A HISTORY OF SURREY 



in a decline/ but it was to all appearance 

 enjoying a more vigorous existence in Godal- 

 ming and the neighbouring villages, de- 

 spite the eflForts of Tudor legislators to con- 

 centrate it in the towns. The manufacture 

 about Godalming seems to have been more 

 particularly devoted to the production of 

 kerseys for foreign markets. The decay of 

 the industry is, however, apparent in 1630, 

 although whether it had been brought about, 

 as Aubrey alleges, by the too frequent practices 

 of the makers of stretching their cloths to 

 excessive lengths may be held unproven. 

 Tanning had been long established at various 

 places along the courses of the Tillingbourne 

 and the Wey and is still an important industry 

 in this quarter of Surrey. The streams and the 

 good supply of bark that the neighbourhood 

 could afford must have been the chief factors 

 to promote the growth of this industry. 

 White-brown paper, chiefly for grocers' use, 

 is said to have been made in England at 

 Godalming and about Windsor in the reign 

 of James I. The mills acquired some repu- 

 tation and were the precursors of other paper- 

 mills in the district, one of which is still con- 

 tinued. 



But the Surrey industry which was destined 

 to rival that of iron in importance and extent 

 was the gunpowder manufacture. It is not 

 difficult to account for the establishment in 

 the county of the chief powder mills in the 

 kingdom. Good and convenient supplies of 

 charcoal, upon which the industry depended 

 in great part, were doubtless the first con- 

 sideration. That the mills should be within 

 easy access of London, where at the Tower 

 the Government's chief stores of ordnance were 

 then kept, was of the utmost importance. At 

 the same time evidence is not wanting of the 

 objection of Londoners to having so dangerous 

 a manufacture in their immediate neighbour- 

 hood. Contrary, however, to what is generally 

 stated on the subject, namely that the first 

 powder mills in England were set up at Wot- 

 ton by the Evelyns, the first authoritative 

 notice of the existence of the industry in 

 Surrey is in 1554 or 5, in connection with a 

 Rotherhithe maker. The mills of the Evelyns, 

 when they first appeared as powder-makers in 

 1589, were at Long Ditton on the little 

 Hogsmill stream, and when John Evelyn re- 

 moved from here in or before the year 1613, 

 it was at Godstone and not Wotton that he 

 set up his new works. But the Evelyns' 

 partner in their first contract with the Crown 

 was Richard Hill, whose mills seem to have 

 been at Shere. The well-known Chilworth 



' V.C.H. Surrey, i. 401. 



mills are said, but on what good authority wc 

 are unaware, to have been started in 1570. 

 They owed their existence no doubt to the 

 licence allowed to the East India Company to 

 make supplies of powder necessary for their 

 service, and in spite of various prohibitions 

 were continued until in 1635 what had 

 become, under the economic policy of the first 

 two Stuart Kings, practically a monopoly in 

 the hands of Evelyn was transferred to them 

 and by them maintained until 1641. Even 

 then the importance of the works did not at 

 once decline but called for much attention on 

 the part of the Parliament during the course 

 of the Civil War. Chilworth indeed has 

 maintained its reputation as a seat of the gun- 

 powder industry to the present day. 



The conditions by which the industries of 

 the southern and more rural half of the 

 county were fostered offer on the whole so 

 marked a difference in their nature from those 

 which prevailed in the northern half, that it 

 will be more convenient to summarize them 

 here before we proceed to examine the causes 

 of the development of manufactures in the 

 more suburban districts to the north. The 

 industries which we have been considering 

 may all be regarded as indigenous to the 

 county. Their origin and subsequent de- 

 velopment were promoted, as we have seen, 

 by the purely natural conditions which the 

 country afforded. No doubt a few of them 

 were advanced by the introduction of foreign 

 methods and skill. Glass-making in its later 

 stages was certainly mainly in the hands of 

 foreign workmen, and even in medieval times 

 the names of some of those who were con- 

 nected with the Chiddingfold industry have 

 a foreign appearance. There is little doubt that 

 cloth-weaving in this country owed its early 

 introduction to weavers imported from abroad, 

 but of the direct influence of foreigners on 

 the Surrey industry we have not a shred of 

 evidence. The making of gunpowder in 

 England would perhaps have hardly obtained 

 the impetus it received in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth had not alien immigrants first initiated 

 us into the secret of the artificial preparation 

 of saltpetre. But the secret once divulged, 

 the manufacture was entirely in the hands of 

 Englishmen. 



The great drawback to the success of any 

 industry in south Surrey, the difficulty of 

 transport over the bad roads of the Weald, 

 has been already noticed. The small rivers 

 which drain this part of the county offered 

 no compensation for this state of things by 

 their convenience as waterways to the Thames. 

 Until at a later date human ingenuity and 

 labour had taken one of them in hand, they 

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