February 2020 - The Gun at Gun Hill
Gun Inn, Gun Hill, Chiddingly near Horam - visit 28th February 2020 - Richard Randell
This is the second visit to “The Gun” by U3A, but I wasn’t aware of that when I suggested it.
Gun Inn dates back to the 15th century and the name originally comes from a nearby Chiddingly foundry, which used to make cannons for the Royal Navy (according to the owners). Was originally a farmhouse which brewed and sold its beer, with lodging rooms. It has a floor of ancient bricks.
During the group’s last visit in August, Trevor Devon gave the following info:
“The best I (ie Trevor) could establish was that the Inn building was believed to be a powder store at the time of cannon manufacture in the area (most recently 16th-17th centuries). There was however a well-documented furnace and forge nearby in Chiddingly at Stream Furnace Mill - a piece of cannon boring equipment from this site is on display at the Anne of Cleves House
Museum in Lewes. Locally there is reference to this activity at Gun Farm. Architecturally the Inn, timber-framed with brick infill, dates to the Elizabethan-Tudor period and it is quite feasible that it might have been used later as a powder store.
The Inn records that the building was used as a courthouse in 1852 for the Onion Pie Murder trial. Sarah Ann French was found guilty of wilfully murdering her husband, William French, by poisoning his onion pie with arsenic. She had her sights on a new husband (20 year old James Hickman) but instead French was hanged for her crime at the HM Prison Lewes in front of approximately 3 and 4,000 people on 10 April 1852.”
So what can I add to Trevor’s excellent summary ?
John French was the “yeoman farmer” who was the owner in 1560 then called Stream Forge and a Furnace in 1574. But by 1597 he was a “Forgemaster” and in 1690 was casting guns. To make a medieval gun you need iron or bronze. So I’ll talk about the local
Wealden iron and gun making industry.
Firstly, medieval iron ore was extracted from various clay beds and then called “iron stone”. It was mainly done by digging a series of mine-pits about five metres wide and up to twelve metres deep with material being winched up in baskets suspended using a wooden tripod. This wasn’t so destructive of the land because the spoil from one pit was used to backfill the previous pit.
Smelting process - Ore was initially roasted on open fires and was broken down into lumps or nodules to see if it contained iron. Then very high temperatures were used to eventually melt the iron. Charcoal was used because it burns at much higher and more constant temperatures than wood, and also bellows were used to increase the charcoal temperature too.
Charcoal needed to be produced as close as possible to the smelting sites as it would crumble to dust if transported very far by a cart over local rough tracks. Large areas of woodland available in the Weald and coppicing provided a sustainable source of wood. Forging and finishing off the iron required blast or blooming furnaces also using large quantities of charcoal.
The first blast furnace in England was recorded at Buxted in 1490 - around Henry VII period.
Water power became very important for blast furnaces and refinery forges, because the bellows and hammers were usually powered by water-wheels, so a sustainable flow was needed to provide for continuous production. Hence most were near rivers, but problems naturally occurred due to drought, so pen-ponds or a series of ponds were built upstream. Ponds can still be found called ’Furnace Pond’ or ’Hammer Pond’ throughout the Weald - these were created by building a dam, called a pond “bay”. These
often served as a road across the many valleys.
A “campaign”, as the production process was known, usually operated from October until late spring when streams began to dry up. Finery forges with three or four waterwheels to drive bellows and hammers needed more much water than a furnace at times.
Even furnaces near major rivers had to stop production during 1742 including Robertsbridge (also Ashburnham and Brede) and in 1743 Robertsbridge again and Waldron because of drought. Indeed, during Winter 1743 drought the workers coined the phrase “treadmill” when 3 furnaces badly affected men had to tread the mill wheel to keep the bellows working.
The initial production created “pig iron” used for basic items, such as household utensils, nails and hinges, the next process was used for fire backs or water pipes, etc. Finally the remaining higher quality iron was used for making cannons.
The wars fought during Henry VIII's reign greatly increased the need for more weapons, when the Weald became the centre of an armaments industry. Cast-iron military cannon were made in the Weald from 1543 when Buxted's … Master Ralf Hogge cast the first iron cannon in England for his unlikely employer a Sussex vicar, parson William Levett. Hogge had originally been
working with a French-born cannon-maker Pierre Baude and for William Levett. When Levett died, Ralf set himself up in business and eventually became the “gunstonemaker” to the King.
Henry VIII is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy”. He closely supervised the construction of all his warships and their guns, knowing details of their designs, speed, tonnage, armaments and battle tactics. He built a fleet including the “Great Harry” (Henry Grace à Dieu ie "Henry, Thanks be to God") which had 43 heavy guns and 141 light guns. Indeed, when launched she was the largest and most powerful warship in Europe.
Cast iron cannons, while not as durable as bronze cannons, were much cheaper and enabled Henry to arm the navy more easily.
All the cannons produced in the area were “proved” at the Woolwich Arsenal, by double charging the cannon with powder and testing twice. Other cannon producers near here were at Heathfield, Warbleton and Waldron.
The Wealden iron industry was at its peak towards the end of Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Most works were small, but one ironmaster employed 200 men. By the 16th century and the early 17th century, the Weald was still a major source of iron for manufacturing in London, peaking in the 1590’s. The Weald’s decline may have begun as early as the 1610’s, when Midland
ironware began to be sold in London. Certainly after Swedish iron began to be imported in large quantities after the Restoration, Wealden bar iron seems to have been unable to compete in the London market. However, after 1650,
Wealden production became mainly focused on military cannons. Nevertheless, cannon production was still a major activity in the Weald until the end of the Seven Years' War - this was a global war fought between 1756 and 1763. and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, Africa, India, and the Philippines - but a cut in the price paid by the Government Board of Ordnance drove many Wealden ironmasters into bankruptcy. Then Wealden iron industry was unable to compete with the new
coke-fired ironworks of the Industrial Revolution, even a few ironworks continued operating on a very small scale.
The last furnace at Ashburnham closed in 1813.
Richard Randell
Sources:
“Pub Walks in East Sussex”
“The Iron Industry of the Weald” by Henry Cleere and David Crossley (with contributions
by Wealden Iron Research Group)
“Wealden Iron Masters and Cannons” www.VillageNet.co.uk
Wealden Iron Trust (wealdeniron.org.uk)
HighWeald.org.uk
Ref also “The Queen's Gunstonemaker”. Being an account of Ralph Hogge, Elizabethan
Ironmaster and Gunfounder - author is Edmund Teesdale Published by Lindel Publishing
Company.
More information on the Sarah Ann French’s trial can be read at
capitalpunishmentuk.org
en.Wikipedia.or