INDUSTRIES 



the existence of a bleachfield there by the side 

 of the Thames. 



In 1850, shortly after which the industry 

 must have become extinct, we are told of the 

 great decrease in the Surrey calico printing 

 and bleaching business, which until lately had 

 seemed to have a firm hold of the banks of 

 the Wandle and a few other places in the 

 county. The census of 1841 had shown 

 that there were only 128 persons employed 

 in cotton printing in Surrey. But about 1850 

 Mr. A. Heath of Garratt Lane was alone 

 employing about a hundred, who printed an- 

 nually 25,000 pieces or dresses. This estab- 

 lishment had existed between eighty and 

 ninety years, and was fitted up with the usual 

 improvements in coppers, copper-plate presses, 

 cylinder padding machine, etc.* 



Bleaching as practised by the Surrey whit- 

 sters was performed entirely by the old and 

 lengthy process of grass bleaching. The 

 following description of the process may here 

 be quoted : ' the cloth was washed in ley 

 made from wood ashes, then rinsed and after- 

 wards spread out over the grass in the mea- 

 dows. The flat meadows by the Wandle 

 were divided into strips of grass by ditches. 

 The calico was spread on the grass, and the 

 men walking along the edge of the ditches by 

 means of scoops skilfully drenched the calico. 

 The action of the sun caused the calico to 

 become white in about a month's time, if the 

 weather were favourable.' " The discovery 

 of the use of chlorine in bleaching in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century and the 

 introduction of other chemical processes, 

 economizing vastly both time and space, made 

 grass bleaching no longer remunerative ex- 

 cept for the most costly fabrics. These im- 

 provements, combined with the increased use 

 of steam and machinery in the process, were 

 no doubt the main factor that led to the mi- 

 gration of the industry northwards into the 

 close neighbourhood of the coal bearing dis- 

 tricts. So also with calico printing did the 

 use of machinery coupled with the application 

 of chemical processes in dyeing lead to the 

 displacement of the Surrey industry. In Sur- 

 rey and the other home counties where the 

 industry flourished, the calicoes were for the 

 most part hand-printed from wooden blocks, 

 although as we have seen improvements were 

 afterwards introduced in the direction of 

 copper-plate printing. We may fitly close 

 this account of the Surrey calico printers with 

 a few notices of the minor industries which 

 their own principal one called into being, and 



» Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Surrey, v. App. 



34- 



» C. T. Davis, Industries of Wandsworth, 7, 8. 

 H 3 



record the names of some of those Surrey men 

 who were engaged in the subsidiary processes 

 of the manufacture. 



The dyes mostly used by the Surrey prin- 

 ters seem to have been obtained from logwood 

 and brazil-wood, and the existence in the 

 neighbourhood of the printing works of a 

 considerable number of mills for grinding 

 these woods has already been noticed. The 

 ' Richard Bond from Moredon,' who was 

 buried at Mitcham on 27 November 1746, 

 is described in his will dated 28 June 1746,^ 

 as of the parish of Morden, 'wood-grinder.' 

 In the will he mentions his two messuages in 

 Mitcham and his four acres of freehold land 

 there. Lysons notices in 1792 Mr. Filby's 

 mills for grinding logwood at Carshalton.* 

 The will of John Filby of the hamlet of 

 Wallington, logwood grinder, is dated 5 May 

 1787, and was proved on 8 August 1793.^ 

 Samuel Purlewent, who would seem to have 

 been buried at Mitcham during a hiatus in 

 the register from 31 August 1778 to 3 Janu- 

 ary 1779, is described in his will dated i 

 October 1 7 7 8,* as of Mitcham, ' colour maker 

 for the calico printers.' In 18 14 we are told 

 that the so-called frying-pan houses at Wands- 

 worth were occupied by Messrs. Gattey for 

 preparing iron liquids and sowers for the use 

 of the calico printers.'' 



The cutting of the wooden blocks which 

 were used by the printers was another special 

 industry, the cutters being doubtless in most 

 cases in the employ of some one or other of 

 the master calico printers. James Luckhurst, 

 who was buried at Mitcham on 28 February 

 1757, is called, in his will dated 23 July 1748,* 

 of Mitcham, 'cutter.' The mention of 

 John Drake of Newington, print cutter, in 

 1758 in the will of his grandfather Samuel 

 Harris has been already noticed. ' Mrs. 

 Barnes from Richmond,' who was buried at 

 Mitcham on 27 April 1772, and was probably 

 Judith baptized in the same parish on 11 

 August 1 701, as the daughter of James Bray- 

 ley of Mitcham, barber-surgeon, by Elizabeth 

 his wife, was the wife of Gregory Barnes of 

 Richmond, ' linen print cutter,' who is no 

 doubt to be identified with the 'Gregory 

 Barnes from Richmond,' who was buried at 

 Mitcham on 14 December 1791. In the 

 will dated 5 July 1773,' of Ephraim Potter 

 of Mitcham, physic gardener, is a mention of 



3 Prob. P.C.C. II Feb. 1746-7 (Potter, 31). 



* Environs, ed. I, i. 123. 



B Prob. P.C.C. {Dodivell, 413). 



« Ibid. 4 Feb. 1779 {Warburton, 68). 



7 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, iii. 342. 



8 Prob. Archd. Ct. of Surr. 26 Feb. 1757. 

 » Ibid. 15 July 1775. 



77 48 



