A Study of Family Movements within the United Kingdom
Abstract:
The rise of urban districts, with related regional economic changes, created major population movements - both within the UK and by emigration. A review of the local variances, with examples, will demonstrate how a researcher can find out applicable situations. In this way the researcher can put some "flesh on the bone" of their family tree.
1 Welcome
I have a lot of information to share with you. I ask you to sit back, relax and enjoy. The purpose of this presentation is to enhance your awareness of the social conditions that made people change jobs, or more importantly, change locations, because the world was changing. That awareness should give you a much better indication of the overall circumstances of your forebears.
1A Some initial comments
This treatise has the implication that the Industrial Revolution created labour requirements in specific areas, with the build up of towns - terraced houses and neighbourly living. This is not always the case. The pressure for minerals - coal and metal ores, as well as limestone was not always in intense areas. Lead mining is a case in point: some areas where the ore is to be found have small pockets over a distributed area. Great Britain is full of museums and sites of past industrial ctivirites - geat places to visit, especually if you forbears were active in tha industry. But I give you two examples of industrial sites in rural areas, both with a personal flavour - see 12 A.
2 Plan of Presentation
This presentation starts with a philosophical introduction. This talk describes and investigates about "why they moved" and the circumstances behind the relocation. The Industrial Revolution (which I restrict to town and city activities) excludes agricultural improvements which I have already discussed. I have tried to list some examples of frustration and anger, both general and specific, for people in industrial areas.. To avoid sending you to sleep, I have split up these lists. My interests lie in Wales, the North of England and Scotland, so my regional examples are a bit biased! Not surprisingly, Acts of Parliament have caused distress, and even riots! I select some specific topics for detailed analysis and commentary.
3 Plan of Presentation - some details
Some personal anecdotes have been selected to make this historical review feel more real. I have mixed past and present in the examples, to make history come alive. I am not a Social historian, but some of the examples clearly show the frustrations of daily living - and perhaps the selfishness of others. The Migration Map (that I presented at the conference) is an attempt to show population movement; some information comes from census returns. My summary and references are expanded in the web version - see below.
4 An Introduction
Dealing with change was a major problem. Workers who continued to do things ìthe old wayî often had problems - the home-based manufacture of woolen goods comes to mind. There were on-going discussions in the Westminster Parliament, which was was notoriously slow to accommodate what we now know as ìdemocracyî - The UK was run by Warlords, until the 1880s or 1920s, depending on your point of view. Since the new factories relied on local natural resources, the Industrial Revolution was necessarily selective in the land area chosen. Imbalance parliamentary representation favouring the Landowners created Riots, some of which I will mention. The Industrial Revolution did not always create concentrated development. I will suggest some reasons and examples. Lead mining was often from very small areas of concentrated ore bodies. Iron smelting originally needed wood - in sparse supply, limiting the size of smelters.
4 Population movement
This map gives (presented at the conference) a suggestion of some of the major population movements, and an example of one of the minor ones. The migrations from the Scottish borders were ongoing, usually from country to towns, M/c and London especially, bit also overseas. The Irish potato famine and its aftermath caused massive migrations in many directions. The Field Enclosures were an ongoing process with regional variations in timing, moved people. The drovers, discussed in detail yesterday, not only fed the towns, but the drovers themselves migrated, too. The distress to farmers with factory, (major ones shown in green) became places where you could do many things efficiently - like making jute ropes in Dundee. Coal demand increased (see the purple areas), as did migrations from the countryside. A good example of farm migration is the mechanization of vegetable and lavender farming in Norfolk - the 1881 London census showed many East Enders from East Anglia. Migrations continued into the Edwardian era.
