Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Was it common practice?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Was it common practice?

    For agricultural and general labourers to live at the side of the road?

    While digging for some distant twigs, I have found them in the 1861 census living next to each other at the side of the road, in fact everyone on the page is doing the same!

    I am wondering if this was a common event? It's something I haven't come across before, and they are not far from their birth places either. In fact I have found three pages of people doing the same, harvest time perhaps?
    Last edited by andymak; 03-02-10, 22:54.
    Life's a journey not a destination.

    Currently researching: Makey (Kent), Heath & Neil (London & Devon), Pegg (Norfolk & Suffolk), Gulliford (Cornwall).... Still busy busy!

  • #2
    As censuses were taken in April, it wouldn't be harvest as that was September. Could just be the way their hovels were described perhaps?

    Comment


    • #3
      Yes, the homes of many of my ag lab ancestors are so described. I imagine they were in many cases simple hovels but even if they were more substantial they would not have a number or address beyond the designation "by the road" or "on the Green".

      Peter

      Comment


      • #4
        Although I haven't found any described as living by the side of the road, I have come across some distant twigs "in a field" or "in a barn".
        Jenny

        Comment


        • #5
          Many of these living beside the road could have been of the gypsy/tinker fraternity or even just homeles people travelling around. Even in the 1940's I have heard of many gypsy families who lived beside the roads in very rough encampments. Not all gypsy families had nice posh caravans. I am deliberately using the term gypsy as this is the old terminology for the now more familiar traveller.

          Janet

          Comment


          • #6
            Ag labs tended to live in a hamlet or village and go to work each day on a farm, not live on the farms themselves.

            Di
            Diane
            Sydney Australia
            Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

            Comment


            • #7
              Dicole

              Many ag labs were employed on a daily basis or around ploughing/harvesting and other important farming events for a few weeks and did not necessarily live in the hamlets surrounding the villages but came from far and wide. Many came from Ireland just for these events and went back home to Ireland after the events finished to return again when necessary. These people would then live in makeshift camps by the roadside or whererever they could find shelter.

              Andymak

              Sowing the seed in spring was as important as harvest time so that could have co incided with a census in April.

              Janet
              Last edited by Janet; 04-02-10, 10:50.

              Comment


              • #8
                That's an interesting scenario Janet. It would be interesting, therefore, to know whether these people described were born locally??

                Comment


                • #9
                  Velma,

                  Yes, that is precisely what often did happen! My OH has one ancestor who was according to his navy records and all census, born in Chideock but no sign of birth until we found by chance an intriguing note on Roots web by some body asking about same person who had supposedly written a letter to a family in Ireland in 1914 enquiring about his possible birth in this small hamlet in Cork County. That led us to the parish records of this part of Cork and to his baptism and his parents who were the same as he had stated so he was not born in Chideock at all in 1841 but in Cork!!

                  Of course with so many Irish coming over at various times for Harvests etc and returning sometimes with illegitimate children then sometimes they were baptised in England, but often baptised in Ireland and that is what often makes life difficult finding some of our ancestors!

                  Janet

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    We shouldn't lose track of how agricultural practices varied greatly from area to area, according to the terrain.
                    My home area is very stony and also has steep dalesides and this impacted on the type of farming that could be done and the workforce needed. Here casual work was mainly for haymaking, corn and potato harvesting. (The school logbook has many references to village women and boys carrying out these tasks.) An analysis of census shows that most of the agricultural workforce was local, with a few imports from Lincolnshire and Norfolk (par for the times.)
                    Farm servants (living in at the farm) went on here for much longer than in other parts of the country - it was certainly common practice in the 1950's and early 1960's and the annual farm hirings were still held in the 1930's.
                    Very few of the homes in my village were named in census, although occasionally a streetname was used like Mill Lane, pondside
                    Some of my Norfolk relatives were recorded "on the common" - but this meant they lived in cottages at the edge of the Common.
                    I have a shepherd recorded "in barn" and another "in field" - but I remember mobile shepherd huts from my childhood!
                    My most unusual census entry is a young woman and her 1 day old child, both strays, recorded in "room over the stable" at the Rectory. (Sounds very Christmassy!)

                    Jay
                    Janet in Yorkshire



                    Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The families could have been "on the tramp", a common practice in the 1800's to look for work, and where we get the word tramp from. I think the practice even stretched into the early 1900's as I remember watching a genealogical TV program where the children of the family were forcebly taken away from the parents for neglect and malnutrition whilst the family were on the tramp. Obviously this way of life was a last resort for most people and most frowned upon by the parishes as they often had to deal with the sick and the dead who they considered not their responsibility.
                      Helen
                      Support the S.O.P.H.I.E. campaign, Stamp Out Predudice Hatred + Intolerance Everywhere.

