The Collins of Chard/Chapter V

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The Collins of Chard: Rural West Country England

by Terence Kearey

Chapter V. Tatworth, Chard's sub manor, and the lace mill.

The Langdon family, at Parrocks Lodge, prospered too, at a time of expansion. The land provided a good income and the farm gave them all the food they needed. It is little wonder that they could have such a large family and live such comfortable lives. The agent made positive noises about the state of the estate’s finances. Improvements to the estates land were put in hand and another round of land drainage was put in place.This rosy picture ended when imports started to arrive in Britain in 1875. Thereafter, the rising population in the cities were offered cheap imports of corn, and lamb and mutton gave way to beef. The production of milk products began to make itself felt and the nations diet changed to prepared cereals. The industrialization of Britain continued unabated and the population kept up with it. The yearly harvest could only just manage to provide sufficient food and it seemed likely that food shortages would come about.

The imported grain surplus from America and Canada flooded the markets and the new refrigerated ships from Australia and New Zealand provided the lamb. The twenty-year period between 1879 and 1890 saw prices halved. This very quickly resulted in farmers going to the wall, land being sold, marginal land abandoned, downland left to grass, and farmhouses and outbuildings falling into disrepair. This was no five-minute downturn but a long-term disaster. Thousands of farmers who had managed through the generations - to husband the land, went bankrupt. Landowners despaired of ever finding tenants. Estates were put on the market at rock bottom prices… even so, much was left neglected – land was considered a liability not as an asset. Gradually, as in most things, the problem of cheap imports became absorbed, farmers diversified, adapted, and slowly recovered. The displaced labour found their way to towns and cities.

The difficulty finding work began to be felt not in all trades at once. There were certain jobs that had to be filled, those things linked to industrial expansion. It was a predictable consequence of mass production of factory products, providing for an increased population. Many local trades began to disappear, as the workers retired, not being replaced by young trained journeymen. A pressure could not be dissipated except by having fewer young people needing employment. The gradual move away from the home-village began, helped by the greater numbers of bicycles available and the expanding railways. The new mass production methods affected cottage industries as well, not just because those skills could be reproduced by machinery but modern methods required different dress – fashions changed – there were new ways of doing things and these advances and changes could be read about, discussed, and acted upon. The social and economic changes did not only happen here in England but further afield too. Imports had their effect and the supply of raw materials had to be kept up, and increased. As this change came about workers tried to stem the tide – slow down the effect of industrialisation, by working longer and harder. This compensation by workers to increase productivity to slow down change happens in all industries at all times throughout the centuries. Children were brought into the production line sooner. Women persuaded to take on outside work, work all hours – into the night. This increase in hours worked was sufficient to fill order books but only for a limited period. Workshop Regulation Acts, Factory and School Inspectors, saw to it that these long hours of work in bad conditions stopped.

The girls in the village were keen to start work after leaving school. Nearly one in three, between the ages of ten to fifteen worked as a lace-maker. When completed the lace was sold by the parents to a dealer who collected the work on his round. Workers were enticed to buy their threads, pins, patterns and material off the same man. This was convenient for outlying areas but the price was increased accordingly.It was fortunate for John Collins that the workers at the mill required boots and shoes. By the middle of the century John Collins earned just enough money, as a shoemaker, to pay the rent, buy food, and clothe the family. His eight children would have had very low priority for schooling. He was fifty-two years old and his children were expected to help with the household chores especially the two girls. George, the eldest son - was thirteen, helped his father in the cobblers shop, as a snob, serving as an apprentice. His brother Eli had to find employment outside the home as a ploughboy.

