A HISTORY OF SURREY 



industry in and about London, and in South- 

 wark and Bermondsey breweries such as 

 Thrale's were developing into the largely 

 capitalized undertakings they have become in 

 the present day. Distilling and the manu- 

 facture of vinegar and British wines were 

 extensively carried on in Southwark and 

 Lambeth, and in the same two places there 

 were numerous pot works and glasshouses. 

 The great importance of the tanning industry 

 in Bermondsey had been recognized by the in- 

 corporation by Queen Anne of the tanners of 

 that parish. It is true that for some reason or 

 another the charter remained inoperative, but 

 this fact does not afiFect our present contention 

 that the Bermondsey tanners were then a 

 numerous body. At the end of the century, 

 Bermondsey was a place of great trade and 

 had become an important wool-staple in the 

 kingdom. Besides the leather manufecture in 

 its many branches, hat-making, calico-print- 

 ing and dyeing were carried on, and there 

 were some pin and needle makers.' Here and 

 at Rotherhithe there were large dockyards, 

 and the waterside was occupied by a number 

 of rope-makers, anchor-smiths, boat-builders, 

 and other persons employed in making and 

 furnishing articles of rigging for the navy.^ 

 In the other direction the manufacturing dis- 

 trict along the south bank of the river grew 

 longer and wider, stretching on past Lambeth 

 and Vauxhall to Battersea and almost con- 

 tinuously to Wandsworth. 



Generally speaking the eighteenth century 

 had been one of great development in British 

 industries. This development was to be- 

 come more marked during the course of the 

 nineteenth century, but its direction was in 

 many cases to be radically altered in conse- 

 quence of the subjection of the industries to 

 the most startling changes which have ever 

 taken place in the conditions governing 

 manufactures. Some account of the par- 

 ticular effects which the extraordinary pro- 

 gress made in science during the last century, 

 the increased application of its principles to 

 manufactures, and especially the substitution 

 wherever possible of the steam engine for 

 manual labour, have had on the more impor- 

 tant Surrey industries will be found in the 

 special sections following which treat of those 

 industries. But some remarks here of a 

 more general character are necessary on the 

 effects which these revolutionary changes 

 have had upon the industries of the county. 

 Nothing has more completely changed the 

 conditions which determine the existence of 



' Lysons, Environs of London (i ed.), i. 547. 

 • Ibid. i. 470. 



industries in particular localities during the 

 century than the introduction of the steam 

 locomotive, and the vast extent which the 

 railway system of the country has now as- 

 sumed. 



The nature of this change in the external 

 conditions under which industries were to be 

 fostered, which was to be brought about dur- 

 ing the course of the nineteenth century, 

 was, so far as Surrey is concerned, curiously 

 foreshadowed in the very first year of the cen- 

 tury. The sanction of Parliament was then 

 given to three schemes whereby it was sought 

 to compensate the county for those facilities in 

 the means of communication in which, as we 

 have seen, it was by nature so wanting. Two 

 of these schemes were for canals, one of which, 

 the Grand Surrey Canal, was never com- 

 pleted exactly in accordance with the original 

 intention. The Act^ provided for the cutting 

 of the canal from Rotherhithe to Wood- 

 pecker's Lane in Deptford, and thence 

 through Camberwell, Walworth, Lambeth, 

 Kennington Common, Stockwell, Clapham, 

 Balham, Streatham and Tooting to Mitcham. 

 There were to be also several collateral cuts 

 to communicate with several places off the 

 main line of route. By 1807 the Company 

 had made a large basin at Rotherhithe and cut 

 part of the canal when it obtained from 

 Parliament another Act to enable it to raise 

 more capital. But in 1814 we are told that 

 the dock had succeeded so well that the pro- 

 prietors seemed content to be considered a 

 dock rather than a canal company.* The 

 second canal was to run from or near Croy- 

 don to Rotherhithe, where it was to flow 

 into the Grand Surrey Canal. The proprie- 

 tors were also to supply Croydon, Streatham, 

 Dulwich, Norwood and Sydenham with 

 water.* The canal was completed in 1809.* 

 But the most interesting of the three 

 schemes was that which gave birth to 

 the Surrey Iron Railway.^ This railway, 



3 Public Loc. and Pers. Acts, 41 Geo. III. cap. 

 31- 



• Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, iii. App. 

 pp. lix. be. 



5 Public Loc. and Pers. Acts, 41 Geo. III. cap. 

 127. 



" Manning and Bray, loc. cit. 



' Public Loc. and Pers. Acts, 41 Geo. III. 

 cap. 33. Many of the following facts as to this 

 railway and its continuation, the Croydon, Merst- 

 ham and Godstone Iron Railway, are taken from 

 an article by W. B. Paley in The Engineer of 

 5 January 1900, an abstract of which is given in 

 Davis, Interesting Incidents of Wandsworth His- 

 tory, 26-38. See also Manning and Bray, Hist. 

 of Surrey, ii. 253 ; iii. 343. 



56 