                      Visit the website at http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/index1.html

                      http://www.illamasqua.com/about/sophie/

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        To fill in some more info about this twig of my family, 1861 John is living with an aunt and uncle 3 or so miles from his birth place, I can't find him in 1871, in 1881 he is living at the side of the road within the same road as aunt and uncle who are doing the same again less than 4 miles from his birth place in Bedfordshire, by now he is married with a 2 year old.
                        Again can't find him in 1891 then in 1901 the now much larger family have moved to Willesden in London, and he is a foreman platelayer on the railway.
                        Life's a journey not a destination.

                        Currently researching: Makey (Kent), Heath & Neil (London & Devon), Pegg (Norfolk & Suffolk), Gulliford (Cornwall).... Still busy busy!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Ah!

                          Navvies frequently lived by the side of the road, in as much as they camped where they worked. The railway connection might be a clue.

                          OC

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Although it could be that the rise in mechanisation in farming processes led him to to look elsewhere for work, ie the railway

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              That is a possibility, just wish I could find them in the 1871 and 1891 census records to track their progress.
                              Life's a journey not a destination.

                              Currently researching: Makey (Kent), Heath & Neil (London & Devon), Pegg (Norfolk & Suffolk), Gulliford (Cornwall).... Still busy busy!

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                Originally posted by Janet View Post
                                Dicole

                                Many ag labs were employed on a daily basis or around ploughing/harvesting and other important farming events for a few weeks and did not necessarily live in the hamlets surrounding the villages but came from far and wide. Many came from Ireland just for these events and went back home to Ireland after the events finished to return again when necessary. These people would then live in makeshift camps by the roadside or whererever they could find shelter.


                                Janet
                                Hi Janet,

                                I have not seen any living "by the side of the road" in the census' I have looked at - maybe the areas I have looked at were too far from Ireland or did not need itinerant workers. Many Ag labs were also employed for "a year and a day" and perhaps were more settled than those employed just for harvesting. I have read of lots of Londoners going out to Kent and Sussex for harvesting, so I guess coming over from Ireland, is no different, just a bit further.

                                These ones of mine definitely lived in the hamlet of Thetford for many years.

                                1861
                                (25) Front St Thetford
                                CREEK Edward head 23 ag lab Thetford
                                Caroline wife 27 Spall Norfolk
                                Edward son 3 Thetford
                                Ebenezer son 1 Thetford
                                Emily dau 1mon Thetford


                                (52) Hall Fen Thetford
                                CREEK James head 54 ag lab Thetford
                                Ann wife 51 Holy Trinity Ely
                                William son 16 ag lab Barway
                                Margaret dau 14 ag lab Barway

                                (53) Back St Theford
                                CREEK John head 35 Shepherd Thetford
                                CREEK Mary Ann wife 37 Northants Newboro
                                CREEK Tom son 13 ag lab Prickwillow
                                CREEK Phoebe dau 11 St Mary Ely
                                CREEK Jemima dau 4 Thetford
                                CREEK John son 1 Thetford

                                (42) Hall Fen Thetford
                                CREEK John 62 ag lab
                                CREEK Jemima 52 Stretham
                                CREEK Phoebe 20 formerly dom serv Ely
                                CREEK Benjamin 18 ag lab Ely
                                CREEK Josiah 15 Ely


                                Di
                                Diane
                                Sydney Australia
                                Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  Hi Diane, interesting to see you describe Thetford as a hamlet..... in the 1800's it had mills and manufacturing, Indian princes nearby and experienced quite a boom.
                                  Although looking at where everyone is from I suspect Little Thetford Cambridgeshire, and of course locals wouldn't (still don't) use the full place name when describing it. Little Thetford Cambridgeshire is only 23 miles from me, Thetford Norfolk is only 7. Litlle Thetford is now a village, but probably was a hamlet back then.
                                  Life's a journey not a destination.

                                  Currently researching: Makey (Kent), Heath & Neil (London & Devon), Pegg (Norfolk & Suffolk), Gulliford (Cornwall).... Still busy busy!

                                  Comment


                                  • #18
                                    yes it is now Little Thetford Cambridge, not the one in Norfolk. THey are quite close distance-wise, but it was never called Littlle Thetford in the census, "Little" was a later addition.
                                    In 1881, the whole of the hamlet of Thetford, in the parish of Stretham comprised 61 private and public dwellings (4 public houses !) in High st, Holt Fen, Burying Lane and Popes Lane.
                                    Diane
                                    Sydney Australia
                                    Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

                                    Comment


                                    • #19
                                      Do you know if any of them are burried there or nearby? As I might be able to do a look up in a couple of weeks time if there was anything you needed pictures of etc.
                                      Life's a journey not a destination.

                                      Currently researching: Makey (Kent), Heath & Neil (London & Devon), Pegg (Norfolk & Suffolk), Gulliford (Cornwall).... Still busy busy!

                                      Comment


                                      • #20
                                        Hi andymak

                                        I assume they are buried at the local churchyard, the NBI for Thetford St George only goes up to 1837. I think the Creeks were probably too poor for headstones, but a picture of the church would be great, if you are passing. I have sent off for Jemima's death cert...

                                        Di
                                        Diane
                                        Sydney Australia
                                        Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

                                        Comment

                                        Working...
                                        X