Daughters were sent to the local ‘big’ house as scullery or kitchen maids. If children went to school at all, it was only for one year at the cost of a penny a week. The attitude of country folk of the times was, ‘that it was more important that children worked in the home or field, to earn their keep’. If there were a school, it would probably be at the Rectory. There was no compulsory education in the early eighteen hundreds. It was thought unnecessary to have children taught who were only going to work on the land, or to do jobs associated with farming. Even in those areas that did have a school the cost of lessons – charged according to the ability to pay, was one penny. Even this was considered wasteful. Lace and plait schools [a name given to schools who taught simple home tasks to keep the children occupied, as well at to read and write] were set up later that century in cottages catering for, ‘as many as can be seated’. This overcrowding made it almost impossible to teach sensibly. It was found by Inspectors that children could read but not write and that proper registers for attendances were not kept.

In those lace workshops who engaged young women, a percentage of the wage was paid, ‘in kind’ – tea, sugar, flour or bread, rather than cash. As these items were essential for feeding the poor’s, large families, any payment were welcomed, furthermore, when cash was demanded the payments added up to less than the bartered goods, so demands for cash were exceptional. At the end of the nineteenth century, education for children was placed into law by the passage of the 1880 Act – education for children up to ten. There were various bodies who tried to promote lace making as a cottage industry but these did not stand the test of time – the industry declined. Even towards the coast in Dorset, a body of people specialized in making net, which, because of its particular nature, found a ready market. This cottage industry floundered just before The First World War.

John and Mary had eight children, the sixth named Phillip Alfred - [my great grandfather], born 1847, and apprenticed as a lace hand in Chard. He married Mary Jane Web [b1843 in Chard] in 1870, at St. John the Evangelist, Tatworth. This was a daughter-church of Chard Church built in 1851 on land donated by Lord Poulett. Mary died after fifty years of married life giving birth to five children, four boys and a girl named Helen. Phillip, later married widow Susan Hoskins, daughter of Isaac England - a piano tuner. Susan gave birth to three boys [1873, 1876 and 1878], all born in Chard. The eldest son - my grandfather, named Phillip Alfred Henry, after his father – later called Harry to differentiate him from his father.

From Harry’s first cries, England’s rural economy declined… to be precise, in-between the years 1861 – 1881, the agriculture industry lost twenty percent of its workers, and even more females. Children under eight, and soon to be ten, had to go to school. This removed their contribution to the family budget. These absentee child workers affected industry and pushed up the price of food, and increased the import of grain. Initially they found their way into town businesses, the mining industry and the factory floor. The Works Inspector soon got to know of it and it soon stopped. With a good school report and a family connection with the trade, Harry was accepted as an indentured lace hand to John Payne - at the same mill his father worked… He served for six years. After coming out of his time, he signed on in the army, to the call for Volunteers for The Second Boar War - for three-years. Major-General Hamilton was given command of 1st Devon and 1st Manchester Regiments, part of the 7th Infantry Brigade. Harry Collins was in this force as a volunteer, having completed his apprenticeship, served as a Military Policeman - with the eventual rank of Sergeant, to take part in the Second Anglo-Boer War at the battle of Elandslaagte and later Wagon Hill; he remained as such, until 1901; a year later the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed on 31st. May 1902, after the Boers capitulated - peace was declared.

When he returned to Britain he went back home to Chard. Since his departure, his mother had died and his father was coping with the family. Harry was the eldest child and his brother Frederick the only family member living with the father. After he became a journeyman, he served as a senior lace hand running three looms. He was asked by John Payne to take over one of the vacant positions of Engineer, knowing that Harry was competent at servicing the looms and was technically minded. Payne, who was in his eighties, helped him enormously to become conversant with all the different machines then in service with the company.

This was the year Queen Victoria died. The Commonwealth of Australia came into being and Lord Sainsbury’s Unionist government had been in office for fifteen years. Home Rule for Ireland, was the hot topic of political conversation, and most of the six and a half million children were at school. The previous year Keir Hardie was elected for Merthyr as the first socialist MP, and two years later Mrs Pankhurst stared a new Social and Political Union. The Edwardian age was an interesting time for political commentators and the Collins family…

