Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

yarn, etc. 100
There were also a couple of other rope-spinners, flax-dressers and a sackmaker
in records at this time, some of whom may have been Averill’s employees. 101
Although the flax and hemp industry were never huge employers, references to
flax-dressers abound in Alcester compared with other parishes, suggesting its importance
in processing local flax (and hemp). This industry provided employment for women, not
only in spinning yarn, but also in pulling the crop. 102
There is no evidence of papermaking in Alcester. The card-maker in 1674,
William James, most likely made wire cards for use in the textile trade. 103
The ragman
and a rag-gatherer who emerge from the records in Period D probably supplied papermills
in nearby villages. 104
Alcester was home to several tailors, some of whom were also described as
bodice-makers. ‘A parcel of bodices’ valued at £24-17-6 in the shop of John Taft,
bodicemaker, comprised more than a quarter of his total personal effects. 105
It may be
that Alcester’s bodicemakers enjoyed the same ‘widely flung markets’ as their Evesham
and Pershore counterparts. 106
However, after Taft’s death in 1729 the descriptor
‘bodicemaker’ is not found, as the garments or the need for a local specialist maker
100 West’s Warwickshire Directory 1830.
101 WaRO, Alcester 1851 census lists a male sackmaker and also a female flax-spinner.
102 Sharpe, ‘The female labour market in English agriculture during the Industrial Revolution: expansion or
contraction?’, p. 168. Hemp was used by the likes of Thomas Nicholls, sacking-weaver and ropemaker,
described in Period C.
103 WoRO, marriage licence of Timothy Collit, May 1674, witnessed by William James, Alcester, cardmaker.
104 WaRO, Alcester 1841 census and Alcester baptisms 1823. Paper mills at Beoley, Bidford and Aston
Cantlow, see below.
105 WoRO, probate of John Taft, Alcester, bodicemaker, 1729, £81-5-3.
106 Martin, ‘The social and economic origins of the Vale of Evesham market gardening industry’, pp. 44,
49, describes Pershore and Evesham’s hosiers and bodicemakers exporting to Germany, etc. As noted in
the previous chapter, Alcester’s involvement in the knitting industry had collapsed.
94