The Armoury Mill

 

When I said I would do a series of articles on the industrial sites up Deptford Creek it was also my decision to carry on south of Deptford Bridge up the Ravensbourne almost as far as Lewisham.  I did so because I thought this stretch had some interesting sites – like the Brookmill … Elliots … Penns. Prominent among them was where I have got to now, the Armoury Mill. I would have thought this was a site of national importance and it is a shame to see this old mill site now covered with blocks of flats called ‘Silk Works’.  I know it was latterly a silk mill but what a shame to ignore the Armoury itself. 

Perhaps we should also remember that this mill was one of a number of sites producing green energy for centuries although in this case it was used to make weapons of war - albeit for some time they made very, very upmarket weapons indeed. So important was this mill site that there is one substantial book about it and several articles.  And I’m sorry if I am relying on them too heavily for this article.  One of them says about this mill ‘its products encompassed the romance of chivalry, the heroism of warfare, the beauty of silk and the splendour of precious metal’.  It will take me more than one week's articles to get through all that.

There had been a mill on the Armoury site since – I suppose – what we could call ‘time immemorial’.  It’s almost certainly one of the eleven mills which the ‘Doomsday Book of 1086 says were then in Lewisham. The first named mill on the site, which we are aware of,  was 'Toddlesmill' mentioned in a document of 1299 and which was a corn mill with a jolly miller called Walter Wintercoker.   We know this because he was fined for what sounds like overcharging – several times - and, then, poor man, he was forced to become the beer taster for West Greenwich.  He was still at the mill in 1333 when he got compensation for his ‘field of pulse’ being trampled by a neighbour’s ‘beasts’. 

By 1355 the mill was used for grinding metal  – this may have been for domestic and agricultural implements or maybe something else.  A hundred years later an armourer called Blyton worked there.  Seventy years after that Henry VIII took an interest.

Now Henry VIII as we all know, as a young man, was a bloke’s bloke and heavily into sports.   He was especially keen on jousting – which in due course nearly killed him and certainly left him brain damaged.  In the early part of his reign the contestant wanted the best and very fancy armour which had to be purchased from a few specialist centres in Europe.  So Henry decided to set up his own workshops. To start with it was just for posh, really posh, armour and it was not located here at the armoury mill, near Lewisham, but in the Royal Palace at Greenwich.  Now I have been very much avoiding mention Royal Greenwich but I suppose I will have to here – this workshop was the start for what was to become, and in some ways still is, a massive part of British manufacturing industry.

So in 1512 these workshops were set up in the west part of the Palace complex to produce armour for Henry's expensive hobby of jousting and specialist workers were brought in from Europe. The whole works was overseen by a John Blewberry.   There is a long inventory of the equipment orders – many, many different sorts of hammers, anvils and many specialist tools. By 1515 there were eleven German and Dutch workers at the armoury. Of course the armour made here is very well known and there are many experts who have studied it and written many well informed and sometimes popular books and papers.  I am just trying to give a rough introduction to the Ravensbourne mill.

Meanwhile a mill was being taken over and set up to do what we might assume was the heavier and rougher work. After all it wouldn’t have done, would it, to have all that nasty noisy metal work on the king’s doorstep. This was of course the Ravensbourne mill which was already producing metal work and which was hence forward known as the Armoury Mill. In 1514 a new millwheel was installed together with two smaller ones to run the polishing machinery– a major cost at 40s. In 1515 a miller, a Mr Fountain, was appointed.

Furnaces were probably heated by charcoal. The mill itself was of course water powered although in 1528 some horses were acquired and later stabling was built. It might be thought that they were to provide additional power for the mill but more likely they were for many other uses – pulling carts for one.

The mill will have probably worked with sheet iron and it would interest to know where this came from. The obvious answer is of course from the various Wealden ironworks which had been the source of Crown orders for weaponry over several earlier Royal administrations. The Crown had actual interest in some furnaces, including, for example, Newbridge near Hartfield in Sussex which had been built for Henry VII, Henry VIII’s father, for the production of heavy metalwork for gun carriages. At Newbridge there was a blast furnace where pig ironwas produced.  It should also be noted that there was an interest in same of these works by prominent courtiers – like, for instance, Sir Thomas Boleyn.

