Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Those described as labourers turned their hands to all types of work, for example,
John Awkin, sawed wood to make traps and cut holly bushes to block rabbit burrows. He
lived in a cottage on Sambourne Heath and had a few animals and poultry. 55
Access to
the common must have been vital to the likes of Awkin, providing him with fuel and
grazing and thus enabling him to enjoy a certain amount of independence. One labourer
also wove to supplement the family income. 56
Other labouring families participated in
by-employments such as besom-making, lath-cleaving, salt-carrying and needlemaking. 57
It is noticeable that more labourers left probate documents from Coughton parish
(including Sambourne) than any other parish in the whole study area. 58
As we have seen,
the great heath at Sambourne attracted dozens of incomers at this time, some of whom,
with hard work and access to the common, did well enough. Another labourer had
apparently forsaken the Champion Country for the greater opportunities offered by
Coughton and the Needle District. 59
In King Charles II’s reign tobacco was grown in the area and no doubt proved
profitable before its suppression. 60
Probate inventories from 1660 to 1760 are indicative
of mixed farming with all types of corn, hops and flax as well as sheep, cattle, horses and
55 WoRO, probate of John Awkin (alias Hawkins), Sambourne, (Coughton), labourer, 1688/9, £23-0-8. He
probably lived in Hawkins Close on Sambourne Heath and bought trees from the Foleys’ workmen in 1678.
He is mentioned for work done about the warren, etc, (WaRO, CR1998/LCB/26, Throckmorton MSS).
56 WoRO, probate of William Parsons alias Willis, Sambourne, (Coughton), labourer, 1681/2, £71-12-8.
Johnson, Warwick County Records, 7, p. 163, (QS 1679), describes him as a weaver.
57 These are described below in the appropriate section. An example is the Harman family of Astwood
Bank (on the edge of Sambourne Heath and Ridgeway Common), whose members included a labourer, a
salt-carrier, a butcher and in a later generation, needlemakers.
58 Coughton 6 out of 28 in the whole study area in Period A. Also Coughton’s labourers were valued
higher than the average.
59 WoRO, probate of William Bennett, Coughton labourer, 1687, £10-0-2, mentions a cottage and twenty
arable lands which he owned in Barton, (Bidford).
60 G. Griffith, The Free Schools of Worcestershire, (London, Charles Gilpin, 1852), p.205, discusses
tobacco grown in King Charles II’s reign in Feckenham. Johnson, Warwick County Records, 8, pp. 61,
134. Warwickshire QS, Michaelmas 1683 and Easter 1685, ordered seizure and destruction of all tobacco
crops.
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