Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Chandlers were never abundant in the woodland villages, but a few appear in
records before 1750, such as Aston Cantlow’s chandlers, who also farmed and sold
groceries. 124
Wood and charcoal
Charcoal burners are absent from local records throughout the two centuries, but
several Haselor residents supplied ‘coal’ to Coughton Court in the 1660s, most likely
charcoal. 125
No doubt charcoal was still produced in the local coppices in the eighteenth
century, but perhaps in declining quantities as pit-coal became more readily available. 126
In the 1790s Heath states that wood is the usual fuel in Inkberrow parish, ‘though coal at
1s. per cwt. is much cheaper. It is probable that the labourers’ children procure their fuel
from the hedges.’ 127
Using a combination of sources we find a heavy sprinkling of carpenters with
some parishes such as Arrow perhaps having more than their fair share. 128 Tables 6.2
and 6.4 give figures for carpenters cum joiners in the region of 1.7% to 3.5%. The figure
in Table 6.6 (baptisms) is 2.5%, while Table 6.8 (1841 census) gives 2.9%. Country
carpenters had to turn their hand to all types of woodwork for building and joinery. 129
The term ‘joiner’ is perhaps less common here than in the market town, but Edward
124 WoRO, probate of Edward Walker, Aston Cantlow, chandler, 1721, £58-14-3, and WaRO, QS9/12/1,
which shows that Francis Charles (chandler) held 2 yardlands at the time of the enclosure award.
125 WaRO, CR1998/LCB/40, Throckmorton MSS. VCH Warwickshire, iii, p. 110, states that there is a
seam of coal under Haselor church too deep to mine. The place-name Collisters Hill (meaning Colliers’
Hill?) in Great Alne may indicate an early charcoal-burning site.
126 Coppices may also have been overexploited or neglected as in other parts of the country.
127 Rogers, The State of the Poor (by Sir Frederic Morton Eden), p. 349.
128 It may be that the Ragley estate in Arrow was a good source of timber, and the craftsmen were well
situated to serve Alcester with perhaps more room to store timber than in the town.
129 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 29 Sept. 1785 advertises the stock of Thomas Laugher, an Inkberrow
carpenter, who was moving to London. His stock included coffin parts, cabinet goods, ‘bureaus’, and items
such as casks and pails ‘in the coopery way’. WoRO probate of Thomas Surman, Kington, yeoman, 1791,
asks carpenter Thomas Skinner of Kington to make his coffin.
219