INDUSTRIES 



who conducted the works about the year 

 1850. Under him they were principally 

 devoted to the manufacture of buff-hides 

 from calf-skins for army accoutrements, and 

 also of chamois and wash leather from deer, 

 sheep, goat, kid and lamb skins. He em- 

 ployed about thirty men and boys on his 

 premises and as many elsewhere, and his 

 annual operations are said to have entailed 

 the consumption of 20 tons of lime, 4 or 5 

 tons of alkali, 45 tons of Newfoundland oil 

 and 5 or 6 tons of whiting.* 



William Ropley, who in 1483 drew too 

 much profit from his tanning business at 

 Chiddingfold, has already been mentioned 

 here. The family seems to have been en- 

 gaged in the tanning as well as the glass- 

 making industry here for some fifty years 

 longer, for in 1495-6 Thomas Ropley, tan- 

 ner, appears as a grantee or some property in 

 Chiddingfold, and in 1536 John Ropple, 

 tanner, witnesses a Chiddingfold will.^ The 

 Ropleys were succeeded by other tanners. 

 In 1609 John Bridger conveyed to Thomas 

 Bradfold his tanhouse, called 'Trigges,' in 

 Chiddingfold, and all ' vattes, tanvates, and 

 other implements and vessells ' on the pre- 

 mises.' On 4 May 1616 Robert Frye of 

 Chiddingfold, tanner, makes his will, referring 

 in it to his master Thomas Penfould, a tanner, 

 also of Chiddingfold.* Penfould's own will 

 is dated 5 December 165 1, and was proved 

 on 2 June 1653.* 



At Bramley there were several families of 

 tanners. John Braborne of that place and his 

 son John, both tanners, are mentioned in 

 1669, and in 1716 we have a Joshua Bra- 

 bant of Bramley, tanner, of whom probably 

 was the will dated 29 June 1725, and proved 

 on 29 November 1727.' Daniel Chandler 

 of Bramley, tanner, made his will on 10 

 November 1680. It was proved on 8 

 February 1680-1.'' A John Chandler, tan- 

 ner, was buried at Bramley in 1 740. There 

 is a tannery there on the line of the old and 

 now dried-up Wey and Arun Canal.® In 



1 Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Sumy, v. App. 



2 Ex inf. P. Woods, Esq., C.B. 



3 Close 7 Jas. I. pt. 8. 



* Prob. Archd. Ct. of Surrey. 



s Prob. P.C.C. 



« Prob. Archd. Ct. of Surrey. 



7 Ibid. 



8 Ex inf. H. E. Maiden, Esq. 



1768 there is a notice of John Hicks of Gos- 

 den Common in Bramley, a tanner." 



At Shalford the still existing firm of Messrs. 

 Edwin Ellis & Co. was established about a 

 hundred and thirty years ago by Mr. John 

 Ellis, and is now carried on by his grandson, 

 Mr. Edwin Ellis, with his two sons and a 

 nephew. There is a branch of the business 

 at Bermondsey. It is one of the largest 

 manufactories in the south of England for 

 sole leather, walrus leather and * split hides.' '" 



Gomshall is another old seat of the leather 

 industry of particular interest. An old house 

 still known as the Tannery House is the 

 property of Colonel Fraser of Netley House, 

 Gomshall, and the remains of tanning vats 

 may be seen in the gardens on its south side. 

 There is a local tradition still current that 

 the house was built soon after the Great 

 Plague from the profits out of hides collected 

 free in London at the time. In several 

 places in Queen Street also there exist re- 

 mains of tan pits, showing that the industry 

 was carried on in a small way by several 

 others. Shere tannery close by is now owned 

 by Messrs. Gilligan & Son, and in this 

 locality the industry has been carried on for 

 some hundreds of years. The existing deeds 

 of this property date back to the sixteenth 

 century.^' 



Leather and parchment are now manu- 

 factured to some considerable extent at 

 Mitcham and about the course of the 

 Wandle. In 1792 Lysons mentions Mr. 

 Savignac's mills for preparing leather and 

 parchment at Carshalton.*^ From the later 

 edition of the same work it appears that in 

 181 1 there were two skinning mills at this 

 place, Mr. Savignac's and Mr. Shipley's." 

 At Hackbridge not far off parchment is now 

 made by Messrs. F. Braybrooks & Co., Ltd., 

 and leather dressing is also carried on. Parch- 

 ment and vellum are also made at Mitcham 

 by Messrs. George Gibbs & Sons, who have 

 another manufactory in Bermondsey for 

 leather. At Beddington Corner near Mitcham 

 are three or four firms engaged in leather 

 dressing and manufacture, and Messrs. Chuter 

 & Son, Ltd., have chamois leather mills at 

 Summerstown. 



9 Ex inf. P. Woods, Esq., C.B. 

 " Ex inf. Edwin Ellis, Esq., J.P. 

 " Ex inf. Messrs. Gilligan & Son. 

 12 Environs of London (ed. 1792), i. 123- 

 »3 Ibid. (ed. 181 1), i. 91. 



341 



