mobility of agricultural labourers

[Blue70]

I remember on a Cilla Black Welsh genealogy TV show she met a distant relation in Wales they said in the old days they walked from north east Wales to Liverpool. One brother settled in Liverpool and was a direct ancestor of Cilla Black and another brother decided to return to Wales. They were pretty hardy in those days.


Blue

[KGarrad]

A decent walking pace is approx 4 miles per hour.

As a teenager I did an annual sponsored walk from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare (17 miles) in 4.25 hours.
Just walking pace; not race-walking!

So, a day's walk (say 8 hours) could cover 30-40 miles.

[fiddlerslass]

There were regional differences in when hiring fairs were held. If you are interested in more northerly events, this is a very informative paper, which also references Lancashire and Cheshire as well as the north east and Yorkshire

https://stephencaunce.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/northern-hiring-fairs-pp-text.pdf

[Wulfsige]

One interesting fact (if my research is correct) is that within the more than 300 years from 1553 to 1861 my direct male ancestors only moved about 13 miles from where they started. But after that, they were off! Somerset - Monmouthshire - County Durham - Monmouthshire - Hampshire - Denbighshire.

Moderator comment: topics merged

[phil57]

One interesting fact (if my research is correct) is that within the more than 300 years from 1553 to 1861 my direct male ancestors only moved about 13 miles from where they started. But after that, they were off! Somerset - Monmouthshire - County Durham - Monmouthshire - Hampshire - Denbighshire

Railways?

[dobfarm]

Though it was later than the 1700's about 1830 onwards.  My maternal Gt granddad born in Balsall Warwickshire about 1844, by 1861c he was a plough boy on a farm in Balsall common Warwickshire, by 1867 he  married my Gt ganny (from Bolsdover Derbyshire) in Waleswood in Wales village Nr Rotheraham Yorkshire.  (Not WALES the COUNTRY) Then by 1881c they had moved to Scarcliffe near Bolsover. My first thought was GT granddad had moved to find work in agriculture at trade markets.

(Not so) the 1851 census GT Granddad's old brother Thomas was living with is elder sister Ann (Both born in Balsall Warwickshire) in Bolsover with Ann's husband born in Bolsover, but had married in Balsall Warwickshire. So all the moving about north to Yorkshire and Derbyshire was because Ann's husband from Bolsover had been living in Balsall where he met Ann.  So the big move by the siblings North was family matters not agricultural labourer trade markets or work related opportunities.

[dobfarm]

One interesting fact (if my research is correct) is that within the more than 300 years from 1553 to 1861 my direct male ancestors only moved about 13 miles from where they started. But after that, they were off! Somerset - Monmouthshire - County Durham - Monmouthshire - Hampshire - Denbighshire.

Moderator comment: topics merged

My dads paternal family tree though his or my surname back to 1537 were Blacksmith in Almondbury parish village near Huddersfield Yorkshire father to son to about 1880 when my Gt granddad (still a Blacksmith) moved about  2 miles down the road to Huddersfield village of Aspley just on the edge of Huddersfield town centre.