Harry started courting Rosa Beviss almost as soon as he returned from Africa… being married at St John the Evangelist, Tatworth, that same year… he was twenty-eight and Rosa Jane one year younger. Harry had travelled abroad – seen a part of the world he was not likely to forget. His position as police sergeant he given him authority and standing… now transferred to his position as a lace engineer at the mill. Being married with a new home within walking distance of his work was everything he had looked forward too. Now he could begin to raise a family and settle down to concentrate on his job. Having trained in the mill was of a practical nature and he was soon putting up shelves and building a large chicken house at the bottom of the garden. The newly married Collins’ had their first child, which was stillborn. It was a great shock for both the couple and Rosa’s sister. who was attending her. Unfortunately, this was not to be her only one. By 1913, five of their children died in the first year of life and another aged four. In all, Rosa had fifteen children, all born in the same house, eight eventually marrying.

Chard Farm [Manor Farm] was formed on a Roman site – archaeology suggests a farm, and may have housed, in 1235, a Bishops Court. The farmhouse, pre c1700 – close to St Mary’s Church on the Tatworth Road, is also known as Chard Church, built c1440. The vicar was also a magistrate and Trustee of the Turnpike Trust. A year later, at the time of The Great Exhibition 1851, Chard Farm was registered as having 500 acres, which was large for those times… John Beviss had nine children, and two servants. His good standing in the community and trustworthiness stood him in good stead when offered the Trusteeship of the Chard Turnpike Trust. Banker, Major John Churchill Langdon of Parrocks Lodge and Lord Bridport were also Trustees as were other town notables. The trustee’s task was to instigate proper meetings set the tolls maintain the roads and staff tollhouses. The Trust lasted until the 1860s when the railways finally became so successful, particularly carrying freight, that road tolls began to fall. The government could see that road repairs - by subsidies and local taxes - from the various county highways departments, would have to increase, to take over the maintenance… thereafter, tolls began to be fazed out and the Trust wound up in 1875.

Through good farming practices, John Beviss in about 1860 increased his grain tonnage. This was a time after the Napoleonic Wars as home prices rose for grain products… again it was profitable to plant and harvest corn. John appreciated that to make greater profits from this increased production; he should operate his own granary - to replace the previous mill. To maximise his outlay - even out less productive times, he offered a milling and storage service to other farmers. His son William sold the farm in 1920.

Rosa’s father was a witness to her marriage as was Elizabeth Buller. The newlyweds set up house in Tatworth in a house Harry called Rosalie Cottage, naming it after his wife. It was a knapped flint and brick end-terraced cottage of three. They had sixteen children – eight boys and eight girls [one adopted] – a girl and a boy twins. Five of the children died within four years of birth. The eleventh child - the fourth girl, was to be my mother Elsie May, born 10th August 1908, the same year Campbell-Bannerman resigned the premiership… two years after the Liberal landslide election.

The Enclosure Acts made a great impression on the fortunes of many poor people who needed extra grazing land. The common land, which occupied the land beyond the village, became enclosed. Fields and ploughed land was also taken over by stealth by wealthy farmers and landowners. Some of the poor, living in their hovels built higgledy-piggledy on scraps of land in and out of the woodland, was ordered off. They were as entitled to be there as anyone, had squatter’s rights, but had not the power or support from the community to resist.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, agriculture was the principle employment for men and boys. For women and girls it was domestic service. This state of affairs was changing fast in areas close to towns, but conditions of work and employment in very rural areas continued. The depopulation of the villages started when the harvests were poor, as machines took over from the horse, and industrialization enticed men away from a hard rural existence. This decline in the population had a knock on effect making struggling businesses even more difficult to continue. Cottage industries took up some of the slack. Lace making, mat making, straw plaiting and knitting bought in a little money to make ends meet. It was welcomed news to hear that the mill was to be kept going by Cuff & Company when they converted the building to drive looms - to make bobbin lace. Cotton arrived at the mill in bales, which is turned, into thin rope by blending, carding, and combing. Spinning draws out and twists the thread, winding the thread onto spindles. Richard Roberts designed the first fully automatic mule [rotating the thread from delivery, inserting a twist then winding the thread onto a bobbin] previously they had been either hand operated or partially automatic] at the time, the mule spinners joined the union.

