Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/496

 A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE ing is curious. Six triers were sworn and appointed. The leather was forfeited and valued, and the amount divided into three parts, ' as the statute directeth,' x and given to the searchers, to Widow Bonivent, and to the poor of the three parishes. The sealers were not always careful to obey the laws of the borough, and were complained of by the freemen tanners for sealing strangers' leather. The complaint was listened to, but the consideration of it was conveniently postponed, and the sealers seem to have escaped censure. In 1630 the tanners again present their suit, and their leader in con- sideration of $d. paid him promised to save Mr. Mayor harmless of all actions and damages to be brought against him by any foreign tanner. 2 The searchers and sealers of leather seemed to have been so hardly worked that their number wasjncreased in 1633 from two to three, and this arrangement was continued for several years until 1639, when the number was again reduced to two. Possibly this was the most flourishing period (1633-9) f the trade, which began to decline during the troublous times of the Civil War, when the sieges of Reading, the loans, the billeting of soldiers, and oppressions of both belligerents ruined for a time the trade in the town and county. In the midst of the war tanning was however still carried on. Sealers of leather were appointed in 1645. 3 Two years later the holders of this responsible office were ' put out of their office and the seal taken from them for having abused themselves in their office by sealing green leather. 4 The chronicles of Newbury show that this in- dustry was established there at a very early date. An inquisition 5 of 1297 mentions the existence of tanning mills in the town, and Thomas le Tannur as tenant of the same. 6 The Black Death, which inflicted much loss upon the town and neighbourhood, seriously checked the trade of tanning, and depreciated the value of this mill. Before this terrible scourge it was worth 26s. Sd. yearly; after- wards it yielded nothing on account of the deadly pestilence. 7 Amongst the quakers prosecuted here in 1683 there was one Thomas Hyne of Shaw, tanner; but there are few references to the trade in the history of this town. 8 At the beginning of the eighteenth century John Hazell had a tannery Rec. of Reading, ii. 403. Ibid. iii. 36. Ibid. iv. 170. Ibid. p. 239. Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I. No. 36. Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. I. No. 53. "> Ibid. 28 Edw. III. pt. 2, no. 37. 8 Money, Hist, of Newbury, p. 300. at Donnington, Charles Hote at Greenham Mills and John Lee in Cheap Street, but the industry is now extinct in this district. In Hungerford the tanning industry was carried on, and survived the cloth manu- facture, which, as we have already noticed, existed in the town. A large tanyard stood formerly by the Bath Road at the entrance to the town, and the importance of this indus- try is shown by the fact that searchers and sealers of leather were annually appointed by the Hock- tide court. In 1830 William Anning had a tannery in Charnham Street, which, Dr. Mavor reports, ' was on a large scale but the trade is no longer carried on here.' At Wantage there were no less than four tanneries, which gave the name to a street in the town called Tanner Street. The tan- yard belonging to Mr. Sylvester which flour- ished at the beginning of the last century was one of the largest in the kingdom and was conducted on the most approved principles. The then ' new art of tanning ' was introduced at great expense but with the best success by the proprietor, assisted by a German named Desmond. A process was discovered by which the hides were made fit for sale in half the time formerly expended upon the tanning, and without the smallest injury to the texture, which was thought to be improved by the speedier process. Many experiments were made in this tannery with different kinds of bark, but oak was found to be the best. 9 It is interesting to note that the last relic of these tanneries was removed by the demolition of a wall built entirely of the skulls and part of the horns of animals, whose hides furnished the raw material for these works. The foot- way at Stiles's Almhouses, where the knuckle- bones of sheep form the sides of the paving, is an interesting memento of obsolete trades. 10 At Abingdon tanning was an ancient industry. Tanners held their stalls in the markets and fairs long before the year 1557, when regulations were made with regard to the price they had to pay for the privilege. They were the chief members of the Company of Skinners, one of the three companies into which the traders of Abingdon were ' sorted and severed ' u; and minute regulations with regard to the trade are laid down in an old document of unknown date containing ' the articles to be given in Charge to the Grand Jury to enquire of at the Leet & Laweday to be holden for the Borough of Abingdon.' The jury are directed as follows : ' You shall 393 Mavor, Agriculture of Berks, p. 469. Wantage, Past and Present, pp. 88, 89. 11 Rec. of Abingdon, p. 160.