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‘Just a poor weaver…’
The existence of a tight knit and experienced weaving community in Norwich was both its strength and weakness. .Individuals within all of the trades from dyer to finisher were respected craftsmen and some commanded high wages and status.
From the Norwich census records we can see the huge number of trades which contributed to the production of a piece of cloth. Each was governed by its own set of rules, customary procedures and wage rates. This meant that when trade was poor there was little flexibility or willingness to adapt. The worsted weavers looked back to an illustrious past, and had operated within a radical and enlightened city. It was not surprising that the result was often protest, riot and dislocation.
Distress was at its peak during two decades following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. This era witnessed a large increase in poverty, and an upsurge in political radicalism. This coincided with major technological change resulting hardship for the weaving community on an unprecedented scale. Food riots occurred in 1816, 1819 and throughout the 1820s and ‘solutions’ often involved reducing wage rates and or other sources of income for poor people. The weavers’ protests however were not a blanket attack on all forms of industrialisation. It was thought, naively, that innovation would affect mainly the cheaper cloths and that the Norwich reputation for quality would prevail. Protests centred around attempts to reduce wages for particular kinds of work and attacks on the offending piece goods themselves, not the looms on which they were produced.
Pamphlets by concerned individuals and local and national commissions of enquiry bear witness to the tension between workforce and manufacturer in 19th century Norwich. Many manufacturers were reluctant innovators, but others feared to introduce the new machinery which might have cut down on their costs at the hand-loom weavers’ expense. The writing was on the wall for hand-loom weaving, with manufacturers and workforce powerless to resist change, but this was only realised with the benefit of hindsight. Shawl weaving, silks, crapes and horsehair fabrics all continued into the 20th century, but employing fewer and fewer people.
Many Norwich-born working people sought employment elsewhere or joined the ranks of those moving into boot and shoe-making, food processing, iron-working, the railways, brewing, office-work and banking.
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 Francis Hinde & Sons, Oak Street, Bridewell Museum  Some of the last hand-loom weavers, Francis Hinde & Sons, Bridewell Museum |
