ECONOMIC HISTORY.
AGRICULTURE. In 1086
the northern half of the parish included several
agricultural estates, (fn. 36) but the number of ploughteams is not recorded. In Ruddle there were three
teams, of which one belonged to the demesne and
two belonged to 2 villani and 4 bordars. (fn. 37) By 1220
there were four teams in Newnham excluding Stears
and, apparently, Ruddle. (fn. 38) Arable land in the 13th
century lay in open fields called Port field and Hyde
croft north of the town, and presumably also in
Charkefield west of the town. (fn. 39) Charkefield had
evidently been inclosed by 1418, but then, and
possibly in 1492 also, there was still some land in
the northern half of the parish lying in selions. (fn. 40) In
Ruddle an open field called Old field may be
indicated in the 13th century; (fn. 41) another Port field,
recorded in 1457, (fn. 42) and Bullo field had both been
inclosed by 1618. A map of Ruddle in that year
suggests that there was no open-field land then, (fn. 43)
but 10 selions of arable in Crookwiry field in Ruddle
were recorded in 1628. (fn. 44)
Inclosure of open arable land may have been
partly for conversion to sheep-pastures, as suggested
by the use in 1621 of a building called Holford's
house, on Dean Hill, as a sheepcot. (fn. 45) In 1608,
however, 8 yeomen and 7 husbandmen in Newnham
township and 6 yeomen and 2 husbandmen in
Ruddle were listed for the muster, (fn. 46) figures which
show that agriculture remained a major occupation.
The landholders of Ruddle included 6 free tenants
in 1604, 1633, and 1714. In 1618 there were also 19
tenants by copy or lease, some of whom were also
free tenants. In 1633 there were 24 tenants altogether, including the 6 free tenants, 10 leaseholders,
and 11 copyholders. Copyhold tenure still survived
in 1713, when there were 20 or 21 tenants in all. (fn. 47) In
1561 Ruddle manor court declared as customs of
the manor that the lord might grant copyholds of up
to five lives, of which the second life-holder had no
right of surrender, that widows had no right of
freebench, that reversions granted by copy were
void, that all the tenants had the same rights as
foresters to take fuel and to pasture their beasts
without stint in the forest, and that the demesne
lands of the manor were immemorially let as copyhold. (fn. 48)
In the late 18th century only a small part of the
parish was under the plough: in 1794 244 a. and in
1801 240 a. were returned as sown, with wheat
accounting for half the acreage in each instance. (fn. 49) In
the earlier 19th century the arable acreage more than
doubled: it was 547 a. in 1839, (fn. 50) and in 1859 over
half of the 100 a. of Hyde farm in Newnham was
arable. (fn. 51) By 1901, however, the arable acreage had
shrunk to 139 a., (fn. 52) and it was not very much more in
1933 (fn. 53) or 1968. In 1831 there were 10 farmers, all
employing labour, (fn. 54) and the number had risen to 12
by 1856 and 14 by 1927. (fn. 55)
MARKETS AND FAIRS.
In the later 12th century
there was a market-place (forum) in Newnham, (fn. 56) and
there are numerous references to stalls and to the
shambles in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. (fn. 57) In
1276 the market was said to be suffering from the
unlicensed competition of tradesmen dealing outside
the town. (fn. 58) It was held every Friday at the end of the
16th century (fn. 59) and in the early 18th; there was then
said to be a great dependence on the markets and
fairs. The fairs, held on the feasts of St. Barnabas
and St. Luke, (fn. 60) have not been found recorded earlier
than 1603, (fn. 61) but presumably they originated, like
the market, in the days when Newnham was Crown
property. By 1740 the corn-market had been in
abeyance for several years, because of the badness of
the roads, but there was an intention to revive it; (fn. 62)
in the seventies the weekly market was not much
used because there were good supplies of produce
brought every day. (fn. 63) In the same period the fairs
are likely to have been neglected, for their dates were
unaffected by the change in the calendar, and in the
early 19th century they were mainly for horses and
cattle. (fn. 64) In 1849 the fairs were unimportant and the
market was not recorded. (fn. 65) In 1886 some inhabitants
regarded the fairs as a nuisance and tried to have
them stopped, but the attempt roused opposition
from the tradesmen and foundered when the ownership of the fairs was acquired with the lordship of
the manor by R. J. Kerr. By 1912 the fairs were
partly pleasurefairs, and the sale of livestock came
to an end during the First World War. (fn. 66) Pleasurefairs were no longer held in 1968, having ended c.
1928. (fn. 67)
MILLS AND IRON-WORKS.
