Old and New Shoreham: Economic history

ECONOMIC HISTORY.

Agriculture.

New Shoreham, though essentially urban and having only a small amount of farm-land, had nevertheless some minor agrarian interests. Even in 1288, when the trade of the medieval port was near its height, plough animals in New Shoreham were distrained upon, (fn. 1) and in 1341 the ninths of sheaves and of lambs, though not of fleeces, produced small amounts and the vicar received tithes of hemp and piglets. (fn. 2) In 1613 land in New Shoreham was claimed as copyhold descending by borough English. (fn. 3) That tenure was recognized later in the borough court, where conveyances were made by action of recovery. (fn. 4) In the 19th century copyholds, which could not be demised without the lord's licence, were distinguished from 'customary freeholds' perhaps representing burgage tenements; a few holdings were enfranchised before 1865, and others up to 1906. (fn. 5) A husbandman of New Shoreham was recorded in 1749. (fn. 6) Farm-land in New Shoreham in 1782, including Alms-house field (formerly Culverhouse croft), Ropestackle field, and Ropewalk field, amounted to 35 a., (fn. 7) and in 1801 it was said always to be used for grazing and mowing. (fn. 8) In 1851 10½ a. were cultivated as gardens and 37 a. as meadow and pasture. (fn. 9) Farmers and agricultural labourers recorded in New Shoreham from 1801 to 1831 were presumably cultivating land mainly in Old Shoreham. (fn. 10) By 1896 virtually all the farmland of New Shoreham had been built over. (fn. 11)

Old Shoreham and Erringham were each assessed at fewer hides in 1086 than in 1066, but the decline at Erringham was more marked and more lasting. There the hidation had shrunk from 5 to ½ and the 2 villani and 5 bordars were said to have nothing, no plough-team being recorded; the value, however, had fully recovered by 1086, having fallen from 40s. to 20s. after 1066. At Old Shoreham, where the hidation had been reduced from 12 to just over 5, the value, having fallen by a third, was by 1086 well above that of 1066, and indeed an insupportable farm of £50, twice the 1066 value, had been exacted; moreover the estate had the full 15 plough-teams for which there was land, 3 on the demesne and 12 shared between 26 villani and 14 bordars. A separate ½ hide was occupied by a villanus with half a team. (fn. 12) In 1300 the Duchy manor of Old Shoreham appears to have had no demesne; 14 yardlands, each of apparently 12 a., were held by bondmen of whom 7 held 1 yardland or more and 28 held from ½ a. to 5 a.; money rents were relatively high and other services were light, so that the tenants may have already enjoyed some of the independence which characterized them later. On the Abberbury sub-manor there was a large demesne farm, recorded as 1 plough-land in 1300, (fn. 13) 228 a. in 1334, and 240 a. in 1425, and there were also tenants paying rents amounting to more than £1 and pasture for 50-100 sheep. (fn. 14) On the one-third of Erringham later called Erringham Bruce there was a demesne farm reckoned to be 64 a. in 1293, 90 a. in 1355, 4 yardlands in 1399, and 80 a. in 1427 and 1449; tenants paid rents and did customary works in 1293 and held a total of 30 a. in 1355, while the demesne's common of pasture for 200 sheep in 1355 had become 200 a. of pasture by 1427, (fn. 15) so it is likely that during the 14th century the demesne took over tenants' land and arable was converted to pasture, changes which parallel the decay of Erringham village. That Old Shoreham as a whole was primarily arable as late as 1341 is clear from the relatively high value of the ninth of sheaves that year and the presence of four mills. (fn. 16) The fragmented nature of arable holdings emerges from the fact that 2 yardlands belonging to Battle abbey and each amounting to 10 a. or more were shared among 28 holdings in the earlier 14th century. (fn. 17)

Erringham appears to have been a single large farm by 1541, when it was occupied by a tenant, John Cobby, headborough of Erringham tithing in 1538. (fn. 18) He grew corn and sheep, and his son Hugh (fn. 19) had the highest assessment for tax in Old Shoreham parish in 1571. (fn. 20) In 1577 the Erringham estate included 270 a. of arable, 40 a. of meadow, 158 a. of pasture, 100 a. of marsh, 150 a. of furze and heath, and grazing for 1,000 sheep; (fn. 21) the stock there included 500 ewes, 20 qr. of wheat seed, 40 qr. of barley seed, 8 draft oxen, 6 cows, and 20 pigs. (fn. 22) On the Duchy manor of Old Shoreham in the early 17th century there was a freehold farm of c. 300 a., another of 35 a., and 33 copyholders had 293 a. between them. The copyholders claimed to enjoy customs which included fixed entry fines of a year's rent, fixed heriots of 8s. a yardland (the yardland being c. 16 a.) and 6d. a cottage, borough English, widow's freebench, freedom from forfeiture, and the right to entail copyholds and to let them from year to year without licence. They also resisted the attempts of the tenants of New Shoreham to intercommon with them. (fn. 23) In the later 18th century and earlier 19th the copyholds, by then heritable by heirs other than the younger son and mostly owned by rentiers, were gradually bought up by the Bridgers of Buckingham House. (fn. 24)

The Bridgers are also likely to have been responsible for inclosing the open fields of Old Shoreham. Erringham may be presumed to have had fields of its own which ceased to be open when the estate was reduced to a single farm, and Erringham was separated from Old Shoreham in 1612 by Erringham hedge. (fn. 25) The east field of Old Shoreham was mentioned in 1229, (fn. 26) the midmost furlong of the Ham in 1370, (fn. 27) and both the Ham and the south field in 1548. (fn. 28) The division of the arable into open fields seems to have been adjusted from time to time. In addition to the east and south fields in 1657 there were the new field and the 10-acre field, (fn. 29) but in 1720 the east, new, and 10-acre fields had been renamed or replaced by the north field. The south field then (fn. 30) and in 1753 included Ham or Hammer furlong, the north field being sub-divided into furlongs or laines, (fn. 31) but in 1766, when a considerable part of the Buckingham demesne farm had been inclosed, the south field and Ham field were distinct, the north field being referred to as North laine. The tenants' land in those fields then lay in pieces averaging more than 1½ a., (fn. 32) but in 1745 a copyhold of 68 a. had been made up of 109 pieces, located according not to the fields but to the twelve furlongs in which they lay. In 1806 Old Shoreham farm, which had recently been farmed with the 1,090 a. of Erringham, contained 120 a. of inclosed land and rights of pasturage over the commons and saltmarshes of Old Shoreham; Buckingham farm contained 415 a. of inclosed land in 1809. A reference in 1853 to the north furlong of the common field (fn. 33) appears to be no more than an archaic way of locating a building.

