METAL WORKING
The English craftsmen were renowned for their metal work from the days
of St. Dunstan downwards. St. Dunstan was the patron of the goldsmiths,
his image being one of the chief ornaments of their gild hall in
London, and a ring attributed to his workmanship was in the possession
of Edward I. in 1280,[291] while his tools, including the identical
tongs with which he pulled the devil by the nose, may still be seen
at Mayfield. Coming to later times and the less questionable evidence
of records, we may probably see in Otto the Goldsmith, whose name
occurs in the Domesday Survey of 1086, the progenitor of the family
of Fitz-Otho, king's goldsmiths and masters of the Mint from 1100 to
1300.[292] The names of many early goldsmiths[293] have survived, and
the beautiful candlestick given to St. Peter's Abbey at Gloucester in
1110, and now in the South Kensington Museum, is evidence of their
mastery of the art. The great religious houses were foremost patrons
of the craft, many of them, as the Abbey of St. Albans, numbering
amongst their inmates artists of great repute. The famous college of
Beverley included a goldsmith in its household,[294] but in 1292, when
it was determined to erect a new shrine for the relics of St. John of
Beverley, the chapter did not entrust the work to their own craftsman,
but sent up to London to the establishment of William Faringdon, the
greatest goldsmith of that time. The contract between his servant,
Roger of Faringdon, and the Chapter of Beverley is still extant.[295]
By it the chapter were to provide the necessary silver and gold; Roger
was to refine it, if needful, and to supply his own coals, quicksilver,
and other materials. The shrine was to be 5 ft. 6 in. long, 1 ft. 6 in.
broad, and of proportionate height: the design was to be architectural
in style, and the statuettes, the number and size of which were to be
at the discretion of the chapter, were to be of cunning and beautiful
work, the chapter reserving the right to reject any figure or ornament
and cause it to be remade. For his work Roger was to receive the weight
in silver of the shrine when completed, before gilding. No very general
rule can be laid down as to the proportion between the intrinsic value
or weight of metal and the cost of workmanship, but roughly in the case
of simple articles of plate the cost of manufacture may be set at
approximately half the weight. Thus in the case of the plate presented
by the city to the Black Prince on his return from Gascony in 1371[296]
we find six chargers, weight £14, 18s. 9d., amounting with the making
to £21, 7s. 2d.; twelve 'hanappes,' or handled cups, weight £8, 12s.,
amounting to £12, 7s. 7d.; and thirty saltcellars, weighing £15, 6s.
2d., amounting to £21, 17s. 8d. The charge for making silver basins
and lavers in the same list amounts to about two-thirds of the weight.
The rate appears to have remained fairly constant, as in 1416 William
Randolf made four dozen chargers and eight dozen dishes of silver for
King Henry V. at 30s. the pound.[297]
The demand for silver plate during the later medieval period must
have been brisk, for every house of any pretension had its service of
plate standing on the cupboard or dresser. Nothing more astonished
the Venetian travellers in England in 1500 than this extraordinary
profusion and display; they noted that,[298] 'In one single street,
named the Strand, are 52 goldsmiths' shops so rich and full of silver
vessels, great and small, that in all the shops in Milan, Rome, Venice,
and Florence put together I do not think there would be found so many
of the magnificence that are to be seen in London. And these vessels
are all either saltcellars or drinking-cups or basins to hold water
for the hands, for they eat off that fine tin which is little inferior
to silver.' Although the home of the goldsmiths is here stated to be
the Strand, their chief centre was in Lombard Street and in Cheapside,
where, just about the time that this Venetian account was written,
Thomas Wood built Goldsmiths' Row with its ten fair houses and fourteen
shops and its four-storied front adorned with allusive wild men of the
wood riding on monstrous beasts.[299] Even as late as 1637 efforts were
made to compel the goldsmiths to remain in Cheapside for the greater
adornment of that thoroughfare.[300]
The Venetian reference to the 'fine tin' used for plates and dishes
serves to remind us that gold and silversmiths had no monopoly of
metal-working. Pewterers, founders, and such specialised trades as
bladesmiths and spurriers played an important part in the realm of
industry, and if the materials upon which they worked were less
valuable in themselves, the finished products were not to be despised
even from a purely artistic point of view. The figures of Queen Eleanor
of Castile and Henry III., both cast by William Torel, and those of
Edward III. and Queen Philippa, by Hawkin of Liége—to name but a few
obvious examples—are magnificent examples of the founder's work.
