INDUSTRIES 



counties, some sixty firms of brewers, amongst 

 which some of the best known are Messrs. Abbey 

 & Sons, Ashby & Co., Dudney & Co., Robins, 

 Tamplin & Sons, all of Brighton ; Fremlin Bros, 

 at Brighton, Eastbourne, and Hastings (a George 



Fremlyn occurs as a beer-brewer at Cliffe as 

 early as 1635 w ) ; Beard & Co. at Lewes; 

 Breeds & Co. at Hastings ; Constable & Sons 

 at Arundel ; King & Sons at Horsham ; and the 

 Southdown and East Grinstead Breweries, Ltd. 



CIDER 





Harrison in his ' Description of England,' 

 says : l 



In some places of England there is a kind of drinke made 

 of apples, which they call cider or pomage, but that 

 of peares is named pirrie, and both are ground and 

 pressed in presses made for the nonce. Certes these 

 two are verie common in Sussex, Kent, Worcester and 

 other steeds where these sorts of fruits do abound, 

 howbeit they are not their onelie drinke at all times, 

 but referred unto the delicate sorts of drinke. 



That Sussex should thus be put in the forefront 

 of the cider-producing counties may seem 

 astonishing when one considers the very insig- 

 nificant amount now made there, but upon 

 examination the claim proves to be historically 

 well founded. As early as the end of the reign 

 of Henry III, cider was evidently largely con- 

 sumed in Sussex, but probably not much was 

 manufactured, at least in the east of the county, 

 as the customs rolls of Winchelsea 2 show that 

 large quantities were imported from Dieppe and 

 other ports of Normandy. Some cider, however, 

 was evidently made in West Sussex at this time, 

 as in 1275 Richard de Clifford was accused of 

 taking an apple-mill and press from the widow 

 of Geoffrey de Bosco in Pagham. 2 " In 1 302 the 

 farmer of the prebend of Sutton at Selsey ex- 

 pended 265. 8$d. on ' beer and cider bought during 

 the harvest season,' 3 and in 1308 the stores of the 

 Templars at Saddlescombe included two casks 

 and a pipe of cider, valued at gs. the cask, 4 while 

 at Goring in 1320 certain gardens were yielding 

 yearly a cask of cider valued at i os,' 



The principal evidence, however, for the 

 extent of the cider industry in Sussex is to be 

 found in the Nonae Rolls of 1341, in which a 

 mention of cider occurs in no fewer than eighty 

 parishes, only six of which are in East Sussex, 

 while in twenty-eight other cases, nine of these 

 being in the eastern division, the tithes of apples 

 are referred to, the rector of Walberton being 

 noted as receiving 2 marks from apples and 

 pears, which latter fruit occurs only in this 

 entry. Nor were the tithes of cider insignifi- 



K Situ. Rec. Soc. i. 



1 Holinshed, Cbron. (ed. 1586), 170. 

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

 " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 211. 

 * Mins. Accts. bdle. 1028, No. 16. 

 1 Suss. Arch. Coll. ix, 240. 

 6 Add. MS. 5700, fol. 48. 

 ' Inq. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 5 50 et seq. 



cant ; in twelve cases there are entries of ' the 

 tithes of cider and hay and other small tithes,' 

 and when the items are given separately the 

 value of the cider is still more noticeable ; thus 

 at Yapton the tithe of cider was worth 2 marks, 

 that of hay icw., and the other small tithes 

 i mark ; at Easebourne the tithe of cider was 

 estimated at lOOx., and that of hay at only 

 6oj.; at Lurgashall the rector received 19*. from 

 the tithe of cider, but the other small tithes were 

 worth only 5*. 8d. At Bignor the vicar in 

 ordinary years received cider to the value of 

 261. 5^., the small tithes and offerings together 

 being only 22*. 3^.; at Lynch the cider, valued 

 at 2O*., was the largest item ; and at Wis- 

 borough the tithe of cider reached the imposing 

 amount of 10 marks, which would imply an 

 annual output worth in modern money some- 

 thing like ^1,500 for this parish alone. It is 

 in connexion with this parish of Wisborough 

 that we have an early notice of cider making. 7 

 William Thrale in 1385 had the right to fruit- 

 growing in ' the gardens called Lokeswodeshagh, 

 le Chastell, Donettehagh, and le Worthagh,' and 

 in that year granted to John Pakenham and 

 Justina his wife his lands in ' Lokeswode,' 

 reserving to himself half the trees bearing fruit 

 either for eating or for cider (mangable et 

 ciserable\ rendering in return a pipe of cider and 

 a quarter of ' hordapplen,' that is to say store 

 apples ; he further retained a room at the east 

 end of the hall with entry at all times convenient 

 through the door (heous) opening upon the 

 ' Wringehowse ' presumably the building con- 

 taining the ciderpress ; he had also the right to 

 gather the same fruit and convert it into cider in 

 their ' apelmelle.' 



Although, as we have seen, the cider industry 

 was mainly confined to the west of the county, 

 occasional instances occur in eastern Sussex. In 

 1403 the rector of Warbleton spent 3*. 4^. on 

 the manufacture of eight pipes of cider, 8 and an 

 apple-mill in Burwash was the subject of a fine 

 between Henry Waterer and Thomas Brownyng 

 in 1562.* An earlier conveyance of an apple- 

 mill or cider-press occurred in 1540, when 

 Edward Myllett leased to Philip Myllett the 

 house of the Black Friars at Chichester, with 

 kitchen, the frame of the apple-mill, and other 

 appurtenances, a complaint being subsequently 



7 Mem. R.,K.R. Hil. 17 Ric. II. 



8 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1031, No. 5. 

 ' Feet of F. 4 Eliz. Trin. 



263 