The arable returned in 1801 amounted to 509 a., of which the chief crops were barley and wheat with smaller acreages of turnips or rape and of oats. (fn. 34) Buckingham farm was occupied in 1813 by Thomas Ellman, an experimental and progressive farmer who produced sheep, beef, and arable crops in a large way. (fn. 35) In 1816, however, one farm of 200 a. or more was untenanted and several tenants were under notice to quit. (fn. 36) In the 1830s the three farms, between which the parish appears to have been divided from the 1790s, (fn. 37) had a total of 750 a. of arable and 1,165 a. of pasture; they employed 52 labourers, and no labourers were unemployed. (fn. 38) In 1851 there were 834 a. of arable, 737 a. of downland, and 339 a. of meadow and other pasture; the three main farms were of 983 a., 372 a., and 350 a. (fn. 39) In the First World War much of the farm-land was taken for military use, some of the butts of the rifleranges remaining visible in 1976; much of the remaining downland came under the plough, (fn. 40) but by 1930 two-thirds of the acreage was once again permanent grass. (fn. 41) In the 1970s there were two main farms, one raising sheep and cattle, the other mixed; wheat, oats, and barley were grown, about half the farm-land being arable in the 1960s. (fn. 42)

Market-gardening and fruit-growing on the edges of the town had evolved by 1845, when 5 firms were listed, (fn. 43) and there were extensive glass-houses by 1896. (fn. 44) In the mid 20th century tomatoes and chrysanthemums were grown under glass there. (fn. 45)

Mills.

There were three mills at Shoreham in 1210, (fn. 46) presumably including the two water-mills in Old Shoreham manor recorded during the next twenty years. (fn. 47) In 1229 Henry of St. Valery retained the water-mills while conveying a windmill in Old Shoreham. A mill and a half in Old Shoreham was the subject of an agreement between John Baldefard and his son Richard in 1268. (fn. 48) In 1341 there were four mills in Old Shoreham, (fn. 49) where two taxpayers were surnamed Millward in 1378. (fn. 50) The windmill was held of the earl of Cornwall in 1300 by the villeins collectively (fn. 51) and paid rent in 1322, 1343, and 1405. (fn. 52) It was recorded as paying tithe in 1432. (fn. 53) It presumably stood on Mill Hill, where in the early and mid 18th century there were two windmills; (fn. 54) one of them belonged to New Shoreham manor, and in 1782 was only the ruins of a stone windmill. (fn. 55) The other, perhaps that worked by the miller recorded in 1798, (fn. 56) was a post-mill in 1867, (fn. 57) was worked by a corn-miller in 1845 and 1887, (fn. 58) but was burnt down c. 1890. (fn. 59)

One of the medieval mills in Old Shoreham was at Erringham, where a mill was recorded c. 1190 (fn. 60) and a man surnamed Millward was assessed for tax in 1327; (fn. 61) in 1585 and 1614 there was a windmill at Erringham. (fn. 62) Another may have been at Buckinghams, since a mill was mentioned in the early 14th century in connexion with the Battle abbey estate. (fn. 63) There was believed to have been a water-mill at Little Buckingham, (fn. 64) but in 1795 a windmill stood a short way north-west of the farmstead. (fn. 65)

A mill in New Shoreham parish in 1341 (fn. 66) continued to be recorded through the 15th century. (fn. 67) In 1672 a windmill stood by the waterfront at the west end of the main street. (fn. 68) It may have been that mill that was rebuilt c. 1715, (fn. 69) and in 1753 it was represented as a post-mill. (fn. 70) By 1789 the site of the mill was occupied by granaries. (fn. 71) Another windmill stood north of the town in 1645; (fn. 72) what appears to be the site of a windmill was marked on a map of 1789 near the northern tip of the parish, (fn. 73) and it was perhaps there that a miller recorded in 1782 plied his trade. (fn. 74) By 1851, however, the windmill was sited farther down Mill Lane, east of Ravens Road; (fn. 75) the flour-mill that was there in 1873 was disused by 1896 (fn. 76) and was removed in the early 20th century. (fn. 77)

Fair and markets.

In 1202 William de Braose acquired from the king the right to hold an eight-day fair at Shoreham, (fn. 78) and a fair there was mentioned c. 1230. (fn. 79) His successor in 1279 claimed only a two-day fair, held at the Exaltation of Holy Cross (14 Sept.), (fn. 80) and a fair at that date belonged to the lord of Shoreham in 1368. (fn. 81) The fair may have gone out of use, but in 1784 there was a fair for pedlary on 25 July. (fn. 82) That fair was recorded until 1887, though not listed in 1888. (fn. 83) The local board in 1877 resolved to take no steps for its abolition so long as it was kept within proper bounds, (fn. 84) but in 1891 the board, which owned it, successfully applied for its closure because amusements stalls and some disorder obstructed business and traffic in High Street. (fn. 85)

In 1279 William de Braose claimed, besides the fair, weekly markets at Shoreham on Wednesday and Saturday. (fn. 86) Those markets may not have survived, (fn. 87) and a royal charter of 1607 granted members of the Howard family a weekly market on Tuesday. (fn. 88) In the late 17th century there was said to be no market, (fn. 89) and by 1792 the market was held on Saturday. (fn. 90) In 1798 it was held on Tuesday, and was mostly for corn sold by sample and for malt for export. (fn. 91) About 1830 market day was moved to Monday and was primarily for corn; (fn. 92) by 1849 the market was held once a fortnight, and not long after ceased altogether. (fn. 93)

The port.

