Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

man finding a resource in the industry of his partner, spends the produce of his labour at
the ale-house, and returns to his family to devour the food of his own children.’ 91
This
may do an injustice to many male weavers, but it serves to remind us that if women were
included in local occupational data for the eighteenth century, the textile trade would
increase its share significantly. We are told that Inkberrow’s weavers sold their work in
neighbouring towns. 92
Whereas weavers had once been almost ubiquitous in this zone, Inkberrow’s was
the only baptism register to mention weavers in Period D. 93
Inkberrow’s weavers were
now concentrated along the Ridgeway, where the Hill family and their helpers were
described as hurd-weavers, making coarse linen-cloth or ‘scouring cloth’. This rough
cloth may have been for general cleaning, but was more likely to wrap needles for the
needle-scouring process. This speciality supporting the local needle-trade may explain
why these weavers survived, but the Hills also made rope and twine. 94
Some of their
yarn was supplied by a trio of elderly women. 95
Elsewhere in the Central Belt records
reveal a couple of other weavers, one of whom is specified as a linen-weaver. 96
It may
be that woollen cloth was no longer woven in this zone, although there was a lone female
wool-spinner. 97
91 Rogers, The State of the Poor (by Sir Frederic Morton Eden), p. 349.
92 Bradbrook, History of the Parish of Inkberrow and Local Government, p. 41.
93 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 27 March 1800 also advertises a weaver’s house for sale on the Ridgeway
in Inkberrow with a large, roomy (weaving) shop and an acre of ground and rights of common.
94 WoRO, Inkberrow baptisms 1813-1840 and Inkberrow 1841 and 1851 censuses.
95 WoRO, Inkberrow 1851 census contains one hemp-spinner and two hurd-spinners.
96 WoRO, probate of Mary Harris, Wixford, spinster, 1825, mentions Clement George, Wixford, linenweaver.
97 WoRO, Inkberrow 1851 census.
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