The first power-loom invented and perfected by Cartwright in 1784. Dressing the threads further perfected weaving - giving the thread strength. By the time of The Great Exhibition, spinning and weaving became mechanically perfected. It only required the introduction of the refill of the shuttle, by a rotating hopper, designed by the American, Northrop, to complete the development. The slump and national strike of 1926 saw the start to a savage decline in Britain’s industrial might… all these happenings affected the mill workers of Chard.

The first lace mill was built on Boden Street, Chard in 1821 turning out plain net. Coles weaving mill in the Old Town was taken over by Wheatley & Co., which was he start to the area becoming well known for lace production. By 1830, Chard could boast four lace mills becoming a centre for the production of clothing, curtains and military products. A machine called 'the bobbinet’ was perfected in 1808; this led to the 'Levers' - a control mechanism, which further developed the lace making industry. The early looms had to be stopped every few minutes - to adjust the cloth and to ‘dress’ the warp threads as they unrolled. The weaver had to brush a flour paste on he threads to give them strength This, at the same time as Arkwright’s ‘Spinning Jenny’, Kay’s ‘Flying Shuttle’ and Heathcoat’s ‘Lace Making Machine’, thes came together in the 1820s to industrialise production. Up until the middle 1830s all lace made around the town of Chard was made by hand and called bobbin lace, needle lace - another process, was made in other areas.

In 1837, flowered nets invented, although originating in France was copied in England, and known as Blonde - made in nine-inch strips. The further invention of a net making knitting machine opened the way for greater widths to be worked. Now the method of powering the mills was steam. At this time there was a great effort made to stop workers from joining Trades Unions. Poor parents of young children expected their offspring to work as soon as possible – even before the age of eight. The Workshops Regulation Act of 1867 gave some protection allowing children to work shorter hours. This did not stop the exploitation even though Government Inspectors were given the power to fine the perpetrators… this continued until the hand lace trade declined after 1870. The English braid and pillow lace industry suffered in a far greater proportion than continental producers did.

The English fashion industry brought about the change. Peasants, and particularly religious institutions, in France, Flanders, Spain and Italy still desired lace produced in the traditional manner - which showed complicated designs. Now the trade began to reverse… more lace imported into England than exported… quality dropped and skills lost. Many lace-makers went into service, which was the only trade suitable for them.

Records thirty years later indicate there were no lace makers in ‘Farmers’ households. This could only suggest that lace making was a country cottages industry, not occurring in town houses. Lace makers were wives, daughters or granddaughters of male ‘heads of households’ who usually worked as a farm labourer. The next most common trade for men was shoemaking. This describes the economic position the Collins family found themselves in – as people from a rural parish. Towards the end of nineteenth century, there was a general falling off in the more elaborate side of the hand made lace trade. The workers were mainly women between the ages of thirteen to twenty-two, although much younger children did participate - even to as low an age as eight. Most women wore under garments trimmed with lace, which gave lace-makers a great deal of work. New patterns were brought over from France and then skilfully copied. However, the bottom dropped out of the lace making by the end of the century. The Lady of the Manor gradually ceased to employ a needlewoman. Home sewing started again with the advent of the sewing machine - made at an affordable price. This was the end of the ‘age of lace’ especially for collars and cuffs. Ladies and children’s wear, handkerchiefs, tableware and chair-back and arm covers were some of the items, which kept lace makers busy for few more years. As a means of employment, the net making industry came at the right time. By the middle of the next century, production was well established.

