TRADE, AGRICULTURE AND MARKET ORDINARIES.
One of the most interesting, as well as significant things about
old-time studies, is the evolution of industry, from the stage, when
each domestic hearth was a factory of some sort, to vast cotton mills
and iron foundries. Time was when the wool from the sheep's back was
made into cloth in every house in Royston, then the finishing processes
of fulling and dyeing were made a business of elsewhere, then with the
introduction of machinery the hand-loom disappeared from our cottages
to special centres; next the spinning disappeared; then the combing,
and last of all the wool-sorting went too, leaving nothing but sheep
shearing of what was a complete local industry, with as many centres as
there were formerly houses to work in and families to work.
The only thing that is dimly visible in these Glimpses, of that
universal woollen industry, is the picturesque figure of our
great-grand-mother at the spinning wheel--not merely as a piece of
domestic economy, but as a wage-earning tool employing children as well
as adults, just as straw plaiting became in this and the adjoining
Bedfordshire district when the spinning industry disappeared.
In 1768, the first year in which any disbursements are mentioned in the
Royston parish books, the first item was the granting of a spinning
wheel to Nan Dodkin by the Vestry. Weaving proper had ceased at this
date, but a great deal of business was done in Royston towards the end
of last century in the "hemp dressing, sack weaving and rope making
branches," as I learn from an auctioneer's announcement of a property
sale in 1773.
During the reign of George III. hand-spinning was an industry
throughout this district, and at most cottage doors in the villages
could be seen wheels busily turning, up to about 1825. The pay was not
great, but the employment was more seemly than that of dragging mothers
of families and young girls into the fields as one often sees {104}
them at the present time. The evidence of the spinning industry is
conclusive from the parish accounts alone in such entries as--
"Ordered that Thomas C---- and his family be permitted to leave the
Workhouse, the Overseers to buy them a pair of old blankets and a new
Wheel."
"Ordered that the Overseers of Herts. Buy and Lend to the widow S---- a
wheel for the purpose of setting her boy to work."
L s. d.
Spinning Wheles for the Widow D---- . . . 0 2 9
Paid for spinning 17 lb. of flax . . . . . 0 17 6
To mending a weel . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 8
14 new, Spendels and wool for G----'s family
The parish accounts in the villages show that wool for spinning was
supplied in small quantities, apparently by small shop-keepers who took
the yarn, which was again bought by the dealers and sent away for
weaving to the newly established mills--pretty much in the same way as
the straw plaiting industry was managed in after years.
Occasionally spinners were dishonest, and spun short measure, and
associations were formed for punishing the offence.
In every better class house a wheel was found by which the mistress
would spin the yarn, which was then sent away to be woven into the
family linen, and a very necessary part of the preparation for married
life was this spinning of a supply of yarn and sending it away to the
weaver. A full chest of table linen was as precious to the farmers'
wives as Mrs. Tulliver found hers, and home-spun linen was as much a
matter of pride as the cheese-making itself; so much so that servants
in farm houses were invariably placed at the wheel to fill up their
spare time.
The earnings of the poor spinners could not have been very great, for
in Essex in 1770 "a stout girl of fifteen or sixteen" was not able to
earn above 6d. a day. When the industry disappeared as a wage-earning
employment, parochial Workhouses turned their attention to teaching
children straw plaiting, and plaiting schools were subsidised by
overseers for this purpose.
Wool-combing, the next process of employment, was better paid, but
later on this too disappeared from our town and neighbourhood, owing to
the march of inventions, leaving the last stage of the industry, viz.,
the wool-sorter's occupation, which continued some time longer. This
process of sorting was one which required an experienced eye to detect
the different qualities of fibre, and nimble fingers to separate them.
A fleece of wool was thrown open on a bench and an expert would, with
surprising speed and dexterity, separate the fibre into about four
different qualities and throw them into as many baskets standing by to
receive them. After this, as in the combing days, it was sent off by
the {105} Wakefield wagons to the mills in the North, and buyers
continued to visit Royston, and wagons load up here, until about the
middle of this century, the last of the wool-staplers being Mr. Henry
Butler, whose warehouse was in Kneesworth Street, where Mr. Sanders'
coachbuilder's yard now is. With the appearance of the railway our
"spinning grandmothers" were a thing of the past.
Agriculture in the Georgian era differed somewhat in its appliances,
but the philosophy of it was pretty much the same as it is now. Oxen
were occasionally used for team labour and were shod like horses; wheat
was universally reaped with a sickle, and as universally threshed with
a flail, the bent figure of the wheat-barn tasker being a familiar
object in the "big old barn with its gloomy bays and the moss upon the
thatch." An honest pride he took in his work and has found a fit
memorial in the delightful _Sketches of Rural Life_ by Mr. Francis
Lucas, of Hitchin, who says of the tasker and his work--
Then let our floors send up the sound,
Of the swinjel's measured stroke,
It makes the miller's wheel go round,
And the cottage chimneys smoke.