The changes in the shape of the coastline and river mouth, profoundly affecting the fortunes of the port and the town, have been discussed above. In the 12th and early 13th century the importance of Shoreham as a link with Normandy is indicated by the carriage of the king's treasury there in 1155, 1191, and 1198 (fn. 94) and by King John's use of the port. (fn. 95) From the later 12th century to the mid 14th Shoreham frequently provided ships and sailors for the king's service and for other purposes. In 1167 three ships left Shoreham for Saxony with the king's daughter Maud, (fn. 96) and pilgrims embarked at Shoreham in the 1170s. (fn. 97) There also Henry II's household embarked for Dieppe in 1187, (fn. 98) and Richard I employed as sea-captain a Shoreham man, Alan Trenchmare, (fn. 99) whose surname occurs in connexion with the town from 1153 (fn. 100) to the mid 17th century. (fn. 101) For the Crusade Richard bought three ships from Shoreham, as many as from Southampton. (fn. 102) Royal letters were dated at Shoreham in 1217, (fn. 103) and earlier and later in the 13th century frequent instructions to the bailiffs there show it to have been regarded as a principal port for France. (fn. 104) Five Shoreham captains sailed with Henry III from Portsmouth in 1230. (fn. 105) In the early 14th century the town was one of those regularly asked for ships and sailors for the Scottish campaigns, (fn. 106) and in the 1340s provided as many as 21 ships at a time (only Winchelsea of the Sussex ports providing more) of up to 120 tons and with more than 300 men. (fn. 107)

As a port for France Shoreham probably began to decline in the later 13th century, partly because traffic with Normandy decreased and partly because the harbour was becoming less convenient. When coastguards were assigned for Sussex in 1295 it is not clear whether the number for Bramber rape was relatively low because Shoreham was thought to be already well guarded. (fn. 108) It has been calculated that in the period 1296-1332 the wealth of the shipmasters there declined, while the merchants prospered. (fn. 109) By the early 14th century the port appears to have lost its military significance; (fn. 110) the arrest there in 1341 of men, horses, and arms being sent illegally to France (fn. 111) is the last known instance of large-scale embarkation at Shoreham until the 17th century. Shoreham vessels were later occasionally licensed to take pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, but in the 1380s the absence of Shoreham from the fleet lists is evidence of its decline. (fn. 112) In 1368 the lord of Shoreham received only 40s. in customs and a total income from the town of less than £20, (fn. 113) compared with the early13th-century farm of £70. (fn. 114) The fall in the lord's estimated revenue from the town continued into the 15th century: £17 in 1403 and £5 3s. 4d. in 1424. (fn. 115)

Though keepers of the king's passage at Shoreham in 1372 and 1390 suggest a harbour still used by passengers, (fn. 116) references to Shoreham ships in the later 14th and the 15th century are few. (fn. 117) In 1377 Sir William Fyfield was pardoned for delivering supplies to the king's enemies at Kingston by Sea, (fn. 118) which may suggest that control of Shoreham harbour was weak. Instances of piracy at Shoreham between the mid 14th and the mid 15th century (fn. 119) perhaps signify a port which had lost its legitimate function, though acts of piracy and wrecking there are known between 1227 and 1338. (fn. 120) When Shoreham men took goods from ships wrecked by other agencies they were infringing the right of wreck claimed by their feudal lord; (fn. 121) the lord of Kingston wrongly claimed wreck in 1275, and had earlier enjoyed it. (fn. 122)

The lord of New Shoreham also enjoyed profits from the mercantile activities of the town, claiming tolls, customs, and arrivage. (fn. 123) In the 1260s the inhabitants said that at the time of the town's foundation the large number of foreigners visiting the port had induced the lord to allow the brewers there to brew and sell beer at will in return for an annual payment of 2½ marks, but that the lord's bailiff was then refusing the composition and amercing the brewers. Another bailiff was alleged at the same time to have taken illegal customs and tolls on merchandise shipped through Shoreham, (fn. 124) and in 1275 the lord and his bailiffs were said to have driven away foreign merchants by buying their goods at arbitrary prices and by imposing an export duty on wool. (fn. 125) Unjust tolls were again complained about in 1308. (fn. 126)

The wealth of the merchants of New Shoreham is suggested by the large fine of 50 marks imposed in 1177 for a man's not being in frankpledge and by the town's being nineteenth in order of wealth, not far behind Dover and Chichester, of the places assessed in 1204 for the 15th of merchants. (fn. 127) In the 13th century and early 14th the main trade was in the export of wool and the import of wine. Nine Shoreham men were amerced in 1248 for selling wine contrary to the assize, and eleven in 1263. In those two years the numbers of men amerced for selling cloth contrary to the assize were respectively one and four. (fn. 128) A Shoreham merchant recorded in 1265 had more than one ship engaged in the Gascon wine trade, and in 1327 Shoreham shared the import of wine with Chichester and Seaford. (fn. 129) The Sussex ports collectively, however, had only a small share in the wine trade. (fn. 130) In the export of wool Shoreham was more important than Chichester in the late 13th century, and in 1324 the cocket for sealing exported sacks of wool was moved from Chichester to Shoreham. From 1327, however, (fn. 131) when the cocket seal was ordered to go back to Chichester, (fn. 132) Shoreham became less important, and in 1444 wool had to be weighed at Lewes before being shipped through Shoreham. (fn. 133) The town was alleged to have greatly declined by then, but was exporting wool in 1453 and 1472. (fn. 134) Appointments of royal officers of customs at Shoreham are recorded from 1275, (fn. 135) and there was a seal for the delivery of wool and hides in Edward II's time with the legend S(IGILLUM) D(OMINI) EDWARDI REG(IS) ANGLIE DE SORHAM. (fn. 136) A deputy butler for Shoreham and other ports was appointed up to the mid 15th century. (fn. 137) Exports other than wool included timber in 1181, hemp in 1212, woad in 1225 and 1325, cloth in 1347 and 1349, and corn in the 1360s and 1417, in several instances the trade being coastwise. (fn. 138) Shoreham may have played a part in exporting the product of the local iron industry: an inhabitant surnamed Ironmonger was recorded in 1263, (fn. 139) a rent was payable in horseshoes in 1327, (fn. 140) and in the same year 1,000 horseshoes were carried from Horsham to Shoreham. (fn. 141) Figs, grapes, and wax were imported in 1238. (fn. 142)

