Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

and practising midwifery without a licence. 195
presented as recusants or non-conformists. 196
In Stuart times three schoolmasters were
They may have kept catholic or nonconformist
schools in their home parishes or in nearby Alcester or Stratford.
Until Victorian times children of the Central Belt were not blessed with abundant
opportunities for education. References to schools are few and far between and many
may have been very ad hoc, short-lived or part-time arrangements. 197
However, tiny
Ardens Grafton already boasted a Sunday school by the 1780s. 198
In the nineteenth
century educators are more in evidence including a couple of governesses and Haselor’s
musical brothers: a music professor and a piano-tuner. 199
Although music was an
important part of parish life, it was often a secondary occupation or performed by
amateurs. Musicians rarely appear in local records, but even tiny Spernall had its own
fiddler. 200
Sport too was largely undertaken on an amateur basis, but a ‘horse-courser’ is
recorded in the 1730s. 201
Apart from the midwife mentioned above other men and women in this subdistrict
must have been consulted by their neighbours in times of ill-health and
confinement, but in contrast with other subdivisions, this zone was devoid of surgeons,
195 WoRO, BA2724.
196 Johnson, Warwick County Records, 6, p. 60, (quarter sessions 1683/4), concerning William Edkins,
Temple Grafton, schoolmaster, and ibid., 8, p. 169, (quarter sessions 1686), concerning Elisha Lane,
Haselor, schoolmaster, both for non-attendance at church. Samuel Case of Arrow and Alcester is
mentioned above in Zone A.
197 In Worcester Weekly Journal 12 Oct. 1749 John Bell, rector of Exhall, formerly master at Alcester
Grammar School, advertised that he was taking private pupils. At the start of the century the master of
Aston Cantlow’s school had been the parish’s incumbent, but in mid-century the school was run by Thomas
Hayes, (also a weaver and victualler). (WoRO, probate of Thomas Bevan, Tardebigge, (no occupation
given), 1756, witnessed by Thomas Hayes, Aston Cantlow, schoolmaster.)
198 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 7 May 1789 carries a notice from Sunday school pupils thanking their
benefactors for books and for dinner on Easter Monday. The parishes with schools can be seen in
Appendix 19.
199 WaRO, 1841 and 1851 census, Upton, Haselor.
200 WaRO, Studley burials, 1767: the burial of John Corbet of Spernall, fiddler.
201 WoRO, marriage licence of William Sparritt, Arrow, horse-courser, March 1731. Maybe he was
employed at the stables at Ragley Hall, or was what we would now call a jockey.
232