinerary as producing good 

 cloth, was fined for selling in London two 

 ' watchett kerseys lacking breadthe ' ; Henry 

 Chaundler, clothier of Sussex, was at the same 

 time fined for a similar offence ; John Parker of 



" Engl. Hist. Rev. vi, 501. 

 u Anct. D. A 4223, A 4226, and others. 

 " Gaol Delivery R. iii, m. 2 d. 

 14 V.C.H. Surrey, ii, 342. 

 16 Customs Accts. Sf., 9. 

 " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xi, 543. 

 18 Star Chamber Proc. Hen. VIII, bdle. 23, 

 No. 115. 



" Mem. R., K.R. 3 Edw. IV, East. m. 29. 



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