In addition to the foreigners already mentioned in relation to the brewers' privilege and in 1275, references have been found to merchants from Italy, northern France, and south-west France. (fn. 143) A Jewish money-lender lived at Shoreham in 1261. (fn. 144) Among the native merchants two families appear to have been predominant during the 13th century, at the height of the town's medieval trade, the Baldefards, recorded from the earlier 12th century and of whom one or more called Hugh was prosperous in the early and mid 13th, and the Beauchamps, (fn. 145) including more than one John. In the less expansive days of the 14th century John Bernard, Henry Blatchington, William Lamb, and Robert Puffer represented prominent families. (fn. 146) There were trading links, which have not been examined in detail, with the Cinque Ports; in the rivalry, which sometimes erupted into warfare, with Great Yarmouth and the Suffolk ports Shoreham was firmly aligned with the Cinque Ports. (fn. 147)

The fewness of references to Shoreham's trade in the later 15th and early 16th century (references like that to timber exports in 1490 being exceptional) (fn. 148) accords with the fact that the port was not thought to be worth special defence in 1539. In 1566 it was said that boats were loaded and unloaded at Shoreham in an unregulated way, and that there were staithes at Kingston and Southwick which could take boats of 5 or 6 tons which, however, did not come. (fn. 149) Kingston by Sea was part of Shoreham harbour by the 13th century, but in the records referring to maritime activity at Kingston, from 1224 onwards, (fn. 150) it is not always possible to distinguish that Kingston from Kingston in Ferring. Both places had coastguards assigned to them in 1295. (fn. 151) In 1315 Elizabeth wife of Robert Bruce passed through Kingston by Sea with other Scots. (fn. 152) In 1393 and 1399 the deputy butler was appointed to act in South Kingston, (fn. 153) apparently the village immediately east of Shoreham. Southwick, where two merchants were living in 1341, (fn. 154) has a record of maritime activity in the 16th century, (fn. 155) but was apparently important only from the 17th, when the mouth of the river moved eastward to put Southwick on the estuary rather than the seashore.

The extent and nature of the trade of the port from the 1560s is suggested by the record of royal customs collected, but since the record is incomplete and relates to a coastline stretching east and west of Shoreham harbour and including Brighton and Worthing it does not afford precise evidence of the trade of the harbour. (fn. 156) Much the greater part of the trade of the port was coastal: foreign cargoes, mostly going to or from Dieppe or Flushing, were usually fewer than 10 a year, whereas the coastwise cargoes numbered up to 70 a year in the late 16th century and 80 in the early 17th. Shoreham ships, of which there were eight in the 1570s ranging up to 50 tons burden, (fn. 157) carried a relatively small proportion of the cargoes, a higher proportion being carried by Brighton ships. Of the coastwise cargoes paying duty many more were outward than inward. Prominent among the inward cargoes in the late 16th century were dried fruit, wine, manufactured goods including soap, and materials for shipbuilding: pitch and tar, anchors, canvas, rope, and hemp. Outward cargoes were mostly timber, including planks and various kinds of board, iron, grain, particularly barley, and malt. (fn. 158) Up to a quarter of the cargoes were going to or from London, which received timber, iron, and grain (fn. 159) and sent miscellaneous cargoes; other inward cargoes were mainly from places to the west, particularly Southampton, and other outward cargoes to places to the east, Hastings, Winchelsea, Rye, Dover, and Sandwich. In the early 17th century, while the number of Shoreham ships engaged in the trade of the port remained c. 8, a minority of the total, the pattern of trade was modified as the proportion of timber cargoes and of cargoes sent to London increased and cargoes were carried to and from more distant places. The last of those changes was partly the result of increasing cargoes of coal from Northumberland, in ships which mostly left Shoreham laden with timber for London. A seal for the collection of royal customs, with the legend SIGILLUM CUST DE SHORAM IN PORTU CHICHESTER, survives for the reign of Charles I. (fn. 160) In 1622 the appointment of a collector of anchorage and petty customs for the lord of New Shoreham specified dues on exports of corn, iron, timber, old shoes (horse-shoes), ashes, beer, and barrels, and on imports of pitch and tar, wine, hops, starch, canvas, fruit, and deal. (fn. 161)

In 1570 the amount of merchandise passing between Shoreham harbour and the hinterland required that damage to Beeding bridge be repaired. (fn. 162) In the same year, however, Shoreham had a small number of mariners. (fn. 163) It had some military function: ordnance was exported in 1580, cannon shot was ordered to be delivered there in 1588, (fn. 164) powder was transported thence in 1634, soldiers embarked there in 1636, (fn. 165) and it was used in a small way for provisioning the navy. (fn. 166) About 1610, when the haven lay east (fn. 167) and the old haven west of New Shoreham, the harbour was described as formerly spacious and bustling with merchants, but that description was incorporated in evidence about the harmful effects of reclaiming land (fn. 168) and perhaps looked back not one generation but three centuries.