One of the most interesting things about rural life was the common
herding of the cattle, which, until the Enclosures Act came, had
probably gone on from the time the Domesday Book was written, or
longer. All through the ages there is the picturesque glimpse of the
old herdsman with his horn, each morning and evening from May to
October, making his procession to the common land of the village, past
homesteads, from whose open gates the cow-kine, in obedience to the
blast of the horn, walk out and join their fellows, and at evening the
herd in returning dropped its ones, twos, and threes at every farmyard
gate--like children going to and from school! The animation among the
cattle in and about every farmyard in the village, when, after six
months' silence, the herdman's horn was heard once more, was a sight to
remember, and a remarkable instance of the sagacity of animals!
Farmers' wives were accustomed, up to the beginning of the present
century, to attend the market to sell their cheese and butter, as in
Derbyshire they do now, and the work connected with the accidental
discovery of the Royston Cave, it will be remembered, was for the
accommodation of these good dames.
Farmers at this time had few new notions or agricultural shows to set
them thinking, but farmed according to "the good old ways," leaving to
here and there a gentleman farmer, farming his own land, such
hair-brained schemes as went contrary to them, their plea being that
"farmers did not rear the worse turnips nor were longer fatting their
oxen without book knowledge than they would be with it."
{106}
But it is when we come to market prices for the farmer's produce that
we get, I suspect, at the root and origin of the smooth-sounding phrase
of the "Good old times when George the III. was King." Of the enormous
influence of peace or war upon prices then, and the excitement which
news of the one or the other stirred in the breasts of farmers and
landlords as they gathered in groups in the yards of the Hull, or the
Red Lion, on Royston market days, let the following picture testify--
[Illustration: READING THE NEWS.]
Below are given a few years of average prices of farmers' produce in
grain:--
AVERAGE PRICES.
Wheat. Barley. Oats.
Year. s. d. s. d. s. d.
1785 43 1 24 9 17 8
1790 54 9 26 3 19 5
1795 75 2 37 5 24 5
1799 69 0 36 2 27 6
1800 113 10 59 10 39 4
1801 119 6 68 6 37 0
1802 69 10 33 4 20 4
1805 89 9 44 6 28 4
1809 97 4 47 0 31 5
1810 106 5 48 1 28 7
1812 126 6 66 9 44 6
{107}
The year 1812 was a famine year, but, after this time, prices never
rose so high, ranging for wheat from 75s. in 1814, and 96s. in 1817 to
44s. in 1822. Though the landlords took their share and nearly doubled
rents between 1790 and 1804, the farmer had reason to remember the good
old times if the following story of a Hertfordshire farmer in 1807 be
true:--
"A wealthy Hertfordshire farmer not long ago made application to one of
the clerks in the Bank of England for the loan of L800, and offered to
deposit with him, as a security, a bank note of L10,000, which he then
held in his hand! The clerk refused him, saying that such a thing was
unusual, at the same time told him he would change it for lesser notes.
This, however, did not satisfy the farmer, who still persevered. At
his own request he was waited upon by one of the directors, who readily
lent him the sum he required; and at the end of eight days he returned,
according to his promise, and repaid the money. When he was asked why
he had such an attachment to that particular note, he frankly replied,
'Because _I have the fellow of it at home_!'"
The old style of farmer had the laugh on his side in the matter of
balance sheets compared with the farmer of to-day. Here is one under
date 1770 for a farm of 300 acres at a rental of L240 (the average rent
in this district appears to have been about 12s. to 15s. an acre, but
was more than doubled by the end of the century). It was stocked and
worked with 10 cows, 150 sheep, 30 oxen, 12 horses, four servants and
boys, eight labourers (average L20 a year each), and two maids. In the
annual expenditure is put down the modest allowance of L100 for
house-keeping of the farmer and his family (exclusive of servants), and
the total then comes out at
Year's produce . . . . . . . . . . . L1,599 13 0
Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . L1,146 0 0
-------------
Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L453 13 0
Trade was not so much an every day affair in those days as now, but
persons obtained their supplies in large quantities and on special
occasions. In harvest time therefore little was doing at the shops,
and the tradesmen in the High Street were accustomed to form themselves
into neighbouring groups of four or five, and, taking up their position
outside their shops, smoked their pipes, while one of their number
would read the news, nearly always coloured at that time by the doings
of Napoleon, or the French. About the beginning of the century, Mr.
William Henry Andrews, son of the astronomer, as a man having the most
talent for reading, was in particular request at these quiet siestas
between the intervals of trade.
{108}
They discussed agriculture and the weather with a relish over their
"sixpennyworth," and often laid wagers as to the result of the harvest.
Here is an item in Royston--
"1795. Aug. 25--Mr. Bottomley lays S. Coxall sixpennyworth that the
price of a quartern loaf will be as low as sevenpence the best sort in
two months--24th Oct. paid."
