Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Total males with known occupations (n) 35 61 44 40
Table 4.3 highlights the swing of the pendulum back towards agriculture in Period
C and the corresponding dramatic drop in the share of secondary sector males marrying
by licence at that time. The figures in this table do not tally exactly with those in probate
above, but figures for secondary in Periods C and D tell the same tale. As the town grew
in the nineteenth century, the percentage in the primary sector did indeed fall, as
suggested here. The percentages for tertiary in this table do not reflect the steady growth
exhibited by probate figures above. 21
Table 4.4 Bridegrooms in specific occupational groupings from marriage licence data in
Zon e A, Alcester, 1680-1837 (as % of males with known occupations)
1680-99 1737-54 1780-99 1810-37
Agriculture (excl.labourers) 14.3 8.2 26.1 17.5
Labourers 0.0 4.9 9.1 5.0
Extractive 0.0 1.6 4.5 0.0
Building (excl.carpenters) 2.9 11.5 2.3 2.5
Tailors/bodice makers 8.6 6.6 2.3 0.0
Other textile, clothing & paper manufacture 5.7 3.3 2.3 2.5
Shoemakers/cordwainers 0.0 8.2 2.3 10.0
Other leather, horn and tallow 22.9 9.8 2.3 2.5
Carpenters/joiners 0.0 6.6 4.5 7.5
Other woodworkers 5.7 6.6 2.3 0.0
Blacksmiths/farriers 0.0 1.6 0.0 2.5
Other metal (excl. needles/hooks/pins) 0.0 3.3 4.5 5.0
Needles/hooks/pins 0.0 3.3 13.6 10.0
Transport 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.5
Innkeepers/victuallers 0.0 1.6 2.3 5.0
Other food, retail, service, dealing 32.9 19.7
12.5 15.0
Domestic servants 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Professional 7.1 3.3 9.1 12.5
Total males with known occupations (n) 35 61 44 40
Table 4.4 confirms the trend towards more farmers in Period C, but also shows an
increase in labourers and brickmakers. The building industry appears to have peaked in
21 The short periods used in the marriage licence data analysis in Periods B and C may reflect temporary
difficult times in the town’s role as a service provider.
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