The town's comparative unimportance in the early 17th century is shown by its assessment for ship money: in 1636 Arundel's was twice as much and Chichester's fifteen times. (fn. 169) The low assessment is unlikely to have resulted from temporary set-backs like the depredations of pirates referred to in 1634. (fn. 170) Some of Shoreham's own sea-captains appear to have indulged in piracy, (fn. 171) and its two leading families of captains, the Scrases and the Pooles, (fn. 172) may have been involved. The Scrase family had possibly lived in Shoreham since the late 13th century, (fn. 173) and both families were represented there until the 19th. (fn. 174)

From the late 16th century shipbuilding, discussed below, became Shoreham's main industry, which was closely connected with the timber trade. In 1626 timber belonging to the Crown was pillaged from a Shoreham ship. (fn. 175) The navy was buying timber from Shoreham in 1651 and c. 1670. (fn. 176) In 1643 timber was stored on Old Shoreham common, (fn. 177) near the timber market in the north part of the town recorded in 1682 (fn. 178) and 1813. (fn. 179) There was a timber wharf at Kingston in 1671, (fn. 180) and large quantities of timber were shipped between 1650 and 1716, mostly to London. (fn. 181) In 1732 and 1798 there are references to large quantities of timber being floated down the river from the Weald to Shoreham. (fn. 182)

The other main commodities passing through the harbour in the later 17th and the 18th century were corn and coal. (fn. 183) The export of corn and wool was mentioned between 1698 and 1715 and of corn in 1745, (fn. 184) 1759, (fn. 185) and 1777. (fn. 186) The quantities exported of wool, as of hops, were small. (fn. 187) The export of iron sulphate to London, recorded between 1695 and 1714, gave Copperas Gap in Southwick its name. (fn. 188) Coal for a large part of the county was imported through Shoreham in 1732, (fn. 189) and by 1747 there were coal wharves at the Rock in Southwick, (fn. 190) where there were also warehouses in 1777. (fn. 191) Other commodities mentioned included wine, (fn. 192) salt, pipeclay, (fn. 193) linen, silk, gum seneca, (fn. 194) tobacco, (fn. 195) and knitting frames. (fn. 196) Most of Shoreham's exports went to London, cargoes from which included a high proportion of goods for shipbuilding. (fn. 197)

In the 1650s Shoreham was a place where others besides Charles II took ship for France, and in 1687 a traveller from Holland to Lewes landed there. (fn. 198) The passenger traffic with Dieppe was small and irregular, (fn. 199) and in 1699 a traveller from London to Paris via Shoreham and Honfleur had to wait several days for his ship to get out of harbour, fearing a delay of up to a month. (fn. 200) Sailors were recruited at Shoreham in the 17th and 18th centuries though in relatively small numbers. (fn. 201)

In the later 17th century Shoreham handled less foreign and coastal shipping, in number and tonnage, than Chichester or Rye and only about the same amount as Brighton or Newhaven. (fn. 202) In 1675 it was said that it would be well frequented if the harbour were better, (fn. 203) and in 1698 the bar which blocked the mouth at low water was thought to prevent improvement. (fn. 204) In 1715, however, perhaps after a new opening had been cut through the shingle bank, (fn. 205) trade was reported to have increased considerably since the peace, (fn. 206) and the harbour was said to be for large vessels in 1720 (fn. 207) and commodious in 1732. (fn. 208) Work was done on the 'new harbour', including the driving of piles, in 1734; (fn. 209) in 1774, after the work done under the Act of 1760 to stabilize the entrance had proved ineffective, (fn. 210) the harbour was described as very good, (fn. 211) but in 1813 as dangerous. (fn. 212)

The riding officer appointed as surveyor of customs for the Sussex coast in 1676 was based at Shoreham, (fn. 213) and in 1680 the port of New Shoreham, a member of the port of Chichester, was delimited as extending from Heene to Rottingdean, with legal quays at Brighton and at the pier of the High Cage in Shoreham harbour. (fn. 214) A warehouse had been built at the High Cage by 1733. (fn. 215) In 1708 the customs arising in Shoreham were sufficient for the officers there to be required to account directly with the comptroller general. (fn. 216) The lord of New Shoreham claimed anchorage, boomage, and meterage, collected by officers of his court, between the harbour entrance and Old Shoreham ferry; anchorage and boomage ceased under the Act of 1760. (fn. 217) The parishioners claimed in 1743, and again in 1766, by what right is unknown, that the vicar and constable were entitled to a bushel of coal, salt, or imported grain from every vessel bringing those commodities into the harbour. (fn. 218) The Crown's customs men in 1798 included an excise officer, a custom-house clerk, and, at Kingston, a collector of customs. (fn. 219) The revenue cutter was stationed at Southwick in 1753. (fn. 220) In addition, apparently, to the custom-house in Church Street part of Shoreham Beach, then in Lancing, was let to the commissioners of customs in 1807 and 1819. (fn. 221) In 1795 a signal station was placed at Shoreham. (fn. 222)

The reconstruction of the harbour was begun under an Act of 1816. (fn. 223) The new entrance, immediately south of Kingston church, was formally opened in 1821. The lighthouse point was built at the entrance, dividing the eastern and western arms of the harbour to direct the flow on the ebb. The protection of the entrance continued to be a major concern of the harbour commissioners: in the winter of 1824-5, for example, gales undermined the eastern pier and the lighthouse point. (fn. 224) The piers have been enlarged and reinforced several times. (fn. 225) The harbour in the 17th and 18th centuries had mainly served the rural hinterland drained by the Adur, which was improved for navigation under an Act of 1807, carrying timber downstream and coal upstream in 1833-4; (fn. 226) in its new form the harbour was seen as serving Brighton and Worthing, particularly in importing fuel and building materials for Brighton. (fn. 227) Cross-channel packets ran in the late 18th century and steam packets by 1826, but the role of Shoreham as a passenger harbour, given brief encouragement when it was the first in Sussex to be served by rail, did not survive the 1850s. (fn. 228)