6 Changes & Migrations - Scotland
We discussed Land Enclosures in my previous presentation. The Border Land enclosures were quite late - 1820s - started far west. A landowner/Farmer, seeing arriving Irish cattle, decided to improve his land, a nd creat pasture for beef fattening. Strongly ingrained in my family tradition; farm lease arrangements. Highlands - split crofts went to the children - so Highland distress started well before the clearances. I have visited a new croft set up in the 1960s by Loch Broom - three units in use for one household. Education played a role - unusually high proportion of people from the west coast as university Professors - often home for the summer. The Anglo Scottish Family History Society, Manchester, provides resources about the emigrant Scots to Manchester and elsewhere. The "Highland Society", which played a role in the return of the previously-banned Tartan in 1780s, remains an important social institution in Manchester, London; US branch, too. It arranges an annual Mod in a major Scots City - singing, poetry in Gaelic. Now some family history examples
7 - Migration from farm to Town - two Personal examples - Central & Southern Scotland to Manchester
My great-grandfather probably commuted by the new electric train from Altrincham to Manchester; he moved from Dumfries-shire as a teen and married a young nurse from Derbyshire. John Reekie and his brother Peter had to leave rural Fife as their eldest brother William got the farm; Petermoved to Manchester too - one of John's sons my grandfather William m Reekie, put enormous energies into helping found a suburban Presbyterian church in Manchester, and was involved in various Scots social societies Only London has more immigrant Scots.
8 - Machines and Inventions - some examples
Here is just a sampling of inventions, good and bad, that helped with the Industrial evolution and population movement The Hargreaves Spinning Jenny - first application of multiple spinning - Lancs Yorks, water then steam power. An example of a failure - The large Great Eastern was grossly underpowered, so switched from passenger to cable-laying service; she archored at Heart's Content, Newfoundland in July 1866.
9 - Machines for Cotton Processing
The North of England was a good choice for the processing of imported cotton. Water Power was readily available in the Pennine valleys, and coal was close by, too; the water was soft. Liverpool was being developed as a port, and then the Manchester Ship canal came along. So many of the the conditions were right. Thomas Kayís flying shuttle, which could be hand-operated, was of benefit to cottage weavers everywhere. Then the Spinning Jenny of James Hargreaves produced a considerable increase in spinning efficiency, even thoí it was not a continual process - and the power looms of Edmund Arkwright and Richard Cartwright put the cotton and wool industries on an efficient course - playing havoc with the economics of home weaving.
10 Exhibitions and Trade Fairs
Some of us may have been to Expo'67 in Montreal; I attended BIF British Industries Fair - my father took me for the day: I was impressed - it helped me decide I wanted to be an (100 years before, 1851) electronic engineer! The Crystal Palace exhibition in Hyde Park was very large, but construction was done an old-fashioned way; modern trussed steel girders were installed with horse lifting crews. As you walked around the site, The grandeur was very evident. Lesser known was the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. It was a cultural display as well. There were many trade stands, for agents and representatives. My brother told me in 2004, when he was going through some old books, that one such company agent was our great-grandfather.
11 Processes, Industrial Ideas and inventions
Glazed Pottery improved health, by creating a clean environment for eating, and reducing infant mortality. Significant. The Maudslay lathe was a significant advance. New works in Glasgow, to assist the cotton industry, which had very inefficient methods for bleaching. - Charles Tennant, Glasgow. Sir Henry Bessemer developed new ways to process iron ore; his process kept impurities low, and became a much easier way to manufacture steel. There were ongoing chemical dye developments The Open Hearth process created significant population movement. The most significant was to South Wales, where iron, water power and good quality coal were all available.
12 Chemical Industries, Imports & Excise Taxes
The Westminster government had the habit of changing import tarriffs and excise charges; so the Highlanders lost their sea kelp industry overnight. New processes, like tin plating, made a tremendous difference to daily living for many, and were quickly adopted; think of liquid laundry detergents today - a quick change from powder. The iron smelters were chasing wood supplies; the new plant at Bonawe, near Oban in the Scottish Highlands was short-lived, as the heat source became coal rather than wood. New factories (a large one in Glasgow) produced chemicals. New dye processes were quickly adopted. The Westminster Warlords changed peoples lives by making salt production uneconomic: sea salt pans near Edinburgh at Culross and Prestonpans became redundant; sea salt is still available at health food stores.
