tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444655216015826707.post6108292418525474631..comments2024-03-28T07:24:02.781+00:00Comments on Faded London: One short stop in Hampton WickYelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444655216015826707.post-9749375164010795692015-06-11T11:27:53.472+01:002015-06-11T11:27:53.472+01:00 £100 is a lot for those days but £700 must have b... £100 is a lot for those days but £700 must have been a fortune for a shoemaker!Letting Agent in Hamptonhttp://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444655216015826707.post-69526790141715824892013-03-18T11:39:06.702+00:002013-03-18T11:39:06.702+00:00Manor House was - sadly - not THE Manor House illu...Manor House was - sadly - not THE Manor House illustrated here but much more mundanely "Manor House" 35 Glamorgan Road where Mary Wilkins lived from 1895 - 1910.Ray Elmitthttp://www.hamptonwickhistory.org.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8444655216015826707.post-10553310155466907212009-12-03T00:38:48.480+00:002009-12-03T00:38:48.480+00:00David Kennedy & Diana Kennedy, “A Malodorous B...David Kennedy & Diana Kennedy, “A Malodorous Business”. Tanners and Shoemakers of Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton and Hampton Wick, 1841-1891. (October, 2001). Summary edit by Neal Hattersley.<br /><br />The Importance of Shoemaking in Hampton Wick<br />Bennett, Wild & Cock<br /><br />The Hampton Wick shoe business was tied to the existence of a Tannery in Kingston and involved traffic across and on The Thames.<br /><br />In late medieval times, there was a Kingston street called Souters Row. Souters were shoemakers. Shoemaking was one of Kingston’s four trading companies (Quasi Trade Associations). A trader who was not a Freeman of one of these companies had to pay a fee for a “Toleration” which allowed him to trade in the Saturday market. For example we know that in 1623, a shoemaker from Hounslow was granted a Toleration for a fee of 20 shillings.<br /><br />Timothy Bennet and Cobblers Way<br />In 1752, Timothy Bennet, a Hampton Wick shoemaker, instigated a legal challenge, at his own personal financial risk, against Lord Halifax, who had bought the title/role ‘Ranger of Bushy Park’, over the noble Earl’s closure of a pathway across the park. This had the effect of securing the right-of-way that is nowadays called Cobbler’s Walk. At his death Bennet was comfortably off, owning 4 houses on Bridge Street as well as his own living accommodation.<br />Timothy’s memorial, situated near the gate to Bushy Park at the end of Park Road in Hampton Wick, says that he was “unwilling to leave the world worse<br />than he found it”. However, the modern explanatory notice next to the memorial indicates that the path was used by people travelling from Hampton to Kingston Market and it can be conjectured that enclosure led to a reduction in the numbers of potential customers passing his shop. Shoemakers were literate before most craftsmen were and often had a strong interest in politics. <br /><br />Shoemaking appears to have reached its peak, in terms of employment, in Hampton Wick around 1840. (The new toll bridge had been built in 1828). After 1870 Hampton Wick became a residential location for the (wealthy) owners of the Kingston Tannery reflecting their rise up the social scale and the growth of Hampton Wick.<br /><br />Tanning was an important British industry in the 19th century. Boot and shoemakers, saddlers, book-binders, glovers, coach and trunk makers, upholsterers and others<br />required an immense supply of leather of every variety. In 1841 there were 6,601tanners in Great Britain, of whom 1,877 were in Surrey, and one third of all British leather was manufactured and dressed in the old county of Surrey, which then included Bermondsey where there was a high concentration of leather producers.<br /><br />In terms of Tanneries, 55 were in what is now London and 11 were in present day Surrey. This includes the Kingston Tannery located where the pub, ‘The Bishop Out of Residence’, now stands. In 1841 tanning was ranked 5th largest trade in Surrey, in terms of people employed, much higher than in Britain as a whole.<br />Available Census returns indicate that the Kingston Tannery employed 10 people in 1851, rising to 18 in 1861.<br /><br />Kingston had a prosperous tanning industry by the 15th century. The tannery on the Bishop’s Hall site had its origins in the 17th century. Horner’s ‘Plan of The Town and Parish of Kingston upon Thames’, published in 1813, shows a “Tan Yard” roughly in the Bishop’s Hall area close to the river and the market. The tithe map of 1840 records that the land in the Bishop’s Hall area, with a cottage, tan yard and<br />building was owned by Richard Fortnum and was occupied by William Phillipson. The Census of 1841 shows James Smithers, a tanner, living with his wife and two children in Bishop’s Hall. The Census gives no clue as to the role that James played in the running of the tannery but he was probably an employee, possibly the foreman, living in tied accommodation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com