Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

seventeenth to the nineteenth century, we know little about the development of ‘towns
lower down the urban hierarchy’. 4
As Patten states: ‘In pre-industrial England the
relations of rural and urban settlements to one another and their individual characteristics
are often far from clear.’ 5
Examination of the occupational structure of the town and its
surrounding villages, throws some light on the development of the town and its complex
relationship with its hinterland.
As may be expected of the market town, Alcester’s population density was always
greater than that of the other, more rural zones during the period of study. 6
As discussed
in Chapter 3, Alcester’s population probably doubled between 1563 and 1676, but then
stagnated in the early eighteenth century. 7
In 1676 its population lay in the range 1080 to
1485, growing by 26.7% to a total of 1625 in 1801. 8 As it wholeheartedly embraced the
needle trade in Period D, its population grew by a rate of 47.7%, (second only to that of
Zone D), ending the period with a figure of 2399 in 1841, before declining again in the
mid-nineteenth century. Despite its belated growth spurt, Alcester’s share of the study
area’s population decreased over the period of study. 9
Economic change goes hand in hand with the population figures. Major factors,
which affected the town in the eighteenth century, include the turnpike improvements in
the 1750s and 1760s and parliamentary enclosure in the 1770s. The problem of the poor
was ever-present in Alcester as elsewhere. Alcester was one of the places described in
Eden’s report ‘The State of the Poor’. The poor were relieved in their own houses as
long as they could be satisfied with 1s. 6d. per week each. If that was not sufficient they
4 C. Smith, ‘Population growth and economic change in some Nottinghamshire market towns, 1680-1840’,
Local Population Studies, 65, (2000), p. 31.
5 J. Patten, ‘Village and town: an occupational study’, Ag. Hist. Rev., 20, (1972), p.1
6 See Table 3.15 in Chapter 3.
7 See Tables 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 in Chapter 3.
8 See Table 3.14 in Chapter 3.
9 See Table 3.16 in Chapter 3.
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