Mention may also be made of the tomb of Richard II. and his queen, at
which Nicholas Croker and Godfrey Prest, coppersmiths, worked for four
years, and for which they received £700.[301] To deal at all fully with
all the many branches of metal-working is outside the scope of this
book, but two particular branches, the founding of bells and of cannon,
are worth treating in considerable detail.
References to BELLS[302] during Saxon times are not infrequent, but
probably the earliest notice connected with their manufacture is
the entry amongst the tenants of Battle Abbey in the late eleventh
century of 'Ædric who cast the bells (_qui signa fundebat_).'[303] It
is likely that most early monastic peals were cast in the immediate
neighbourhood of the monastery by, or under the supervision, of the
brethren. But in the twelfth century, when Ralph Breton gave money to
Rochester Cathedral Priory for a bell, in memory of his brother, the
sacrist sent a broken bell up to London to be recast.[304] Possibly
the craftsman who recast this bell was the Alwold 'campanarius' who
was working in London about 1150.[305] Another early bell-founder was
Beneit le Seynter, sheriff of London in 1216.[306] Mr. Stahlschmidt is
no doubt right in interpreting this founder's name as 'ceinturier'
or girdler,[307] for there was at Worcester in the thirteenth century
a family whose members bore indifferently the name of 'Ceynturer' and
'Belleyeter.'[308] The demand for bells could hardly have been large
enough to enable a craftsman to specialise entirely in that branch, and
a bell-maker would always have been primarily a founder, and according
as the main portion of his trade lay in casting buckles and other
fittings for belts, or pots or bells, he would be known as a girdler, a
potter, or a bell-founder.[309]
The medieval English term for a bell-founder was 'bellyeter'
(surviving in London as 'Billiter Street,' the former centre of the
industry), derived from the Anglo-Saxon _geotan_, to pour: the word
is occasionally found used independently as a verb, the agreement for
casting a bell for Stansfield in 1453 stipulating that it should be
'wele and sufficiantly yette and made.'[310] So far as the process
itself is concerned,[311] it remained unchanged in its main features
until comparatively recent times and a considerable number of records
relating to bell-founding have survived and throw a little light upon
the details of the art. The first step was the formation of the 'core,'
an exact model of the inside of the bell, formed of clay. When this
had been hardened by baking, the 'thickness,' corresponding exactly to
the projected bell itself, was built up upon the core; finally, over
the 'thickness' was built a thick clay 'cope.' Originally, it would
seem, it was usual to make the 'thickness' of wax, which, melting upon
the application of heat, ran out and left the space between the core
and cope vacant for the molten metal to flow into: possibly some of
the early uninscribed bells which still exist may have been formed in
this fashion, but it seems clear that from the end of the thirteenth
century the use of wax was abandoned in England, the 'thickness' being
made of loam or earth.[312] The clay cope, moulded over this, was
carefully raised by a crane, the 'thickness' destroyed, and the cope
readjusted, after any inscription or other decoration had been stamped
on its inner surface. In order that the metal might flow directly from
the furnace into the mould the latter lay in a pit in front of the
furnace. The furnace doors being opened, the metal, consisting of a
mixture of copper and tin, flowed into the mould. If the metal was not
in a sufficiently fluid state, or if any check occurred the caster
would 'lose his labour and expense,' as happened to Henry Michel when
he recast the great bell of Croxden Abbey in 1313, and the work would
have to be done all over again.[313] But if the work had been properly
carried out the completed bell had to be tuned, unless, as was the case
at St. Laurence's, Reading, in 1596, 'not so much the tune of the bell
was cared for as to have it a loud bell and heard far.'[314]
The tuning was done by grinding, or cutting, down the rim of the bell
if the note was too flat, or by reducing its thickness, filing down
the inner surface of the sound bow, if the note was too sharp. In
order to reduce the amount of tuning required it was necessary to know
