Sir Samuel Fludyer

"I, Sir Samuel Fludyer, councillor and alderman of the City of London, approached the good people of Chippenham, making them an offer to buy all their manufactured cloth at interesting prices. After many discussions with the clothiers of Chippenham, my offer was accepted and I became not only Mayor of Chippenham in 1754, but also one of their Members of Parliament.

Business, I am pleased to say, has prospered, both for me as wool broker, and for the Chippenham clothiers who have prospered greatly. It is pleasing to see that many fine Bath Stone houses are being built out of their profits through selling wool to me. Many of the good people of England who travel through Chippenham on the mail coach have commented to me that Chippenham deserves its description as 'Little Bath'.

My strong business connections with Chippenham, along with other wool factoring in England, led me to be nominated and elected as Lord Mayor of London in 1761, followed by being a Director and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

From my recently rebuilt residence at 11 The Market Place, I can look out of my upstairs window and see the strong evidence for the prosperity of the Chippenham clothiers.
It is my pleasure to take you on a tour of Chippenham, to admire the many fine houses and general layout of this prosperous cloth town of Wiltshire."

Key Dates

Samuel Fludyer born. First son of Samuel Fludyer, a London clothier originally from Frome in Somerset

• 1734 - Samuel Fludyer becomes a councillor of the City of London
• 1751 - Samuel Fludyer becomes an alderman of the City of London
• 1753 - Samuel Fludyer becomes a director of the Bank of England
• 1754 - Samuel Fludyer is returned as MP for Chippenham, and buys 11 The Market Place. He also becomes a sheriff of the City of London in this year.
• 1755 - Samuel Fludyer is knighted
• 1759 - Samuel Fludyer is created a baronet
• 1761 - Samuel Fludyer is Lord Mayor of London
• 1766 - Samuel Fludyer becomes Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
• 1768 - Samuel Fludyer died 18th January

Samuel Fludyer and Chippenham

In 'Beauties of Wiltshire', published in 1801, John Britton opens his account of Chippenham in the following way:

"Chippenham is a town of considerable importance, not only on account of its great antiquity, but also from its increasing commerce, arising from the establishment of its extensive clothing manufactories, which, in conjunction with its favourable situation as a principal thoroughfare to the western cities, will, in all probability, soon cause it to assume a rank little inferior to any in the county."

According to Britton, Samuel Fludyer approached the clothiers of Chippenham offering to supply them with wool and to sell their cloth in return for making him their factor and procuring him a seat in Parliament.

Fludyer became MP for Chippenham in 1754. He bought 11 The Market Place in Chippenham, formerly the Old Bear inn, and had it rebuilt as a private residence.

Britton tells us that Fludyer exceeded his promise to the clothiers, and the result of this arrangement was that "the clothiers acquired fortunes".

New, stone-built residences were erected with the clothiers' new-found wealth, and many fine examples can still be seen in Chippenham. This renovation of the town acquired Chippenham the nickname of 'Little Bath'.

Not only the clothiers benefited, but also the people of Chippenham and the surrounding villages who were employed in the cloth industry to spin, card, reel, weave, shear and dress the cloth.

The cloth industry in Chippenham

Cloth making has probably existed in Chippenham since the Middle Ages, but this would have been on a small scale with the cloth worked by individuals. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Wiltshire was an important exporter of cloth, and in particular 'broadcloth'.

In the 16th century work in the cloth industry was carried out on a domestic scale. Clothiers bought wool and then distributed it to spinners; the spun wool would then be returned to the clothiers who would take it to the weavers, etc.

By the end of the 17th century, some cloth making families, such as the Scotts and Goldneys of Chippenham, had moved up the social ranks to be considered as 'gentry' due their prosperity as clothiers.

Until the middle of the 18th century, most clothiers had limited capital. However, from the time of Samuel Fludyer's involvement with this industry in Chippenham, clothiers began to prosper. The Chippenham clothiers' association with Samuel Fludyer's London firm continued until 1812, some time after his death.

Towards the end of the 18 th century, the advent of machines put pressure on workers in the cloth industry. In 1791, Robert Sadler of Chippenham published a poem entitled 'The Discarded Spinster; or, a Plea for the Poor on the Impolicy of Spinning Jennies'.

In 1796, Thomas Goldney bought a house near the Bridge, and probably used the land there to build the Bridge Factory which appears in records in 1811. In 1816 the Bridge Factory employed 44 workers, but only two years later the business no longer existed.

The factory at Waterford Mill is also listed in records for 1811, and was occupied at that time by George Austin & Co. It was owned by Thomas Bailey who ran the adjacent tannery. In 1815, the cloth factory, with water wheel and new 14 horse powered engine was sold to the clothier partnership of John Saunders and Thomas Hosier Saunders of Bradford-on-Avon, and Charles Salter Taylor of Chippenham.

By 1816, the Chippenham cloth industry was in depression, while the Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon clothiers were still prosperous. In the same year, the advent of the fly-shuttle led to unrest among the cloth workers in Chippenham.

By around 1820 there were 3 cloth factories in Chippenham that were driven by small steam engines, but the industry was in decline. During the 1820s, empty woollen mills in Chippenham were being converted to silk and crêpe manufacture.

In 1830, Charles Salter Taylor went bankrupt. The Waterford Mill factory was owned by Saunders, Fanner & Saunders by 1841, but they went bankrupt in that year. The factory was auctioned, with the sale particulars announcing that the factory and tannery together influenced 50 votes in local elections. The mill used the new railway to send a bolt of cloth to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 for which they won a medal.

The cloth industry in Chippenham finally dwindled as other industries, such as engineering, dominated in the town. Although partly destroyed by fire in 1915, the Waterford factory continued in use until 1930 under the ownership of T.P. Pocock and Co.