Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

in Elizabethan times, and their trade came to be strictly regulated by a gild. A number of
needlemakers settled outside London away from such restrictions. 224
Amongst those
indicted by the gild was a William Lee ‘for the use of an unlawful engine’ in 1629. Two
years later a man of that name was making needles in Studley, and his son, Richard,
innkeeper and poacher, had five needlemaker apprentices, from whom the industry
spread.
There are several possible reasons for the foundation of the needle industry
hereabouts. Charcoal was plentiful in the area and also river pebbles, which were said to
be useful for scouring needles. Jones points out that as corn prices fell in post-restoration
England more people had disposable income, which could be spent on non-food items
such as needles, for instance in London or in industrialising areas such as Birmingham. 225
This in turn made rural industry a more attractive alternative to agriculture than
heretofore. 226
The nearby Worcester glovers, Bewdley cappers and Walsall saddlers and
the plethora of shoemakers in the Feckenham Forest all had need of needles of varying
sorts. Needlemakers in this locality would be able to undercut the transport costs of
manufacturers in London and elsewhere. Pig-iron was being transported here from the
Forest of Dean, so why not bundles of wire for needles from Tintern Wireworks? 227
Alternatively, perhaps needle-wire could be drawn from the bar-iron rods made at
Redditch and Ipsley forges, or could be sourced from Bromsgrove, Kidderminster and
224 Before 1800 needlemakers are found in small numbers in Wilton, Colchester, Bristol, Gloucester,
Chester, Dorchester, Chichester, Worcester, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth, Hucknall, Sheffield and Long
Crendon. (www.a2a.org.uk, 10 a.m., 1 July 2006, and Jones, ‘The development of needle manufacturing in
the west midlands before 1750’, p. 355).
225 W. Court, The Rise of the Midland Industries, 1600-1838, (Oxford, OUP, 1938), p. 21, cites the
increase in population in Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire between 1630 and 1700 from 250
thousand to 325 thousand.
226 Jones, ‘The development of needle manufacturing in the west midlands before 1750’, p. 354.
227 HeRO, E12/VI/Kac/109, Foley MSS, (the accounts of Redditch Forges), mentions Mr Glover, who
managed Tintern Wireworks.
294