Surrey
Surrey's most significant source of prosperity in the later Middle Ages was the production of woollen cloth, which emerged during that period as England's main export industry. The county was an early centre of English textile manufacturing, benefiting from the presence of deposits of fuller's earth, the rare mineral composite important in the process of finishing cloth, around Reigate and Nutfield. The industry in Surrey was focused on Guildford, which gave its name to a variety of cloth, "gilforte", which was exported widely across Europe and the Middle East and imitated by manufacturers elsewhere in Europe. However, as the English cloth industry expanded, Surrey was outstripped by other growing regions of production.
Though Surrey was not the scene of serious fighting in the various rebellions and civil wars of the period, armies from Kent heading for London via Southwark passed through what were then the extreme north-eastern fringes of Surrey during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and Cade's Rebellion in 1450, and at various stages of the Wars of the Roses in 1460, 1469 and 1471. The upheaval of 1381 also involved widespread local unrest in Surrey, as was the case all across south-eastern England, and some recruits from Surrey joined the Kentish rebel army.
South East England
Cummins Power Generation is in Acol, near Manston Airport on the A299, and Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world and manufacturer of Anadin, had its European R&D site in Sandwich until 2012, next to the River Stour and A256. Hornby, with Airfix and Humbrol, is on the A254 on Westwood Ind Est on the southern edge of Margate; the site started out as Tri-ang Railways in 1954, becoming Hornby in 1972 when the parent company collapsed, and the last model train sets were made there in 1999; these are now made by a company owned by Kader. Nusteel Structures is on the Lympne Ind Est off the B2067 near Port Lympne Wild Animal Park; it is one of the main constructors in the UK of steel footbridges and gantries. Delfinware (owned by WPP plc) makes dish drainers off the A259 on the Pennypot Ind Estate in Hythe. Megger Group Limited make electrical test equipment in Dover on the A20; nearby P&O Ferries is on the A20 below the Dover Western Heights. Saga plc, founded in 1959, has a large headquarters in Sandgate, next to Folkestone School for Girls, at the A259/B2963 junction.