INDUSTRIES 



Patents for further improvements in this were 

 taken out in 1790, 1792, 1800 and 1802 

 by George Holland.* Amongst the goods 

 manufactured at Godalming were gun- 

 sponges, which were in special demand by 

 the Government. The business afterwards 

 passed into the hands of the firm of Messrs. 

 Henry & George Holland, and after several 

 changes of owners the manufacture is still 

 carried on, though in a small way, by their 

 successors both at Godalming and Dulwich. 

 The introduction of breech-loading guns has 

 naturally largely reduced the demand for gun- 

 sponges, but they are still made and occa- 

 sionally supplied, together with other goods 

 from the same manufacture, to the War 

 Office^" 



It remains to mention a few scattered and 

 miscellaneous industries to complete our 

 account of the textile and allied manufactures 

 of Surrey. The large and important wool- 

 stapling trade in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, 

 which is of early mention and doubtless de- 

 veloped as a by-product of the leather industry 

 in this neighbourhood, does not come under 

 the head of a manufacture, and therefore does 

 not rightly demand treatment in this section, 

 the business of the woolstaplers being merely 

 to sort the wool into its various qualities 

 before it is placed on the market. About 

 1790 a manufacture of some extent was 

 established by Messrs. Boulton, Morgan & Co. 

 at Lambeth under the title of the Woollen 

 Yarn Company. Every branch of the cloth- 

 ing manufacture, from the first sorting of the 

 wool to the making of the cloth, was carried 

 on entirely by machinery. The trade, we 

 are told, was confined to the coarse sort of 

 cloths, which were exported for the most part 

 to America and the West Indies. Cotton 

 works were also engaged in by the same com- 

 pany, and about 500 persons were employed 

 on the premises, above 200 of them being 

 children.^ The manufacture however did not 

 prove successful, and lasted only for a few 

 years.* 



An interesting attempt appears to have been 

 made at Croydon in the early years of the 

 last century at the manufacture of lace by 

 machinery. Previous attempts in this direc- 

 tion had failed, but one Moore is said to have 

 made another effort at Croydon in 1799. 

 This was presumably the John Moore de- 

 scribed as ' of Newington Causeway, co. 

 Surrey, lace net manufacturer,' who took out 



' Pat. of Inventions, Nos. 1736, 1901, 2422, 

 2584. 



2 Ex inf. Ralph NeviU, Esq., F.S.A. 



3 Lysons, Environs of London (ed. i), i. 3 1 8, 3 19. 

 ♦ Ibid. (ed. 2), i. 228. 



a patent on i May 1 8 1 1 for machinery ' for 

 the manufacture of gold and silver twist, silk, 

 cotton or thread twisted lace net, similar to 

 and resembling the Buckinghamshire and 

 Nottinghamshire lace, as made by the hand 

 with bobbins on pillows, and for making iron, 

 brass or copper wire net.' ° From 1 8 1 6 to 

 1824 a machine founded on Moore's plan 

 was worked by one Widdowson at Croydon. 

 Widdowson's exact methods seem to be un- 

 known, but we quote the following account 

 which has been given of his manufacture : 

 'There were threads put at one end on a 

 beam, and all these threads were lifted over 

 and passed under each other at the other end 

 by pins, which being sufficiently loose to be 

 selected, passed their threads in the required 

 directions, but not traversed, and the twists, 

 plaits and crossings were carried up to the 

 work beam as they were formed. The result 

 was a slowly made but beautiful mesh, having 

 two thrice-plaited pillars of four threads each. 

 The plan was too costly to be used with 

 profit.' * 



Blankets are said to have been made to a 

 considerable extent at Battersea,^ and the 

 converted remains of a blanket mill near 

 Goose Rye, Worplesdon, are still standing. 

 The blankets made at this mill remained, it 

 is said, in use until about the year 1838, and 

 were very thick and warm.* 



The manufacture of bolting cloths without 

 seams for use in separating fine and coarse 

 flour and bran has been established at Wands- 

 worth for over a century, and is of unusual 

 interest in that it is believed to be the only 

 factory in the world for this speciality.* The 

 business was originally established at Exeter, 

 of which place Benjamin Blackmore, weaver, 

 is described as being when he took out his 

 first patent on 19 December 1783, for his 

 ' new invented method of making bolting 

 cloths to be used by millers for dressing flour.''" 

 Afterwards he moved to Wandsworth, and as 

 Benjamin Blackmore of Wandsworth, bolting 

 cloth weaver, took out another patent on 31 

 March 1 800 for his ' new invented elastic 

 spring for the improvement and more com- 

 plete forming and manufacturing of bolting 

 cloths without seams.' '*■ The invention has 

 remained in the same family ever since. The 

 manufactory for bolting cloths at Wandsworth 



^ Pat. of Inventions, No. 3443. 



" W. Felkin on * Hosiery and Lace ' in Biitish 

 Manufacturing Industries (ed. Bevan), 53. 



' E. Hammond, Bygone Battersea, 24. 



8 Surr. Arch. Coll. xiv. 219. 



^ C. T. Davis, Industries of Wandsworth, 4. 

 10 Pat. of Inventions, No. 141 2. 

 " Ibid. No. 2386. 



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