INDUSTRIES 



The quarry here was held by Mr. Peters, 

 who was the principal lime-burner, and worked 

 six kilns. The kilns which were within the 

 pit were constructed conically, the outside 

 being of hard bricks and the inside lined with 

 a very hard burnt stock, carefully picked for 

 the purpose as best adapted to resist the con- 

 tinual force of the fire. The conical form of 

 the kilns creating a reverberation of heat, 

 greatly reduced the consumption of coal, an 

 expensive article when the distance of land 

 carriage was considered. Neither wood nor 

 charcoal was used in these kilns, and the 

 coals were brought from Kingston, generally 

 a back carriage. From twenty to thirty hours 

 were required to burn a kiln. Near the pit 

 at Denbies were two others belonging to 

 Mr. Rose Fuller, one of which employed two 

 kilns and the other one. These two pits, 

 although very good, were considered inferior 

 in quality to that of Mr. Peters. Equally 

 strong limestone was believed to exist under 

 Box Hill, but had not up to that time been 

 tried. The next best stone in the county 

 was found at Merstham, Sutton and Carshal- 

 ton, and an inferior sort at Guildford. They 

 were all very fit for building, although the 

 latter was more generally used for agricultural 

 purposes upon the strong loams and clays about 

 the further part of the county. 



The chalkstone quarries then worked were 

 at Godstone, Caterham, Reigate, Merstham, 

 Buckland, Betchworth, Epsom, Letherhead, 

 Bookham, EflBngham, West Horsley, Clandon, 

 Stoke near Guildford, Guildford and Putten- 

 ham. The chalk was greatly consumed in 

 the Wealden lands to the south of the chalk 

 hills extending into Sussex. It was also burnt 

 into lime with what were called kiln faggots, 

 and the price of a kiln of lime at the distance 

 of from seven to twelve miles from the chalk 

 pit varied from ;^io to £1^, or even ;^I5. 

 As the price of the six loads of chalk which 

 went to make up a kiln amounted to no more 

 than from 15^. to 21J., the high price of the 

 manufactured article must mainly be accounted 

 for by the expense of fuel and carriage. 



The reduction of the cost of carriage both 

 of fuel to the kilns and of the lime from the 

 kilns to London, was the principal object 

 which had led to the opening of the Croydon 

 and Merstham Iron Railway in 1805, the 

 year in which Malcolm's account was pub- 

 lished. This railway connected at Croydon 

 with the terminus of the Surrey Iron Railway 

 from Wandsworth, which had been opened a 

 few years earlier. The venture however was 

 unsuccessful, but paved the way for the eventual 

 purchase of the line in 1838 by the London 

 and Brighton Railway Company. Since then 



steam traction has accomplished what horse 

 traction on railway lines failed to do, and has 

 made the products of the Surrey chalk pits 

 generally available for the London market. 

 In 1850 we are told that Surrey held a 

 natural monopoly for the supply of lime, 

 cement and whiting to the metropolis,' and 

 at the present day a large trade is carried on 

 in the county in the production and sale ot 

 these commodities. Among the principal 

 companies now engaged in the industry it is 

 sufficient to note here the Dorking Greystone 

 Lime Co., Limited, at Betchworth, the Brock- 

 ham Brick Co., Limited, who are the present 

 owners of the old Dorking lime works, and the 

 Oxted Greystone Lime Co., Limited. 



The peculiar species of clay known as fullers' 

 earth, which has been found in its greatest 

 quantities in this kingdom at Nutfield, is the 

 most important mineral product of the county 

 of economic value of which it remains to speak. 

 How long exactly the remarkable properties 

 possessed by this earth of absorbing all the oil 

 and grease from woollen cloth have been 

 known is not clear, but there can be little 

 doubt that its use by fullers is of very con- 

 siderable antiquity. So valuable an aid was it 

 held to be to the preparation of English cloth 

 that its exportation from this country was 

 forbidden as early as the reign of Edward II., 

 and this prohibition was maintained by a 

 series of re-enactments until a comparatively 

 recent period.'' 



At Nutfield fullers' earth has been found 

 in beds varying in depth from 4 to 14 feet. 

 Other pits in the county of repute, accord- 

 ing to Malcolm {1805), were at Reigate, 

 Merstham and Sutton, and there were inferior 

 ones at Croydon,^ but the existence of any pits 

 at either Merstham or Croydon was denied 

 by Manning and Bray (18 14), whose infor- 

 mation was derived from the principal pro- 



1 Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Surrey, v. App. i. 

 46. 



2 e.g. by Stat. 7 Edw. IV. c. 3, 12 Chas. II. 

 c. 32, 14 Chas. II. c. 18, and 28 Geo. III. c. 38. 

 The special vigilance of the Custom House officers 

 in seizing suspected quantities of fullers' earth 

 intended for export is illustrated by the trial of 

 Edmund Warner in 1693 in the Exchequer, where 

 the evidence not only of a number of London pot- 

 makers, but of many clothiers and fullers as well, 

 pointed to the earth being really potters' clay, and 

 so far from being fullers' earth to have been ' an 

 absolute enemy to the woollen manufacture ; for 

 instead of scouring it fixed the grease in the ground 

 of all the goods, and instead of making them white 

 stained them yellow ' (Jewett, Ceramic Art, i. 1 34, 



135)- 

 3 Malcolm, Compendium of Modem Husbandry, 



i. 44. 



279 



