Cocking Foundry
Chorley Iron Foundry | |
Industry | Iron foundry |
Founded | pre-1818 |
Defunct | 1884 |
Headquarters | |
Key people | Robert Chorley |
Cocking Foundry (also known as Chorley Iron Foundry) is an abandoned
Location
The foundry was situated at grid reference SU883185 on Costers Brook, a northward flowing tributary of the River Rother, about 1.2 km (0.7 mi) north of Cocking and 2.6 km (1.6 mi) south of Midhurst.[1] The site is now on private property and few traces remain visible.
History
The earliest known reference to the foundry at Cocking is in the estate account books of Uppark from 1818 which record payments to Robert Chorley of Cocking Foundry for the repair of the water supply. Chorley subsequently installed a new pump which was gear driven from an overshot metal wheel. There are some remains of the wheel and Chorley's name is cast in the nearby sluice gate.[2]
In December 1838, a lease was drawn up between the
On the 1840 tithe map of Cocking, a building marked "Mill" is shown at this location, alongside a representation of a water-wheel.[4] The Ordnance Survey map of 1875 marks the site as "Foundry Pond".[5] This was still referred to as "Foundry Pond" as recently as 1953.[6]
In 1839, Charles "Carlino" Brown (1820–1901), the son of Charles Armitage Brown (close friend and biographer of the poet John Keats), came to Midhurst to visit his Uncle William. While in Midhurst, he met Robert Chorley who agreed to employ and train him as a millwright and engineer. After serving a probationary term, Brown complained to his father that Chorley was no more than a simple millwright and that after his apprenticeship he would have to look for employment elsewhere in order to obtain the knowledge he required. By the end of the following year, the arrangement with Chorley was ended and Brown was engaged on designing a "machine for cutting tobacco".[7] Brown was later to become a senior politician in New Zealand.
The Iron Works stopped working in 1884 when Chorley's business ended in Midhurst.[5]
Products
The majority of the foundry's output would have been the manufacture of agricultural implements etc.
The waterwheel at Bex Mill, just downstream from the foundry, is engraved to show that it was cast by "Moaze, Engineer & Millwright, of Midhurst, at Cocking Foundry"; no other references to Moaze have been found.[9]
Two waterwheels manufactured at the foundry remain in use in local museums. The
At
The foundry today
There remains very little evidence of the site of the foundry which is in privately owned woodland on the banks of Costers Brook. In October 1988, Sussex Mills Group organised a site visit. They found traces of the dried up pond and evidence of flow-control mechanism with a large quantity of stone debris in the vicinity.[16]
References
- ^ Hodgkinson 1989, p. 2.
- ^ Eyre, John; Allnutt, Alan (1986). "The Water Supply to Uppark" (PDF). Sussex Industrial History. Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society. p. 27. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
- ^ a b "The Cowdray Archives". West Sussex Record Office: National Archives. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
- ^ Hodgkinson 1989, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e Cocking History Group 2005, p. 56.
- ^ Salzman, Louis (1953). "Cocking". Victoria County History: A History of the County of Sussex (Volume 4: The Rape of Chichester). British History Online. pp. 43–47. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-0864730817.
- ^ Cocking History Group 2005, p. 55.
- ^ Hodgkinson 1989, p. 4.
- ^ "Costers Mill". West Lavington. www.gravelroots.net. 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d "Watermill from Lurgashall". The Buildings. Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Jones, Robin. "Lurgashall Watermill". Sussex Mills Group. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ "Coultershaw Beam Pump". Sussex Mills Group. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ "Coultershaw Beam Pump 2". Sussex Mills Group. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Taylor, J. E.; Jerome, P.A.; Allnutt, A. G. (1979). "Petworth Water Supply" (PDF). Sussex Industrial History. Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society. p. 21. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Hodgkinson 1989, pp. 3–4.
Bibliography
- Hodgkinson, J. F. (1989). "Cocking Foundry" (PDF). Field Notes. Wealden Iron Research Group.
- Cocking History Group (2005). A Short History of Cocking. ISBN 0-9542357-1-1.