Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Edwards was described as an ‘architectus’. 62
Like many masons in this zone Thomas
Edmonds of Oversley worked with both stone and brick. 63
The term ‘bricklayer’ was
rare before 1800, but the term was used as an alternative descriptor for masons in
Oversley throughout the eighteenth century. 64
Plumbers and glaziers were always rare in this zone, but a couple of families in
this trade were found in Kinwarton and Great Alne in the first half of the eighteenth
century. In 1730 one such glazier left Great Alne for Alcester, where business
opportunities were greater. 65
By the nineteenth century this zone’s building workers
included plasterers, bricklayers, thatchers, glaziers, painters and plumbers, but all in very
small numbers. 66
The figures in Tables 6.2 and 6.4 probably under-represent the number of men
working in quarrying. 67
Looking at the baptism data in Table 6.6 we can see that the
building sector held its own from 1813 to 1840, while extractive industries may have
tailed off in the 1830s. The disparate percentages of non-agricultural labourers in the
1831 census, (mentioned in the agriculture section above), highlight the differences
62 Johnson, Warwick County Records, 7, p. 190 and 9, p. 55, quoting QS in 1680-92, mentions Hopkins
concerning encroachment in Great Alne. WoRO, probate of John Ganderton, Inkberrow, (no occupation
given), 1679/80, mentions William Edwards, Inkberrow, ‘architectus’, which at this period probably meant
someone who designed and built.
63 WoRO, probate of Thomas Edmonds, Oversley, (Arrow), (no occupation given), 1739, £138-11-2. He
had stone worth £8-12-8 at the ‘stone quarrs’ and brick and coal at the ‘brick kill’ worth £11-1-0.
64 For example, WoRO, marriage licence of Joseph Allcock, Oversley, (Arrow), bricklayer, June 1769, and
earlier members of the Smith family.
65 WaRO, DR360/65, Alcester settlement paper, 1730, of John Watson from Great Alne to Alcester, and
QS35/1/4, licensed victuallers’ returns, 1740, mentions John Watson, Alcester, plumber and glazier.
66 The only thatcher as such noted in this zone over the two centuries was in WoRO, Inkberrow, 1841
census. As noted in other zones, labourers and others would also undertake thatching tasks.
67 In those tables all those described as masons or stonemasons are included in the building sector, whereas
many of these men were also involved in quarrying. Also, some men in these sectors were less likely to
leave probate documents or marry by licence than some other groups, which makes the figures more
erratic. In quarrying parishes farmers often held the land which included the quarries and ran such
businesses themselves, so some quarry operators are subsumed under farmers.
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