Even before the arrival of the railway the activity of the harbour tended to centre on Kingston, where there were extensive coalyards in 1837, (fn. 229) and on the eastern end of the harbour, towards Brighton; the eastward drift of the entrance before 1816 had also drawn the focus away from New Shoreham. By 1845 a second lighthouse had been built behind the one at the harbour mouth; it was rebuilt in 1846. (fn. 230) In 1854-5 the eastern arm of the harbour was dredged and canalized, a lock being built at its entrance, while the western arm remained subject to tides. The building in 1870 of the Portslade gas-works gave the harbour a new character which was strengthened when Brighton's electricity power station was built near by in 1906; the two largescale consumers of coal overshadowed, physically and in their effect on traffic, the maltings, cokeovens, saw-mills, planing-mills, timber-ponds, and wharves and other works for landing and processing builders' materials and domestic fuel. Other substantial industrial buildings around the harbour included the chemical works on Shoreham Beach, built in the 1870s to use by-products of the gasworks, (fn. 231) the Dolphin soap works of J. Evershed & Son which stood north of the railway at Kingston by 1896, and the dyeing works at Fishersgate, established by 1905. (fn. 232)

Under the successive Acts from 1760 the manage ment of the harbour was assigned to a board of commissioners; they were replaced in 1873 by trustees, and the name of the harbour was changed from New Shoreham to Shoreham in 1926. The trustees were mainly representative of the local authorities of Brighton, Hove, Southwick, Shoreham, and Worthing; (fn. 233) an Act of 1949 gave the gas and electricity authorities a stronger voice in the management of the harbour. (fn. 234) A legal quay was assigned in 1834-5, the limits of the port were defined in 1881, (fn. 235) and the eastward shift of its focus was acknowledged by the siting of the port's institutional buildings in Kingston and Southwick. The custom-house in Shoreham High Street was replaced in 1880 by one at Kingston, where the pilots' watch house was by 1896 and a coastguard station was built in 1900 to replace the one on Shoreham Beach. At Southwick the harbour commissioners had their offices by 1887, and the Seamen's Institute was built there. (fn. 236) After the Second World War new offices were built there for the Customs, who also had offices on Shoreham Beach, at the eastern end of which, beside the ruins of a fort built c. 1855, (fn. 237) a new coastguard station was built. A lifeboat station was established by the harbour commissioners in 1845, was replaced by a station of the R.N.L.I. in 1865, was moved to Shoreham Beach in the 1890s, and was moved again to Kingston c. 1913. (fn. 238)

In the 1930s the gas and electricity works were enlarged and storage facilities for oil were provided. To allow for larger vessels using the eastern arm of the harbour the lock at its entrance was replaced by a new one, the Prince George Lock, opened in 1933, the old lock becoming a dry dock. Major improvements after the Second World War, which were planned in conjunction with the building of a second electric power station in the late forties, were completed in 1957 and included the Prince Philip Lock alongside the Prince George, increasing the maximum size of vessel from 1,500 to 4,500 tons. (fn. 239)

To the improvements of the harbour was attributed the increase in population of Shoreham in the 1820s, (fn. 240) and the uncharacteristic fall in the poor-rate there in the same period may have had the same cause. (fn. 241) By 1841 Shoreham had surpassed Chichester in the tonnage entering and clearing the port. (fn. 242) Its trade was said to have quintupled between 1829 and 1849, again bringing an increase in population. The main export was oak; French merchandise, wine, spirits, cheese, and butter were imported, (fn. 243) but the main trade was the import of timber and coal. About 1,000 vessels a year carrying c. 100,000 tons entered the port in the 1840s. Many of them were coasters, (fn. 244) and the proportion increased with the growth of coal imports. Competition from the railways reduced the coastal trade in coal, but after 1870 the import of coal both for the gas-works and for domestic use increased while the range of other commodities shrank. (fn. 245) By 1907 the coastal trade of the port was four times the tonnage of the overseas trade, and imports were seven times the value of exports, which then included cement, chemicals, pitch, coke, tar, and grain. (fn. 246)

The First World War, while helping the prosperity of the town, reduced the trade of the port almost to nothing, (fn. 247) but imports particularly of fuel increased again between the wars. The total trade was 1 million tons by 1939, and Shoreham became the main point for the distribution of oil in Sussex. (fn. 248) War again brought a sharp decline, and the tonnage in 1945 was only 350,000. (fn. 249) In 1952 trade again exceeded 1 million tons, exports contributing only 30,000 tons, (fn. 250) and by the end of the decade reached nearly 2 million tons. Although commodities included building materials (bricks, cement, and particularly timber), corn, oil, scrap metal, and general cargo, (fn. 251) coal represented more than half the total. In 1957 wine began to be imported, and by 1974 Shoreham's imports of wine were the largest in England. (fn. 252) In 1972, when imports included motor cars from Japan, the record number of 3,000 vessels entered the port and over 3 million tons of merchandise was handled. In 1970 the Portslade gas-works had closed, (fn. 253) following the introduction of natural gas; the volume of coal imports fell greatly but an increase in other commodities maintained the total turnover, of which coal accounted in 1974 for only 17 per cent. (fn. 254) Shoreham harbour was the largest commercial complex between Dover and Portsmouth, with the fourth largest import of timber in England; almost the whole trade of the port was imports, exports accounting for only 1 per cent. (fn. 255) The import of Japanese motor cars was transferred to Middlesbrough in 1973. (fn. 256)

Shipbuilding.