approximately the relation between size, or weight, and tone, and as
early as the reign of Henry III. a monk of Evesham, Walter of Odyngton,
devised a system by which each bell was to weigh eight-ninths of the
bell next above it in weight.[315] This system, delightfully simple
in theory, could not have yielded satisfactory results in practice,
and it is probable that most founders had their own systems, based
upon experience and practical observation. The question of whether
a bell was correctly in tune with the others of the peal was one
which naturally led to occasional disputes. When Robert Gildesburgh,
brazier, of London, a fifteenth-century bell-founder, cast two bells
for Whitchurch in Dorset, the vicar refused to pay for them, as he
said they were out of tune. Gildesburgh requested that they should be
submitted to the judgment of Adam Buggeberd, rector of South Peret, who
accordingly came over and heard them rung, and decided that there was
no fault in them.[316] In the case of the bells recast for the church
of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, in 1510,[317] we have first an entry of
6½d. paid 'for Reves labour and his brekefast for comyng from Ludgate
to Algate to here the iiij bell in tewne'; and then, as apparently the
churchwardens were not satisfied with his report, 8d. paid 'for wyne
and peres at Skran's howse at Algate for Mr. Jentyll, Mr. Russell,
John Althorpe, John Condall and the clarkes of saynt Antonys to go
and see whether smythes bell wer tewneabill or not.' Possibly the
decision in the case of this fourth bell cast by William Smith was
not satisfactory, as the 'great bell' seems to have been entrusted to
William Culverden, a contemporary founder, many of whose bells, bearing
his rebus of the culver or wood pigeon, still exist.
The bell having been fitted with an iron clapper, swung from a staple
inside the crown of the bell by a leathern baudrick, was fastened on
to a massive wooden stock furnished at its ends with gudgeons, or iron
pivots, to work in the bronze sockets of the frame, and was now ready
to be hung in the belfry. But although it was now a finished 'trade
article,' there was yet one more process to be undergone before it
could summon the faithful to church: it was usual, though apparently
by no means universal, for the bells to be blessed. Thus the bells
of St. Albans Abbey were consecrated in the middle of the twelfth
century by the Bishop of St. Asaph;[318] and a detailed account of the
dedication of the great bell called 'Jesus' at Lichfield Cathedral in
1477 has been preserved.[319] In the case of the five bells of St.
Michael's, Bishop's Stortford, recast by Reginald Chirche of Bury St.
Edmunds in 1489 at a cost of £42, an extra 17s. 6d. was paid 'for
their consecration (_pro sanctificacione_).'[320] That the dedication
ceremony included a form analogous to baptism is clearly shown by an
entry in the accounts of St. Laurence, Reading, where, in 1508, we find
'paid for hallowing the great bell named Harry 6s. 8d. And over that
Sir William Symys Richard Clich and Mistress Smyth being godfather and
godmother at the consecracyon of the same bell, and bearing all the
costs to the suffragan.'[321]
Of the early centres of the industry London was naturally the most
important. Two early bell-founders of this city have already been
mentioned, but it is noteworthy, as showing that to a certain extent
a man might be 'jack of all trades' even if he was master of one,
that several bells were cast for Westminster Abbey by Edward Fitz
Odo, the famous goldsmith of Henry III.[322] That monarch, a patron
of all the arts, granted 100s. yearly to the Bell-ringers' gild
of Westminster for ringing the great bells.[323] Mr. Stahlschmidt
has shown that the centre of the bell-founding trade was round
Aldgate and in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew Undershaft and St.
Botolph-without-Aldgate,[324] while amongst the more prominent early
founders were the family of Wimbish at the beginning of the fourteenth
century and the Burfords at the end of the same century. Contemporary
with these last was William Founder, whose trade stamp, bearing his
name and a representation of two birds on a conventionalised tree,
occurs on a number of bells and hints at his real surname, which,
although it has hitherto eluded historians, was clearly Wodeward.
