Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Table 4.8 Occupational structure in specific groupings in the 1841 census in Zone A,
Alcester shown as % of those with known occupations in each group
Males
20+
Females
20+
Males
under 20
Females
under 20
Agriculture (excl. labourers) 4.2 1.1 0.9 0.0
All labourers 19.7 0.5 5.5 3.4
Agricultural labourers 8.9 0.0 0.0 3.4
Non-agricultural labourers 10.8 0.5 5.5 0.0
Extractive 0.9 0.0 0.9 0.0
Building (excl. carpenters) 5.8 0.0 6.4 0.0
Tailors/dressmakers 4.1 10.0 6.4 4.5
Other textile, clothing & paper manufacture 1.9 5.8 3.6 0.0
Shoemakers/cordwainers 7.6 0.5 5.5 0.0
Other leather, horn and tallow 1.9 5.8 0.9 1.1
Carpenters/joiners 2.2 0.0 1.8 0.0
Other woodworkers 4.6 0.5 0.0 0.0
Blacksmiths/farriers 2.4 0.0 1.8 0.0
Metal (excl. needles/hooks/pins) 2.6 0.0 1.8 0.0
Needles/hooks/pins 14.1 23.7 40.9 21.3
Transport 3.3 0.5 0.0 0.0
Innkeepers/victuallers 3.4 2.1 0.0 1.1
Other food, retail, service, dealing 12.6 7.9 3.6 0.0
Domestic servants/charwomen/nurses 2.4 36.3 17.3 67.4
Professional 6.1 5.3 2.7 1.1
Total (n) 538 190 110 89
Table 4.8 confirms the involvement of females in service and also highlights the
employment of males under 20 in such roles. If the growth of the needle industry was
evident in figures for fathers in baptisms, this table highlights the important part played
by females and young males in that trade.
In 1792 for the first time Alcester appears in a surviving trade directory, (but not
the other parishes in the study area). As may be expected, no labourers or domestic
servants appear in the directory, and most entries must be considered to show the master
or owner of the business listed. Although occupational data from trade directories is
necessarily less accurate than the census or baptism data, it nevertheless sheds light on
the economic situation in the town.
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