London was the chief centre of the manufacture of ordnance, but an iron cannon was made at Bristol in 1408,[352] and five years later John Stevenes of Bristol was ordered to supervise the making of another.[353] In 1408 'a certain great cannon newly invented by the king himself' was made;[354] this presumably was 'the great iron cannon called Kyngesdoughter,' which, shortly after its birth, was broken at the siege of 'Hardelagh.'[355] The 'Kyngesdoughter' was probably made at the Tower, as were three other iron cannon at the same time, four more being made in Southwark and two smaller ones by Anthony Gunner, possibly at Worcester as one of them was tested there and broke during the trial; of six bronze cannon made at the same time the largest, the 'Messager,' weighing 4480 lbs., and two small ones were broken at the siege of Aberystwyth. The life of a gun in those days seems to have been short, and that of a gunner precarious.[356] In 1496, when the government range was at Mile End, 13s. 4d. was given to Blase Ballard, gunner, 'towards his leche craft of his hands and face lately hurte at Myles ende by fortune shoting of a gunne,'[357] and this is not the only hint we have that these weapons were sometimes as dangerous to their users as to the enemy.
The Germans and Dutch were particularly expert in the manufacture of guns, and we find Matthew de Vlenk 'gonnemaker' in the service of Richard II.,[358] while Godfrey Goykyn, one of four 'gunnemeystres' from Germany, who were serving Henry V. during the last years of his reign,[359] was employed in 1433 to finish off three great iron cannon which Walter Thomasson had begun to make.[360] These cannon threw balls of fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen inches diameter, respectively, so that presumably they were 'bombards' or mortars, and probably similar in type to one found in the moat of Bodiam Castle, and now at Woolwich;[361] the core of this specimen, which is of 15-inch calibre, is of cast-iron, the outer casing being formed of a series of bands of wrought iron, and it was probably made in Sussex. It was in this county, at Newbridge in Ashdown Forest, that Simon Ballard in 1497 cast large quantities of iron shot,[362] those for 'bombardells' weighing as much as 225 lbs. each, so that they had to be placed in the guns by means of 'shotting cradles':[363] for 'curtows' the shot weighed 77 lbs., for 'demi-curtows' 39 lbs., for 'great serpentines' 19 lbs., and for ordinary 'serpentines' 5 lbs. This same Simon Ballard was enrolled amongst the gunners at the time of the Cornish rising under Perkin Warbeck.[364] In the same way we find 'Pieter Robard alias Graunte Pierre,' ironfounder of Hartfield,[365] described as a 'gonner,' and casting 'pellettes' at 6d. a day in 1497.[366] In this same year ten 'faucons' (small guns which fired balls of about 2 lbs.) were made by William Frese,[367] founder, at 10s. the hundredweight, and eight faucons of brass were made by William Newport,[368] who was a London bell-founder,[369] while John Crowchard repaired an old serpentyne that John de Chalowne made and provided '10 claspis for the touche holes of diverse gonnes with 5 oliettes and fourteen staples,' weighing 53 lbs. at 2d. the pound, and also '7 bandes of yren made for the great gonnes mouthes.'[370] Cornelys Arnoldson at the same time was paid for mending five great serpentynes and making two new chambers to them, for '5 forelocks with cheynes to the said gonnes,' for 'handills made to the chambres,' and for 'vernysshing and dressing' the guns.[371]
At the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. large purchases of cannon were made abroad, from Hans Popenreuter and Lewis de la Fava of Mechlin, from Stephen of St. Iago, from Fortuno de Catalengo, and from John Cavalcante of Florence, who also, in return for a grant of alum, agreed to import saltpetre to the value of £2400.[372] But the English foundries were not idle: Humphrey Walker, a London gunfounder, supplied fifty pieces of ordnance, at 12s. the pound, as well as much shot,[373] while Cornelys Johnson 'gonnemaker,' made and repaired ordnance for the navy.[374] John Atkynson, another founder, in 1514 was paid 2s. 'for 8 lodes of clay to make molds for a great gun chamber' and a further 8d. for 5 lbs. of hair 'to temper the clay withall'; he was also supplied with latten and iron wire, and John Dowson made certain iron work, including 'a rounde plate for the bottom of the chambre, in length 4½ feet, with 10 rounde hookes; a rounde plate with a crosse for the mouthe of the chambre; 36 bandes of 4 foot in length for to wrapp the chambre in; ... 6 pynnes of hardyron, 2 hokes, a stamme, a quespile,' etc.[375]
The medieval period of gunfounding came to an end with the discovery, about 1543, of a method of casting iron cannon in the entire piece—then boring them. This discovery is usually attributed to Ralph Hogge of Buxted and Peter Baude, his French assistant, and resulted in the ironmaking districts of the Weald of Sussex and Kent becoming the chief centre of the manufacture of ordnance.[376]
CHAPTER VII
POTTERY—TILES, BRICKS
The manufacture of earthen vessels was one of the earliest, as it was one of the most widespread industries. From the end of the Stone Age onwards wherever suitable clay was to be found, the potter plied his trade. The Romans, who had brought the art of potting to a high pitch of excellence, introduced improved methods into Britain, where numerous remains of kilns and innumerable fragments of pottery testify to the industry and the individuality of the Romano-British potters. Several quite distinct types of pottery have been identified and are assignable to definite localities. Great quantities of black and grey wares, consisting of articles of common domestic use, ornamented for the most part only with broad bands of darker or lighter shading, were made in Kent near the Medway, the finer specimens being associated with Upchurch. From the potteries in the New Forest[377] came vases of greater ornamental and artistic execution, but it was the neighbourhood of Castor in Northamptonshire that occupied in Roman times the place held in recent times by Staffordshire. Round Castor numbers of kilns have been found,[378] and the peculiar dark ware, with its self-coloured slip decoration, occurs all over England, and also on the Continent.
Romano-British kilns have been found in a great number of places, some of the best preserved being at Castor,[379] in London,[380] at Colchester,[381] Radlett (Herts.),[382] and Shepton Mallet (Somerset).[383] Speaking generally they consisted of a circular pit, about 4 to 6 feet in diameter, dug out to a depth of about 4 feet: in this was a flat clay floor raised some 2 feet from the bottom of the pit by a central pedestal. Into the space between this floor, or table, and the bottom of the pit came the hot air and smoke from a small furnace built at one side of the pit, or kiln proper. On the clay table, which was pierced with holes for the passage of the heat and smoke, were ranged the clay vessels to be baked, and these were built up in layers of diminishing diameter into a domed or conical structure, the layers being separated by grass covered with clay, the whole was then covered in with clay, leaving only an aperture in the centre at the top,[384] and the furnace lighted.