Galleys were being repaired for the king at Shoreham in 1210 and 1212. (fn. 257) In 1231 carpenters from Shoreham were needed at Portsmouth to repair the king's great ship, and in 1235 two galleys were apparently being built at Shoreham. (fn. 258) In 1337 men were to be recruited there for building a barge at Winchelsea for the king's use. (fn. 259) Shipbuilding survived the decline of Shoreham as a port, ships being built there in 1368 and (of 80 tons) in 1400. (fn. 260) Although between then and the later 16th century no evidence for the industry has been found it is likely to have continued, and in the 1570s ships of over 100 tons were built there. (fn. 261) In the early 17th century Shoreham became the chief centre in Sussex for shipbuilding. (fn. 262) Before the end of the 16th century ships for the Crown, and by 1615 East Indiamen, were being built there. (fn. 263) Of 16 Shorehambuilt ships recorded in the period 1625-36 many were for London merchants and one was a man-ofwar. The tonnage ranged from 80 to 300, with an average of over 200. (fn. 264) Frigates were being built at Shoreham in 1653; it was later said that good merchant ships were built there but that the depth of water in the harbour entrance was so small that when the warship Dover was launched in 1654 she could hardly be got out. Other places were thought more suitable for building naval ships, (fn. 265) and shipwrights from Shoreham may have found it necessary to work elsewhere. (fn. 266)

By the 1690s the industry was again active in Shoreham. A shipyard was recorded in 1679, (fn. 267) and two in 1704. (fn. 268) In the period 1679-1748 the names of 15 shipwrights of Shoreham have been found, including 3 Guilfords and 2 Bartletts. (fn. 269) Three warships were being built there in 1695, (fn. 270) and between 1690 and 1696 all 17 of the men-of-war built in Sussex came from Shoreham, ranging up to 380 tons. (fn. 271) In the early 18th century the Shoreham shipbuilders were said to be famed for the neatness and good sailing qualities of their craft, using timber which was cheap because it was floated down the river from the Weald. (fn. 272) In 1720 there were many shipwrights, both naval and merchant; (fn. 273) 12 years later, when naval shipbuilding was seen as past, there were said to have been up to 15 merchant ships, of 100-500 tons, on the stocks at a time. (fn. 274) In 1766 it was said that shipbuilding was the chief object and support of most of the inhabitants. (fn. 275) Some warships were built, (fn. 276) and in 1782 there were still two shipyards. (fn. 277) By the 1780s some of the shipwrights were evidently based at Kingston, (fn. 278) and after that period there seems to have been a decline in the industry: after 1810 writers referring to the dangers of the harbour mentioned the building in former times of merchant ships up to 700 tons. (fn. 279)

Nevertheless shipwrights were recorded at Shoreham in the first decade of the 19th century (fn. 280) and in 1814 the firm of Edwards and Balley was building ships. (fn. 281) J. B. Balley (d. 1863) was in business as a shipbuilder by 1838 and launched many vessels of over 500 tons. From 1838 to 1871 the firm of May & Thwaites at the Kingston shipyard was building vessels of up to 500 tons, and in the 1840s smaller craft and yachts were built, Shoreham and Southwick each having at least one boatbuilder in 1845. (fn. 282) The increase in New Shoreham's population in the 1850s was attributed in part to the extension of the local industry, (fn. 283) which in 1849 employed over 100 people and was noted for the speed of its ships. (fn. 284) In the 1860s John Shuttleworth had a shipyard on the canalized eastern arm of the harbour at Southwick, and William May, apparently in succession to Balley, had the Old Shipyard at New Shoreham, each building ships of up to 500 tons. (fn. 285) In 1867 the industry was said to be confined to barges and coasting vessels, (fn. 286) but the sailing ships Mizpah (539 tons), Britannia (464 tons), and Osman Pacha (509 tons) were built in 1874, 1877, and 1878, the last two by Dyer & Co. at the Old Shipyard. They were the last of the large ships from Shoreham's yards, (fn. 287) which did not move on from timber to iron construction. Among several builders of smaller craft in the later 19th century was Thomas Stow of New Shoreham, (fn. 288) who shared a surname with an early-18th-century shipwright. (fn. 289) The yachtbuilders Courtney & Birkett carried on, until the Second World War, the yard used by Shuttleworth at Southwick, where the Lady Bee Marina Co. Ltd. and the Sussex Yacht Club continued in the 1970s. The Old Shipyard, after a brief period as a motorcar factory, was used to build yachts and boats until the Second World War by Francis Suter, a firm which continued, in different premises, in the 1970s. A firm building boats for the navy was established on Shoreham Beach from the Second World War until 1958 or later. (fn. 290)

Fishing.

The fishing industry at Shoreham appears to be recorded in 1223 when Hugh Baldefard exported two ship-loads of herring, and in 1227 boats from Shoreham habitually fished Irish waters. (fn. 291) While the lord of the borough claimed in 1279 to have chase of the sea, presumably an exclusive fishery, from Beachy Head to the Isle of Wight for his sailors of Shoreham, (fn. 292) fishing in the North Sea may have been an element in the relationship, often hostile, of those sailors with Great Yarmouth, (fn. 293) and may have been the main source of herrings, 1,000 of which were paid c. 1270 as the consideration for the grant of a house in Shoreham. (fn. 294) The Shoreham fishing fleet had been away from port for more than four weeks early in June 1311, apparently causing some concern at home. (fn. 295) In 1341 the appropriators of New Shoreham rectory received 2 marks, and the vicar 1 mark, from the fishery. (fn. 296) A tax to improve coastal defences against French invasion in 1385 was levied on catches of fish at various places along the coast, including Shoreham, Kingston, and Southwick. (fn. 297) In 1392 a London fishmonger made his will at New Shoreham, to which he made bequests. (fn. 298)

