Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Table 4.6 Male occupational structure in specific groupings from Anglican baptism
registers in Zone A, Alcester 1813-40 (as % of entries showing fathers’ occupations)
1813-40 1813-20 1821-30 1831-40
Agriculture (excl. labourers) 1.9 2.1 1.2 2.4
All labourers 28.5 33.3 30.8 22.7
Agricultural labourers * 15.5 18.1 16.7 12.3
Non-agricultural labourers * 13.0 15.2 14.1 10.4
Extractive 0.8 1.7 0.5 0.3
Building (excl. carpenters) 6.0 6.1 6.6 5.4
Tailors 3.3 1.5 3.5 4.6
Other textile, clothing & paper manufacture 2.2 3.4 2.3 1.1
Shoemakers/cordwainers 6.4 3.8 6.1 8.6
Other leather, horn and tallow 2.1 3.0 2.0 1.5
Carpenters/joiners 3.5 4.2 3.5 2.8
Other woodworkers 2.1 2.8 1.5 2.3
Blacksmiths/farriers 2.3 2.1 1.8 2.9
Other metal (excl. needles/hooks/pins) 1.1 1.5 1.0 1.0
Needles/hooks/pins 16.3 14.2 14.2 20.1
Transport 1.4 1.1 1.0 2.2
Innkeepers/victuallers 5.1 6.6 4.9 4.0
Other food, retail, service, dealing 13.4 11.2 14.3 14.3
Domestic servants 0.4 0.0 0.7 0.3
Professional 3.2 1.5 4.2 3.6
Total baptisms (n) 1692 472 607 613
*Labourers allocated using information from the 1831 census.
Table 4.6 shows a decreased share for labourers as the needlemakers’s share
grew. The increased share for tailors and shoemakers may reflect the growing market for
their goods in the town and its hinterland. 22
22 Perhaps female family members’ increased involvement as wage-earners in the needle industry allowed
less time to make and mend clothing.
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