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Topic: What happened between 1881 and 1891 to the ag lab's ? (Read 1884 times)
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Lydart
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3562
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It MAY only be my ancestors, but I've been searching through the censuses for all the side-lines, not the direct ones ... ag. lab's all, to a man !
But I've also noticed that they all changed their occupations between the 1881 and the 1891, and seem to have moved up a little in the world. No longer ag. lab's by 1891, they were carters, farmers, bakers, coastguard, publican ... so what happened in the history of rural Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, or England generally at that time, that gave them a boost ??
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Dorset/Wilts/Hants: Trowbridge, Williams, Sturney, Prince, Foyle, Fripp, Triggle ... and more C'wall/Devon/CANADA (The Cariboo, B.C.): Pomeroy Som'set: Clark(e) Durham: Law London: Poplett Lancs/Cheshire/CANADA (B.C.): Stubbs, Walmesley WRITE LETTERS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO TREASURE ... EMAILS DISAPPEAR FOREVER ! Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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bearkat
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3882
Census Info. is Crown Copyright, from www.national
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I think it was due the mechanisation of farming. Farm workers who had happily stayed close to their roots following the same occupations as their fathers had to look further afield for work. Some did better for themselves than others.
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Middx - VAUS, ROBERTS, EVERSFIELD, INMAN, STAR, HOLBECK, WYATT, BICKFORD, SMITH, REDWOOD
South Stoneham, Hants - SMALL, HAMMERTON, GRIST, FRYER, TRODD
Beaulieu/Boldre, Hants - WOODFORD, CROUTEAR, BECK, BENDELL, KEEPING, HARDING
Kent - BAYLY, BORERr, MITCHELL, PLANE, VERNON, FARRANCE, CHAPMAN, MEDHURST, LOMAX, WYATT
Devon - TOPE, BICKFORD, FOSTER
YKS - QUIRK, McGUIRE, BENN
Nott/Derbs - SLACK
Hert - BARNES
L'pool- PLUMBE
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yonderpeasant
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 1762
be with you in a minute
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There was a general depression in agriculture due to many factors including increasing mechanisation.The older generation tended to migtrate to find farm work but this was not always available.With the Poor Laws and Workhouse to worry about they were forced to diversify.Obviously for some this was a positive thing but many were forced to take what was available.
If you look at the housing details through the various censuses you can see farms vanishing to be taken over by towns.Umfortunately for every small business you can find many households earning their keep factory work or heavy industry.
My own bunch of exclusively ag labs moved accross counties to become cotton workers then potters then eventually back to the land with the collapse of each industry.Only one branch became relatively successful in seting up a small brewing business but alas the war put paid to that.
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This information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukRidgway. Salop.Lancs.Stoke on Trent. Colclough.Ackley.Adams.Harris.James Longton Stoke on trent Staffs. Scholes.Collinge Middleton Lancs. Gogerty.Deavonporte Salop. |
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stanmapstone
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 6588
My answers only refer to England and Wales
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At the beginning of the 19th Century one in every three people occupied in Britain was in Agriculture, by the start of the 20th century it was one in every ten, and by the middle of the 20th Century it was one in every twenty.
Stan
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Lydart
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3562
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I hadn't thought of the mechanisation of farming ... good point ...
Nowadays we even have combines that don't need a man to drive them ... saw one on the TV the other day, remote controlled and using sat-nav technology to position it ... what would great grand-daddy think of that !
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Dorset/Wilts/Hants: Trowbridge, Williams, Sturney, Prince, Foyle, Fripp, Triggle ... and more C'wall/Devon/CANADA (The Cariboo, B.C.): Pomeroy Som'set: Clark(e) Durham: Law London: Poplett Lancs/Cheshire/CANADA (B.C.): Stubbs, Walmesley WRITE LETTERS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO TREASURE ... EMAILS DISAPPEAR FOREVER ! Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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meles
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3106
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Mine were all a labs up to that point, and then they all moved off to be other things. Mostly "general labourers".
It was when the industrial revolution was completely changing the face of the country. Read your Trollope and Mrs Gaskill and discover the horrors that the ag labs (and others) faced.
meles
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Brock: Alburgh, Norfolk, and after 1850, London; Tooley: Norfolk Grimmer: Norfolk; Grimson: Norfolk Harrison: London; Pollock Dixon: Hampshire; Collins: Middx Jeary: Norfolk; Davison: Norfolk Rogers: London; Bartlett: London Drew: Kent; Alden: Hants Gamble: Yorkshire; Huntingford: East London Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Lydart
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3562
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Its to their credit that they were able to take on other jobs ...
