Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

allowed bigger boats to proceed further upstream to Stratford-upon-Avon. 4
However,
Bidford and also Welford and Pebworth continued as service centres for their lesser
neighbours throughout the study period. 5
By contrast, although Salford Priors was a
large parish, it remained largely agricultural. The size and characteristics of each parish
are reflected in the number of male occupations present in probate over the two centuries
of this study and also in their different population densities. 6
Taking this zone as a whole
probate reveals fewer occupations than in other zones. 7
No doubt the residents of the
Champion Country looked to Stratford, Evesham and Chipping Campden as well as
Alcester for some of their needs.
Appendix 3 shows the values of male probate inventories and allows a
comparison with other zones. The value for males in this zone average £129 in 1660-79,
falling dramatically to £92 in 1680-99. This may well reflect the fall in corn prices at the
time, which perhaps reduced the wealth of the many farmers hereabouts. In the years
1720-39 this zone was the only one to show an increase in personal wealth. Maybe it was
less affected by epidemic and slump than the other zones.
As with Alcester in Chapter 4, an analysis of the Champion Country’s
occupational structure follows using probate, marriage licences, parish registers and
censuses, supplemented by additional information from other sources, where relevant. 8
4 VCH Warwickshire, iii, p. 50, and C. Hadfield and J. Norris, Waterways to Stratford, (London, David &
Charles, 1962), pp. 15-21. However, VCH Warwickshire, iii, p. 49, quotes Sir Simon Archer who says that
Bidford’s market cross was ‘all downe and ruinated’ as early as 1639. (Bidford’s status as a market centre
is not clear. See Period C.) Average (mean) probate values for Bidford males are among the lowest in the
Study Area at this period: 1660-79: £94; then 1680-99: £98.
5 Bidford’s nineteenth century occupational structure is examined in Appendix 10.
6 For example, the contrasting neighbouring parishes of Weston and Welford. See Tables 8.10 and 8.14 in
Chapter 8 and Appendix 24 for more detail.
7 A characteristic of Champion country compared with towns or wood-pasture villages.
8 The various sources and their uses are discussed in Chapter 2.
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