Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

parishes in this zone held annual fairs, which varied in size and speciality. 174
The good
folk of the Champion Country also attended various local markets: Stratford, Evesham,
Chipping Campden as well as Alcester. Bidford, and to a lesser extent Welford and
Pebworth, served their less populous neighbours, filling the retailing niche between
market town and hamlet.
After the Restoration Bidford was home to several dealers and retailers, such as a
salter, ‘hustler’ and cheesemonger. 175
As may be expected, shopkeepers were not so
common in this zone as in Alcester. However, there are references to a few bakers,
mercers and butchers. The latter, and also the local millers, often farmed quite
substantially and were wealthier than the petty village craftsmen. Some seven corn-mills
served the ten parishes. 176
The bakers may have sold their produce in local market
towns, as well as serving their own communities, where they fulfilled important roles in
village life. 177
One Welford baker had his finger in various pies apart from the ones he
baked. 178
In the eighteenth century this zone played its part in making England a nation of
shopkeepers. Village shops were on the increase as rural folk demanded more exotic or
luxurious wares. 179
In some cases craftsmen or their womenfolk began to sell a wider
range of wares, in other cases wealthy families invested in the retail trade. In the latter
174 See Appendix 13.
175 Johnson, Warwick County Records, 9, p. liii, quoting quarter sessions concerning the barge riot,
mentions the salter and the hustler. The latter may mean a ‘huckster’ (small dealer) or an ‘ostler’ looking
after customers’ horses at an inn. WaRO, Throckmorton MSS, CR1998/LCB/26, shows the cheesemonger
supplying the Throckmorton family.
176 See Appendix 17.
177 GlosRO, probate of John Keck, Long Marston, gentleman, 1718, £5-9-6, includes his request that
‘Barnaby Fletcher [should] make cake for my funerall but no bread’.
178 GlosRO, probate of Thomas Bromley, Welford, baker, 1729, £291-2-2. He practised mixed farming,
stocked grocery wares and may also have done some weaving. He was owed some £140 in the shop book.
179 Although many shopkeepers failed to leave probate, Table 5.2 shows a small increase in the food, retail
and service sector in Period B and a larger increase in Period C. Other sources confirm this trend.
178