A HISTORY OF SURREY 



Of the once important ship-building indus- 

 try of Rotherhithe and the places adjacent we 

 may notice here that the industry was con- 

 siderable enough in i6i2 to give a local 

 habitation to the company of ' the Master, 

 Wardens and Commonalty of the art or 

 mistery of Shipwrights of Rotherhithe (Red- 

 rith) in the county of Surrey,' which was 

 incorporated in that year by royal charter 

 with powers which gave it the control of all 

 the shipbuilding industry in the kingdom.' 

 So extensive were these powers that collisions 

 between the Company and the Ancient Fra- 

 ternity of the Free Shipwrights of London 

 were of frequent occurrence for many years 

 after the grant of its charter. The ship- 

 building about Rotherhithe, and afterwards 

 the construction of the various docks and 

 wharves between that place and Southwark 

 brought into being many subsidiary industries 

 such as those of rope-making, anchor-making 

 and boat-building, which came to engage the 

 greater proportion of the riverside population 

 in this locality. At the present day at places 

 higher up the river the building of boats and 

 laimches chiefly for pleasure traffic is very ex- 

 tensive in Surrey. 



With so vast a population dwelling in and 

 around London it is only natural that a large 

 number of the manufactures in the metro- 

 politan parts of Surrey should be concerned 

 in the preparation of a great variety of articles 

 of food. In this connection we may notice 

 that some of the references to corn or flour 

 mills in the county have a special interest. 

 Manning and Bray ^ notice the mention of 

 a windmill, the earliest with which they had 

 met, in the grant supposed to be of the time 

 of Richard I. by Odo de Dammartin to Tan- 

 dridge Priory of lands in Warlingham. Three 

 corn windmills existed in Battersea Fields 

 near the Thames in Aubrey's time, which he 

 says were then the first mills near London.' 

 The Albion Mills by Blackfriars Bridge which 

 were commenced in 1784 on a very large 

 scale for the purpose of furnishing London 

 with a better distribution of flour were fitted 

 up with machinery designed by Boulton and 

 Watt, which marked a great advance on any- 

 thing that had been previously attempted in 

 this direction. At Rotherhithe were the 

 King's flour mills, where about the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century bakehouses were 

 erected for the purpose of supplying the navy 

 with biscuit.* These bakehouses were, how- 



' Pat. 10 Jas. I. pt. 9, No. 2. 



' Hist, of Surrey, ii. 375, 581. 



' -Va/. Hist, and Antiq. of Surrey, i. 13. 



* Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, i. 228. 



ever, continued for but a (cw years, and in 

 181 1 the mills were occupied by the London 

 Flour Company.* 



Biscuit-making is now carried on by several 

 firms in South London. Of these none is 

 more important or better known than that of 

 Messrs. Peek, Frean and Co., at Bermondsey, 

 who are at the present day one of the largest 

 firms of biscuit-makers in the kingdom. 

 They commenced business about half a cen- 

 tury ago on waterside premises at Dockhead, 

 Bermondsey. At that time their factory was 

 of comparatively small dimensions, and only 

 a small number of people were employed. 

 The firm was brought into notoriety early in 

 the sixties through the Great Exhibition, 

 where it gained the highest award for excel- 

 lence of quality, and its powers of production 

 became so taxed that soon afterwards larger 

 premises were necessary and were acquired 

 in Drummond Road, Bermondsey, adjoining 

 the South Eastern Railway. At the present 

 day the productions of the company consist 

 of biscuits and cakes of almost every conceiv- 

 able variety, and the manufactory finds em- 

 ployment for upwards of 2,000 hands.' 

 Other firms of biscuit-makers having factories 

 in South London are Macfarlane, Lang and 

 Co. in Southwark, George van Abbott and 

 Sons and the Natural Food Co. Limited in 

 Bermondsey, and the A. i. Biscuit Co. 

 Limited in South Lambeth. 



Amongst other manufacturers of food pro- 

 ducts in South London we may notice the 

 factories of Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell and 

 of Elizabeth Lazenby and Sons in Southwark 

 for the making of condiments, pickles, pre- 

 serves and the like, and of Messrs. Brand and 

 Co. at Vauxhall, whose meat extracts and 

 specialities for invalids are well known. 



The manufacture of chemicals has been 

 carried on for many years in several parts of 

 the county in the neighbourhood of London, 

 and some of the works have been of consider- 

 able importance. The fame of Lockyer, the 

 Southwark inventor, who died aged 72 on 

 26 April 1672, and from whose tomb in St. 

 Saviour's Church we may still learn, 



His virtues and his Pills are so well known 

 That Envy can't confine them under stone, 



is more likely to be perpetuated by the 

 quaintness of his epitaph than by the enduring 

 reputation of his pills, although in the con- 

 cluding lines we are told, 



5 Lysons, Environs (2 ed.), i. 354 ; Brayley and 

 Britten, Hist, of Surrey, v. App. 26. 

 « Ex inf. Messrs. Peek, Frean & Co. 



260 