There were two mills in
Newnham in 1227, both belonging to Hugh
Charke. (fn. 68) Both were on Whetstones brook: c. 1240
they were distinguished as the upper mill and the
mill of the fee of Sir John of Monmouth. (fn. 69) The upper
mill was evidently that on the mill-site 200 yds.
north-west of the Culver House: it belonged to
John Staure in 1418 and to Richard Water in 1492, (fn. 70)
was leased by Richard Hill in 1647, (fn. 71) and was
conveyed in 1717 as the water corn-mill belonging
to Blythes Court; in 1851 it was said to have long
since fallen into decay. (fn. 72) The other mill was granted
by Hugh Charke c. 1240 to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, Gloucester, (fn. 73) which retained it (fn. 74) until
1655 (fn. 75) or later. Gloucester corporation, as trustees
of the hospital, leased it in 1582 to Richard Hodges, (fn. 76)
and in 1698 it was recorded as Hodges Mill, since
called Butchers Mill. (fn. 77) Its position is indicated by
the name of Mill meadow, near the site of the railway
station. (fn. 78) A possible water-mill on the stream running into Collow Pill is suggested by an allusion c.
1240, (fn. 79) and a possible windmill by the name
Windmill Hill used in 1839 of the spur south-west
of Hyde. (fn. 80)
Ruddle Mill, which in 1234 belonged to the Abbot
of Gloucester and was being used to found lead for
the abbey roof, (fn. 81) was presumably the mill at Ayleford, recorded as Arlefordes Mill in 1457. (fn. 82) In 1615
Richard Glastonbury was succeeded by his son
Richard as tenant of Ayleford Mill, held of the lord
of Ruddle manor for a term of years. (fn. 83) The tenant
of the mill in 1713 was a Mr., possibly John, Witt, (fn. 84)
and in 1735 the corn-mill was held by Michael
Gladwin and William Charles in succession to Henry
Pritchard and Richard Webb. (fn. 85) In 1765 the cornmill was being converted into a tilting mill which
with forges and other buildings was the subject of
a lease between the Purnells, the Dursley ironmasters. (fn. 86) By 1778 it was a wire-mill, and in 1792
the firm of Dobbs & Taylor had extensive forges
there for working bar-iron and wire. (fn. 87) Dobbs & Co.
had the mill in 1804, (fn. 88) Thomas Taylor, described
as late of Ayleford, iron-master, being dead by
1805, (fn. 89) and in 1812 Browning & Co. were rated for
the mill. (fn. 90) A group of mills entitled 'wire-works' was
marked at Ayleford on a map of 1824, (fn. 91) and a
rolling-mill was among property there mortgaged
in 1830. (fn. 92) Samuel Hewlett of the Ayleford Foundry
supplied rails for the Lydney-Parkend railway from
1823 to 1833, and occurs in 1849 as an iron-founder
and carpenter. (fn. 93) Although the buildings have been
demolished, a long leat, c. 6 ft. wide and following
the twisting contour line from above Two Bridges
to Ayleford Farm, (fn. 94) was readily discernible in
1968.
The works at Ayleford may have been replaced
by the Lower Soudley iron-works, ½ mile further
up the Soudley brook and, like Ayleford, on the
Hayhill estate. The iron-works owned by Edward
Jones that were rated in 1824 (fn. 95) may have been at
Soudley rather than at Ayleford, for a map of the
same year marked a pond, mill, and foundry at
Soudley. (fn. 96) The works, which lay beside the mineral
railway-line from Bullo Pill to the Forest of Dean,
were occupied in 1839 by the Soudley Iron Co., (fn. 97)
and were called the Great Western Iron Works in
1879. (fn. 98) By 1885 they had evidently gone out of use, (fn. 99)
and by 1901 the course of the railway-line had been
diverted to cross the site. The pond made in the
brook above the works had gone by 1920. (fn. 1)
OTHER INDUSTRY AND TRADE.
Before the establishment of the iron-works on the Soudley brook there
were various metal-workers in the town of Newnham.
Leofric the smith of Newnham granted four houses
with a forge there to Llanthony Priory in the 12th
century. (fn. 2) Smiths are frequently recorded until
1939, (fn. 3) there being one at Bullo in 1968, and in the
early 13th century John the ironmonger had land in
Newnham. (fn. 4) Among the craftsmen of the town in
1608 were a pinner and a wire drawer. (fn. 5) In 1715 the liberty to weigh iron on the strand was specified as
one of the rights deriving from the lord of the
manor. (fn. 6) A nail-yard north of Station Road was
apparently out of use by 1879. (fn. 7)
Tanning was a relatively important trade in
Newnham because bark from the Forest of Dean
was easily available. There was a tannery at Stears
in 1276, (fn. 8) and tanners are regularly recorded from
the early 17th century until the early 20th. (fn. 9) A
tannery at Underhill, on the road between the town
and Ruddle, was in use by 1645, when it belonged
to the Trigge family, (fn. 10) and in the 18th century it
passed into the ownership of the tanners, William
Swayne and his descendants. (fn. 11) It was presumably
the large tannery referred to in the later 19th
century. (fn. 12) Tanning at Underhill ceased c. 1922: (fn. 13)
the buildings survived in 1968 as farm buildings,
with a house which was partly of the 17th century.
