Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

ironmongers in 1835 was female. 216
Ironmongers, like Thomas Lucas, mentioned above,
tended to be wealthy and influential. 217
Transport
Alcester had been an important local Roman centre and lay at the crossroads of
two Roman roads which still served the area in the seventeenth century, but before 1750
the main coach routes (such as that from London to Shrewsbury) bypassed the town, thus
depriving Alcester’s tradesmen of potential custom. When compared with nearby
Stratford or Evesham, which both lay on the navigable Avon, Alcester was also at a
disadvantage regarding water transport. 218 Although a good source of fish, water-power
for mills and raw material for various industrial processes, the two minor rivers which
join at Alcester, (the Alne and the Arrow), were too shallow to support anything other
than the smallest boats.
Despite the rapid development of the turnpike system in other parts of the west
midlands from 1710 to 1730, Alcester was neglected in this respect until 1754. Local
records yield only one carrier before 1750. He was illiterate and probably from the lower
echelons of town society. 219
However, the town was probably also served by carriers
from the Vale of Evesham en route to Birmingham and from Stourbridge and Feckenham
216 UBD 1792. Pigot 1835. WoRO, probate of John Brandis, Alcester, ironmonger and tallow chandler,
1790, and of William Simes, Alcester, (no occupation given), 1782.
217 WoRO, probate of William Ashmead, Alcester, ironmonger, 1767, and of Thomas Beesley, Alcester,
ironmonger, 1770. In addition to their Alcester possessions William Ashmead owned property in
Tewkesbury while Thomas Beesley owned five houses in Worcester.
218 Its nearest access to a navigable river was at Bidford some four miles south. See Appendix 16.
219 WoRO, marriage licence of Ralph Morton, Alcester, mason, Oct. 1695, witnessed by John Burrowes,
Alcester, carrier.
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