Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Before 1800 the number of trades in this zone was greater than in the other rural
zones and by the nineteenth century exceeded the number in Alcester, the market town.
Although the zone specialised in needle production, other trades grew up to serve these
manufacturing communities. 15
parishes in Zones B and C. 16
This zone’s parishes each had more trades than most
Occupations in probate and other sources indicate the
existence of proto-industrial colonies as early as the seventeenth century. Their
continued growth is borne out by other evidence, such as the rapid increase of cottage
encroachments in Sambourne manor circa 1700. 17
The most densely populated parishes
in 1801, Feckenham, Studley and Tardebigge (including Redditch), were the ones which
continued to urbanise at a later date. 18
In the twenty-year period 1660-1679 probate inventory values in this zone were
below the average for the study area as a whole, but from 1680 until inventories cease
circa 1760 its inventory values were above average. In conjunction with other factors
such as demographic growth it appears that this zone’s economy was faring better than
the economy of the other zones. 19
An analysis of this zone’s occupational structure
follows taken from probate, marriage licences, parish registers and censuses,
supplemented by reference to various other sources. 20
15 Smith also noted an increased range in trades and services in the towns in her Nottinghamshire study. C.
Smith, ‘Population growth and economic change in some Nottinghamshire market towns’, pp. 35-39.
16 See Tables 8.9 to 8.12 in Chapter 8 for more detail.
17 SCLA, DR5/2489 and WaRO, CR1505/16, Sambourne manor court records, 1686 and 1705. These
documents show that cottage encroachments increased from 19 in 1686 to 33 in 1705. Discussion of the
economic development of Sambourne and other ‘proto-industrial’ colonies follows later in this chapter (in
the metalworking section and in the summary at the end).
18 See Appendix 24.
19 See Appendix 3: Probate inventory values.
20 The various sources and their uses are discussed in Chapter 2.
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