Mr. Stahlschmidt[325] noticed the entry on the Issue Rolls of 1385
recording the purchase of twelve cannon from William the founder, but
did not notice that the very next year sixty cannon were bought from
William Wodeward,[326] while in 1417 other cannon were provided by
William Wodeward, founder.[327]
Amongst the provincial centres we may notice Gloucester, where Hugh
Bellyetare occurs about 1270, and John Belyetere in 1346,[328] the
latter being presumably the Master John of Gloucester, who with his
staff of six men came to Ely in 1342 to cast four bells for Prior
Walsingham.[329] A later bell-founder of some eminence at Gloucester
was William Henshawe, who was mayor in 1503, 1508, and 1509.[330]
Another of the craft who obtained more than local reputation was
John de Stafford, mayor of Leicester in 1366 and 1370,[331] who was
called in by the chapter of York to cast bells for the Minster in
1371.[332] This is the more remarkable as York was itself a centre of
the industry, the most famous of its founders being Richard Tunnoc,
who represented the city in Parliament in 1327, and dying in 1330,
left behind him as a worthy memorial 'the bell-maker's window' in
York Minster.[333] In the central panel of this window Richard Tunnoc
himself is shown kneeling before a sainted archbishop; the two other
panels show the process of bell-making. In the one the master workman
is supervising the flow of the metal into the mould from a furnace, the
draught of which is supplied by bellows worked by two young men, the
one standing upon them with one foot on each and the other holding the
handles. The remaining panel is usually said to represent the moulding
of the clay core, but it seems to me more likely to represent the
finishing, smoothing, and polishing of the completed bell.[334] Richard
Tunnoc is shown seated holding a long crooked instrument (resembling a
very large boomerang), and applying it with great care to the surface
of the bell, or core, which an assistant is rotating on a primitive
lathe consisting of two trestles and a crooked handle. The space round
each panel is filled with rows of bells swinging in trefoiled niches.
The number of churches in the larger towns being much greater in
medieval times than at the present day, and few of these churches being
content with a single bell, most of the chief towns, and in particular
those possessing cathedrals or important monasteries, had their
resident bell-founders. In the case of Exeter, Bishop Peter de Quivil,
about 1285, assured the proper care of the bells of the cathedral by
granting a small property in Paignton to Robert le Bellyetere as a
retaining fee, Robert and his heirs being bound to make or repair,
when necessary, the bells, organs, and clock of the cathedral, the
chapter paying all expenses, including the food and drink of the
workmen, and these obligations were duly fulfilled for at least three
generations, Robert, son of Walter, son of the original Robert, still
holding the land on the same terms in 1315.[335] Canterbury was another
local centre of the trade, and from Canterbury came the founder who in
1345 cast a couple of bells at Dover, the one weighing 3266 lbs., and
the other 1078 lbs., for each of which he was paid at the rate of a
halfpenny the pound.[336] In East Anglia there was an important foundry
at the monastic town of Bury St. Edmunds, one of the fifteenth-century
founders using as his trade mark a shield, which is interesting as
bearing on it not only a bell, but also a cannon with a ball issuing
from its mouth. Norwich, again, with its seventy churches and its
cathedral priory, was a busy centre of the industry. One of the later
Norwich founders, Richard Brasier, seems to have been more skilful
than straightforward and to have devoted some of his skill to evading
his obligations. In 1454 the churchwardens of Stansfield bargained
with him to cast a bell for their church, half payment to be made on
delivery and the other half at the expiration of a year and a day if
the bell proved satisfactory, but if it did not he was to cast a new
bell for them; he, however, taking advantage of their being unlearned
men caused the latter clause to be omitted from the indenture, and
when the bell proved unsatisfactory refused to make a fresh one.[337]
A few years later, in 1468, the parishioners of Mildenhall brought an
action against him for breach of contract. It had been agreed that the
great bell of Mildenhall should be brought by the parishioners to 'the
werkhous' of the said Richard Brasier and weighed by them, and that
Brasier should then cast from the metal of the old bell a new tenor
bell in tune with the others then in the church steeple, and should
warrant it, as was customary, for a year and a day, and if it were not
satisfactory should at his own expense take it back to Norwich 'to be
yoten.' They had duly carried the bell to his workshop, but he had not
cast it; in defence his counsel urged that although they had brought it
they had not weighed it, and that until they did so he was not bound to
cast it. On the other side it was argued that the point was frivolous,
that he could have weighed it himself, and that indeed the indenture
implied that it was to be weighed and put into the furnace by his men
in the presence of the men of Mildenhall.[338] A jury was summoned,
but did not appear, and the case was adjourned.