12 A- Mining
Lead mining occurs in many places in England and Wales; I am familiar with mining activities in East Cumberland, where I was raised. Lead has been mined there since Roman times; but the need for lead, increasing significantly in the 17th and 18th centuries, as a result of the Indutrial Revolution, increased the scope of East Cumberland mining. there are mines with derelict 2-foot tramways all over the place. lead tramways have been used for the popular cross England Sea-to-sea cycle track. But a good place to visit is the Killhope Wheel - one of the largest water wheels in tne UK, but perhaps not as large as the Laxey wheel in the Isle of Man. Although built in the mid 1700s, and out of use a hundred years later, it remained in situ - and in the 1980s efforts were made to restore the wheel and the asoociated mine buildings. When my wife Frances and I visited 10 years ago, it was an eerie feeling for me: the bunkrooms in the miners accommodations were far too similiar to the bedroom I used as a toddler- we lived in a mining cottage built in 1750, just 20 miles from Killhope. The rag rugs on the floor and the fireplace design, as well as the whole structure of the building were very familar. A good example of harsh indutrial labour practices becomes evident as you tour the mine, and walk along the "road" into the mountainside with the neat stone arched cieling s - looking as new as when first built over 200 years ago. The mine managers entered in a "bargain" with a small work team, typicaly for 6 months. If the ore was good, the miners would be paid accordingly. If they happened to be allocated a low grade ore, their wages were much lower. A family would obtain goods at the company store on credit; when the bargain was over, the miner might finish up in debt - through chance, and not of his own direct making.
Copper mines are to seen all over the UK; there is an interesting one at Parys Mountian in Anglesey. The largest bronze Age copper mine was found at the Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales in the 1980s and is now a great tourist attraction. Delving into one of my forebears line in the summer of 2006, I was led to the Gower Penisular of Glamorgan, South Wales; and I started to get caught up with the patronymic method of naming children - but we'll not get into that; a great genealogical challenge. Before the onset of iron and steel processing from the 1850s (which brought many Englishmen to the area), South Wales was heavy in copper mining and processing, so, in the 1851 census, the trade of "copperman" was very prevalent in the area. Using the GENUKI Glamorgan web pages as a guide, I went on a virutual tour of the area. A digital photographer buff from nearby Swansea has some excellent photos on the web, and here are some - of the Aberdulais water wheel, used to power copper mining machinery, and later on tin-plate activities. The wheel has recently been rebuilt. If you visit, you'll find an interesting mixture of industrial archeology and a pleasant rural walk - great for all members of the family.
13 - The Development of Transport - Land and Sea
Building the resources to transport goods more effectively played an important role in the Industrial revolution. Here are some examples. I will mention some of them in more detail later on An example - the Manchester Ship Canal . I will not mention clean water - especially London - a subject in itself. Cholera was a big problem.
14 The Development of Canals - 1
The first British canal was from Worsley south to Manchester - coal from mine to destination. The Duke of Bridgewater provided funds for James Brindley to build it. The Grand Union Canal is the backbone, from Manchester via Birmingham to London. Size became a problem; 7 foot boats had insufficient capacity; some were changed to 14'. A similar situation occurred with the Erie Canal, but the wider rebuilding used many adjacent rivers instead. You can see dry 7' canal sections near Oswego NY. Canals became magnets for industries. I got homesick travelling by rail to Massachusetts; the riverside red-brick factories along the Connecticut River were built by the same people as those in industrial England, with the same material and for the same reasons; no wonder they were similar,
15 Railways and Bridges
I am a big admirer of the Great Western Railway; Isambard Kingdom Brunel produced large engineering structures, mostly in England, including the Saltash bridge in Cornwall. I am familiar with the Menai Suspension bridge, built by Thomas Telford in 1821, just five miles from my motherís childhood home. A few years ago I planned a Scottish Telford bridge holiday. I have no railway ancestors, but I believe some railway companies have employment records in existence. One of my forebears, William Hoult, was a Derbyshire farmer; there was an ongoing family discussion, whether he "did the right thing" by taking Midland Railway shares instead of cash , when their main line went through his farm. His daughter, my great grandmother Mary Ann Hoult moved to Manchester, using the new railway nearby, an obvious choice.
16 The Merchant Marine in UK Coastal Waters
With the present use, worldwide, of shipping containers, 18 wheeler trucks and freight trains sometimes well over a mile long, it is hard to realize that before 1850, much long-distance freight was carried by small coastal sailing vessels in many parts of the world - the UK especially. Most towns developed on the sea coast or a navigable river, like York or Lincoln. The only exception in Canada /US that I know of is Kansas City!! Perhaps one of your forebears was in the merchant marine - if so, you are in luck, as many UK mariners records have been extracted, and indexed on the web.
