A HISTORY OF SURREY 



CLOTH 



The manufacture of woollen cloth formed 

 for centuries the staple industry of Guildford 

 and Godalming and the adjacent villages. 

 When the manufacture first grew into an 

 organized industry and weaving ceased to be 

 what in the opinion of Mr. Thorold Rogers 

 it was in the thirteenth century' — a by- 

 product in nearly all villages — must probably 

 always remain an insoluble problem. But 

 there were several causes to mark out Surrey 

 as a natural centre for the industry at an 

 early period. There was an abundance of 

 good pasturage on the downs, and in Tudor 

 times it is certain that many Surrey yeomen 

 families attained wealth and gentility by suc- 

 cessful sheep-farming. At the beginning of 

 the fourteenth century or a little earlier we 

 find the abbeys of Waverley and Merton 

 amongst those monastic houses which sup- 

 plied wool to the Florentine and Flemish 

 markets.' Fulling mills in the county are 

 mentioned at an early date, and indeed have 

 been said to have been amongst the first in 

 the kingdom. Water-power for them could 

 be readily obtained from the small rivers and 

 streams which passed through the heart of 

 the county. Moreover there were in the 

 county the richest beds in England of the 

 rare fullers' earth, the properties of which 

 for cleansing cloth and preparing it for the 

 fullers were early known and utilized. 



The origin of the English woollen cloth 

 industry is commonly attributed to the settle- 

 ment in the country under Edward III. of 

 large numbers of Flemish weavers, fullers 

 and dyers, in furtherance of that monarch's 

 policy. It is perhaps not a little remarkable 

 that there should be least evidence of the 

 presence of these foreign artisans in Surrey 

 and Sussex, counties which were not only the 

 most appropriate because they lay nearest to 

 the continent, but also because of the natural 

 advantages they enjoyed for the success of 

 the industry.' Perhaps however it was due 

 in no small measure to the influence of the 

 foreigner that Guildford cloth had obtained 

 the reputation which we find it had enjoyed 

 some time before the year 1391. In that 

 year upon the complaint of the commons of 



> J. E. Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work 

 and Wages (1901), p. 46. 



> W. Cnnningham, D.D., Growth oj Engtish 

 Industry and Commerce, ed. 3, i. 624, 628, 629. 



3 Cunningham, Alien Immigrants in England, 

 p. 107. 



342 



Guildford and other places in Surrey, Sussex 

 and Hampshire,* it was enacted that — 



because that of old times divers cloths were made 

 in the town of Guildford and other places within 

 the counties of Surrey, Sussex and Southampton 

 called Cloths of Guildford, which were of good 

 making and of good value, and did bear a great 

 name : and now because that Fullers and others of 

 the same country do use to buy the cloths of the 

 said countries before that they be fulled and per- 

 formed, and in making for covetousness to have the 

 said cloths of greater measure over the common 

 assise that late was used, do draw the cloths longer 

 and more large than they were wont or ought to 

 be, to the great impairing of the said cloths and 

 great deceit of the people : For to eschew such 

 damages and deceits in time to come, It is 

 agreed and assented that from henceforth no Ful- 

 ler nor other person, whatsoever he be, shall 

 buy within the said towns and counties any cloth 

 before the same cloth be fulled and fully performed 

 in his nature, and also sealed under the seal 

 thereto ordained, upon pain of forfeiture of the 

 same.' 



It is curious that in this the first definite 

 notice we have of the cloth-making industry 

 of Surrey, the very same offence is mentioned 

 in connection with it which about three 

 centuries later was alleged to have brought 

 about its ruin in one at least of the Surrey 

 villages. It will be noticed also that it was 

 an industry which extended into the counties 

 of Sussex and Southampton. So it remained 

 throughout its history, the adjoining districts 

 of the three counties carrying on the manu- 

 facture of a similar description of cloth. In 

 1630 we shall find that the cloth made at 

 Godalming and thereabouts went under the 

 name of Hampshire kerseys. 



The enactment of 1391 refers to the 

 common assise of cloth, and this was a ques- 

 tion which had long given rise to much dis- 

 cussion both in and out of Parliament. As 

 early as 1 197 Richard I. had issued an 

 Assise of Cloth and the regulation had 

 called forth protest, many towns in the reign 

 of King John paying fines for liberty to deal 

 in cloth of any length and breadth.' Sub- 

 sequently the ulnagers, the officers whose 

 duty it was to measure and seal all cloths 

 brought to market, insisted that all the cloth 

 should be made in pieces of a uniform length 



* Rot. Pari. iii. 294a. 

 5 Stat. I, Ric. II. cap. 10. 

 « Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and 

 Commerce, i. 192. 



