A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Harkness & Son, of Hitchin, are but a few of 

 the important growers. 



In connexion with this industry, however, 

 it may be stated that in the first half of the 

 19th century, at Munden and at Brookmans, 

 both in Hertfordshire, were formed two of the 

 earhest and most important rose gardens in 

 England,** a fact which may have had a 

 material influence upon the present industrial 

 aspect of this type of horticulture. Reference 

 may also be made to the extensive orchid 



nursery of Messrs. Sanders at St. Albans, which 

 has now been in existence for over a quarter 

 of a century. 



The industrial posirion of Hertfordshire is 

 probably at the present time stronger than 

 ever before. The absence of coal and mineral 

 wealth renders it unlikely that any exceprional 

 development can be looked for, but the prospect 

 of a lower wages bill and the provision of cheap 

 electric power may do much to attract manu- 

 facturers from the great towns. 



TEXTILES 



Although a certain amount of cloth was 

 produced in this as in all other counties, Hert- 

 fordshire has never been a great cloth-making 

 district. It did not even take a prominent 

 place in the production of the raw material, 

 wool, though St. Albans was amongst the 

 religious houses from which the Italian mer- 

 chants bought wool in the late 13th and early 

 14th centuries.* At that time the price of the 

 St. Albans wool was set at 10 marks the sack. 

 In 1337, when prices were fixed for wool pro- 

 duced in different districts,* that grown in 

 Hertfordshire and Essex was put at 7J marks, 

 rather below the average price. The two 

 counties are here classed together, but, while 

 Essex became one of the greatest centres of 

 the cloth trade, Hertfordshire never attained 

 eminence in this direction. 



The chief centre of the industry in this 

 county was in early times St. Albans, where it 

 was clearly well established by the end of the 

 1 2th century, as in 1 202 the men of that borough 

 paid 2 marks to King John to have the right 

 to buy and sell dyed cloth as they used to do 

 in the time of Henry II.* Hertford was another 

 centre, but at Ware there were no dyers or 

 weavers before the war between John and his 

 barons, though some settled there immediately 

 after that war.* For the most part the early 

 history of cloth-making in this county consists 

 of isolated references to individual craftsmen 

 and fulUng-mills. John, Abbot of St. Albans, 

 granted a fuUing-mill at Cassio, in Watford, to 

 PetronOla de Ameneville in 1255,* and a fuUing- 

 mill in Hemel Hempstead was confirmed to 

 the canons of Ashridge in 1290, and continued 

 in use for at least three centuries, being referred 

 to in 1540 and again in 1580, when there were 



" See Will. Paul, F.H.S., The Rose Garden (ed. 10), 

 26. 



* Cunningham, Hist, of Industry and Commerce, ii, 

 626. 



' Cal. Close, 1317-9, p. 149. 

 ' r.C.H. Herts.'u, +77. 



* Assize R. 318, m. 63. 

 ' r.C.H. Herts, ii, 452. 



two mills under one roof.* There was one such 

 mill at King's Langley in the time of Edward I,' 

 and there was another at Standon at least 

 as early as 1337, when ' a cord of bast 'and other 

 things were bought for the fulling-mill,* which 

 was leased next year for i6s. Sd.^ At Gilston, 

 near Sawbridgeworth, Gilbert le Fulur held a 

 fulling-mill in the last quarter of the 13 th 

 century ; this he granted to Thomas le Chalu- 

 nour (the maker of chalons or coverlets), who 

 had married one of his daughters, but its 

 possession was disputed in 1286 by his other 

 daughters, one of whom had married John le 

 Deghere (the dyer).*" 



At the assizes of 1247 Robert Stanhard was 

 convicted of stealing woollen cloths from the 

 fulling-mill below Eywood, near St. Albans," 

 and the importance of the industry in that 

 town is shown by the appearance of the name 

 Fullerstrete in the 13th century.** In one case, 

 in 1266, land in 'the street of the fullers' is 

 said to adjoin the ' tentorium ' (tenterground, 

 or place for stretching cloths) of Richard son 

 of Robert.** It was just about this time that 

 the question of the fulling of cloths led to 

 serious disputes between the abbot and the 

 townsmen of St. Albans.** The abbot claimed 

 that all cloth made locally, and especially all 

 thick and coarse cloth, must be fulled at the 

 abbey mill. This claim was resisted, and in 

 1274 the townsmen began setting up mills in 

 their own houses and fulling their own coarse 

 cloth. The abbot retorted by sending his 

 officers to distrain the refractory townsmen, 

 taking from one of their leaders, Henry de 

 Porta, who had set up a fulling stock in his 



f' r.C.H. Herts, ii, 221. 

 ^ Ibid. 237. 



* Mins. Accts, bdle. 868, no. 22. 

 ' Ibid. no. 23. 

 *° Assize R. 328, m. 35. 

 11 Ibid. 318, m. 26 d. 

 " e.g. Cott. MS. Jul. D iii, fol. i, 55, 58. 

 I'lbid. fol. 55. 



1* Walsingham, Gesta Abbotum (RoUi Ser.), i, 

 410-17. 



248 



