Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Needlemakers. A dozen local needlers did so, but took little notice of any rules. 236
Earlier, the London makers had managed to enforce a ban on cheap iron needles from
outside the capital, especially from the continent. For a time this inconvenienced makers
in this zone, but in the long term it probably aided them. As foreign needles were more
easily seized by customs than those made elsewhere in England, Sambourne and Studley
needlemakers took over from foreigners in supplying London with cheap needles. 237
So, from the smallest possible source - one man, William Lee, - the local needle
industry mushroomed. Jones traces a ‘family tree’ of apprenticeships, which led to a
score of needlers by the early 1680s. Before 1700 references can be found to some forty
local needlemakers. Every parish in this zone was home to needlers except for Beoley,
but Studley and Sambourne undoubtedly formed the twin nuclei of the trade in this initial
stage. 238
The term needlemaker (or ‘nieldmaker’ as it sometimes appears) does not
distinguish between master and underling. Little is known about the organisation of the
industry in these early days, but it is likely to have been a combination of small family
businesses and a putting-out system similar to the nail-trade. Seventeenth century
records do not distinguish between those who made different types of needle, neither do
they clarify whether there was already some specialisation within the trade, as happened
at a later date. The role of womenfolk and children also goes unnoticed at this period,
and as yet there are no references to the making of pins or fish-hooks, which were later
offshoots of the needle-trade.
236 Jones, ‘The development of needle manufacturing in the west midlands before 1750’, p. 361.
237 Jones, ibid., pp. 360-1. One of those who had had needles seized in 1669 was a Mr Lawrence, probably
Richard Lawrence of Sambourne, discussed below.
238 From all sources we find the following numbers of needlemakers before 1699: Sambourne 16, Studley
14, Feckenham 3, Ipsley 3, Tardebigge 4. For parishes outside this northern district: Spernall 1 (John Barr,
who also lived in Sambourne at one time and is counted under that heading), Alcester 3 (including Richard
Badson who is included under Studley and Tardebigge. He also lived at Stoke Prior just outside the study
area.) This amounts to 41 separate needlemakers in the study area altogether. From baptism register
information c. 1700 4% of Studley fathers were needlemakers and 7.2% of Coughton fathers.
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