Another tannery in Ruddle, recorded in 1735, (fn. 14) was
presumably that which gave Tanhouse Farm its
name.
Of the textile trades in Newnham there is scant
trace: Roger the wool-monger was arrested there c.
1220; (fn. 15) dyers are recorded in the 13th and 14th
centuries; (fn. 16) and in the early 17th century there were
a feltmaker, (fn. 17) a broad-weaver, and two other
weavers. (fn. 18) Spinning and weaving were done in the
parish workhouse in the early 19th century. (fn. 19)
Glass making was established in Newnham by
1662, when James de Hugh, a glass maker of the
town, married. (fn. 20) There is no earlier evidence that
the Hughs or Hoes, glass makers in Gloucestershire
from the late 16th century, (fn. 21) worked in Newnham,
and despite the 18th-century statement that Newnham gave rise to the art of glass making in England (fn. 22)
it is more likely that the earliest glass house in
Gloucestershire was at Bristol, Gloucester, or
Newent. After 1653 James Legree or Legury
acquired a lease of land beside the Severn just south
of Newnham Pill, and had built a glass house there
by 1671. In 1673 he was making green glass, and
entered a contract with a London brewer. Stephen
Wilcox (d. by 1671) acquired an interest in the
property, and in the eighties his son Thomas (d.
1698) carried on the glass-works until a fire destroyed the glass-house. Thomas and his brother
John (d. 1684) were also tenants of another glasshouse in Newnham, (fn. 23) and in 1696 there were two
bottle-factories in the town. One apparently went
out of use in 1706, (fn. 24) but the other was represented
by the great glass-house with which the brothers
John Wilcox of Gloucester and William Wilcox of
London were concerned in 1710. John and Thomas
Wilcox were dealing with the great glass-house, and
with the lower glass-house in Gloucester, in 1714, (fn. 25)
but in 1715 the parish was unable to collect a rate
for Mr. Wilcox's glass-house, (fn. 26) presumably because
it had been destroyed. By 1744 the site was called
Glasshouse Bank, where the glass-house lately
stood. (fn. 27) The foundations of the building were still
visible in the seventies, although by then a considerable verdigris factory had been set up in its
place. (fn. 28) The verdigris factory may have been started
in 1768, when Robert Pyrke licensed a group of
London druggists, John Hopkins, Henry Bailey,
William Bartlett, Samuel Sharp, and Thomas Kent,
to dam the stream flowing through his land into
Newnham Pill to a depth of 6 ft. (fn. 29) A belief that the
factory, producing other chemicals in addition to
verdigris for dyeing or for medicinal purposes,
consumed locally produced foodstuffs led in 1774
to a riot; Hopkins, Bartlett, and Kent made an
affidavit that the works used only malt and coal
apart from imported materials, and the justices, at
whose request they had forborne to prosecute the
rioters, advertised their intention of punishing any
further riot severely. (fn. 30) The factory survived in
1804, (fn. 31) but later record of it has not been found. The
building on the lane behind Hill House (later
Unlawater House or Newnham House) appears to
have been part of the works, having an upper floor
of stone; it was converted into a private house in
1953. (fn. 32)
The use of Newnham as a port has been briefly
outlined above; (fn. 33) ships were being built there by
1764, when a brig of 180 tons burden, at the time
the largest built so far up the river, was launched,
apparently from Hawkins Pill. (fn. 34) In 1776 a ship of
400 tons burden, claimed to be the largest ever
built on the Severn, was to be launched, (fn. 35) but it was
surpassed by another Newnham ship of 600 tons in
1778. (fn. 36) Other ships of up to 137 tons were built there
between 1783 and 1802, (fn. 37) and shipbuilding was
carried on in a small way c. 1803. (fn. 38) Rope-making in
Newnham is recorded from 1816 to 1849. (fn. 39)
Apart from trades occurring in most small
places and those already mentioned, there were in
Newnham in 1608 three coopers, a glover, a millwright, a sieve-maker, and a turner, (fn. 40) and in the 18th
and 19th centuries the trades followed included
those of apothecary, cooper, glazier, haberdasher,
maltster, mercer, printer, saddler, skinner, and
tallow-chandler. (fn. 41) In 1831 there were 9 men employed in manufacture and 86 in retail trade or
handicraft, as masters or workmen. (fn. 42) Already by then
the facilities at Bullo Pill may have been attracting
minor industry, for near by there was in 1824 a
marble-works, (fn. 43) about which nothing further has
been discovered. By 1897 the Standard Wagon Co.
