INDUSTRIES 



volume of trade has greatly increased. The 

 rise of the engineering industry of the county 

 has occurred mainly in the last thirty or forty 

 years, and in Gloucester, at any rate, not more 

 than five, out of the many flourishing firms at 

 the present day, existed at the late Queen's 

 accession. 



This development of new manufactures is, 

 perhaps, an even more interesting feature in 

 the county's industrial history than the lengthy 

 pedigree of some of the industries that have 

 been described, for it gives good hope that 

 Gloucestershire will be increasingly benefited by 

 the new movement of industry from the Mid- 

 lands to the coast, and from highly-rated cities to 

 districts where production can be more cheaply 

 and healthily carried on. At the same time 

 such rural industries as fruit-growing and bee- 

 keeping are developing. All along the Severn 

 valley apples and pears are grown in large 

 quantities for cider and perry, and orchard- 

 planting is on the increase. In past years, how- 

 ever, many orchards have been suffered to 

 become dilapidated, and much more might still 

 be done in the way of fruit culture. Plums do 



remarkably well near the Severn round Newnham 

 and Westbury, and also in the Evesham district. 

 At Frampton Cotterell and several places near 

 Bristol, plums and strawberries are grown for the 

 Bristol market. There and on the outskirts of 

 the Forest of Dean, as well as on the Worcester- 

 shire border, a good deal of fruit is grown by 

 small holders and owners, but on the whole 

 Gloucestershire is an orchard county. A large 

 percentage of the fruit is grown in farm orchards, 

 but at Toddington, near Sudeley, where Beach's 

 jam factory is situated, the Toddington Orchard 

 Company have some 500 acres under fruit. 

 The same place produces the largest amount of 

 honey. The Bristol and Cheltenham districts 

 are also active in bee-keeping, and in the more 

 sheltered parts of the Cotswolds, especially near 

 Stroud, Cirencester, and Andoversford, a large 

 number of hives are kept. The industry suffers 

 somewhat, however, from a lack of scientific know- 

 ledge, such as would be disseminated by a bee- 

 keepers' association, though this is being to 

 some extent remedied by the County Council's 

 lectures and demonstrations in various parts of 

 the county. 



WOOL 





A previous article * has already described the 

 course of the clothing industry up to the 

 introduction of power-machinery a change 

 which marks an impassable breach with the 

 past. From that date its characteristics and 

 the influences to which it is subject are 

 sufficiently like those of the present day for it 

 to be treated as a modern industry. For with 

 the use of big and costly machinery came 

 the concentration into large factories, which 

 is the most familiar feature of modern manu- 

 factures, but was so distressing to observers 

 of the ' forties ' and ' fifties.' Long after the 

 woollen industry had died out in Bristol and 

 Gloucester it used to cover so large a district 

 as is enclosed by Painswick and Bisley on the 

 north, and Horsley and Wotton under Edge 

 in the south. But in most of these villages de- 

 serted mills and houses of a size and style hardly 

 in accord with their present surroundings now 

 alone testify to their former greatness. If, as 

 before said, we turn to the census reports, we 

 should date the beginning of this decay at about 

 1830, from which time the population of the 

 clothing district steadily decreased. The returns 

 for 1851 expressly mention the decline of the 

 woollen manufacture as the cause of the fall in 

 population at Minchinhampton, Avcning, Hors- 

 ley, Randwick, Edge, Pitchcombe, Kingswood, 

 Stinchcombe, Coaley, Uley, Cam, and Wotton 

 under Edge. In 1861 the same tale of woe is 

 told with regard to Nibley, Slimbridge, and 



1 See ante, ' Social and Economic Hiitory.' 



Eastington. Yet cloth manufacturers declare 

 that the decline of their business did not set in 

 till 1875, up to which time their prosperity had 

 been steadily growing. The explanation, as 

 already suggested, is to be found in the tendency 

 of industry to concentrate when machinery is 

 introduced into it. In Stroud only did the cloth 

 manufacturers succeed in establishing power- 

 looms, in the teeth of the weavers' opposition ; 

 and in Stroud, alone among the Gloucestershire 

 clothing towns, has the population grown un- 

 ceasingly since 1831. About this date the 

 first large power-loom shed was erected at Staf- 

 ford's Mill. Elsewhere, with one exception, 

 strikes have caused the gradual extinction of the 

 industry. 



The cause of this especial dislike of power- 

 machinery in Gloucestershire is not hard to 

 seek. The craft of the hand-loom weaver had 

 a pedigree of almost unparalleled length. Both 

 the art and the loom itself were often handed 

 down from father to son, and their possession 

 gave a sort of dignity and independence to the 

 worker that were lost by factory work at daily 

 wages. When the weaver bought his own yarn, 

 and wove it at home, he was more or less his own 

 master, doing long or short hours as suited the 

 season or his own inclination. All the family 

 could take their turns at the loom, the narrower 

 kind being easily worked by a boy, a woman, 

 or an old man. A narrow loom cost about ^5, 

 and lasted a long time without getting out of 

 order. Broad looms were far less common in 

 cottages, as they took up too much space for an 



'93 



