Genealogy Chat

Hi Nell I fyou could let me know Bucks for 1850 and 1871 that would be great. Thanks very much Sam

Annette Norfolk average wages 1850 8s.0d 1872 13s. 4d 1898 11s. 6d 1910 12s. 4d 1914 not given 1919 36s. 6d 1924 25s. 0d 1938 34s. 6d 1947 90s. 0d. remember this is old shillings and pence! The book is rather dull reading, but it shows that Norfolk was a hotbed of political agitation and mentions the Burston School Strike of 1911 because it was supported by farm workers. There's an interesting chapter on George Edwards, who founded the modern union. He was born 1850 in Marsham, Norfolk. I quote: "The cottage's two small bedrooms already housed his father and mother and six children. Abject poverty was the lot of labourers like George's father, Thomas Edwards. In the bitter opression of the 1830s, Thomas Edwards had been foolish enough to speak out about the labourers' sufferings at a meeting of half-starved unemployed in Marsham. As a result he was refused work by the local farmers and for a while had to go into the workhouse. "A few years later, Thomas Edwards married a young widow with 3 young hcildren, and the two of them set about the grim business of keeping home and family on farm labourer's wages. More children came: some lived, some died. Wages went down, food prices did not. White Thomas Edwards laboured from dawn to dark for 6s or 7s a week, Mary Edwards did handloom weaving in their cottage, working sixteen hours a day to earn at most 4s a week. "When George...was born, thomas's wages were 7s a week and food had risen to famine prices. Mary edwards brought her baby into the world with no food for herself save some onion gruel. She was able to breast-feed the child for one week only; from then on he was fed on poor, skimmed milk...When George was 5, his father was caught taking a few turnips home from the fields to feed his hungry children...he was sent to prison and his family went into the workhouse where they stayed throughout the winter, mother and children separated" nell

HI HELEN, I'M CURIOUS! AS NEARLY ALL MY MALE ANCESTORS FROM NORTHWOLD NORFOLK WERE AG LABS FROM ABT.1811 ONWARDS! IF YOU CAN GIVE ME A ROUGH IDEA I WOULD BE FASCINATED THANKS ANNETTE :)

At the back of the book is a table giving the Average Weekly Wage of Ordinary agricultural Labourers - it excludes extra and additional earnings and comes from a variety of sources, so should be used with caution, but it gives an idea of earnings in different parts of the country. It gives wages for the years 1850, 1872, 1898, 1910, 1914 (Aug), 1919 (Oct), 1924 (Oct), 1924, 1938 and 1947, divided by area and then by county: Eastern & North Eastern Bedford; Cambridge; Essex, Hertford; Huntingdon; Lincoln; Norfolk; Suffolk; Yorks East Riding. West Midland & South Western Cornwall; Devon; Dorset; Gloucester; Hereford; Monmouth; Shropshire; Somerset; Wilts; Worcester. South Eastern & Eastern Midlands Berks; Bucks; Hants; Kent; Leicester; Middlesex; Northants; Notts; Oxford; Rutland; Surrey; Sussex; Warwick. North & North Western Cheshire; Cumberland; Derbyshire;Durham; Lancashire; Northumberland; Stafford; Westmorland; Yorks N Riding & W Riding. Please let me know if you'd like a look up for an area/county and which year(s) and I'll oblige. nell

I found at my mum's a book which had belonged to my grandfather called "Sharpen the Sickle! The History of the Farm Workers' Union" by Reg Groves, published 1948. see below