Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

heels. 138
People frequenting muddy lanes and farmyards would find the products made
by Coughton’s ‘heel-maker’ or Studley’s ‘patten-maker’ very useful. 139
Nineteenth century censuses show that male shoemakers are supported by female
shoe-binders and boot-binders. This was likely to be the case in earlier periods too, but
evidence is lacking. In the 1830s the sale of shoes by dealers and retailers (rather than
makers) appears for the first time. 140
Several other leatherworkers are present in this district before 1700, but decline
thereafter. 141
Table 7.6 (baptisms 1813-1840) puts such workers at only 0.4% of fathers,
while the 1841 census has 0.3%. Before 1750 tanners are more in evidence in this zone
than in any other. Presumably a combination of circumstances led to the establishment of
tanning here compared with elsewhere in the study area. Cattle (and therefore hides)
were plentiful here, which is corroborated by the high number of drovers, graziers and
butchers. Bark was abundant, and nearby west midlands towns provided a ready market
for leather. 142
Amongst the wealthiest tanners was John Boult, whose probate not only
mentions tanning and farming stock, but also coppices and timber; he no doubt obtained
bark for the tanning process from his own oak-trees. 143
As noted in other zones, many
138 WoRO, probate of Matthew Tolley, Feckenham, shoemaker, 1693-4, £32-18-2, and WoRO, probate of
John Lewis, Redditch, (Tardebigge), shoemaker, 1717, £71-18-2.
139 WaRO, DR360/86/10 records the settlement of John Bromley, Coughton, heelmaker, in Alcester in
1666. It is not known whether he made wooden or leather heels. WaRO, Studley burial register, 1716,
records the burial of Jones, ‘pattenman’.
140 Pigot’s Worcestershire Directory 1835. William Webb, dealer in shoes, Redditch. It may be that earlier
sources had not specified this role, although it may have existed.
141 See Tables 7.4, 7.6, 7.11 and 7.18.
142 Buchanan, ‘Studies in the localisation of seventeenth century Worcestershire industries’, 17, p. 45,
shows that 28% of Worcestershire’s tanners from 1600-1650 were in the six contiguous parishes of
Bromsgrove, Stoke Prior, Alvechurch, Inkberrow, Feckenham and Tardebigge, so the tanning trade was
established here. None of our parishes specialised as much as Alvechurch where, according to Buchanan,
60% of the industrial workers were in leather trades. He also suggests that soft water may be a factor.
Perhaps the streams in this area were particularly suitable. The tanners may have made use of the fulling
mills close by at Bromsgrove and Spernall. If lime were needed, that could also be sourced nearby in the
Central Belt.
143 WoRO, probate of John Boult, Grinsty, (Feckenham), tanner, 1684, £358-18-4. John’s father was also
wealthy. (WoRO, probate of Henry Boult, Grinsty, (Feckenham), yeoman, 1684, £1255-9-10.)
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