Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

migration. In Period B the zone’s main exports of farm produce and cloth continued to be
needed even during economic slumps, so perhaps the Champion Country fared better
than the other zones in the 1720s and 1730s. 218
After their hard times at the end of the
previous century the farming folk here had perhaps learned to diversify more in order to
keep up with changing consumer demands, placing more emphasis on beef, fruit and
vegetables for the Birmingham market than was previously the case. After 1750 many
parishes underwent enclosure as agriculture developed to improve yields in order to feed
mouths in manufacturing districts to the north. In Period D agriculture remained the main
employer of adult males.
Stone was always quarried in Cleeve Prior and Bidford, providing alternative
employment for poorer residents. In Period D stone-quarrying and brickmaking were
apparently exploited more than in earlier periods, but not so successfully perhaps as at
certain places in other zones.
Weavers were present in some numbers before 1800, suggesting a wide market
for their produce. Although the textile trade dwindled in the last period, a few weavers
were kept in business by the cheese-cloth niche market. As opportunities for female
employment as spinners declined, some women and girls were employed as outworkers
for the glove trade in the nineteenth century. Flax-dressing, ropemaking and
papermaking were present at different times, but were never large employers.
Village craftsmen catered for local needs, but the produce of metal and leather
goods for a wider market was never a characteristic of this zone. In the nineteenth
century the needle-trade, machine-making and other metal-ware trades dipped a toe into
this zone, but their employees were few.
218 According to probate inventory values as shown in Appendix 3.
186