The manufacture of plain net was begun in an old wool-weaving shed in Mill Lane, Chard in 1822. The venture, proving to be successful it was transferred to a larger factory, in 1830. Patterned lace still had its customers who preferred the old-fashioned style for cuffs and collars, this work continued to be made by hand. The mill in Chard began making bobbin lace in about 1836 and by 1840 could produce a pattern. At the same time, G W Cuff & Co converted the watermill at Perry Street, Tatworth, to make bobbin lace. Five years later the mill was leased to John Payne in 1844. Payne was a skilled millwright and engineer who adapted and developed the mill’s machinery. The finished net was taken from the mill to Nottingham’s ‘Finishing Shop’ [closed several years ago] to be dyed and dressed.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, when Britain was fighting the Crimean War, workers wages gradually increased for a period of twenty years. Thereafter, after a slight hiccup in 1879, wages continued to rise, staggering in 1893 to resume until 1902. However, the starting base was low, and even though this upward movement was reported, farm workers were still the lowest paid. The building of canals then railways soaked up many of the unemployed and kept wage rises moving upwards. The twenty-five year period between 1850 and 1875 saw a massive influx of Irish workers eager to find work and remove themselves from poverty and starvation. The industrialization of Britain and the rise in homebuilding gave these men a future and took the strain off the agricultural workers who might otherwise have been affected more.

Most key mill workers, and some of those retired - lived in ten three-story factory owned cottages, close to the mill. The offices and canteen adjoined the factory. Behind the cottages lay the millpond, or impoundment, which fed the waterwheel through a channel, or millrace. Driving the massive mill wheel, runner stones, and wallover wheel, in turn, they are set to power the looms and engineering machines. The other employees, the bulk, were ‘outworkers’ who lived in Tatworth, South Chard or Perry Street. Amongst these outworkers were juveniles… The 1851 census records that there were children as young as five upwards working in the lace industry, and that by the age of nine, seventeen per-cent of children were at work. There were four lace mills working in Chard one of them being the Perry Street Lace Mill owned by John Payne, employing between fifty and a hundred workers depending on the fluctuating business. As one of the Guardians of the Poor Law Union [‘The Union’, a number of parishes linking together to run a workhouse, in this instance thirty-three, set up in 1836… the inmates, mainly young people were obliged to work] he oversaw the working of the workhouse helping to find work for the inmates and provide medical care.

There was a great distinction between the social strata in England – differences of wealth, education and leisure. The wealthy tended to attend the Established Church whilst the poor worshiped at the nonconformist chapel; the upper classes voted Tory and the less wealthy the Liberals. The barriers could be observed regarding schooling where the fee-paying child followed: hunting, rugby, cricket and tennis and the state educated child: fishing, football, pigeon and horseracing. The difference between many towns and Chard, and others of a similar kind, was the closeness of its society - due to town limits, inter-mingled community housing, local schooling and religious nonconformity. In the 1600s Chard was a strictly parliamentarian town where three-quarters of the population attended the non-conformist chapel… the town never lost this tradition or faith.

Although there were ‘Chartist’ agitators amongst the mill workers in Chard it does not seem as if the unrest travelled to the mill at Perry Street – no picketing and strikes have been recorded. John Payne donated an organ to Tatworth chapel in 1860 as a way of promoting his position and constructing a link between work and religion. It was in his interest to forge a strong partnership between the village and the factory. In the 1870s, the mill sheds had many rows of looms… each lace-hand allotted three or four looms to look after… these were packed together, with very little space in-between them. The mill wheel drove the gearing and shafts that turned the belt-wheel which operated each loom… the motion, in-turn, spun the bobbins and drove the shuttle that producing the woven net. It was expected that lace hands should do all their own cleaning and oiling… to pull the cuts off the roller and fetch their own weft. When a weft thread broke or the spool ran out the weaver had to lift the shuttle from the loom, change the spool and reconnect the weft. Young girls and boys who had just left school helped the weavers clean and oil the machine, by squeezing under the looms. There was very little heating provided in the winter and no cooling in the summer. The atmosphere was purposely kept damp to make the warps weave better. In the summer, water was sprayed on the floor to keep moisture levels high. In the winter, condensation was always dropping from the shafts and belt wheels. There was a tremendous racket made by the clack of shuttles and the whiring of spinning bobbins… the slap of driving belts and rumble of the millwheel and shafts… all made any conversation impossible.

