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The Experience of Poverty

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The Experience of Poverty THE EXPERIENCE OF POVERTY PEOPLE, POLICY, AND AGENCY IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY LEEDS AND ITS ENVIRONS Graham Rawson Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History September 2017 i The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2017 The University of Leeds and Graham Rawson ii Acknowledgements The fulfilment of this project would not have been possible without generous funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, specifically AHRC Block Grant Partnership Doctoral Studentship, Award No. 1346320. I am also grateful to Carl Griffin, in his editorial role at Rural History, and to the anonymous referees of my paper on the Rigton labouring poor for that journal, for their constructive comments and for pointing out the wood from the trees. But I am indebted to my supervisor Malcolm Chase, firstly for his good-humoured appreciation of the academic unfamiliarity of the older doctoral candidate, though mostly for his tireless encouragement, and his unbounded enthusiasm for, and insight into, the historical working class, an understanding at all times permeated by a heightened sense of humanity and social justice. Undergraduate students on a module based on some of the research material and methods presented here should also be thanked for their enthusiastic responses, while archivists and staff at The National Archives, West Yorkshire Archive Services Leeds, the old Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds Local Studies Library, and at Harrogate Central Library have been always courteous and helpful. Friends' pilgrimages to watch Leeds United have been punctuated by their tolerant and encouraging engagement with the doctoral process and the histories of the working poor, while my partner Fran's unwavering and indomitable wisdom, counsel, and love have been fundamental in the completion of this project. My three children, Jenny, Grace and Matthew, and two granddaughters, Leila and Holly, have all put up with my ramblings and preoccupations supportively and graciously. But it is my grandson Finley, in a roundabout and ultimately serendipitous way instrumental in the undertaking of this project, and who from its instigation has most suffered the musings, digressions, abstractions and distractions of his granddad, to whom this thesis is dedicated. Fin mate, this is for you. iii Abstract The methodology of narrative biographical reconstitution can give voice to the poor of past societies, allowing them to answer the questions we ask of them. This thesis examines the experiences of the northern urban labouring poor, in a period of industrialisation and unprecedented urban population growth and consolidation, from their own perspective, identifying and evaluating their constraints and agencies. Rapid urban growth was marked by particular age-group and gender demographics: migration was female led, girls and women sought work in textile mills. Women and their children's cheap compliant labour in an unregulated political economy drove industrialisation. Despite low wages, mill work permitted young women a limited independence from the male breadwinner model. But that model was merely aspirational, and families depended on children's incomes. Poverty was always near. One alleviation agency was application to township welfare mechanisms, both cash payments and other forms, notably medical relief. Because of large, sprawling incorporations of townships established under Gilbert's Act, local implementation of the New Poor Law was delayed into the 1860s. Consequently, relief was administered in the tradition of the Old Poor Law, with an emphasis on outdoor relief, and managed with greater autonomy by select vestry, rather than less-local boards of guardians. Politicised working men were elected to these bodies, and Chartist administrations managed poor relief in Holbeck, Leeds. The reconstitution of the life-cycles of two generations of seven neighbouring households in Holbeck is central to this investigation, and allows a rich and fine-grained analysis, synthesis and evaluation of their experiences. This argues that the paucity of wages and poor relief foregrounds other strategies, and identifies the critical balancing of family economies to make ends meet. Spatial proximity, family limitation, household re-alignments, and kinship and community support networks were also crucial factors, while collective self-help strategies like friendly societies flourished. iv Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Contents iv List of Figures v List of Tables vii Abbreviations viii 