Ltd. had works at Bullo Pill; in the 1920s the Bullo
Docks Concrete Co. was also established there, and
the wagon company was replaced by Healey Bros.,
makers of perambulator tyres. (fn. 44) Healey Bros. later
became the Newnham Rubber Mills and in 1968
employed 17 people to make perambulator tyres,
radiator hose-pipes, and other tubing. (fn. 45)
In the town itself the Manor House became a
factory making clinical thermometers when G. H.
Zeal Ltd., which came from London c. 1940, moved
there from the Old Vicarage in 1952; (fn. 46) in 1968 the
firm employed c. 100 people. (fn. 47) Aldrex Ltd., a firm
packaging corsetry which derived from an older
packaging firm formerly established in the town,
started in 1954 in premises on the Green; in 1968 it
employed c. 15 people. (fn. 48)
FISHERIES.
Fishing has been an important
activity in Newnham: in the mid 13th century the
bailiffs bought lampreys and cod to send for the
king's use, (fn. 49) and fisheries are recorded from the 12th
century. Henry I granted to Gloucester Abbey an
exclusive fishery in the Severn where it bounded
Ruddle manor, with the right of erecting fishingweirs. (fn. 50) Henry III confirmed the grant after Ralph
Musard and William de Putot had interfered, as
sheriffs, with the abbey's rights. (fn. 51) In 1326 Richard
of Blaisdon died holding from the abbey a free
tenement in Ruddle that included a fishery in the
Severn; his heir was his kinsman John son of John
Head. (fn. 52) In 1382 William Brayne of Newnham
acquired from John, son of John Fletcher, and his
wife Joan land and a fishery called Head's row in
Ruddle which had been Joan's inheritance. (fn. 53) In
1617 Head's row contained 6 putchers. (fn. 54) Other
fishing-weirs were held of the manor by copy or
indenture: in 1523 the abbey leased a putcher
fishery to members of the Witt family, (fn. 55) predecessors
presumably of the Richard Witt to whom in 1602
the 18 putchers called Court row and the putchers
called Gilbert row were demised for 21 years, and
who in 1617 was presented in Ruddle manor court
for building a great fishing-weir to the harm of all
the king's subjects; (fn. 56) six copyhold putchers were
recorded in 1598 as part of a holding for which the
rent included a kilderkin of pickled herrings, and
the 22 putchers in Putchmeadow row recorded in
1561 and 1604 may also have been copyhold. (fn. 57) A
map of 1618 shows a fishing-weir stretching across
the river opposite Bullo Pill. (fn. 58) In 1866 the Fisheries
Commission refused to grant W. C. Kerr a certificate for his 50 putchers and 3 putts near Bullo,
which he claimed as part of the fishery that had
belonged to Gloucester Abbey, because the evidence
of continuous use was not good and the river was
navigable. (fn. 59) The fishing between Newnham's
Ladder and Box Grove that had belonged to the
abbey and which the Crown leased to Henry Brayne
in 1547 and granted in 1548 to Sir Thomas Heneage
and William Willoughby, Lord Willoughby, (fn. 60)
presumably included the long-net fishing that later
belonged to the lord of Ruddle manor and was said
in 1615 to be greatly decayed: the rent-salmon, paid
apparently by copyholders, were then reduced from
four to two, and arrears were forgiven. (fn. 61) Two
fisheries called Bullo and Collow were claimed for
the manor in 1803. (fn. 62) Long-net fishing continued
into the 20th century. (fn. 63)
In Richard I's reign Roger of Westbury and
William of Garne disputed two fishing-weirs in the
Severn between Garne and Newnham. (fn. 64) Later part
of the fishing upstream from Newnham's Ladder
belonged to St. Augustine's Abbey, Bristol; with
the Ruddle fishery it was leased to Henry Brayne
in 1547 and granted to Heneage and Willoughby in
1548. (fn. 65) A fishery also belonged to Newnham manor
and was mentioned in 1563, (fn. 66) 1595; (fn. 67) and 1835. (fn. 68) A
fishery belonged to the Hill House estate in 1605, (fn. 69)
and in 1752 a fishery with seven putchers near
Hawkins Pill was conveyed. (fn. 70) In 1839 there was a
fish-house, presumably belonging to that fishery, a
little downstream from Hawkins Pill, and another,
belonging to the lord of Ruddle, at Collow Pill,
which was in use in 1968. (fn. 71) The bridge carrying
Church Road across Newnham Pill bears the words
'Unlawater Salmon Fishery 1632', but both the
lettering and the wording suggest that the inscription
derives from the early 19th rather than the early 17th
century.