The suppression of the monasteries, followed by the seizure of Church
goods, including large numbers of bells, formed the rude termination
of the medieval period of the industry, and may be symbolised by the
death of William Corvehill, formerly subprior of Wenlock, 'a good bell
founder and maker of the frame for bells,' at Wenlock in 1546.[339]
We have seen that a cannon is shown on the shield used as a trade
mark by a fifteenth-century Suffolk bell-founder, and the casting
of ORDNANCE may rank with the casting of bells as one of the most
interesting and important branches of the founder's craft. Cannon seem
to have been introduced into England at the beginning of the reign of
Edward III. In 1339 there were in the Guildhall 'six instruments of
latten called gonnes and five roleres for the same. Also pellets of
lead weighing 4½ cwt. for the same instruments. Also 32 lbs. of powder
for the same.'[340] This same year guns are recorded to have been
used by the English at the siege of Cambrai, and they were also used
at Creçy in 1346. Two large and nine small 'gunnes' of copper were
provided for Sheppey Castle in 1365;[341] but whether any of these were
of native manufacture may be doubted, though a small gun sent over to
Ireland in 1360 is said to have been bought in London,[342] which does
not, of course, necessarily imply that it was made there. In 1385,
however, the sheriff of Cumberland included in his account of repairs
to the Castle of Carlisle 'costs incurred in making three brass cannons
which are in the said castle,'[343] and in the same year 'William
Founder,' as we saw when considering his work as a bell-founder,
provided twelve guns. Next year the same William Wodeward made no less
than sixty cannon for Calais.[344] As he was still providing ordnance
in 1416,[345] we may probably identify him with 'Master William
Gunmaker,' who made several small cannon in 1411, two of them being of
iron.[346]
The early cannon were made of bronze of a similar composition to
that used for bells, and when iron was introduced the cannon of that
material were made in the form of a tube composed of long iron bars,
arranged like the staves of a barrel, bound round with iron bands.
They were all breech-loaders, consisting of two separate parts, the
barrel and the chamber; the latter being a short cylinder, usually
detachable, in which the charge of gunpowder was placed, and which was
then fastened into the base of the barrel by means of a stirrup or
similar apparatus. Double-barrelled cannon appear to have been fairly
common, as in 1401 eight single cannon and six double (_duplices_)
were sent to Dover Castle, and the same numbers to Scotland.[347]
An inventory of the artillery at Berwick-on-Tweed taken at the same
time[348] distinguishes between guns 'imbedded in timber bound with
iron' and 'naked' guns; it also mentions 'two small brass guns on
wooden sticks, called handgonnes,' an early instance of small arms. The
same inventory refers to 'quarells for gonnes'; and in the previous
year Henry Robertes, serjeant, dwelling near the Guildhall, was paid
£8, 8s. for twenty-four 'quarell gunnes,'[349] these being guns which
threw quarrels, or bolts similar to those used with crossbows.[350] The
usual projectiles employed in the larger guns were round stone balls,
such as had been in use for mangonels and catapults since the days of
the Romans, and these were supplied from the quarries of Maidstone
and elsewhere down to the time of Henry VIII. Iron 'gunstones' do not
seem to have been made much before the end of the fifteenth century,
and the 'wooden balls for cannon,' of which there were 350 at Dover in
1387,[351] can hardly have proved successful, but lead was commonly
employed for the smaller guns from an early date.
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]