Bibliography - P. W. Sowan
Bibliography Home

Thomas Durrant, Miller, of Merstham (Surrey) and Ifield (Sussex), by Paul W. Sowan, published 1981 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 11, article, pp.22-24) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506525]   Download PDF

A Thomas Durrant appears to have purchased the watermill at Ifield for £1,800 in 1817. The mill was demolished and re-erected at about the same time, but it is not clear if the purchase price was for the mill as re-built, or if the re-construction was undertaken at additional expense after purchase. A Thomas Watkins Durrant is shown as master miller in the 1851 census for Ifield as having been born in Merstham. How Thomas Durrant found the considerable sum of money required for the purchase of Ifield Mill has been something of a puzzle. Litigation between one Thomas Durrant, miller, of Merstham and Messrs. Jolliffe and Banks, who operated an underground stone quarry in that parish, in 1810, reportedly led to Durrant being awarded damages of £2,200 as compensation for the accidental diversion of his water supply. However, although such a sum readily explains this or a related Durrant's ability to purchase the mill at Ifield, it is puzzling that so great a sum of money for damages is not mentioned by contemporary sources reporting the cause of the interruption of the water. Clearly, there is a case for closer enquiry into the circumstances.

Mining and Subterranean Quarrying in Sussex, by Paul W. Sowan, published 1984 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 14, article, pp.25-39) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506525]   Download PDF

Sussex has some of the country's oldest underground mineral workings, for flint, as well as two of the south-eastern counties' remaining active mines - those for gypsum at Brightling and Mountfield. There have been others whose existence is witnessed by scattered mentions in the literature, and it seems more than likely there are others again, waiting to be found. In the last few years elsewhere in the south-eastern counties unrecorded mines (some worked as recently as earlier this century) have been discovered in Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey.
The purpose of this article is to summarise what little is on record concerning subterranean mineral workings in Sussex, in the hope that this will encourage others to take up fieldwork and detailed research. A wide range of kinds of source material is cited here to illustrate some of the seams of information which may be worked. These seams are by no means all exhausted. Obscure, national, and specialised sources have been consulated, which local workers can supplement from better-known traditional local sources. Some guidance, and some interesting comparisons, may be derived from consideration of adjoining Kent and Surrey, too, as these counties' mines (in broadly comparable rocks) are better documented than those in Sussex. National grid references, where given, can usually give only a very approximate indication of location for as-yet unidentified sites.

Notes on Sussex Limeworks, by Paul W. Sowan, published 1993 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 23, article, pp.2-5, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

During the course of my researches Into the hearthstone mining and building stone quarrying industries of Surrey, I had cause to meet the late Major Edgar Taylerson, formerly managing director of the by then wound up Dorking Greystone Lime Co. Ltd., of Betchworth In Surrey. The company, which had been Incorporated In 1865, had during Its lifetime of almost a century a remarkable history of commercial and technological flair. There were early links with Sussex Interests, including collaboration with the Sub Wealden Gypsum Co. Ltd., with which company the 'Dorking Greystone' exchanged locomotives, and developed a trade-marked brand of wall plaster (Sirapite - the word is derived from 'Paris'!). The Dorking company built one of the earlier limeworks hydrating plants at Betchworth in 1924, and appears at least within Surrey and Sussex to have been seen as something of a pioneer to whom requests for advice were often sent. At this date, It was still the general practice for limeworks to send lump or ground quicklime to their customers, which customers had then to hydrate the material for themselves. There were predictable accidents when consignments were sent off, inadequately sheeted, in rainy weather!
On the commercial front, in addition to collaboration with the Sussex gypsum mines, the 'Dorking' company was a prominent voice in the some-time Greystone Limeburners' Association, and files relating to that body contain material relevant to the study of limeworks throughout the home counties. And the directors at Betchworth operated a programme of buying-up or considering for purchase smaller works in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, or converting privately operated concerns Into subsidiary or associated limited companies. One such was the firm of George Newington & Co. Ltd., of Giynde in Sussex. Finally, the 'Dorking' company, which at Its peak of development before the Second World War had a staff In excess of 50 persons, and workshop and laboratory facilities, provided advice, contracted for repair works, and provided a chemical analysis service.

Brighton's Place in the Development of the "Tunnelling-and-Shoot-Hole" System for Making Railway Cuttings, by Paul Sowan, published 1997 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 27, article, pp.18-21, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

There is on display in the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery an extraordinary watercolour, attributed to one George Smith (fI. 1833-56), entitled 'Excavating the Brighton Railway (Shoreham Branch)'. This is dated 1839, and the branch from Shoreham was the first line of railway into Brighton to be opened to traffic, on 12 May 1840. It has been suggested that the artist was the same George Smith, of Brighton, whose depiction of 'The Viaduct on the Brighton to Lewes Railway', 1845, is also held by the Museum and Art Gallery.