Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

as well as his own. 119
In 1798 a bleaching court at Hewell was mentioned in the land tax
return for Tardebigge. 120
The growing proto-town of Redditch now boasted its own
ropemaker, while an Astwood Bank farmer pursued a sideline in net-making. 121
Although the 1841 census reveals a male lace-maker in Redditch, local cloth
production was becoming negligible in Period D. Those described as clothiers or hosiers
cum haberdashers were probably mainly retailers, rather than makers or organisers in the
textile trade, as in the old sense. On the other hand, Mrs Moore advertised as a silk and
wool dyer. 122
Other women who still adhered to the textile trade include the odd spinner,
mop-spinner, wool-carder, pattern-card-maker and muslin-weaver. 123
Along or near the
Ridgeway there were a handful of male rope and twine-makers, flax-dressers and hurdenweavers,
part of the same small industry described in Zone C in the previous chapter.
Before 1660 water-mills in both Tardebigge and Beoley parish had been adapted
for use as paper-mills. Consequently, a few papermakers emerge from various
documents. 124
Probably only a handful of men and boys would be employed at the
paper-mills, and perhaps women as rag-gatherers and sorters. The demand for paper for
119 WoRO, marriage licence of John Field, Tardebigge, bleacher and farmer, Nov. 1791. Gaut, A History of
Worcestershire Agriculture and Rural Evolution, (Worcester, Worcester Press, 1939), p. 169. Berrow’s
Worcester Journal 10 Sept. 1789 reports the claims for bounty payments for flax grown in Worcestershire.
The biggest concentration of flax-growing was in the Bromsgrove, Stoke Prior, Tardebigge area.
120 TNA, IR23/91.
121 WaRO, DR360/79/63, Alcester apprenticeship indenture of James Farr, Alcester, to William Fleming,
Redditch, ropemaker, 1786. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 25 Dec. 1788 lists items to be sold on the
premises of William Pearhouse, of Astwood Bank, Feckenham, deceased, which, among farmstock,
include ‘all sorts of articles used in the netmaking’. This may be an early off-shoot of this zone’s fishing
tackle industry.
122 Robson’s Birmingham and Sheffield Directory 1839. Perhaps she altered the colour of existing clothes
for customers?
123 WaRO and WoRO 1841 and 1851 censuses. In Wrightson’s Birmingham Directory 1839 a hot-presser
called Field advertises in Redditch, but it is not clear whether this person is male or female or whether the
press involved was for cloth production or some other trade.
124 WoRO, probate of Anthony Seale, Beoley, papermaker, 1673, £8-17-10 (administered by a relative,
Humphrey Seale, papermaker of Tardebigge), and VCH Worcestershire, iv, pp. 15-16, mentions Seale’s
Mill in Beoley. WoRO, probate of Nicholas Cloves, Beoley, (no occupation given), 1681, £125-5-0, and of
William Cloves, Beoley, (no occupation given), 1684, £194-1-0, list paper and stock in their mill. Another
son, Nicholas, ran the paper-mill at Wychbold, near Droitwich. WoRO, QS98/30, quarter sessions 1661/2,
presents John Bach, Tardebigge, papermaker, as a swearer and a drunkard.
275