The Spread of the Threshing Machine in Central Southern England I I by N

l!r i!il !i: ?' i. The Spread of the Threshing Machine in Central Southern England i i By N. E. FOX 7 'NTIL recently there has been a consider- "a considerable number" having been erected able measure of agreement as to the in the cotmty "within the last two or three i/ U progress of the threshing machine years" prior to I8o9 suggests that the total during, and in the decade or so following, the number was well in excess of thirty.4 As early Napoleonic Wars. The consensus was that the as the spring ofISo8 a certain "William Baker, threshing madiine spread rapidly, if unevenly, near the Corn Market, Newbury" was adver- during the war period, and dlat in some areas at tising "Threshing and Winnowing Machines" least the expansion continued right up to the in the Reading Meralr), (30 May I8o8), and by Swing Riots of ~83o. I8I 4 it was possible for a Reading diarist to In arecent article, ~however, Dr MacDonald declare that "the Threshing Machine has now argued dlat the "massive suspicion" with which almost superseded the use of the flail. ''5 the threshing machine was approached had led W. Stevenson also referred to "a consider- to its "virtual rejection--by most ofEngl~ld. ''2 able number of threshing machines" having That this applied to central southern England is been erected in Dorset, "nearly all of them in shown by a map accompanying file article the present century". He gave details, or at where, olx file basis of the Board of Agricul- least the names of the owners, of as many as ttu'e's Reports, it is asserted that in or around twenty-eight machines and referred in passing i8o8 there were only "several" machines in to "sel,eral" others2 C. Valicouver gave details existence in Berkshire, Dorset, and Hamp- of twelve of the more important Hampshire shire. ~ (That there was "no information" for installations, and added that smaller machines Wiltshire is due to file fact that an updated of two to three h.p. were "getting into much version of the first Report of I794 wasnever use in the valley• of the Avon. ''v published.) When using or interpreting file information "Several" is, of course, a "Humpty-Dunlp- contained in the Board of Agriculture's Reports ty" word, but if any particular number or we should bear in mind that it may have been range of numbers is attached to it surely it collected some time before the date of publica- would be between three and ten? (The tion. Thus the period which elapsed between numerical definition given in the O.ED. is the date of collection and 1815 may well have "more thml two or fliree, but not very many.") been long enough for file tendency for the A careful scrutiny of file Reports for the three machines to spread to have been strengthened; comities mentioned above (published in I8o9, or, put another way, for the minor revolution I812, and i813 respectively) reveals that, even indicated by the Reports to have become a major before I815, there must have been more than one. Certainly it would not be an extravagant thirty threshing machines in existence in each clainl that, even before the end of the wars with of them. W. Mayor took note of only the "principal" 4 W. Mavor, Geperal View of Berkshire, I8O9, pp. I29- machines in Berkshire; even so these amounted 36. 5 Anon., 'Reading Seventy Years Ago', I887: Reading to fifteen machines, and his further reference to Public Library, Local Collection, R/D. 0 W. Stevenson, General View of Dorset, I812, pp. 1 S. MacDonald, 'The Progress of the Early Threshing I44-63. Machine', Agrie. Hist. Rev., xxHI, I, I975, pP. 63-77. C. Vancouver, General glew of Hampshire, I8r3, pp. Ibid., p. 74. 3 Ibid., p. 69. I06-I 13. 26 SPREAD OF THE THRESHING MACHINE z7 Napoleon, certainly more than twenty and extent of the activities of the rioting labourers possibly as many as forty fixed threshing in one small corner of that county. Ia~ an area machines were in use in each of the three roughly demarcated by the sides of a triangle comities mentioned above. By I815 the num- with its vertices at Newbury, Shalbourne (in ber may well have reached fifty. 