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on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric Alexander
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Cort’s links with Fareham
Fareham’s first connection with Cort is as a point on his route
from Gosport, where he already rents a wharf.
He needs to take raw materials to his mill
at Fontley, and bring back the material he makes there.
By the creek at Fareham he
finds "a large and commodious quay" built by the last of the Gringos on "two acres of mudlands" in
1737. This quay now belongs to Peter
Barfoot. Cort rents it at £25 per year.
From Barfoot's quay the goods travel overland some three miles
through Fareham. The route can still be
traced, though the last mile passes along an exceedingly muddy track and requires
a detour to cross the M27.
In the 1780s Cort is dragged into a dispute over the quay. Barfoot accuses the trustees of the Fareham
turnpike of encroaching on his land while widening the causeway over Fareham
Creek from 15 to 38 feet.
This land includes the quay that Cort has been renting: the
encroachment has discouraged him, Barfoot says, from accepting renewal of the
lease.
In June 1785 Barfoot's workmen attempt to demolish part of the
causeway, provoking the trustees to take legal action against him.
After much wrangling, an "inquisition" is held in
September 1786. Cort, "the
ingenious and celebrated iron founder", is called to testify.
His evidence is hardly helpful to Barfoot. Having paid £25 per year during the lease's
five-year term, he is faced with an increase.
He declines to renew.
Whether this decision is really influenced by loss of amenity
due to the trustees' encroachment is not evident.
Barfoot’s own account of
this dispute is held at Hampshire Record Office. It is the only document seen so far containing the names of both
Cort and Samuel Marshall, said by Barfoot to be a
turnpike trustee. Marshall’s latest
command, the Pegase, is anchored near Portsmouth most of the time the
dispute is running.
Meanwhile Cort’s sister-in-law Ann
Becher has moved to Fareham (probably to the house in High Street where Thackeray meets her some 30 years later. Around the same time Cort moves from Gosport
to Catisfield (now on the western fringe of Fareham, about a mile from the
Fontley works). An inventory of the
Catisfield house appears among the properties investigated by the inquisitions of 1789.
It is likely that Cort’s partner Samuel Jellicoe and his family
move into the Gosport property vacated by Cort.
The next link we know of is late in the 20th century,
when Hampshire County Council renames the Fareham school closest to the Fontley
site “Henry Cort Community School” (now “Community College”).
As the millennium approaches, Fareham Borough Council seeks a
project to win money to support the refurbishment of West Street. They plan to commemorate
Henry Cort with work in wrought iron, made by blacksmiths.
The Millennium Commission agrees to support the project.
Artists from all over Europe are invited to submit designs. Eleven entries are accepted.
So begins my connection with Henry Cort. I have been writing about blacksmiths’ work,
and have served three years as magazine editor for the British Artist
Blacksmiths Association. I know some of
the artists chosen.
I ask the council: would they like a book about the project?
The result, West Street Trail, emerges in June 2000.
And I set off on my own trail down the Henry Cort road.
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Related files |
henrycort.net
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