Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Although the precise meaning behind the different descriptions contained in the
rhyme is not always clear to the modern reader, it does highlight that even adjacent
settlements often have their own individual characteristics. Despite the compactness of
the study area, many factors caused the development of one particular community to take
a different course from its neighbours. ‘Lazy Littleton’ falls just outside the study area,
but the occupants of my three dozen parishes were far from lazy, turning their hand to a
multitude of different jobs in order to earn an honest crust.
The area contains some open and some closed villages, some woodland parishes
(particularly north of Alcester, where the Arrow separated the ancient forests of Arden
and Feckenham) and others more like the predominantly arable Feldon parishes of south
Warwickshire. The pattern of occupational development of each parish and the
availability of an industrial workforce were also likely to have been influenced by various
other factors, such as differing agricultural practices, different types of land tenure, early
or late dates of enclosure, contrasting acreages of waste or commonland and the presence
or absence of dominant landlords or gentry. Accessibility of different building materials
led to an abundance of stone buildings in some parishes contrasting with the traditional
half-timbered homes in the forest and the early use of brick and tile where clay was
readily available. Proximity of roadways, rivers and canals and the gravitational pull of
other nearby towns or cities such as Birmingham and Worcester also influenced the
contrasting development of the various communities. Differences in administrative
allegiance, both civil and ecclesiastical, also created subtle contrasts between
neighbouring villages.
Alcester was the only town in the chosen area at the start of the period, (and most
likely the only parish with more than one thousand inhabitants), but Redditch grew
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