Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

shown in Table 3.11. 47
The apparent decrease or stagnation in population in certain
parishes between 1563 and 1676 may be surprising, but Large suggests that the
disafforestation of Feckenham Forest circa 1630 did restrict in-migration and cause some
out-migration for instance in Feckenham and Tardebigge. 48 Between 1676 and 1730
epidemics may have caused some depopulation, but thereafter the zone’s population grew
as the needle trade expanded. 49
Table 3.12 Baptism numbers in parish registers in Zone D, The Northern (Needle)
District 1575-1810
Baptisms (9 year moving average) 1575 1675 1710 1735 1760 1780 1810
Beoley 11.8 *11.6 13.4 12.7 15.1 18.9
Coughton (with Sambourne) 15.4 21.7 16.9 20.7 23.0
Feckenham 23.6 29.3 34.3 46.0 41.9 59.6 67.2
Ipsley 6.9 *9.7 9.0 7.0 8.2 *15.0
Studley 12.8 13.6 20.8 20.2 28.7 26.7
Redditch/Bordesley 13.3 *13.7 27.0 *85.3
Tardebigge *19.3 22.1 20.7 *22.4 25.3 30.7 42.8
Tardebigge & Redditch *19.3 22.1 20.7 35.7 39.0 57.7 128.1
* See footnote for explanation. 50
Baptism numbers show a fall between 1735 and 1760 in all this zone’s parishes
except Redditch and Tardebigge. Otherwise the baptisms show a story of growth, with
the increase in Redditch and Tardebigge between 1780 and 1810 particularly noticeable.
47 Acreages in Table 3.11 are from the Cambridge Group. Acreages in VCH Warwickshire and VCH
Worcestershire differ slightly. VCH shows the constituent parts of parishes: Coughton 2000, Sambourne
2218, (combined 4218); and for Tardebigge: Bentley 1688, Redditch 2040, Webheath 2210, Tutnall &
Cobley 3511, (combined 9449).
48 P. Large, ‘Economic and social change in North Worcestershire during the seventeenth century’, p. 138.
49 No estimates are available for the Worcestershire parishes for 1730. The figures from c. 1780 are from
Ransome ‘The State of the Bishopric of Worcester’, calculated as in other zones. However, for Coughton
(with Sambourne) we have the number of inhabitants (577) as well as the number of families (140).
50 Where available, nine-year moving averages were based on the years shown in the table. Any deviation
from this practice (because of deficient registers) is explained here. Tardebigge’s figure for 1571 is
actually based on 1579 and the Tardebigge figure for 1735 is actually a seven- year average based on 1736.
Before 1730 Tardebigge’s figure probably included the chapelry of Bordesley which served the hamlet of
Redditch. Redditch’s figure for 1760 is actually based on 1763 and for 1810 is based on 1812. Beoley’s
figure for 1710 is based on 1705. Ipsley’s 1710 figure is actually based on 1708 and its 1810 figure is based
on 1812.
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