Cocking Foundry facts for kids
| Traded as | Chorley Iron Foundry |
|---|---|
| Industry | Iron foundry |
| Founded | pre-1818 |
| Defunct | 1884 |
| Headquarters | |
|
Key people
|
Robert Chorley |
The Cocking Foundry (also known as Chorley Iron Foundry) was an old iron foundry in the South Downs of England. It was located north of the village of Cocking, West Sussex. This foundry was busy for most of the 1800s. It made many things, including wheels for watermills. Some of these wheels are still used today!
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Where Was the Foundry Located?
The Cocking Foundry was built on Costers Brook. This brook flows north into the River Rother. The foundry was about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) north of Cocking village. It was also about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) south of Midhurst. Today, the site is on private land. You can hardly see any traces of the old foundry there.
A Look Back: History of the Foundry
The first time anyone wrote about the Cocking Foundry was in 1818. This was in the account books of a nearby estate called Uppark. These books show payments to Robert Chorley of Cocking Foundry. He was paid for fixing the water supply. Later, Chorley put in a new pump. This pump was powered by a large metal water wheel. You can still see some parts of this wheel today. Robert Chorley's name is even cast into a nearby sluice gate.
In 1838, Robert Chorley, who was a "millwright" (someone who builds and repairs mills and machinery), signed a lease. This agreement with the Cowdray Estate allowed him to build workshops. He could also set up water wheels to power his machinery. This shows how important water power was for the foundry.
Maps from the 1840s show a building marked "Mill" at this spot. It also showed a water-wheel. By 1875, maps called the area "Foundry Pond." People still used this name as recently as 1953.
Charles Brown's Time at the Foundry
In 1839, a young man named Charles "Carlino" Brown came to Midhurst. He was the son of Charles Armitage Brown, a friend of the famous poet John Keats. Charles Brown met Robert Chorley and began working for him. He wanted to learn how to be a millwright and engineer.
However, Charles Brown soon felt that Chorley's work was too simple. He wanted to learn more advanced engineering. So, after about a year, he left the foundry. He then started designing a "machine for cutting tobacco." Charles Brown later moved to New Zealand. There, he became an important politician.
The Cocking Iron Works stopped operating in 1884. This was when Robert Chorley's business in Midhurst closed down.
What the Foundry Made
The Cocking Foundry mostly made tools for farming. But it was also famous for making large wheels for watermills. One of these wheels was for the mill in Cocking village itself. This wheel was removed for scrap metal during World War II.
You can also find iron crosses in the churchyard at Cocking. Many people believe these crosses were also made at the Cocking Foundry.
One waterwheel from the foundry has a special engraving. It says it was cast by "Moaze, Engineer & Millwright, of Midhurst, at Cocking Foundry." We don't know much else about this "Moaze."
Foundry Wheels in Museums Today
Two waterwheels made at the Cocking Foundry are still working in local museums!
- Weald and Downland Living Museum: There's a waterwheel at the mill in the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton. This wheel was originally made for Costers Mill in West Lavington. When Costers Mill closed, the wheel was moved to Lurgashall. A millwright named James Lee installed it there. This wheel is 12 feet (3.7 meters) across. It's an overshot wheel, meaning water flows over the top to turn it. It has 40 buckets. When the mill is grinding, it turns about 6 times a minute. Each turn uses about 320 gallons (1,455 liters) of water! The mill was given to the museum in 1973 and rebuilt in 1977.
- Coultershaw Beam Pump: At Coultershaw, you can find the old Coultershaw Mill and the Coultershaw Beam Pump. This pump was put in place in 1872. It helped improve the water supply to Petworth House and the town of Petworth. The pump is powered by an 11-foot (3.4-meter) wide breastshot waterwheel. This means water hits the middle of the wheel to turn it. This wheel was also cast at Cocking Foundry in the mid-1800s.
The Foundry Site Today
Today, there's very little left of the Cocking Foundry. The site is in private woodland next to Costers Brook. In 1988, a group called the Sussex Mills Group visited the site. They found traces of the dried-up pond. They also saw evidence of the old water flow control system. There was a lot of stone debris nearby, showing where the foundry once stood.