1. Introduction 1 2. Comparative demographics 13 3. Poor relief policy and impact 31 4. Cash relief in an urban industrialised township 72 5. Institutional care and extraordinary welfare 102 6. Isle Lane, Holbeck: a narrative biographical reconstitution 150 7. Identifying coping strategies 189 8. Conclusion 238 Appendix 253 Bibliography 267 v List of figures 2.1 Population in 1821-1851, Holbeck, Wortley, Rothwell, and Rigton 13 2.2 Population by age-group and gender, Potternewton, 1841 19 2.3 Gender balance by age-group, and age groups as a proportion of the 20 population: Holbeck, Wortley, Rothwell, and Rigton, 1841 2.4a Proportion of total workforce employed in townships' major sectors, 1841: 23 Holbeck, Wortley, and Rothwell 2.4b Proportion of male workforce employed in townships' major sectors, 1841: 23 Holbeck, Wortley, and Rothwell 2.5a Male occupational profile by sector and age-group, Holbeck, 1841 24 2.5b Male occupational profile by sector and age-group, Wortley, 1841 25 2.5c Male occupational profile by sector and age-group, Rothwell, 1841 25 2.6a Female occupational profile by sector and age-group, Holbeck, 1841 26 2.6b Female occupational profile by sector and age-group, Wortley, 1841 26 2.6c Female occupational profile by sector and age-group, Rothwell, 1841 27 2.7 Stated employment, all age-groups, Holbeck, Wortley, and Rothwell, 1841 28 2.8 Child-workers: percentage of children aged between 7 and 14 in stated 29 employment by age and gender, 1841, Holbeck, Wortley, and Rothwell 3.1 Map of the townships around Leeds and their Gilbert incorporations, 1842 33 3.2 Occupational composition of the Carlton Incorporation, by families, 1831 35 3.3 Comparative proportion of indoor relief, February 1846, and February 39 1847, England and Wales, the West Riding, Carlton Incorporation, Holbeck, and Leeds Township 3.4 Comparative outdoor relief payments, 1846 and 1847: non-incorporated 41 Leeds Townships and the Carlton Incorporation 3.5 Undated photograph of Stansfeld Row, Kirkstall Road, Leeds 44 3.6 Two photographs of Woggan Yard, Rothwell, prior to demolition in 1935 45 3.7 Relief levied per capita, Leeds Township, Holbeck, and the remaining nine 54 out-townships combined, comparatively, 1839-42 3.8 Galleried housing in Line Fold, Leeds, photographed in 1901 67 4.1 Newspaper advertisement offering reward for apprehending men who had 83 deserted their families: Wortley, 1845 4.2 Mean weekly relief expenditure, Holbeck, 1840 to 1847 94 4.3 Relief levied per capita annually, Leeds Township, Holbeck, and the 94 remaining nine out-townships combined, 1839-44 vi 5.1 'A perspective view of the pauper lunatic asylum ... Erected at Wakefield in 108 1816', by John Landseer, 1819 5.2 Number of patients at the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, 1818 to 114 1866 5.3 Holbeck workhouse population by age-group and gender, 1841 and 1851 122 5.4 Carlton workhouse population by age-group and gender, 1841 and 1851 123 6.1 Map of The Isle Lane area in 1850: highlighting the specific locality of the 151 seven households 6.2 Map of the Isle Lane area in 1890 152 6.3 Kirk's Yard, Holbeck, photographed in 1935 153 6.4 Chancery Court, Holbeck, photographed in 1903 153 6.5 Occupational proportions by sector, in total and by gender, Holbeck 1841, 155 and in comparison with the seven Isle Lane households 6.6 Holbeck age-groups in 1841, in comparison with the Isle Lane seven 156 households 6.7 Skinner Street, Leeds, photographed in 1931 159 6.8 The odd-numbered side of Clifford Street, Leeds, photographed in the late 160 1950s 6.9 Housing in Czar Street, Holbeck, photographed just prior to demolition in 165 1915 6.10 Blenkinsop locomotive with coal wagons on the Middleton Colliery 166 Railway close to the coal staith. Steel engraving by T. Owen from a drawing by N. Whittock, 1829 6.11 Higher status gardened back-to-backs in Hayes Street, Little London, 172 Leeds, photographed in 1958 6.12 Henry Street, Leeds, photographed in 1931 174 6.13 Derby Crescent, Hunslet, photographed in 1964 179 6.14 26 Algeria Street, Beeston Hill, Holbeck, photographed in 1964 180 7.1 Age and gender profile of workforce at Marshalls Flax Mill, Holbeck, 1833 204 7.2 Weekly pay by age group and gender at Marshalls Flax Mill, Holbeck, 207 1833 7.3 Panorama of part of Holbeck in the 1880s, with the Isle Lane yard 230 highlighted A.1 Comparative proportion of indoor relief, 1846 and 1847, the English 260 counties A.2 Comparative outdoor relief payments, 1846 and 1847, the English counties 261 A.3 Part of Holbeck tithe map, 1846 266 vii List of tables 2.1 Population and population change: the Leeds townships, including Holbeck 14 and Wortley; Rothwell; Rigton and the Carlton
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