It was estimated that in 1891 thirty percent of country folk over the age of sixty-five received some kind of poor relief. Initially poor relief was for those living in their own homes and had been paid to the elderly rather than taking them into the workhouse. This was in the order of one or two shillings a week depending on circumstances. Payne sought retirement from the business that same year and engaged John Small to be its works manager. John Small was originally employed as a clerk at the factory. Although Payne continued to show an interest in the mill’s operation he was gradually forced to quit, transferring property investment loans that allowed Small to take over ownership. In 1895, the Perry Street Lace factory, situated on the main road near the lake and water mill, began production. The power for the mill was supplied by the watermill built in 1895. The mills manufacturing technique wove warp and weft yarns to make Bobbinet, which tried to copy the most complex of Honiton lace designs. This was done in big weaving sheds on large machine looms.

To operate a lace factory that relies upon complicated machinery, needs a tool shop, and engineering department. Payne developed the engineering branch of the factory not just to service the machinery but also to serve his own inventions and patents… To accomplish this dual goal he had to purchase many machines and tools a normal engineering shop would not stock. Payne’s comprehensive workshop relied upon outside sources to supply iron girders, sheet steel, details and a host of other components. The engineers would maintain their own machine tools and those of others, designing improvements as they did so. Riste and Gifford were two such designers who patented their own inventions. In times of low production, these skilled engineers took on outside contracts making and maintaining agricultural equipment, steam engines and specialized foundry work. Needing further labour in the engineering shop Harry Collins accepted a position there - to study under the supervisor to become a qualified engineer. Small, who now owned the factory, continued to operate the machine shop on a variety of jobs to keep the men employed. Gradually these engineering sidelines and their subsidiaries became dominant, changing the core work of the area. Within these changes worked Harry Collins, by now self-employed - as an independent engineer. Being too old to be called up in 1914, Harry was called on to do many outside jobs on local farms as well as being on call at the mill.

At first, the changes brought about by The First World War were not immediately apparent – they came about slowly – especially in places like Tatworth. The happenings in London’s society and the advent of the ‘Bright Young Things’ were of no account to Harry Collins and his family. They were more concerned about their children and the order book of the mill. Life was little different since Queen Victoria’s coronation. Of course, there had been The Great Exhibition and the coming of the railways, and Chard canal, but most of that was all so very far away. The General Strike was certainly felt and the slump, which followed, did affect the local economy. There was a great deal of unemployment and try as they might the local authority could only find more roadside walls to build and ditches to dig - to provide some work.

All children were now educated, and as result expectations had been raised, especially for boys. The girls looked longingly at the magazine photographs of the latest fashions. The aristocrats and gentry never expected their girls to work anyway and passports would describe the men as independent gentlemen.In the local ‘big houses’ the butler was held in as much esteem as the owner and the cook reigned supreme. The Lady’s Maid and the Governess lead lonely lives – they did not fit into either camp. Social etiquette was closely adhered to for each section of the house ‘knew its place’ each maid and footman fitted onto their own rung of the social ladder. Many of the estate workers lead very happy lives and the workers living conditions was a great improvement on those left behind. If suitable, and had proved themselves to be loyal, they had a place for the rest of their lives, including the availability of an estate cottage when they retired.

The employers were on the whole considerate towards their staff, if distant – acted unaware that they were there, until something went wrong. Unsolicited opinions and voices of discontent would lead to dismissal without a reference. This would lead to disaster – instant homelessness, the offender unable to seek further employment. If the recourse were to return home that would mean another mouth to feed from an already bare larder. An individual’s class was not judged by ability or character but on what the father’s occupation was. Money and possessions accounted for possible access to a higher rung not the top! It was not normal for working men to own their own home and there was no stain on those of the middle class, who also rented. It was the general rule – to own your own home was an exception. Politics was rarely discussed and it was certainly not broadcast whom one voted for. There was a tendency for children to follow their father’s preference and for estate workers to vote as they thought their employers would.

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