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Dorset/Wilts/Hants: Trowbridge, Williams, Sturney, Prince, Foyle, Fripp, Triggle ... and more C'wall/Devon/CANADA (The Cariboo, B.C.): Pomeroy Som'set: Clark(e) Durham: Law London: Poplett Lancs/Cheshire/CANADA (B.C.): Stubbs, Walmesley WRITE LETTERS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO TREASURE ... EMAILS DISAPPEAR FOREVER ! Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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stockman fred
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 340
Location:Up the Creek,South of England
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Generally, the agricultural economy was in depression from the 1870s on, but some areas bucked the trend.Where we live on the Hampshire/Dorset border, there was a mini-boom in the dairy industry in the 1880-1900 period which seems to have altered the rural economy. I think it resulted from both improved rail transport and from a growing population in towns such as Bournemouth.
My folks managed to better themselves in that period by first entering into share-farming arrangements, then taking on dairy farms in their own right. This probably only occured in the more suitable valleys such as the Avon, Stour and Blackmore Vale but it seemed to have a marked impact on the local farming scene. The local estates built many new small dairy farms up and down the valley where we live in the 1890s to cash in on the boom by renting them out.
In the library, I came across a book written by the vicar in about 1896 and he mentions the changes- he complains that the more able young men had moved away to seek better employment when the depression worsened, but the dairy -boom allowed the less ambitious ones who were left to survive on a fairly poor level of farming (as he saw it!  )
He also complained that smallholdings on the East Dorset Heaths were being bought up by middle-class folks who had moved out from Bournemouth thinking that they could run market gardens, only to find that the poor soil soon led to failure.
Fred
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Lydart
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 3562
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Its slowly sinking in that we should be looking at our ancestors in the time and context in which they lived ... we can see their occupations from the censuses, but we also need to know and appreciate what was happening around them ...
For e.g. Ive been reading up about the Speenhamland system ... new to me I'm ashamed to say ...
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/speen.html
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Dorset/Wilts/Hants: Trowbridge, Williams, Sturney, Prince, Foyle, Fripp, Triggle ... and more C'wall/Devon/CANADA (The Cariboo, B.C.): Pomeroy Som'set: Clark(e) Durham: Law London: Poplett Lancs/Cheshire/CANADA (B.C.): Stubbs, Walmesley WRITE LETTERS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO TREASURE ... EMAILS DISAPPEAR FOREVER ! Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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JustKia
RootsChat Aristocrat
Posts: 1084
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The biggest change for my ancestors was the opening of the Lime Works (cement) in Harbury Warwickshire.
A direct ancestor gave up being an Ag Lab, moved his family over here (maybe 15 miles) and some of them worked at the actual Lime Works, while others were employed as Plate-layers for the GWR.
'twas big business in the area at the time, and while I missed it's heyday I was there at the very end when they pulled the chimneys down.
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MARLOW/JECOCK - Northamptonshire/Warwickshire : WIMBUSH/JUSTICE - Oxfordshire/Warwickshire : SCALES/BRIDGES/ENGLISH/JARMAN - Suffolk : GARRETT/GIBBS - Warwickshire : DEVOS - Scotland (Aberdeen)/France(Dunkerque) : MURRAY - Ireland(Down)/Scotland(Lochs) : TIGHE/TREACY - Cork Stanley Charles SCALES b.1899 - Where are you? *** Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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kerryb
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 11961
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In the Heathfield area of Sussex farmers were used to diversifying when times got tough. Between 1881 and 1891 one of those diversifications came into play, particular with the arrival of the railway line in previous decades - chicken cramming.
It was a lucrative business locally for a decade or two before thankfully dying out in the early 20th century. http://www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk/html/william_pilbeam.html
Kerry
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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LindaJ1959
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 52
Me, aged about 5.
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What an interesting thread! Thank you for asking the question, Lydart. I should have known the answer, because I read a lot of fiction classics such as Gaskell in the course of my studies when I was younger, but I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't related that knowledge to the family research that I began a couple of months ago. This thread is going to help me a lot in understanding my ancestors.
Linda
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« Last Edit: Sunday 07 September 08 21:23 UTC (UK) by LindaJ1959 »
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Francis, Sopp, Durrant, Hatcher and Read: all in Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. Poynter, Fidler. Rolfe, Hedges and Scorey: all in Hampshire. Allen: Dorset/Somerset/Wiltshire, and Longford, Derbyshire. Miles: Bournemouth. Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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Pages: [1] 2 3
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I often wondered about that. I had a Gt Grandfather who was an Ag Lab in the village of Clynnog N. Wales. All of a sudden between 1891 and 1901 he turned in in St Helens Lancs as Coal Miner. All that lovely countryside in Clynnog working outdoors, and then down a coal mine. Makes you think doesn't it. 