Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Some of Bidford’s inns had wharves on the Avon; one innholder had ‘boats on the water’
worth £1-10-0. 169
In the second half of the eighteenth century the Avon continued to be an
important link with the outside world. Changes were made to the regulations of
navigation on the river, and wharves such as those in Cleeve Prior were safeguarded for
public use. 170
From the early nineteenth century water transport up the Avon to Stratford
could now access the markets of the midlands and the north via the Stratford upon Avon
Canal, while the transport of goods downstream to Gloucester and Bristol was still a vital
link. Tolls were collected on the River Avon Navigation, but the collectors are unknown
to us. 171
The river must have been busy with boats of fishermen, coal-dealers and other
boatmen, while labourers and wharfingers transferred goods from water to land and vice
versa. 172
Marketing, dealing, retailing and food and drink
As explained above, Bidford was struggling as a market centre. Its weekly
market was revived in 1754, but it is not known how long it had been in abeyance
beforehand, nor how long the revived market lasted. 173
Bidford and most of the other
169 WoRO, probate of John Gittins, Bidford, innholder, 1684, £29-5-0.
170 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 30 May 1751 reports celebrations in Evesham that an Act had been passed
regulating tonnage on the Avon, by which ‘the trade of the river is laid open’. Berrow’s Worcester Journal
9 April 1795 carries an advertisement that the lease on the River Avon Upper Navigation is to expire
shortly and anyone interested in leasing the same should make offers. WoRO, b140, BA8/4, Cleeve Prior
enclosure award, specifically mentions the public wharves; these were important to the quarrying trade.
171 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 24 Dec 1829 shows the tolls paid on different stretches of the river.
172 Some wharfingers also kept riverside pubs, such as Mark Hughes, (WaRO, 1845 PO Directory and 1851
census for Bidford.)
173 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 6 June 1754 notes that Bidford’s ‘ancient corporation’ had revived the
market which was now to be toll-free. Bidford’s status as town or village was not clear, but Berrow’s
Worcester Journal 26 March 1789 reported the inhabitants of the ‘ancient corporation of Bidford’
celebrating the king’s recovery. The weekly market had apparently ceased before 1800.
177