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0 Jewellery and Coins.) 116 Table 4 University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/34821 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. OUT IN THE TRADE: THE OCCUPATIONAL COMMUNITY OF BIRMINGHAM'S JEWELLERY QUARTER. MAUREEN PADFIELD Submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology University of Warwick January 1990. ABSTRACT. The Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham has its base in small interdependent workshop craft production in a long-established location for which the concept of occupational community appeared an appropriate research tool. The ahistorical approach of studies of occupational communities is critically addressed and it is argued that the theory of occupational community can be deployed historically to investigate the particular conditions of the Jewellery Quarter and explain the construction of these over time. The origins of the industry in Birmingham are investigated in detail and the patterns of localisation together with the structure and organisation of the industry in the nineteenth century are analysed. The establishment of the local formal institutions which developed to support the industry is traced. An account is given of redevelopment, refurbishment, and recession in the post-war era. The current location of firms in the area is analysed, together with the organisation of work in the local industry. The occupational community of the Jewellery Quarter is described and analysed. The nature of interdependence, the daily interaction and the role of family are explained. The concept of work-in-leisure is discussed in relation to the Jewellery Quarter. The formal methods of recruitment to the local industry are reviewed against the needs of the local industry, and it is shown how the community itself acts as an informal channel of recruitment. The ambiguities surrounding women's employment in the industry are explored. While women are still concentrated in low-paid, low skilled work, it is argued that historically they have also been present as owners and craftswomen, and the factors which enable this are analysed. The methodology used in the study is detailed and the link between the methodology and concept of occupational community is discussed. In this study the broad use of the theory of occupational community has shown how the historical pattern continues to influence the community. Finally it is argued that the study contributes to the current debate on small firm survival and persistence. CONTENTS. Acknowledgements. 1. Chapter 1. Introduction. 1 Chapter 2. The Origins of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. 30 The origins of Birmingham's jewellery production. The sixteenth century to 1945. 30 Localisation of the jewellery and allied trades. 41 The structure and organisation of the industry. 51 Summary. 59 The formal institutions. 61 The British Jewellers' and Silversmiths Association. 61 The B.J.S. and the formation of the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing. 69 The Assay Office. 71 The formation of the trade union. 73 Conclusions. 78 Chapter 3. Post-war Change in the Jewellery Quarter; Redevelopment, Recession and Conservation. 86 The Quarter and redevelopment. 87 The era of conservation. 99 The local industry; the organisation of work. 107 Jewellery production and employment; the effects of recession. 111 The disposition of firms in the Quarter. 122 Conclusions. 127 Chapter 4. The Occupational Community in the Jewellery Quarter. 135 Processes and work practices: the meaning of interdependence. 136 The operation of the outworking system. 139 "Out in the trade". 143 The family in the firm. 148 Occupational community. 154 Chapter 5. Entry into the Local Industry; Formal Training and Informal Recruitment. 182 Models of recruitment in occupational communities. 183 Recruitment in the Jewellery Quarter. 186 Training for the industry; 187 i) Changes at the School. 188 ii) The industry's dilemmas. 191 iii) Employing strategies. 197 iv) The employers' background. 205 v) The relevance of the School. 208 Conclusions. 212 Chapter 6. Women in the Jewellery Quarter. 220 The historical context. 221 i) An overview of womens' work. 221 ii) Nimble fingers and low wages. 224 iii) The nature of womens' work in the jewellery and allied trades. 227 iv) Women and craft training. 229 v) Women and the Union. 233 vi) A summary of the historical background. 240 vii) The postwar years. 242 Womens' work in the trades. 244 Current opportunities for women craft workers 249 Training for women. 251 The role of the family. 256 Chapter 7. Methodology. 263 The mapping exercise. 264 Archive research 6 267 Formal institutions. 270 The workshop interviews. 275 i) Entry into the community. 276 ii) The interview site. 279 iii) The interview schedule. 282 Conclusions. 286 Chapter 8. Conclusions. 292 Theories of small firms and flexible specialisation. 303 Bibliography. 