Jennerations

A genealogy of the Jenner and Moate Family

Foundry House, Tanyard, , Hurst Green, Sussex, England

Notes:
A J Haselfoot in Sussex Industrial History, no 9, pp 27-30



THE HURST GREEN FOUNDRY

By A . J . Haselfoot.

The firm of Albert Oakley Ltd ., at Hurst Green in East Sussex, was one of the last jobbing foundries and general engineering works in the County and has a long history spanning more than 250 years . According to C . W. (Bill) Oakley, the son of Albert Oakley and last surviving member of the family in Hurst Green, the foundry was started in 1704 by G . Huntley who was probably a wheelwright as well as a smith . It may have been called the Regent Foundry originally as this name was found on the back of one of the forges. In 1722 it was owned by John Huntley and in 1864 by Thomas Page, although it was rented to and operated by Thomas Pierson and later by George Pierson, who is described in Pike's Directory for 1886 as 'Iron and brass founder and general smith'.

Albert Oakley, who was born about 1857, was one of four brothers, all smiths or ironfounders ; Tom had a foundry at Hawkhurst, Ned a forge as Ash in Kent, and Frank, who owned the first motor car in Kent, had a foundry at Horsmonden . Albert first worked at the foundry for George Pierson and later took a 21 year lease of it on 21st March, 1887 from the owner, Henry Walker, who had inherited it under the will of Thomas Page who died on 19th April, 1864 . A valuation and inventory made on 12th May, 1887 for George Pierson, when selling the fixtures and fittings to Albert Oakley, is an interesting hand-written document . In addition to the foundry itself with its cupola furnace, foundry crane, bellows, moulding sand etc ., there is a smith's shop with three hearths, three anvils, a drilling machine, shears, benches, vices etc ., and seven sledges and ten hammers . There was also a fitting shop with two lathes, grindstone etc ., and a 4hp horizontal engine for driving the overhead shafting.

The pattern shop with bench and lathe, the pattern store, carpenters bench, tools, scales, barrows etc . and various forgings, castings, scrap and pig iron were also included . The whole was valued at £k41 .14s .1Od .( +41 .74) plus 15s .(75p), being half the cost of the stamp and the inventory, giving a total purchase price of £1fk2 .9s .10d (E442 .49) . The inventory and valuation were made by John Every of the Phoenix Iron Works, Lewes, and Edwin Stephen Mills, Auctioneer & Valuer of Sandhurst . Payment was made by £100 in notes, a bond of 0150 and a note-of-hand for the remainder, £192 .9s .10d. (192 .49).

In a trade letter of 12th May, 1887 Albert Oakley describes himself as 'Engineer, Foundry & Smith's business, lately Thomas Edwin Pierson' so George had continued to trade under the name of Thomas Pierson, presumably his father . There was also another smith's business in Hurst Green, run by James Tester, who is described in the Post Office Directories of 1851 and 1870 as 'blacksmith & ironfounder' ; he continues to appear in directories as a smith until 1887, but a trade card of Albert Oakley describes himself as 'late Tester & Sons', so he appears to have taken over Tester's business as a smith as well as leasing the foundry from Henry Walker . A George Tester - painter - appears in Kelly's Directory for 1895 but in their Directory for 1903 a James Tester - blacksmith - appears, besides Albert Oakley - engineer & ironfounder, so the Tester Family had obviously started up a smithy again.

On 20th August, 1890 the foundry, Albert Oakley then being the tenant, was sold at auction by Henry Walker and bought by James Ford of Hurst Green, to whom Albert Oakley was instructed to pay his rent in future . In the Sale Notice the property was described as 'Hurst Green Iron and Brass Foundry, Workshops and Dwelling House' ; the-stables, front and back gardens were included . The buildings were given as :- 'Foundry 32'6" x 31'6" - Engineer's Fitting and Turning Shop 38' x 14'9" with Pattern Loft over - Blacksmith's Shop with three Fires 25' x 24' - Fitting Shop with Loft over 24' x 14' - Large Drying Store . All in brick with tiled roof' . The double-dwelling house was set back from the road, of brick and weatherboard with a tiled roof, extensive garden or lawn in front, and a brick stable and large garden at rear . The dwelling house had been partly destroyed by fire and, not having been restored, was then unoccupied . As a result of this the rental, which had previously been l+4 .14s .0d .('1+4 .70) had been reduced to €30 . p .a. The Land Tax payable was given .as 14s . (70p) p .a . An indication of machinery prices at this period is shown by an offer from a London firm in 1892 of a 10' lathe with 9" bed-clearance for £45 .18s .Od . (LA5 .90), delivered to Etchingham Station.