In the later 16th century herring fished off both Sussex and Suffolk by men like Thomas Jackson of New Shoreham (fn. 299) and Thomas Trunk of Southwick (fn. 300) was sold at Southampton and Poole. (fn. 301) Although there was said in 1595 to be good fishing off New Shoreham, (fn. 302) 14 years earlier only 4 fishing boats were recorded there, the same number as at Arundel and notably fewer than at Brighton (30), Rye (20), and Hastings (16). (fn. 303) In the 1620s fishing at Shoreham was said to be decayed and impeded by enemy action, (fn. 304) and in the 1670s only 3 fishermen there were listed. (fn. 305) By the early 18th century there may have been some revival, when Shoreham barques joined the herring fishing off Yarmouth, (fn. 306) but the export of cured herrings from Shoreham then appears to have been insignificant. (fn. 307) In 1699 a traveller through Shoreham, who hoped to see the herring fishing, sent bloaters as a present. (fn. 308) The large but declining tonnage of fishing vessels (from 900 tons in 1709 to 180 tons in 1757) listed for Shoreham in fact relates largely to Brighton. (fn. 309)

Oyster fishing at Shoreham was recorded by 1622, when the lord of the borough took a toll of 2d. on every 1,000 oyster lays within the harbour, each lay presumably being the deposit of an oyster in a submerged cage. In 1732 he was receiving rent for the right to take oysters in the harbour. (fn. 310) At the end of the 18th century good oysters, along with flounders, were caught for local consumption. (fn. 311) There was said to be a very extensive oyster-bed opposite the harbour in 1826, supplying the Brighton and London markets, (fn. 312) and the increase in population in the fifties was in part attributed to the discovery of further beds. (fn. 313) The railway provided an easier way to send oysters to London, and grounds increasingly further into the Channel were fished, the oysters being kept in ponds in Shoreham harbour until required by the markets, which included some in France. Up to 100 Shoreham boats were involved in the oyster fishery, and in the 1850s up to 20,000 tons of oysters were sent by rail from Shoreham in a year. In the late 1850s there were 60 oyster-beds in the Adur estuary, in which the duke of Norfolk successfully claimed a right, and in 1871 the increase in Southwick's population was ascribed to the building of many houses for oyster-dredgers and other seafarers. Nevertheless, the statement in 1866 that oysters were the only kind of fish caught at Shoreham seems to be an exaggeration. As oysterbeds further and further from the harbour were exploited the boats used needed to be larger: in 1866 they were from 20 to 27 tons, with one of 36 tons, and the use of steam vessels from other ports which went direct to the beds, together with a decline in demand, caused a falling off in Shoreham's oyster fishery. By 1905 Shoreham and Southwick had only one oyster-merchant each, and by 1909 the industry had almost ceased. (fn. 314)

In 1869 Shoreham harbour had 295 fishing boats, of which 18 were more than 15 tons and 79 were navigated only by oars; they totalled 1,318 tons and provided employment for 740 men and 89 boys. (fn. 315) By 1913 the number of boats had fallen to 184, the tonnage to 854, and the number of men and boys employed to 397. (fn. 316) At the beginning of the 20th century Shoreham was ninth among Sussex ports in the number of boats, seventh in the value: the value was relatively high because the total catch included oysters and scallops, but there was also trawling for whiting, sole, plaice, and cod and drift-netting for herring and mackerel. (fn. 317) By 1923 scallop-dredging had declined because of over-fishing and a fall in price. (fn. 318) Sole, herring, and mackerel were still fished after the Second World War, but there was only a handful of boats. (fn. 319)

Other industry.

Much of Shoreham's other industry was closely connected with shipbuilding and the harbour. The import of hemp and canvas to Shoreham in the late 16th century (fn. 320) suggests that rope and sails were being made there. By the late 17th century a piece of ground was called the Ropetackle, (fn. 321) and Ropemakers Lane was recorded in 1720. (fn. 322) A ropemaker was named in 1724, and another in 1750; (fn. 323) there was a ropehouse in 1779, (fn. 324) and a rope warehouse in 1782. (fn. 325) There were two ropemakers in Shoreham in 1798 and 1814, (fn. 326) and one in 1867; (fn. 327) in 1871 ropewalks obstructed a road, presumably West Street (formerly called the Ropewalk). (fn. 328) Sailmakers were recorded in 1798 and 1814, and there were two in 1887; (fn. 329) in the early 20th century W. W. English achieved an international reputation for his hand-made sails, and his business was continued by Albert Phillips (d. 1952). (fn. 330) Carvers, painters, corkers, and smiths mentioned in the late 17th and the 18th century are likely to have been connected with shipbuilding; a carpenter who was not was described as a house-carpenter. (fn. 331) There were at least three forges in 1670, (fn. 332) and an anchorsmith in 1724. (fn. 333) In the 20th century firms of marine engineers catered for the small boats using the harbour; (fn. 334) a firm established in the Old Shipyard in 1907 made engines for the local fishermen and afterwards motor cars before going out of business in 1911. (fn. 335)

Shingle was being taken from the harbour as a building material by 1807 (fn. 336) and was a valued commodity in 1818. (fn. 337) Four merchants were dealing in it in 1905. (fn. 338)

Of industries not closely connected with its maritime interests, the building trades and in earlier times the manufacture of clothes and shoes have of course been represented in the town. The presence of a goldsmith in 1288 (fn. 339) reflects Shoreham's prosperity in the 13th century. A man surnamed Tanner lived there in the early 14th century, (fn. 340) but later records of that trade have not been found. Brewers, accorded special privileges at the time of the town's foundation, (fn. 341) produced more beer than was needed locally in the late 16th century, (fn. 342) and were numerous in the 18th century, (fn. 343) with ancillary maltsters and coopers. (fn. 344) The Albion Brewery closed the eastern end of High Street in the 1870s, (fn. 345) and survived in the 1880s, though by then in Middle Street. (fn. 346)