How far did Norfolk labourers travel to find work?

[Duodecem]

The 1861 census showed that my 3x great grandfather, an agricultural labourer and several members of his family had travelled from Norfolk to Northumberland to find work, many of them ending up in the coal mines of Northumberland and Durham.
I gather that conditions for agricultural workers in Norfolk were particularly poor in the C19th. This made me wonder where other Norfolk workers ended up? Was it more common to travel up the coast to the North East or did others travel west to Wales or to the factories of the North West? (None of my ancestors seem to have travelled abroad to work until the C20th. Perhaps others were more venturesome.) I don't suppose my ancestors were the only economic migrants so where did they all go?
(I recently posted an enquiry on the Northumberland board if anyone is interested. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,649914.0.html)

[historian1907]

my hubby has got his 3rd gtgrandfather  coming up from Norfolk to The Brighouse area of west Yorkshire in the 1870's. he was an ag lab and went into the mills up  in Yorkshire. some of his family did travel further afield to America and Australia.

[clayton bradley]

My great grandmother's parents and some siblings moved to Prestwich in the 1870s from Marham in Norfolk. George and Frances Bowman had 11 children. The eldest, John, moved to Middlesborough, then Durham. One brother stayed in Hulme, one sister moved to Southport and another to Stockport, one to London and my great grandmother herself took a job as maid in Clayton le Moors near Accrington. cb

[historian1907]

hubby;s family clayton were just up the road in wormegay and tottenhill. his parents moved to Lincolnshire and his grandfather moved to Birmingham like u said just for the jobs..

[bendywendy]

My 3 x GG Robert Hall moved from Reepham to East Yorkshire, he never returned, some of his extended family members moved overseas.

bendywendy

[clayton bradley]

I think I've seen it called "the East Anglian diaspora". I was surprised by how many went north rather than going to London, cb

[Duodecem]

Is it possible that there were more job opportunities for unskilled labourers and more accommodation available in the North than in London? Of my family that went North the father/grandfather remained a farm labourer, so London obviously wouldn't have suited him and he was probably too old at 65 to begin other labouring work.

[wendygreatorex]

My great grandfather left Norfolk in 1871 for work in the north east and ended up I Jarrow. Still have relatives living In Tyne & Wear. However my father (his grandson) ended up stationed I Norfolk during the war, married a Norfolk girl and completed the circle!

[bendywendy]

After more research on my Norfolk Hall clans, several families moved to the North East & West Yorkshire to work in the mines and remained there, many females moved to London to do domestic work and remained there, some families moved to Canada to farm - but many of them remained in Norfolk and still do.

bendywendy