Sussex Industrial History: Journal of the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Study Group, edited by John Farrant, published December 1970 (No. 1, Sussex Industrial History) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/1] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
The Ashburnham Estate Brickworks 1840-1968, by Kim Leslie, published December 1970 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 1, article, pp.2-22) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/1] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:The Ashburnham Estate brickworks, which ceased production in November 1968, is situated a quarter mile NW. of Ashburnham Forge, (National Grid reference TQ684161), the property, until July 1970, of the Reverend J.D. Bickersteth, a great grandson of the fourth Earl of Ashburnham. The Ashburnham estate also formerly owned works for two other important extractive industries. In 1808 the Reverend Arthur Young noted that the limestone mine and works in Dallington Forest achieved for the second Earl the distinction of being 'the greatest lime-burner in all the kingdom'. Better known is that the family had its own iron workings, the Ashburnham furnace and forge being the last of the Wealden iron works to operate in the early nineteenth century. The factor shared by these three estate industries is that they were all based on wood fuel.
Although on a more limited scale of production than either of the other two works, the brickworks possessed some outstanding features. In Sussex it was the last of the small rural works of its type to operate, probably being one of the most primitive commercial undertakings to survive in the county into the 1960s. Even in the country as a whole it was a survival of a method of production rarely, if ever, seen today. Brickmaking was by hand, by methods that have been passed from generation to generation. Perhaps more unusual than this was that the bricks were burnt in an open kiln fired with wood. Until 1961, when tiles were last made at the yard, a pug mill for grinding the clay was driven by a horse. This mill is the last recorded instance of a stationary horse engine (a horse gin) to have worked in Sussex. In other words, until its recent closure, the Ashburnharn brickworks continued to demonstrate the state of brickmaking as it was before the brickmaking revolution of the nineteenth century. Indeed the methods and equipment employed at Ashburnham have remarkable resemblances to those evident in some of the earliest known illustrations and descriptions of the industry.
Although on a more limited scale of production than either of the other two works, the brickworks possessed some outstanding features. In Sussex it was the last of the small rural works of its type to operate, probably being one of the most primitive commercial undertakings to survive in the county into the 1960s. Even in the country as a whole it was a survival of a method of production rarely, if ever, seen today. Brickmaking was by hand, by methods that have been passed from generation to generation. Perhaps more unusual than this was that the bricks were burnt in an open kiln fired with wood. Until 1961, when tiles were last made at the yard, a pug mill for grinding the clay was driven by a horse. This mill is the last recorded instance of a stationary horse engine (a horse gin) to have worked in Sussex. In other words, until its recent closure, the Ashburnharn brickworks continued to demonstrate the state of brickmaking as it was before the brickmaking revolution of the nineteenth century. Indeed the methods and equipment employed at Ashburnham have remarkable resemblances to those evident in some of the earliest known illustrations and descriptions of the industry.
The Upper Ouse Navigation 1790-1868, by D. F. Gibbs and J. H. Farrant, published December 1970 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 1, article, pp.22-40) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/1] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:Sussex at the end of the eighteenth century was essentially an agricultural county with no large industry. In that age of agricultural improvement, stimulated in Sussex by the demand for food from London and later by the Napoleonic Wars, any means of increasing agricultural productivity was readily seized upon. Hence, each of the rivers Arun, Adur, Ouse and Eastern Rother, running roughly parallel to each other into the heart of Sussex, was improved for navigation by local landowners. P.A.L. Vine, in his book London's Lost Route to the Sea, has written admirably about the Arun Navigation, its crucial Act of 1785 and its role along with the Portsmouth & Arundel Canal, the Wey & Arun Junction Canal and the Wey Navigation in linking London to Portsmouth by waterway. The Adur, with its mouth at Shoreham, was improved for navigation by an Act of 1807 and later extended further inland by the Baybridge Canal Act of 1825. The Western Rather, too, was canalised by an Act of 1791 and the Eastern Rother flowing out at Rye, and used along with the River Brede by the Wealden ironmasters since Tudor times, was gradually improved. The Ouse was improved under Acts of 1790 and 1791, which created two bodies; the Trustees of the Lower Ouse Navigation and the Company of Proprietors of the River Ouse Navigation, which were responsible for the river below and above Lewes respectively. Although today the small volume of water in the river does not readily suggest it, these bodies made it navigable for barges for thirty miles inland and for sea-going vessels up to Lewes, a distance of nine miles. This article reconstructs the history of the Upper Ouse Navigation Company and describes the physical remains of its works .