183 o part of Berkshire), and Great Shefford, but Dr MacDonald admits the possibility that excluding the villages of the Lambourn valley, "some machines were built in the South in the at least thirty-seven threshing machines were first post-war decade," but finds support for his definitely destroyed. thesis that the threshing machine was virtually As it was the practice of the local machine rejected by most of England in the fact that breakers to levy £2 for the labour involved in "the Swing Kioters could find but 390 thresh- breaking one machine, it would be a fair ing machines in twenty-one counties upon assumption that the Revd Sloper, who owned which to vent their wrath."s Ofcom'se it would the whole of the parish of West Woodhay, be a convincing demonstration of this thesis if it Berks., and who was asked to pay "£6 for the could be shown that less than twenty machines machines" possessed three threshing machines. existed in each of these twenty-one Swing The vicar of Kintbury informed Charles counties. However, this is one of those cases Dundas, M.P. (known to the local labourers as where the use of an average figure is most mis- "the King of Kintbury"), that he had agreed leading. What is nmch more interesting, indeed with the latter's bailiffthat "it would be better much more important, is the way in which to bring your machines" to the centre of the these 39o machines were distributed through- village; the use of the plural suggests the possi- out the twenty-one counties: bility that Charles Dundas, like the P,.evd Sloper an owner of much land in the district, 274 (or nearly 70 per cent) were destroyed in possessed more than one threshing machine. just seven counties in south-east and south Three other farmers were each mulcted of£2, cetltral England (i.e. Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and rnoney was demanded of two more. 1° Thus Hants., Berks., Wilts., and Dorset); the overall number of threshing machines 2I 7 (or 56 per cent) were destroyed in only destroyed in this small corner of Berkshire may three counties (i.e. Hants., Berks., and well have been as many as forty-five. As this Wilts.); nearly 36 per cent were destroyed number of machines was destroyed in an area in West Berkshire and Wiltshire, while 97 which was only 6 per cent of the ancient county (or very nearly a quarter) were destroyed in of Berkshire, and covered between forty and Wiltshire alone. 9 forty-five square miles, the density of machines in this part of the county at least was as much as However vigorously the agricultural workers one per square mile. Thus, though we should of south-central England set about their self- not be justified in applying this density figure imposed task of destroying every single thresh- to flxe whole of the county, a number well in ! ; ing nlachiue, it is unlikely that flmy completely excess of a hundred would be a very cop.serva- t; achieved their objective. Hence, if ninety-seven tire estimate of the nmnber of machines in machines were destroyed, there must have been existence in Berkshire also. We have, therefore, i many more than a hundred threshing machines positive evidence for three-figure numbers of in existence in Wiltshire alone in November machines in two counties of central southern 183o. That a three-figure number of machines England as at November 183o. Numbers of this must have been in use in the neighbouring order of magnitude must cast grave doubts on county of Berkshire also, is shown by the Dr MacDonald's general thesis that the thresh- a MacDonald, op. eit., p. 75. I°P.R.O.: H.O. S2/6, T.S. H1849-5I; Berks. R.O.: 9 E. Hobsbawm and G. Rud6, Captain Swing, I969, pp. papers of W. Hall, Solicitor, Hungerford; Reading Mer- 3o4-5. cury and Berkshire Chronicle. 28 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW :!I ing machine was virtually rejected by most of of a "Mr Rider, a me&anic and small farmer, England, and wholly demolishes it as far as residing upon the Wallop Estate in the parish of 7!i central southern England is concerned. Westbury Wilts," who in I829 had invented Comparing the two sets of figures provided ,, a portable threshing. machine,. ,, the cost of by the second series of the Board's Reports and which was estimated as unlikely to "exceed £8 the documents relating to the Swing Riots, we or £1o. "12 Such a low price would have can fairly conclude that the nmnber of thresh- brought a threshing machine within the reach ing machines in existence in central southern of the poorest farmer and, consequently, "This England more than doubled between 1815 and almotmcement caused a great deal of comment 183 o. Whether this was due to steady growth or among the labourers of Dorset, Hants and the result of an m~precedented increase in the Wilts [and Berkshire.?]. They regarded the year or two before the riots we cannot be sure. machine as certain to produce starvation and According to Hobsbawm and Kud6 there is no want amongst them and their families. It was clear evidence one way or another that the use in their opinion 'an infernal naachine'.

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