Distance between abode locations in the family history.

[gbottomley1]

I am finding several "potential" members of my Bottomley family from England.  Mainly weavers and laborers from the following areas listed below.  However, a few show a death or just potential parents who lived in Lancashire, United Kingdom.  I would think they didn't travel very far in the 1600's - 1800's.  Should I rule candidates out if they are too far away?

Dunkinfield, Chester County
Saddleworth
Elland
Huddersfield
Lancanster

[KGarrad]

Dunkinfield is now in Greater Manchester.
Lancaster, the County Town of Lancashire is 63 miles - 2 or 3 days walk?
Saddleworth is just 8 or 9 miles. A border town between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Elland is about 25 miles. Between Huddersfield and Halifax.
Huddersfield also about 25 miles.

[gbottomley1]

Would they have traveled or moved around more than 10 - miles or so back then ?

[Jebber]

An average of 15 miles was quite a normal walk, it was also common to travel quite a distance by horse and cart. People moved around far more than we might imagine.

[GrahamSimons]

One of my volunteer tasks involves London marriage licences and marriages. Now of course London was a bigger draw than anywhere else in England, so perhaps it's a bit of an outlier, but I've seen masses of marriages with people involved coming from great distances into London.
Travel may have been difficult but it was not at all uncommon.

[farmeroman]

I don't think there is such a thing as "too far away". I have a member of the Jenkinson family in my tree who was subject to an 1832 removal order from Colchester, Essex back to his home parish of Leeds, Yorkshire, a journey of over 200 miles.

[gbottomley1]

Thank you.

[arthurk]

Compared to the rest of the country, the surname Bottomley is most common in the areas you've mentioned, so a "potential" match at a distance of 15-20 miles may be no more than that. There will very likely be a number of candidates much closer, and you may have quite a job on your hands to identify which, if any, is yours.

[Rena]

Prior to decent roads and railways I used to looks for the nearest river or canal which people and their families travelled along.  Or else a regular drovers trail used by cattle men, shepherds and also men driving flocks of geese.  As you are researching weavers that suggests some people might have travelled by water where water mills powered the looms. 

When I was reseaching Aberdeen in Scotland I came across a ship owner whose advert stated his ship could reach London in southern England in six hours, compared to today's modern travel by road which will take nine hours (!).

I guess the weaver would be a cotton weaver in Lancashire; Usually weavers of woollens would live in Yorkshire. (Saddleworth known for weaving wool was in a Yorkshire valley near the border with Lancashire)    In my Scottish weaver family one weaving mill owner brought a skilled weaver from the European continent to assist with technique.