17 Captain Daniel Jenkin Jones, Aberayron, Cardiganshire, Wales
I explained my discoveries about My great-grandmotherís brother Daniel Jenkin Jones, yesterday - mostly with web searches. The GENUKI county pages are great for this. I started off with a monument inscription enquiry letter. Tragic - drowned at only 31 and already a Merchant Sea Captain!! There are many questions to ask! Note the trials of Welsh searching - place names have different spellings. Many names are common, Jones etc. In this case, the used christian name was changed from Daniel to Jenkin. I may never know the detail of Daniel Jenkinís journeys. But I now know why my grandfather was called "DJ" - named after his uncle. DJ's father was a Welsh farmer/drover who became an East End dairyman; he died of cholera aged 44. His wife Catherine Williams continued to run the dairy for a number of years - with both her only brother and husband in early graves; it was good that she had many children to keep up her strength.
18 - The population explosion in Wales 1800 -1900
Before this next story, Iíd like to remind you that there was an enormous population change, mostly by migration from England, but also from Ireland after the Potato Famine - caused primarily by the Industrial Revolution and coal mining. This is the reason that welsh is, today, less commonly spoken in south Wales than in the west and North.
19 Distribution of Canals - 2
Canals and their building played a major role in the UK's Industrial Revolution. - Telford's Caledonian Canal was built to by by-pass the stormy northern Scottish shores; it always had a size problem; the experience gained there was used to help decide the Rideau Canalís dimensions. The canal across the pennines (in red) goes through the Aire Gap; on our UK holidays we have camped canal-side at Gargrave, while avoiding motorways. The Grand Union - was the backbone of the English/Welsh canal system. The Thames-Severn (Kennet & Avon) link was reopened in 1990s. - Here is an example of how a knowledge of specific local travel movements can help your family history. The canal barge& ferry service at the narrowing of the Severn was in commercial service for many years. It went out-of-use in the 1960s. In 2006, a group of barges crossed the river, at slack tide, without difficulty. Sharpness is the outlet of the canal from Gloucester. But there is another story about this river crossing . . .
20 A Severn River boat ferry
In my previous presentation, I mentioned that one of my gt-gt grandparents, a butcher, moved from Cricklade, (just in Wiltshire) to Newport Monmouthshire, where my gt-grandmother was first married. I was curious to figure out why the move occurred - the South Wales coalfield, and population expansion was one. But the drovers route, going from Newport through Cricklade, and using the Sharpness to Lydney Ferry, for the cattle route was another. I expect John Poole had made the journey quite a few times, before he moved his business; he was not venturing into the unknown. I had no idea that the Welsh drovers used ferries. I assumed that existing bridges further up the River Severn would be used. Reading local history books, and web pages, about where your forebears lived really helps!
21 Docks, Ships and Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding was a significant part of the British steel industry. Many docks were built to take the larger vessels - often with lock gates - as at London and Liverpool. The Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast was the only one, at the time, large enough to build the White Star trio. Totanic, Olympic, Britannic. We know what happened to the Titanic; the Britannic became a Hospital Ship, and the Olymopic was broken up at Jarrow on the Tyne in 1935 If you ever get up to Northumberland, you can have dinner CLICK in the Olympic's Dining Room, go to Alnwick as find the larghest hotel in town. The Great Eastern, bulit as a large ytans-Atlantic passeneger shipo was a failre - grossly underpowered; it was useful as a cable-laying ship.
22 Social Stress, Acts of Parliament - and City living
There is an on-going litany of delays in permitting adequate parliamentary representation. Social stress was on-going, too. Take the Knott Mill mobbing in Manchester. The Governmentís decision to protect British Industry by restricting the export of newly-designed machines was commendable - but there was lots of smuggling going on ñ cotton spinning machines to Belgium for example. But in 1843 when exports were permitted, the prices of imported goods came down - cotton from India for example. This created more social stress. The Irish potato famine may have provided a cheap labour pool for canal and railways (thatís where the term Irish Navvies comes from) but wages were kept low, and work hours long the repeal of the Corn Laws was very significant. The Ten Hour act was an attempt to give relief to the labourer, but it was widely abused. Even today my UK nephews complain that they have to work long unpaid overtime, or they'd lose their jobs.
