Labour and the Poor in England and Wales, 1849-1851

Lancashire, Cheshire & Yorkshire

Jules Ginswick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351561211
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

First Published in 1983. In October 1849 a London newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, announced to its middle-class readers that it was to undertake a survey of the condition of the labouring classes in England and Wales under the general title of "Labour and the Poor". The reports of the survey were published over a period of two years and provided the mid-nineteenth-century Englishman with the most comprehensive view of the working classes that he had ever seen. The letters to The Morning Chronicle from the manufacturing, mining and rural districts and the towns of Liverpool and Birmingham appear here for the first time in book form and have been organised in eight volumes. This is Volume I and offer insights into labour and the poor in England and Wales 1849 to 1851 in the areas of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire.

Appendix 1

Average Weekly Wages in Secondary Industry: England and Wales 1849–1851 – by Industry

(Source: Derived from Text)

TEXTILES

COTTON

LANCASHIRE

Manchester Spinning Factories

Spinner, male, 40s to 50s

Tumblers and Mixers, unskilled work on blowing machines, male, men and boys, 7s 6d to 8s 6d

Card Room hands, male, men and boys, 13s to 15s in fine mills and 13s to 14s in coarse spinning mills

Drawing Room tenters, female, women and girls, 7s to 11s. (Wage dependent on the particular frame used and the coarseness and fineness of the yarn manufactured. Figures quoted are for fine yarn)

Pieceners, 11s, children

Scavengers, 2s 6d, children

Ashton Spinning Factories

Spinner, male, 25s

Pieceners, children, 7s

Ashton Handloom Weaving

Not 5s per week

Oldham Handloom Weaving

4s per week

Oldham Candlewick Manufacture

Spinners, 9s to 11s

Cleaning shoddy with ‘devil’, males, 8s to 12s

WOOLLENS AND WORSTEDS

YORKSHIRE

General averages for Yorkshire

Wool sorters, male, for fine cloths 25s to 27s for less fine cloths 15s to 20s

Picking and boiling, female, 6s to 7s

Willowing, boys, 6s to 7s

Slubber, male, 18s to 20s

Slubber’s piecener, boy, 4s 6d to 6s

Spinning, male, 11s to 14s

Power loom weavers, male and female, 12s

Fullers, male, 18s

Finishing, males, 18s to 20s boys, 5s to 7s

Hot Pressers, male, 30s

Birling, female, 7s to 8s (for domestic work)

Saddleworth: Village of Upper Mills (now Uppermill)

Slubber, male, 18s

Piecener, boys and girls, 4s 2d

Carding feeder, female, 5s 10d

Weavers in mills, 14s Spinners, 18s to 20s

Finishing, male principal hands, 21s to 30s boys, 10s to 11s

Birling, married women domestic work, 4s to 6s

Saddleworth: Village of Delph

Domestic spinning, 1s 3d per day

Domestic weaving, not over 10s per week

Huddersfield

Slubbers, carders, spinners, dyers, fullers, raisers, and finishers have a general average of 18s per week

Picking and boiling, females 7s

Weaving, females, 9s to 10s

Domestic weavers, 8s to 10s

Dewsbury

Sorting and Picking, females, 6s to 8s

Devilling, males, 18s to 22s

Bradford and Halifax

Worsted mills, average wage of adult male workers not above 10s per week; average adult wage (male and female taken together), from 8s 6d to 9s 6d per week

Messrs Houldsworth worsted factory, carding, drawing, spinning depts., young women and girls, 5s to 5s 6d per week
Overlookers, males, 15s to 22s
Weavers, male and female, 8s to 10s

Messrs Ackroyd (Akroyd) factory, average adult male wage (excluding weavers), 17s Spinning and drawing rooms, female adults, 6s to 6s 3d

Young Persons (13 to 18 years), 4s 9d

Children, 1s 9d to 2s 3d

Handloom weavers, male, 8s to 9s (on best work the maximum would be 15s)

Woolcombers, 9s (in Halifax) 8s to 8s 6d (in Bradford)

LEICESTERSHIRE

Leicester

Wool sorters, male, 18s

Washers, male, 16s

Washers’ Assistants, boys, 2s

Carders, females, 7s

Preparers, females, 6s 10d

Spinners, females, 7s 6d

Woolcombers, males, 10s to 12s (when fully employed)

FLAX

YORKSHIRE

Leeds: Messrs Marshall’s Flax Mill

Superintendent of Breakers, male, 20s to 25s

Sorters, male, 21s to 25s

Sorters’ Assistants, boys, 5s

Breakers, boys, 4s 6d

Hacklers, boys and girls, 3s to 3s 4d boys and girls, half timers, 1s 6d to 1s 8d

Drawing, females, women and girls, 5s to 5s 6d

Spinners, females, women and girls, 5s 6d to 6s (sometimes but not always a shade higher than those of the drawing room tenters)

Reelers, females, 8s

Weavers, females, 8s to 9s (very little carried on)

Handloom weavers, 10s to 10s 6d

SILK

LANCASHIRE

Middleton

Handweavers, wage varied according to the type of silk and product, but 10s a week as an average could be earned by a good weaver only.

Ashton

Silk winders, from 2s to 3s a day, averaging 12s per week, but often without work

CHESHIRE

Macclesfield

‘Plungers’, male...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Appendix 1: Average Weekly Wages in Secondary Industry, England and Wales 1849–1851, by Industry
• Appendix 2: Average Weekly Wages in Secondary Industry, England and Wales 1849–1851, by Size of Wage, Sex, Trade, Location
• Select Bibliography: Great Britain 1750–1850
• I LANCASHIRE
• II CHESHIRE
• III YORKSHIRE
• Sheffield
• Index