Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

have collected domestic ash, rubbish and perhaps night-soil to spread on the fields,
though, alternatively, he may have been a charcoal-burner and producer of potash. 401
In the late Stuart period several people, some named, some not, appear in the
Throckmorton accounts for various services rendered: chimney sweep, mummer, dancing
master and tabberer. 402
In Period C we find a ‘musician’ in Coughton and a ‘fiddler’ in
Feckenham. 403
Mrs. Pearce of Redditch was a ‘louse grinder’, whatever that may have
been - perhaps a euphemism of some sort? 404
In the same parish Sarah Kemp kept a
‘bawdy house’, and other illegal ‘occupations’ such as poaching are increasingly
evident. 405 On a more elevated level Miss Whateley of Beoley was a published poet. 406
According to probate and marriage licence data professionals increased in Period
D. 407 In the 1831 census the Needle District has 2.5% of males in the capitalist, banker,
professional and educated sector. This figure is higher than for Zones B and C but
doesn’t rival the 7.8% of Alcester. Table 7.6 (baptisms) shows a figure of 1.6% for
professionals, while the figure for adult males in this sector in the 1841 census is 2.2%.
During Period D the variety of occupations in the professional sector had expanded, not
only in Redditch but in the surrounding settlements. The list now included surgeon,
chemist, druggist, optician, midwife, nursewoman, attorney, solicitor, appraiser,
accountant, schoolmaster and schoolmistress, governess, workhouse-master, clergy of
401 WaRO, Studley burials, 1770. J. Birrell, ‘Peasant craftsmen in the medieval forest’, Ag. Hist. Rev., 17,
(1969), pp.96-7, explains that a certain individual was referred to as both ash-burner and charcoal-burner.
402 WaRO, CR1998/LCB/26, 40, Throckmorton MSS. A ‘tabberer’ is probably a musician, a tabor player.
Hearth tax was collected by a parishioner, though the ‘chimney finder’ mentioned in Beoley accounts in
1669 may have been a government official checking that the job was done properly. (Barnard, ‘Some
Beoley parish accounts 1656-1700’, p. 24.)
403 WaRO, Coughton parish register, 1758, Richard Kent, musician. WaRO, MI163, Coughton RC
registers, 1771-1794 mention Thomas Davis of the Ridgeway, Feckenham, variously described as
innkeeper, weaver and fiddler.
404 Redditch Library, A Description of Redditch 1776, (copy of a MS by Joseph Monk).
405 WoRO, QS 549/51,52, (1797) and QS 519/58 (1790) and 529/35 (1792).
406 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 14 June 1764 reports the publication of her book of poems in London.
407 Tables 7.2 and 7.4.
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