Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

een based on use of the same raw materials and similar processes and skills, the move to
the manufacture of fishing tackle involved all sorts of different raw materials and new
skills. The marketing link and the strong customer-base were the common denominators,
not the raw material or skill. By the middle of the nineteenth century workers in the
Needle District were making sail-hooks, twist-hooks, fishing-lines, fishing-rods, artificial
flies, swivels, harpoons and sailors’ palms. 296
The censuses record some workers as ‘wheel-turners’, presumably operating some
kind of machinery for manufacturing. Wire to make needles and hooks was supplied
from outside the district. Some needlemakers then drew the wire to the correct diameter
for the particular type of needle being manufactured, but there were also one or two
specialist wire-drawers. Other associated trades included hook and eye makers. 297
The needle and fishing tackle trades in this zone continued to expand during this
period, drawing in local workers but also those from further afield such as Long Crendon
in Buckinghamshire, where a longer-established needle industry was struggling to
compete. 298
Transport
Before rural trade directories, information is very patchy concerning carriers,
hauliers and their modus operandi. However, from various documents we can see that
the carrying network was well-established even before the Civil War, although the
journeys were undoubtedly not as speedy or frequent as in later periods. Worcestershire
296 A sailors’ palm was a device made from metal and leather for sailors or sail-makers to wear on their
palms in order to push sail-needles through the canvas, when making or repairing sails.
297 Appendix 20 shows a list of associated occupations to 1851. Later in the century skills were adapted to
make springs, cycles and other products.
298 The Times 26 Sept. 1821 carries a notice from William I. Millward (actually William Jerome Milward)
of Studley informing the public that his factory had been enlarged and he could now provide needles, fishhooks
and elastic steel knitting pins cheaper than any house in England.
310