| In England in the 1700s, 75% of the total workforce were labourers. The
farm worker had, for the most part, to reply on the strength of his body
and perhaps a horse if he was fortunate enough to have access to one. Ploughing,
sowing, weeding or harvesting, or tending to sheep, cattle or other livestock
were all labour intensive.
If we look at the typical family at the beginning of the 18th century,
in most households it was necessary for the whole family to contribute
to the production of an adequate subsistence and not simply reply on the
efforts of a single breadwinner. The children would be plaiting straw
for several hours in the early morning, scaring crows or weeding and picking
stones from the fields. The girls were expected to work alongside their
mother in a variety of handicrafts and household chores, including sewing,
weaving and feeding hens. The boys, from about the age of seven, as they
become stronger, would be working beside their father 10 or 12 hours a
day, doing a full day's work contributing to the family budget. Schooling
was almost unheard of for the labouring classes, and a few who were fortunate
enough to receive any formal learning through charity schools and Sunday
Schools would only receive, at most, three or four years education in
elementary reading. It was not until 1870 that compulsory education for
five to 13 year olds became law in England. However, as the children worked
beside their parents, they would learn about the weather, the seasons,
the names of the animals and birds and they could recognise the varieties
of hedgerow berries and which were good food and which were poisonous.
They also learned how to tend and take care of the farm animals and the
land.
To be employed in full-time work was certainly not the normal practice.
A few, usually unmarried and under the age of 25, might be engaged for
a year as farm servants at a Mop Fair or hiring fair. They might be lucky
and live in a barn or other outbuilding on the farm, ready to start work
at first light of dawn. The majority of labourers were hired on a day
to day basis earning about one shilling a day in the 1700s, rising to
about eight shillings by the 1830s. At harvest time work was plentiful
and they could earn a little extra cash, but their day was 12 to 15 hours
of hard physical work. At that season, work was available to all and the
whole family would turn out. However, subsistence from such work was erratic,
certainly not regular and was generally insufficient to provide the simple
necessities of life.
So how did the agricultural labourer manager to survive when times were
hard and paid employment on the farm was scarce? Most families lived in
small villages or hamlets, much smaller than we know today, and they depended
on the land to support them. Their dependence was mainly due to their
rights of access to common land where they could raise a cow or two, or
some pigs or sheep at not cost at all. They also enjoyed the privilege
of gathering fuel, by cutting bracken, turf, peat or brushwood. The hedgerows
provided berries that could be eaten or turned into wine or pies, and
nuts that could be gathered and stored. Rabbits, fish and birds could
be taken, sometimes by poaching, all of which added to their limited resources.
Even where common land rights did not exist, most people had a small garden
where they could grow potatoes, beans and cabbages, or keep a pig, or
few chickens or geese, which could be fed on almost anything. After the
harvest was gathered in, gleaning the fields was another right, going
back to Biblical times, providing enough for a few loaves of homemade
bread and some straw for bedding.
Self-sufficiency was the order of the day. Nothing was wasted. Old pieces
of leather were saved to repair shoes, harnesses etc. Old nails were put
to one side and straightened to be used again and again. Rugs were made
from old pieces of clothing- preferably from wool, which was more hard-wearing
than cotton- which were cut into strips an hooked into pieces of sacking.
The family home would probably be a small rented cottage, with no water
tap or sink, just a single pump in the village. Washing clothes was a
communal activity for the wives and daughters but hygiene and cleanliness
were little understood, so illness and injury took their toll. Many children
died before they reached the age of five. Slight injuries became infected
and often crippling, simply because medicine and cures were largely unknown.
Epidemics spread like wildfire and devastated whole communities.
In the 18th century, travel as we know it today was usually neither desired
nor undertaken by the labouring classes, isolated in their village communities
except for an occasional journey of a few miles to a nearby village or
market town. They had scant knowledge of the events of the time except
those in which they were personally involved. Religion played an important
role in their lives. xvi
|
Lancaster
Castle with St. Mary's Cathedral on the left. 
