fermenting barley or rye with the addition of stale beer or urine. These initial processes polluted the rivers beside which they took place and polluted the air with chemicals. Tanneries made unpleasant neighbours and the people of Wrotham town were fortunate that the tanners found their sites in the countryside.
   Tanners received cattle hides from the butchers, still with horns and hooves attached. The hides had to be trimmed and cleaned of blood and meat. They were pegged out on the ground and the tanners’ dogs did the preliminary clean with their teeth. Tanners’ dogs were on the staff of every tanyard. Plate I shows a tanner’s dog sitting closely watching his master (in a window given by the tanners’ guild to Bourges Cathedral). After this initial clean, the hides were washed, in running water if possible. Unhairing and fleshing were the next processes. The hides were soaked in a weak mixture of slaked lime and water, to loosen any fat and flesh still attached to the skin. Then the hide was flung over a convex metal working surface called a beam and scraped on both sides to remove hair and anything else still adhering. The tanner in the Bourges window is working on a beam. His dog is hoping for scraps.
   Then the hides were divided up into the different qualities of hide and handled daily in pits of mild tannin solution. When the colour of the