Who had to pay there is little doubt, for the bet was a rash one in a
season which had seen wheat at 113s. in that very August. The crop did
not realize Mr. Bottomley's expectations, for the official average for
the year was 75s. 2d. per quarter, from which we infer that Mr.
Bottomley paid his "sixpennyworth."
Royston Market is spoken of in official announcements at the end of
last century as "an exceedingly good market town." Though the market
was open, the inns and inn yards were freely resorted to, especially in
inclement weather, and the Green Man Yard was made to do duty to some
extent as a Corn Exchange, for in 1785 when the house was to let, we
find it stated that it had "large garden and stables and ten corn
shops." Barley was the chief item of sales, and it is said as much as
4,000 quarters has been sold here in a single day.
I do not happen to have found any earlier official statistics of corn
sales in Royston market, but for the year ending July, 1839, I find the
following--
Total Per qr.
amount. avge. price.
Quantity. L s. d. L s. d.
Wheat--21,554 qrs. . . . . . 78,233 10 0 3 12 7
Barley--6l,556 qrs. . . . . . 122,402 13 0 1 19 9
Here then we get a sale of 1,200 quarters of barley a week and between
400 and 500 quarters of wheat per week.
Time was when the Royston market had commenced at a late hour, as it
does now, but owing to the necessity of being late home, or the felt
want of a jovial gathering at the market ordinary in times when the
farmer himself worked and needed one day's relaxation, the fiat for
change went forth on the 23rd October, 1782, and the hour was changed
from 3 p.m. to 11 a.m.--an arrangement made possibly with a view to the
pleasures of the market ordinary, and one under which, at any rate,
that institution flourished most famously for fifty years or more.
At one time the grain was "pitched," that is brought to the town in
bulk and stored at the various inns ready for sale in the market. The
attendance of farmers, maltsters, and corn buyers was so large that the
whole of the open space of the Market Hill was covered by crowds of
buyers and sellers of farm produce, presenting a busy scene more worthy
of the past traditions of the market than anything seen now. {109} The
market beginning then in good time, by mid-day most of the business was
finished, and, regularly at one o'clock there came out of an upper
window of the Green Man, the well-known form and features of Mrs.
Smith, the landlady, ringing a hell with all the energy and promptitude
of one who had evidently been accustomed to have that summons respected
and as promptly responded to! The bell from the Green Man is answered
by that from the Bull and the Red Lion, and the trio goes on ding dong,
ding dong! The current of business and bargain-making slackens; plump
portly farmers in top boots, millers in grey suits almost flour-proof,
maltsters carrying riding whips--all the busy assembly of men of shrewd
common sense and well filled nankeen purses suddenly puts up its sample
bags, drops its business air, and, like boys out of school, melts away
in three different directions according to individual preferences. For
behind that well understood signal of the bells is the typical
institution then in its palmiest days--the "Market Ordinary." Leaving
the market to the cheap jacks and ballad mongers, the solid element of
the market day gives a jovial account of itself in the market rooms of
the well-filled hostelries--now learning from the paper the news, so
far as it concerned prices and the continuation of war--now discussing
crops with a loyalty to the three-course system which no enclosures had
yet upset--now with equal loyalty toasting "the King, God bless him,"
and generally disposing of enough liquid to make the ride home behind
Dobbin a self-satisfied consummation, finding expression in snatches of
the old chorus--
To plough and to sow,
And to reap and to mow,
And to be a Farmer's Boy!
Ah, me! who would not be jolly with a good market this week and the
prospect of higher prices next?--with the guarantee of the State that
the farmer should not have less than 70s. a quarter, and the certainty
of higher prices if the war lasted! But these farmers in the leather
breeches and top boots--these self-satisfied men are already in the
fading glory of the "Good Old Times"--always applying those words, in
so far as they have any meaning at all, chiefly to the farming and
land-owning classes. Before the century is much older we shall see the
same class harrassed, embarrassed, and eaten up by a rotten and immoral
poor law system, about to be mended, and their prospect of high prices
growing less and less, as sliding scales and all artificial props are
removed out of the way of things finding their own level--down, down,
down towards the present unsupportable level of prices when the
consumer has as complete a monopoly of advantages as had the producer
in the old days!
But it was not only of the results, but of the place itself also, that
the farmer had a pleasant memory. So much attached were its habitués
{110} to the old style of an open corn market that when, in later
times, the Corn exchange came, many complained that they could not tell
a good sample of corn in a building like that, so well as in the open
air. Indeed, so wedded were they to the old custom of open market that
when the Corn Exchange was erected by the then Lord Dacre, they showed
such an obstinate preference for the open market and the convenience of
the inns, that they refused for some time to use the new building
provided for them! But they got used to it--those that were left to
carry on the business of a market, whose traditions, nay, whose
history, speaks to us of a former greatness and reputation for trade,
in the centuries that are gone, which we can hardly now understand.