Deptford "for transporting the King to Calais"
for the famous meeting with Francis I, known as the
Field of the Cloth of Gold, fourteen loads of timber
were sent from South Benfleet to Deptford, for which
purpose fourteen shillings were paid to Peter Coliar.
This timber came from the neighbourhood, which was
exceedingly well wooded ; it was conveyed to the
shore in thirty-one carts and was probably floated
thence to Deptford.
Of agricultural pursuits sheepgrazing has probably
been the most important in past days ; South Benfleet,
as was the case with the neighbouring parishes,
had its common pasture on Canvey Island. Sheep,
until the Eighteenth Century, were reared more
for the sake of their wool and the milk given by the
ewes than for mutton. Camden mentions as a
peculiarity of Canvey Island that the ewes there were
milked not by women, but by men, who went from
ewe to ewe with a low milking-stool strapped on to
them. The milk was made into large cheeses in the
small dairy sheds, called "wicks," which were
scattered ever the island. In the Middle Ages such
cheeses formed a most important element in the
winter dietary, and cheeses from this part of the
country were regularly sent to castles on the Welsh
border to serve as rations for the garrisions.
During the Eighteenth Century and the early
part of the Nineteenth, factories were established at
Leigh and Stratford for the manufacture of "Roman
Cement." This was made by crushing the large
nodules of solidified mud, called septaria, which were
found along the seashore.
Token coins have been found, belonging, apparently,
to the time of Charles II, bearing the inscription,
"Wm. Thompson of—the Blacksmiths' Arms— South
Benfleet in Essex—His Half Peny."
SMUGGLING DAYS.
Sout Benfleet seems to have been created for
smugglers ; it is not difficult for one seated in one of
18