The Hounslow sword factory

A stone’s throw from Hounslow Heath, where the Duke of Northumberland’s River meets the River Crane, is the site of a 17th-century sword mill.

The Hounslow sword factory was famous in its time. It was run by Benjamin Stone, a pretty controversial character in the sword-making world. Many of its sword makers, or ‘cutlers’, came from Germany and became well-known in their own right.

The factory flourished in the 1630s and 1640s, supplying swords to the royals and the military. But the buildings haven’t survived. Today, the sound of blades being ground has been replaced by the roar of planes from the nearby Heathrow Airport.

The swords produced at the Hounslow factory were known to be very high quality. These swords in our collection are not far off 400 years old, but they’ve survived in good condition. They’re inscribed with the Latin “ME FECIT HOVNSLO”, or “made in Hounslow”.

The factory specialised in single-edged cavalry weapons, designed for use on horseback. But we have a range of sword types in our collection.

There’s the straight and slim rapier, a ‘thrusting’ weapon you can imagine being used by two people during a duel. There’s also a mortuary sword with a basket-shaped guard to protect the hand. Mortuary swords were a uniquely British weapon in the mid-1600s and were used during the Civil Wars.

We have a couple of cutlasses, which have curved blades and a serrated back. These are popularly known as a pirate’s sword of choice. Cutlasses were used both as weapons in close-up fighting and as a tool for cutting through things like ropes and vegetation.

This cutlass has a mark of a running fox on the blade, a symbol sometimes found on Hounslow swords. It also has a typically ornamental handle, or ‘hilt’, with a lion’s head on the top.

In the 1600s, German cutlers moved to Hounslow from Solingen, a city in modern-day west Germany with a long history of metalworking and blade making. They were encouraged by King Charles I to come over and develop a sword industry.

The Hounslow factory was set up by a man called John Haydon in 1629. The mills, powered by the nearby rivers, ground and polished the blades. They also produced sword hilts for blades imported from Germany.

In 1630, a man called Benjamin Stone took over the Hounslow sword factory. Stone was a trained sword maker and a member of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers, a City of London guild. This meant he had the right to assemble swords within areas under the City’s control, according to the guild’s strict restrictions on making swords and knives.

After Stone set up in Hounslow, which was beyond the City’s authority, he won the support and protection of King Charles. Stone was appointed blade-maker to the Office of Ordnance, which meant he could make and refurbish swords for the military on a large scale.

At one point, he supplied military stores with 1,000 swords a month. Stone boasted he’d perfected the art of blade making, and his factory produced swords “as good cheap as any… in the Christian world”.

But he seemed to be a pretty tricky and arrogant character. Stone regularly condemned the work of other members of the Cutlers’ Company and saw them as personal enemies. He objected when the Office of Ordnance ordered swords from his bitter rivals. He even made failed attempts to claim a monopoly of supplying swords to the royal stores.

The Cutlers’ Company disliked Stone equally. They didn’t like how he did business – nor did they appreciate him criticising the quality of their swords. Stone was an alienated figure in the cutler world.

Stone employed Englishmen to work under foreign bladesmiths. His sword makers were well known at the time. You’ll find the names of swordsmiths like Joseph Jenks, John Bell and the German cutler Johannes Kinndt inscribed onto the blades. Just like an artist’s signature on a canvas.

The Hounslow factory was just far enough away from the City of London and the control of the Company of Cutlers. It must have been an attractive workplace for many cutlers, who could pursue their trade free from restrictions.

In 1642, civil war broke out in England between supporters of King Charles I, known as royalists, and supporters of Parliament, or Parliamentarians.

Charles and the chief officers of ordnance fled London, leaving Stone without his protectors and supporters. It’s thought that Stone and some of the other cutlers fled to Oxford, where a sword mill was set up.

Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, took control of the area and ordered 200 swords from the factory during the war. They also converted some of the Hounslow mills to produce gunpowder.

Cromwell unsuccessfully tried to reestablish a sword-making industry after the Civil Wars ended in 1651. The mills closed in the 1670s. The area was used for the arms industry and gunpowder production until the 1920s.