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'''See you the dimpled track that runs all hollow through the wheat ? Oh, that was where they hauled the guns that smote King Phillip's fleet.'''<br />
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== Background to the Casting of Iron Guns in the Weald of Sussex ==
from 'PUCK'S SONG' by Rudyard Kipling<br />
The Fullers also employed a Master Wheelwright among other highly skilled crafsmen, and interestingly there is still a fully-functioning wheelwright's shop on the site today, operated by Douglas Andrews, who has himself constructed a new gun-carriage for an Islamic trophy gun ordered by a Colonel in the Engineers.<br />
The Fuller's forge and foundry was constructed on a particularly difficult site. If it rained too much the site would flood and if it was too dry there was a lack of fast-flowing water in the stream to generate power. In a reply dated 17th October 1754 to the Prince of Severino, who was pressing for a firm delivery date for some guns he had ordered, John Fuller wrote , 'my furnace is a fickle mistress and must be humoured, her favours are not to be depended upon'.
== The Manufacture of Gunpowder ==
'To understand guns you must understand gunpowder' - Adrian B. Caruana<br />
Sanitary arrangements were still primitive in the reign of Henry Vlll and latrines were dug out at night by dung farmers and scavengers, but in the reign of Elizabeth l they were superseded by officials dignified by the name of Royal Saltpetre Men, who collected excrement specifically for the making of gunpowder. This was manufactured using a formula of 75parts saltpetre, 15parts carbon (charcoal) and 10parts sulphur, or brimstone as it was once called. This last name is very evocative as the bright yellow sulphur was indeed collected in lumps from the brims of volcanoes in extremely hazardous conditions. The first two materials produced the explosion and the third added ignition and consistency to the grains of black powder which was milled to the size of corn, hence the name 'corned' powder, as opposed to fine powder. Fine powder was needed to prime the cannons and was also used for small arms.<br />
The quantities of gunpowder loaded onto an 80 gun ship varied according to the theatre of war but would be about 288 barrels of cannon powder and 41 barrels of fine powder. Each barrel weighed 90lbs. Gunpowder was not used loose, but made up into cartridges, first of parchment and later of special cartridge paper. The method of priming a cannon was as follows: The cartridge of gunpowder would be placed down the muzzle, rammed home using a ramrod, wadded, and then the cannonball similarly. A sharp-pointed metal rod would be inserted into the vent to pierce the cartridge and the vent would then be filled up with fine powder. A portfire rod would be used to ignite the fine powder in the vent. This in turn ignited the cartridge, the resultant heat causing the gasses generated to speedily build up into an explosive power sufficient to propel the cannonball up the barrel towards the target at high speed. The optimum amount of gunpowder needed per cartridge for a 32pdr. cannon would be 14lbs. (1 stone). Any excess could such a massive build-up of gasses in the barrel thereby risking the destruction of the cannon and probably most of those attending upon it.<br />
The gunpowder mills at Chilworth near Guildford were founded by the East India Company in 1625. They were forced to leave their previous site near Woolwich because frequent explosive accidents caused havoc among the local population. There were, of course, accidents at Chilworth but it was not a heavily populated area. On one occasion a spark from a workman's hobnailed boot striking on a stone path caused an explosion which killed six men. The mills used the fast-flowing Tillingbourne stream to power the heavy grinding stones of the incorporating process. There were many stages involved in the manufacture and thus it was very labour-intensive. As far as the ingredients were concerned, local alder trees provided the finest charcoal, sulphur was imported from Sicily, and saltpetre imported from India cost £45 per ton. A sufficient supply to last seven years in July 1752 cost £9,000. The discovery that saltpetre could be manufactured from earth gathered from dovecots, to which dung, urine and lime were added, meant that it could be collected locally.