325 Appendices. Appendix A. Tables of number of firms by industry 1850-1987. Tables of distribution of trades by street 1850-1987. A-1 Appendix B. Charts reflecting the historical changes in the numbers of firms per street, and in key trades in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter. B-1 Appendix C. School of Jewellery and Silversmithing Prize Awards 1986 and 1987. Distribution of prizes by sex. C-1 List of maps. Map 1. Conjectural map of Birmingham 1553. 32 Map 2. Birmingham 1731. 42 Map 3. Birmingham 1810. 43 Map 4. Birmingham 1831. 45 Map 5. Bradshaw's plan of Birmingham 1840. 46 Map 6. Birmingham 1870. 50 Map 7. Map of Birmingham showing the Jewellery Quarter as defined by the City Planners. 89 List of tables. Table 1. Number of firms associated with metal- working and toymaking in Birmingham 1770. 34 Table 2. Numbers of Firms and Enterprises in the Jewellery Industry in the U.K. 1981-1985. 114 Table 3. Size of Unit in the U.K. 1981. (Activity 4910 Jewellery and Coins.) 116 Table 4. Size of Unit in the U.K. 1985. (Activity 4910 Jewellery and Coins.) 117 Table 5. Employment in the Jewellery Industry; Birmingham and Great Britain 1951 - 1980. 119 Table 6. Distribution of jewellery firms in the Jewellery Quarter by street in the post- war years. 124 Table 7. Distribution of jewellery, silversmithing and allied firms in Vyse Street 1953-1987 126 Acknowledgements. My thanks are due to the men and women in the jewellery, silverware and allied trades in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter who shared their experiences with me, and patiently allowed me to interrupt their work. They are not named individually in order to preserve confidentiality, but I owe a great debt to them all. In addition I would like to thank the following for their assistance: Mrs. S. Battle, Birmingham and West Midlands Chamber of Commerce; Mr. S. J. Beechey, 0.B.E.; Patrick Bird and his staff of the Local Studies Department at Birmingham Reference Library; Penny Broad of the Birmingham Low Pay Unit; Alan Crawford, M.A. of the Birmingham branch of the Victorian Society; George Dyson and his team at the British Jewellers' Association Youth Training Scheme; Sheena Mason, editor of "British Jeweller" and her staff; Mr. Bob Nicholson, Redditch and District Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Brian Ranson, Social Studies Department, Coventry Polytechnic; Peter Seazell, West Midlands Advisory Council; Mr. John Scott, Honorary Secretary, St. Paul's Club; Colin Shaw, M.A.; Lynn Snead, Executive Secretary, British Jewellers' Association; Staff and students in the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery, Birmingham Polytechnic; Staff and students at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing; the trainees on the British Jewellers' Association Youth Training Scheme; Rosemary Willis of the Birmingham -1- Economic Development Unit; Chris Yorke, Secretary of the Precious Metals Branch, TASS. At the University of Warwick I would like to thank the University Grants Awards Committee from whom I received grants in 1986-7, and again in 1987-8. I am grateful to the library staff at the University of Warwick for their help, in particular the staff of Inter-Library Loans and the Modern Records Department. I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement I have received from the staff of the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, especially Professor Robert G. Burgess for the stimulation of his research methods courses and Dr. Ian Procter for his patient supervision, continued encouragement and the many hours of stimulating debate around the topics raised in this study. CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION The Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham has occupied the same geographical area for over a hundred years, and jewellery, silverware and their allied trades have remained dominant there. Production and processes continue to be mainly carried out in small workshops and there are few large factories. The local industry's own craft training school, the Assay Office and the national association of the industry are based in the Quarter. Until the late 1950's it had a residential area on its fringes, and so had a potential local labour force. These external features, together with the interdependence of a craft-based trade, suggested that the concept of occupational community, which has been used in sociology to examine a variety of industries, would be an appropriate method of analysis. The body of empirical studies which developed the idea of occupational community did not deploy a precise definition. Rather, certain occupations were observed to generate identification with work by the worker and to influence life outside of work in such a way that work took on a communal aspect. A number of monograph studies attempted to explain the factors in particular occupations which led to this communal quality.
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