SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



however, be obtained at from ^\d. to \\d. per lb., and butter at lod. to is. 

 Fuel was, of course, plentiful and cheap, and it was usual for the ordinary farm 

 labourer to get a load of coal weighing nearly three tons as part of his harvest 

 pay. In the moorlands a good deal of peat was dug for fuel, and wood was 

 still used to some extent for smelting purposes. 125 



It is interesting to compare the state of things in 1796 with that 

 recorded nearly three-quarters of a century later in i869. 126 In 1796 the 

 amount of cultivated land was 600,000 acres, in 1869 it had fallen to 

 570,000. During the same period the meadow and pasture land had been 

 more than trebled, rising from 100,000 acres to 340,000 acres, an increase 

 which has continued, as the Agricultural Returns for 1904 show an extent of 

 438, 220 acres to be under permanent pasture. An immense and unparalleled 

 rise in manufacturing industries is recorded in 1869, accompanied by a rise 

 in agricultural wages, and an occasional scarcity of labour, which might have 

 been very serious but for the increase in pasturage. 127 A point worth notice 

 is the greater equality of wages in various parts of the county at the later 

 date, due to improved means of communication by railways and the develop- 

 ment of manufactures. For instance, the local industries competing with 

 agricultural labour in the Uttoxeter district, which is not a manufacturing 

 area, included in 1893 all the following winter work at the Burton 

 breweries ; an iron-foundry at Uttoxeter employing 400 hands ; cotton 

 mills in the Dove valley ; brass and copper works at Oakamoor ; collieries 

 and a tape factory at Cheadle ; and, finally, alabaster and gypsum works 

 at Draycott in the Clay, employing 100 men, at an average wage of 

 1 8j. per week. 128 



At Uttoxeter itself the cottage accommodation is said to have been 

 much improved since the growth of the ironworks, the increased population 

 having led to a new demand for well-built cottages in place of the old 

 insanitary ones, many of which were pulled down. 129 At Rocester, too, the 

 cottages were found to be of good quality, many of them having been recently 

 built by the owners of the large cotton-mills in the place. 130 The average 

 weekly wages of an agricultural labourer in 1796, at the rate of 15^. for 

 thirteen weeks and ioj. 6d, for the other thirty-nine, works out at i is. q\d. 

 per week, whilst in 1869 a married ploughman obtained 1 2s. per week, a 

 house and garden, an annual load of coal, and often a potato patch in his 

 employer's field, making, as Evershed computes, an average of 151. per week. 



Midway between these two dates, in 1834, the average wages of an 

 agricultural labourer amounted to los. in winter and 1 2s. in summer, 131 

 whilst in 1892 the wages of the typical agricultural district of Uttoxeter are 

 given as 15^. to 17^., compared with 14.*. in the same district in i867-7o. 13 ' 

 ' Compared with twenty-five years ago,' says Mr. Little, Senior Agricultural 

 Commissioner, in 1893, 'wages are higher, food cheaper, hours of work 

 fewer, and educational advantages greater.' 133 At the present time (1906) the 



115 Pitt, op. cit. 163. 1K 'The Agric. of Staff.' Journ. Royal Agric. Soc. (Ser. 2), v, (1869). 



'" H. Evershed, op. cit. 269. 



1W ' Rep. of Mr. Edward Wilkinson, Assistant Commissioner,' Rep. of Poor Law Commissioners (1893-4), 

 vol. xxxv. [c. 6894, vi, 93]. m Ibid. 94. " Ibid. 95. 



131 Rep. of Poor Law Commissioners, 1834. App. B. I, pt. i, pp. 439(7-464. 

 131 Rep. of Labour Com. iii, vol. xxxvii, pt. ii [c. 6894, xxv, 59]. 

 131 Ibid. 1893-4, Rep. iii, 159. 



295 