23 Poor Houses & the Corn Laws
Lets take a moment to reflect on the social implications of the corn laws - poverty and poorhouses. Much of the following information is taken from one small booklet. There were riots in Bradford whenthe new planned law was felt particularly offensive.
24 Shire books - A Great Idea for UK Family Historians
I am great fan of Shire Albums; I have about 20. Over half that I have relate to trades or social circumstance of either places I have visited, or of the regions and trades of my forbears. I have books on slate, lead & copper mining, pewter, Scots Agricultural implements, Rare Farm breeds, to name just a few.
25 A Printed Broadsheet from Bradford Yorkshire - by Rueben Holder, Bradford
The Corn Laws placed duties on corn imports; This kept the landowners happy, as prices remained high; but the poor could not afford bread. This was the Westminster Parliament Warlords again. The riots in Bradford and other parts of Yorkshire, complaining about the severity of treatment in the Poorhouses, were significant.
26 Conditions in the Poorhouse
There were pretty terrible conditions in many poorhouses - often called ìUnionî as they were joint with adjacent parishes. the new law required the parish of your birth to be responsible for your care. Some tried clever tricksto avoid being caught and incarcerated. Most were meanly run. Architects produced efficient designs for function; books are full of drawings. I remember using the bel;t drive system, show here driving a fancy machione in a large poor house. at school - it was used in all factories, with a slide engagement system; natural slip permitted gradual takeup of power. I have been in a factory at the start and end of lunchtime - quite an experience. You had to wait half a minute before you turned on your machine ñ to slow down total load buildup. In one lage workhouse, in Paddington, west London, there was a power-operated Spin Drier ñ called a Hydro extractor in this workhouse was very efficient.
27 Victorian Inner City Living
I am told that the Gorbals slums were the worst in Europe; the high-rises that replaced them had their problems too. Common in the North of England were back-to-backs - row houses with no back doors. Not much of a problem until you realize the true living circumstance. You can see in this aerial shot the roads, with front doors; the narrow back lane, usually with back doors, have the "front or only doors" of the back houses - with the outdoor toilet in the"front yard". So those houses fronting the street were expected to use the outhouse of their corresponding "back" - which would be a 10-minute walk around the block. So under-bed chamber pots was in use a lot, whether plain or fancy; some had a lid. Many Victorian apartments or tenements were quite a bit better - with good quality free-standing stoves. There is a tenement museum in Glasgow. For many, work was 6-days a week, even with the new restricted child labour hours. Many would learn the three R's at Sunday school - it was work the other 6 days. Transport was usually by tram or Horse Bus. My journey to school by bus in the 1950s cost me " three-ha'pence".
28 In Family Service
Family service was very evident in Victorian times. Girls leaving school had choices. If not to factories, (avoided by those who could) - went into Service. If it was FARMS - some had rigid hiring practices, a ploughman would usually bring his wife, who would attend to chickens or the dairy. If unmarried, the male labourer was obliged to bring a female - sometimes this policy had disastrous social results. This town scene resembles the Michaelmas Fair, where farm workers were re-hired; a truly barbarous practice. Shall I explain? These practices continued in the North-East until 1920s. If you were well brough up you might be hired in town as a domestic servant. My grandparents hired two local teens in Bangor, N Wales. Sally and Julia, together with the rest of the family, moved to Tyneside about 1912. After the Battle of Jutland, vessels were returning, damaged to the Tyne - it was all in the newspapers - An outing with prams woolly hats and scarves to see the big battleships, a 1/2 mile walk. An Uncle wrote some memoirs describing this trip, and he asked - why was it Julia who planned this trip, and not my mother?
29 Summary and references
I have shown you why my own forebears moved to towns. ìYourî forebears may have had similar circumstances. A greater understanding of local history makes a tremendous difference to coming to terms with the potential motives, ambitions and frustrations of your forebears. You can find out the local conditions and circumstances, in many ways; I have increased my knowledge by surfing the web whilst researching details for this presentation. When asking yourself a question, remember - Common things commonly happen. Usually, people did not move great distances to get married, unless they were rich or in some form of travelling trade. Here a good book for the basics; there are references below.
References - in addition to some of the web URLs identified above, used as source material, with acknowledgements and thanks (especially my wife Frances)