In 1908 the lease of the foundry expired and Albert Oakley bought it. He died in 1912 and the foundry passed to the Oakley family who, in 1919, formed the private company - Albert Oakley Ltd . - to carry on the business of iron and brass founders, smiths and general engineers . The foundry side of the business virtually ceased about 1958 when the moulder, Bill Oliver who was the mainstay of it, left, but the engineering side continued until 1972 when the works were sold to Harper & Ede of Lewes . In 1974 Harper & Ede, as part of their development plans for the site, decided to demolish the foundry and workshop buildings . They offered the complete contents of the foundry and pattern shop to the Southern Industrial History Centre who acquired them for subsequent erection at the Chalk Pits Museum, Amberley, together with all the overhead shafting from the workshop and the driving motor and starter . The workshop machines were retained by Harper & Ede.

At this time the foundry itself had been out of use for some years, although the workshop with its lathes and drilling machines was still in use ; the original steam engine driving the overhead shafting had however been replaced by an electric motor . Of the three hearths mentioned in the 1887 inventory only one remained and this was no longer in use . The pattern loft also was no longer being used, though there were a number of patterns stored there . The cupola furnace, wooden foundry crane, ladles, crucibles and tongs, and some mould boxes were removed, together with the complete contents of the pattern loft, with its bench and lathe, a large number of patterns and core boxes, and various castings from some of the patterns . The overhead shafting from the workshop, complete with bearing brackets, driving belts, electric motor and starter, was dismantled and removed . A complete set of photographs was taken for record purposes and measured drawings were made of the furnace with its blower, and the overhead shafting, so that it will be possible to construct a fairly accurage representation of the foundry and workshop for ultimate display at the Chalk Pits Museum . A selection of these photographs is reproduced here showing general views of the foundry and its furnace, the foundry crane, the workshop, smithy and pattern loft . Also illustrated are the small crane on the front of the building with the date carved on the wall alongside, some cast iron animal heads that ornamented the doorway of the dwelling house, and the last castings made in the foundry, which were cast by Bill Oakley . A very early hand-operated petrol pump, said to be the first one to be installed between london and Hastings, stood beside the gate and a number of glass globes from early petrol pumps were also acquired.

Subsequent to the removal of the contents and demolition of the buildings Bill Oakley has very kindly presented to the Museum a number of further items, including a set of moulder's tools, and also all the early ledgers and day books of the firm . He himself worked in the firm all his life, both he and his father Albert being particularly skilled at lathe work . He remembers the furnace being hand-blown by casual labourers for beer money . Farm workers also used to come and work the hand blower in their off-time, being paid in beer which they drank out of their boots . The ledgers and day books give a fascinating picture of the work of the firm over nearly a century . A few entries date from the period 1878 - 1881, two customers being marked as being in account with James Tester & Sons, showing that the Hurst Green Foundry had taken over business from Tester & Sons even before Albert Oakley acquired it . The main ledgers start in 1887 and the Museum has an unbroken run of them up to the end of the First World War . A fair amount of the firm's business has naturally been in the field of agriculture, supplying and repairing farm machinery; drag shoes for wagons are a continually recurring item in the early ledgers and a large number of patterns for these have survived with tyre widths varying from 1-" to 7" . However, anything was grist that came to their mill and the outstanding impression from all the ledgers is the tremendously wide range of goods and services that were handled ; water-heating boilers and cisterns, pipes and guttering, scythes, spades, shovels, etc ., fire bars for furnaces and grates, gear wheels and pulleys, gratings for road drains, wheels and hubs for railway wagons, bearings and baseplates for machines; as well as the supply, repair and maintenance of all kinds of farm machinery, and later on of cars and lorries . Nothing came amiss to them and the firm was obviously prepared to tackle anything that any of their customers needed in the general field of mechanical engineering . Various forms of decorative cast iron work were also made, e .g . rustic style garden benches (a bench end casting is in the Museum), cast iron crosses for graves (a pattern for one still exists) and fronts for domestic grates (several of these are in the Museum) . The royal coat of arms on the Royal George Hotel at Hurst Green is also a product of the foundry.

The area covered was mainly East Sussex and the adjacent parts of Kent and Surrey, though in the early years of this century some more distant customers appear, in London, Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire . The number of customers on their books was generally between 200 and 250, though it dropped to 160 in the period from 1901 to 1906 and rinse to nearly 400 in the early 1920's . The firm had a very steady trade with local farmers and land-owners, supplying some of the large estates with almost their entire needs in engineering items and general ironmongery, as well as maintaining and repairing their farm and garden machinery . Rudyard Kipling first appears on their books in 1912 and intermittently afterwards . They were also regular suppliers to several big builders and builder's merchants, and supplied items to the Kent & East Sussex Railway, Hastings Corporation and the East Sussex County Council . They also held the agencies for several manufacturers of agricultural machines, ploughs, reapers, binders etc ., and also for manufacturers of small portable oil engines for general use on farms and large estates.

In conclusion I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bill Oakley for the help and information he had given me during the preparation of this article, for kindly allowing me to examine various papers relating to the history of the firm, and for generously donating a number of items to the Chalk Pits Museum - in particular the early ledgers and day books which contain so much interesting local history .

Latitude: 51.019265, Longitude: 0.469884