A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



reward offered for the apprehension of persons smuggling ' the bobbin net 

 insides,' and this conflict of the two industries added to the troubles of the 

 time. Eventually the struggle was decided in favour of the machine-makers 

 by the repeal of the Act of William and Mary in i842-3. 298 



If the lace-makers suffered, so did the stocking-weavers. The low 

 wages which marked the beginning of the century were continued. In 

 1845 about 86,000 men, women, and boys were employed in the stocking 

 trade, working generally for employers who owned three-fourths of the 

 frames, the rent of which was a heavy burden on the worker. The lace 

 factories centred chiefly round Nottingham ; the stocking-weaving district 

 lay principally to the east of Newark. It comprised about sixty villages^ 

 and the wages varied considerably in the different localities. At Sutton in 

 Ashfield, one of the most important centres, I is. \\d. seems to have been 

 the highest wages received by one man. Five shillings a week was about 

 the lowest, and seems to have been common in many places. Where the wife 

 did the seaming of the stockings, the conditions were more tolerable. Some 

 families earned 24^. and over. Coals and rent amounted usually to sums vary- 

 ing from 2s. lod. to 3^. 6J. a week. Truck payments were common, and so 

 much disliked that men would walk many miles to obtain work for which 

 they would be paid in money. Potatoes, bread, and treacle seem to have been 

 the staple of their diet. The housing accommodation was, on the whole, 

 the best feature of the case ; it frequently consisted of a workshop, kitchen, 

 and three living rooms. The most noteworthy point was the difference 

 made in the condition of the workers by access to land. In Selston, wages 

 were low, but the common was still uninclosed, and the frame-workers 

 improved their circumstances by keeping pigs and poultry. The superior 

 condition of those workers who possessed gardens was noticed, and led to 

 a practice of letting quarter-acre lots to the frame-workers in Arnold and 

 elsewhere. 299 



Such efforts mark the beginning of better times, and they were needed ;. 

 since the beginning of the century wages had fallen by one half. The 

 reduction was especially noticeable since i8i4, 3uo the year of the repeal 

 of the Elizabethan Statute of Apprentices. Possibly the increased competi- 

 tion resulting from this repeal may have injuriously affected wages ; and 

 certainly the evil effect of the Poor Law in that respect would not be 

 easily removed. Throughout the thirty years therefore between 1830 and 

 1860, the suffering was great and strikes were many. 301 



The repeal of the Combination laws had made trade combinations- 

 legally possible, and the Nottingham workers took full advantage of the fact. 

 Between 1840 and 1850 there were numerous unsuccessful strikes at the 

 Nottinghamshire collieries, whilst in the lace and stocking trades strikes 

 seem to have been very frequent. Throughout this period, reiterated 

 demands were made for the fixing of a legal minimum wage or the limitation 

 of output. 



To balance these difficulties the opening of the Midland Counties- 

 Railway in 1843 g ave a further impetus to commerce; though the strong 

 opposition of the inhabitants of the town of Nottingham for some time 



" 6 & 7 Vic. cap. 84. m W. Felkin, 4cct. of Machine-wrought Hosiery, &c. M0 Ibid. 



*" Comte de Paris, Les Associations Ouvrieres en Angkterre (ed. 1869), 166. 



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