A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



all the barns were empty, and the only hope of filling them lay in the arrival 

 of the coal carts in the summer. 137 



This barter of coal for corn was, however, only one part of the growth 

 of trade and industry in Nottinghamshire throughout the i6th and early lyth 

 centuries. In favourable seasons, agricultural produce as well as coal was 

 exported. The county was reckoned in the reign of Henry VIII as one of the 

 horse-breeding counties. 138 



A sign of the increasing trade appears in the frequent complaints against 

 tolls, especially the tolls of Newark and Retford. 139 Their abolition, it was 

 declared, would help a multitude of poor people at the expense of one rich 

 man. Retford was one place where the tolls were heavy ; Newark Bridge 

 was another ; for the importance of the Trent as a highway must have been 

 enhanced by the fact that the Nottingham roads were notoriously bad. ' About 

 Tuxford is the most absolutely ill road in the world,' said Sir William Uve- 

 dale in i64O. uo 



The articles taxed at Newark suggest that trade was developing ; provi- 

 sions, live-stock, and wool are, as of old, the principal commodities, but there 

 are tolls also on furniture, china and glass, and cloth, while the mention of stage 

 wagons and trade carts suggests a decided development in local traffic. 1 * 1 



As regards industry, it was probably still in a backward condition, as 

 is suggested by the fact that when in 1530 Wolsey desired to have his 

 gallery at Southwell cast with lime and hair, there was no workman in 

 the town capable of undertaking the task. 1 * 2 Still, it was probably expanding, 

 and various regulations concerning apprenticeship suggest the intrusion of 

 those unauthorized workmen whcse existence seems to imply the prosperity 

 of industry. In 1577 it was proposed in Nottingham that no man should 

 become a burgess unless he had been apprenticed and paid ^io. us The 

 cause alleged for this was the influx of ' foreigners ' into Nottingham, a phrase 

 implying non-citizens. Possibly the effect would be to check the enrolment 

 of labourers as burgesses, which had been a pretty constant feature of the 

 earlier part of the century. 



Apprenticeship seems to have varied both in length and cost. In 1488 

 a ' barker ' took an apprentice for six years, receiving with him \6d. a year 

 for the first five years, and 13^. 4//. for the last year. 1 " In 1582 I 3^. 4^. seems 

 to have been the recognized apprenticeship fee in Nottingham. 146 In 1636 

 3 i os. was given with a pauper child bound apprentice to a tailor at Eaton. 

 The length of time for which poor children were bound seems enormous ; 

 boys remained apprentices till they were twenty-four ; girls till they were 

 twenty-one. 146 



In regard to special industries the late i6th century saw an invention by 

 William Lee of the stocking frame which, at a later date, was to make the 

 fortune of Nottingham. The making of the frames themselves was said by 

 Felkin to have been carried on at Woodborough, Calverton, and Thoroton, 147 



'" Cal. S.P. Dom. 163 1-3, p. 1 8. 1M L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvii, 178. 



39 Ibid, xiv (i), 839. " Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640-1, p. 241. 



11 W. D. Rastall, Hist, of Newark, 353-5. "' L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, 6329. 



10 Ree. of Borough of Note, iv, 171. '"Ibid, iii, 429. 



'" Ibid, iv, 199. " S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxix, 63. 



147 W. Felkin, Hilt, of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture, 60. This is distinct from the same 

 author's Account of Machine-wrought Hosiery, t3c., quoted later. 



284 



