AUDLEY & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
Miranda began by saying that we know a lot about the Staffordshire Pottery Industry of the 19thC but that we know very little about the actual workforce, which made the industry so great.
Day to day experiences in the workday and the daily lives of the workers can be gleaned from the writings of Samuel Scriven (his1840 accounts of peoples working lives) and Charles Shaw (1830 When I was a Child)
In 1860 there were some photographs produced which show idealised images of the workers, but that was all that they were----idealised. The reality was somewhat different and much less charming. Images would have us believe that the women were always engaged as paintresses dressed in white aprons, or helping the potter. Reality photos show young children and women engaged in heavy manual work in rough working clothes. The jobs were dangerous and life threatening e.g. lead poisoning was a common cause of death, people in the dipping sheds had their hands in lead and arsenic all day and would return home taking the poison with them. Whole families would become affected until the working overall was introduced. For this life-threatening job workers were well paid according to the time, 27/- would be the take home pay, but the price on health was far greater.
A better job was to be had in the transfer or painting shop, but to acquire these jobs workers had to be skilled. Women usually worked in these areas and as work was often done when natural light had faded women had to supply their own candles at 1d a time. Warehousing was another place where many women worked. It was hard and backbreaking. Men would make the many 1000’s of crates needed for packing the wares, another job full of misery.
Children began work as unskilled labourers and were required to lift very heavy loads for long hours in appalling conditions for the measly sum of 3/6 a week. As technology was not widely used employers preferred to use cheap labour i.e. children. In fact this practice, of ignoring technology’s help, was still being employed up until the 1930’s when photos show that women were still being used to turn the potters wheel instead of machinery! A child as young a 6 could work as long as 10 or15 hours a day. He would be employed to a skilled worker (this could be another child of perhaps 14) and have to suffer physical abuse. Samuel Scriven’s report gave voice to the exploitation of children in his 1840 report.
In 1861/2 the potteries became regulated by Factory Acts, which went some way to alleviating the plight of the workers, consequently, the jobs in some cases could be well paid. If a whole family was involved in the industry a joint income of £4 a week could be earned. Housing conditions were quite good when compared to some poverty stricken areas and Wedgwood, in particular, tried to give his workers good standards of living by developing areas for them, Poverty was still there but not quite so obvious as before, for instance, a report of the time said that conditions were comfy and dry, in every home could be found a set of drawers at the front door (for storage and display but also serving as a status symbol!) and there were flowers to be seen at the windows. Samuel Scriven reported on the employment of children but also stated that he was impressed by the habitation and standard of living he observed. He also commented on the gaudy dress of individuals and a tendency to drink a large proportion of earnings.
Miranda went on to speculate why drink was such a problem. In spite of the best efforts of employers to help workers to achieve a better life style, overcrowding was a serious problem and large families had to share few facilities, home was, therefore, somewhere to escape from. Public houses became meeting places for social events, entertainment, trade union business, Friendly Societies, auctions, political meetings, glee clubs etc. Once there ‘the drink’ became an important factor.
For the worker who could turn his back on ‘the drink’ there was the Chapel. This was a place of betterment. Besides the services, lectures, concerts, charitable societies, this was a place to receive an education. The Sunday School gave elementary learning to those children who were working from the age of 8. Children were taught Bible studies and reading (not writing as this was thought to be an unsuitable subject for Sunday school) This omission was thought to be shameful with the result that Chapel folk rebelled and met in fields, as a result a new Non Denominational Chapel was built in Burslem and taught reading, writing and Bible studies.
Miranda concluded with this thought. The pottery industry was founded on the misery of the ordinary worker, how many people stopped and thought of this as they gazed into the London shop windows 200 years ago? Did any?
The Editor’s thanks go to Anne James for this review.
A talk given by JJ Heath-Caldwell
James Caldwell started his working career in the 1770s working for Josiah Wedgwood carrying out pottery experiments and producing detailed documentation. At this stage in his life he was no more than a teenager. He had little in the way of family connections however he was both numerate and highly articulate and must have impressed Josiah considerably. Through Josiah he appears to have made numerous connections, which over time helped him to build up a considerable fortune. By the early 1800s James’s business activities and civil duties were considerable. He was in partnership with Enoch Wood in the pottery firm of Wood & Caldwell. At the same time he was in partnership with William Bent in a Brewery concern. He was chairman of the Trent & Mersey Canal Company and appears to have had financial interests in numerous other activities lending money wherever he could see the opportunity for a profit. Early on he had become a Solicitor in partnership with Thomas Sparrow and in his legal capacity he went on to become Recorder for Newcastle Under Lyme. He was involved with the Library, the Infirmary and other civil enterprises and became a Deputy Lieutenant for Staffordshire.
A large family archive of James Caldwell’s diaries and letters still exist and are a unique insight into the history of the Potteries area from the mid 1770s through to his death in 1838. The 7 volumes of diaries contain thousands of pages and cover almost all of his life in great detail especially from the period 1799 to 1838. The diaries are mainly a businessman’s record of his day-to-day meetings but in addition he adds in short notes of various gatherings of friends and family. There are literally thousands of names mentioned (Wedgwood, Spode, Devenport, Wood, Bent, Heathcote, Sneyd, Holland, Roscoe, Crompton, Chetwode, Sparrow, Martin, Darwin, Skerrett, Penlington, Stamford, . . . etc).
JJ Heath-Caldwell is a great x4 grandson of James Caldwell and will be giving a talk on James Caldwell to the Audley Historical Society on Friday 4 January at 7.30. This will take place in the Audley Village Hall, opposite the Church.
This is one of those items that are connected to the parish of Audley, indirectly. In 1227 Henry III granted to Henry of Audley a weekly market on Thursdays at Betley and a yearly fair there on the vigil, the feast and the morrow of St. Margaret.
Saint Margaret (of Antioch) was the patron saint of maidens but in modern terms of all women. She is also the patron of nurses and peasant people everywhere. She was tortured and beheaded for her beliefs in 304AD.
Saint Margaret’s day is the 20th July and so the annual fair took place on the 19th to 21st of July, every year.