16th February, 2007
Good Times and Bad Times
Until about 1840 there were many hand weavers in the Wigan area. They usually worked in specially adapted cellars in their own cottages. Yarn was bought from entrepreneurs and the finished cloth was sold in Wigan.
When times were good, weaving was a steady, profitable occupation, but circumstances outside the weavers' control occasionally resulted in a slump in the demand for cotton, and domestic workers found it difficult to earn enough to feed themselves and their families.
Good Times
Weavers in the domestic system were not subjected to a rigid work schedule. When times were good and demand for their products was high, they needed work only for a relatively short time.
1802 was a time of prosperity in the cotton trade. An edition of the "Blackburn Mail" of this year describes weavers' earnings:
"It is also extraordinary that many weavers at this time are able, singly to earn from 45 to 50s (2pounds 25pence to 2pounds 50pence) per week: and the number of boys and girls of twelve years of age can earn a guinea a week at the loom also."
These were very good earnings for a working man. 1802 represented the pinnacle of hand weavers' prosperity.
Bad Times
1779 had been a bad year. Demand for cotton had fallen with the loss of the American market and the war with France and Spain.
The hand weavers directed their venom towards the newly built "manufactories" which they saw as a threat to their way of life.
Wigan Magistrates stated:
"Ever since Monday last (27th September, 1779), a violent and unruly mob have at different times assembled themselves by Beat of Drum and armed, and have committed violent outrages: their principal Fury has been exerted against some of the Capital Manufacturers in Cotton and Fustian Manufactories carried on in this Town (Wigan) and in the adjacent villages..."
At this time there were few power-looms to offer a direct threat to the domestic weavers but they appear to have felt threatened by the mechanisation of other processes in the cotton industry. They destroyed carding, roving and spinning machines "some of them driven by water".
The "manufactories", which are described above, were probably located at Aspull and owned by Thomson, Roger Foster and Samuel Fogg.
Just over a week later (7th October, 1779) a "spinning wheel" was smashed in the "dwelling house" of Thomas and Ann Pye in Pemberton. The term "dwelling house" suggest that this was a small scale enterprise. The "spinning wheel" was probably a Hargreaves' spinning jenny.
Decline in Wages
The development of viable power-looms towards the end of the 18th century began the distressing demise of the home based weaver.
William Varley was a hand weaver living near Burnley. In 1820 he wrote poignantly about the drastic decline of his income to half that of the good times of 1802:
"Alas poor weaver, thy fond hopes of better days always proves abortive; distress and scorn is thy true companions, thy haggard and meagre looks plainly indicate thy hard usage, slavery which knows no bounds."
But the 15s (75p) a week he was earning in 1820 would be halved again by 1826 - a year when there were more riots.
It was then that Bolton weavers issued the following figures while protesting against their meagre standard of living:
| prices | 1792 | 1826 |
|---|---|---|
| wages | 30p a yard | 1.5p a yard |
| best bread | 0.5p a pound | 0.75p a pound |
| butter | 3p | 5p |
| cheese | 2p | 3p |
| butcher's meat | 2p | 3p |
It can be seen that weavers claimed that, by 1826, their income had declined to one twentieth of the 1792 level. Food prices, during the same period, had risen by one third.
The years after 1826 saw a decline in the number of hand weavers and an increase in factory based power-loom workers.
The following table, which appears in a book published by the "Amalgamated Weavers Association", charts the decline of the hand weaver and the rise of the power-loom worker:
| year | hand-loom weavers | power-loom weavers |
|---|---|---|
| 1806 | 184,000 | a few |
| 1813 | 212,000 | 3,000 |
| 1815 | 200,000 | 7,000 |
| 1817 | 228,000 | 10,000 |
| 1819-1821 | 240,000 | 10,000 |
| 1829-31 | 225,000 | 50,000 |
| 1832 | 225,000 | 75,000 |
| 1844 | 60,000 | 150,000 |
| 1859-61 | 5,000 | 203,000 |
By the 1860s the days of the commercial hand weaver were almost over.