In the early sixteenth century to make metal sheets, iron bars were ‘battered’ and flattened from iron bars iron by hand.  A standard history of iron working says that the only exception was at Henry VIII’s armoury ‘mill’ but this armoury was an isolated establishment operated for the benefit of the Crown only.  There are references to the best Innsbruck iron being used at the mill –thought to be the best and most expensive iron available. 

The crude pieces of armour would be taken to the mill after they had been made – and presumably following a fitting with the future wearer.  At the mill the pieces were ground by a series of grinding wheels used under water to act as a lubricant. It would then be polished using oil on a leather covered buffering wheel. It then went back to the armoury to be assembled and presumably another fitting by its purchaser.  A suit of armour could have as many as thirty separate pieces all of which had to be joined to each other by straps and braces and still allow maximum movement to the wearer.  It would weigh at least 15 pounds and probably more.

These workshops probably made about a dozen suits a year – there is a record of most of them and many still exist in museums and similar collections. The men who made them were royal servants and wore royal livery

A second mill was added to the existing Ravensbourne Mill in the early 1530s when new stones were added and a new stable built.  There was also a saw pit since two sawyers were employed – using the top and bottom sawyer system. When Henry VIII died in 1547 the armoury was in full production and its work was seen as some of the finest– Henry had achieved his aim of making English armourers the equals of those in Europe

Greenwich armour later evolved into a unique style with an extravagant use of colour to decorate it. It specialised in bold designs using different colours to form vibrant, striking patterns. Colour contrast became extremely important. Decoration depended on the wealth of the buyer, but the use of contrasting colours became a hallmark of the Greenwich style. A distinctive Greenwich style also evolved for the headpiece. 

The armoury and the armoury mill appear to have been neglected in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary Tudor.  But with Elizabeth a new era began here, like everywhere else.  At her court major grandees – Robert Dudley and the like – competed with each other for the grandest and most magnificent set of armour possible. (I am tempted to say they ‘clanked about’ but I am sure armour of this quality may have been very quiet). They had money to spend and they wanted the best. Still extant are armours made for Dudley, and also Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester.

 Elizabeth herself was apparently so impressed with the armour that she visited the armoury and the mill on several occasions.  She saw that the workshops and mill were kept in good order and this continued under James I. Armour - which still exists - was made for his eldest son, Prince Henry. It cost £340 and it was years before this sum was finally paid. The web site which converts Tudor cost into our money says that today that would be just over £2 million.

Henry died in 1612 and with him the interest in armour and tournaments, although both Charles I and Charles II had armour made in Greenwich. The works continued until around 1637.

With the coming of the Commonwealth in 1649 Edward Annesley was ordered by the Council of State to take possession of the armoury and with it all the arms and armour which had belonged to Charles I.  All of this was taken to the Tower and the Greenwich workshops were left to decay.

There are two reasons why I wanted to write about these two Greenwich workplaces – the armoury workshops and mill.  We hear so little- effectively nothing – about industry before 1700 at the earliest.  Although a quick look at books on the Kentish iron industry will soon dispel any noticing that there was nothing.  The armoury successful and it is reasonably well known –even if that is concentrated on Henry VIII’s weight issues. Producing and preparing the metal came from a body of knowledge and workplaces already in existence even if the fancy metal working came from Germany.  The other thing – as we will see in more detail in the next article on the Armoury mill- this really is the foundation of the British arms industry.  We credit Henry VIII with founding the Navy through the Royal Dockyards (although his father also had a big input into it before him) but we also need to credit him with opening works for the manufacture of this armour which was to grow into an industry quite different as technology changed.

From 1637 the mill on the Ravensbourne was left to decay and it is suspected much of its equipment remained – to be removed by those locals who thought they might have a use for it.

The story of this mill site has hardly begun with the Armoury mill - we have yet to get to Enfield, and also to look at silk, and tinsel.  So this will very much be continued in my next.

 

This article has been heavily reliant – as will the following ones -on Sylvia McCartney and John West.  The Lewisham Silk Mill