Convenience. Income. Change.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (136) charts how the arrival and spread of technology brought many benefits to the resort’s inhabitants. During the 1870s and 1880s, several technologies reached the resort, providing convenience for users and employment for operatives. Also, dividends brought income for affluent people through investments in technology companies.

Victorian Bournemouth (136): arrival of technology

Background

In 1871, older locals may have remembered forty years before, when ‘Bournemouth’ consisted of a wind-swept beach, and a few fishermen, huddling in huts. Technology did not extend beyond horses used to transport smuggled ‘brandy for the parson, baccy for the clerk’. Such treks inland from the beach benefitted from dark nights. They would have gazed with some wonderment as gaslights came to the burgeoning town, banishing the night’s darkness. Soon, several new technologies arrived in Bournemouth: telegraphy, photography, railways, electricity, asphalt road surfacing. During the 1870s and 1880s, these technologies gained access into people’s lives, bringing both convenience and employment. Often, because of initial high production costs, affluent people adopt new technologies early. Thus, Bournemouth, through its appeal to such people, both visitors and residents, offered good opportunities for new technologies. The Improvement Commission perhaps also understood, how the glamour and newsworthiness of technology could enhance Bournemouth’s national reputation.

Examples

Reverend J. R. Pretyman, member of Christchurch’s Board of Guardians, did not appear for one meeting. As the Guardians began, ‘ … the following telegram from him was brought into the room: “Lost my train through omnibus not calling for me. Please give notice for this day fortnight” …’. In 1881, three years after its invention in America, magistrates heard the telephone almost helped prevent a violent assault. A witness, worried by a gang’s intentions, had tried to reach a lawyer who had one installed. The Improvement Commissioners often discussed watering Bournemouth’s roads. Increasing road traffic, in particular the many cabs, threw dust into the air, a problem for the resort’s convalescent visitors and residents. The Board saw asphalt, a recent invention, as the way to address the issue. These three examples illustrate how new technology had penetrated Bournemouth’s lifestyles to save time (train, telephone) and enhance living conditions (asphalt).

Victorian Bournemouth (136): impact on employment

New, different jobs

According to Bournemouth’s 1871 census, the railway employed just over twenty locals, gas-fitting a similar number. A handful worked in telegraphy and photography, while electricity would soon arrive. More jobs had opened a decade later. About double the number worked on the railways or in gas-fitting, but five times as many people worked in photography. Telegraphy employed more also, though at a lower rate of increase. During the 1880s, railway workers quadrupled their number, in 1891 almost 200, while gas-fitting increased its attraction, albeit at a lower rate. Photography more than doubled its work force, while telegraphy quadrupled. Now, also, electricity provided work. The traditional jobs (carpentry, bricklaying, painting-decorating) continued to employ large and increasing numbers over this period. The ratio of old to new, however, declined from 6:1 (1871), to 4:1 (1881), to under 4:1 (1891). Thus, the new technologies had become an important employer.

Wider and developing appeal

Gas-fitting appeared to offer less employment complexity than railway work. The latter offered three main opportunities: building and maintaining the line, operating the train (drivers, guards), and servicing the stations (clerks, porters, refreshment, parcels, cleaning). By 1891, however, fewer people worked on the tracks, but more opportunities existed for clerks and porters. Railway employment may have had a cache with some, for women tended to describe themselves as wives of railway workers. Gas-fitting perhaps did not have the same appeal. Nevertheless, neither sector offered jobs to women. Telegraphy and photography, however, provided opportunities for women to obtain a living. Women filled about a third of photographic jobs at Bournemouth in 1881. The majority worked as assistants, but a handful listed their occupation as ‘photographer’.  A similar pattern applied in 1891, though overall numbers had grown. In telegraphy, women appeared amongst those working the apparatus, though not delivery.

Victorian Bournemouth (136): social impact

Both have and have-nots

The diffusion pattern of new technology, mentioned above, occurred in part at Bournemouth.  People from the upper social levels adopted it. Pretyman, a clergyman, sent a telegram to explain his absence. The telephone featuring in the court case belonged to a lawyer. The benefit of the asphalt addressed the town’s main commercial target: wealthy convalescents. New technologies also provided affluent people with sources of indirect income through share-holdings. Though the mania for railway investment had peaked some decades earlier, several people in Bournemouth depended on such shares for income. Nevertheless, some technologies reached other social groups with little delay. All types used the railway for quick transport between the resort and Christchurch. The railway companies employed attractive pricing to boost numbers visiting such places as Bournemouth. Gas lighting illuminated the town for the benefit of all, rich or not. Bicycles expanded personal freedom for everyone.

Sewing machines

Between 1871 and 1891, the proportion of dressmakers increased within Bournemouth’s population. According to directories spanning this period, only tailors grew in number at the rate of recognised dressmakers. The census, however, indicates that, by the period’s end, for every recognised dressmaker almost thirty operated within the population. New technology – the sewing machine – may have contributed to this rate of increase, enabling some women to earn a living. Affordable machines came on to the market at this time, success boosted by Singer’s offering credit. In 1881, one agent sold sewing machines in Bournemouth, but by 1891, the number had grown to five. They all lived in neighbourhoods comprised of working people. Sewing machines filled leisure time for middling women, but for working women, they provided the means to increase their output and improve their living. Thus, early adopters of this new technology consisted of people at working and middling levels.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (136) has explored the subject of technology’s increased presence within the resort’s society during the 1870s and later. Machinery increased convenience and employment. It benefitted all levels of society. Sewing machines, however, appear to have improved the lifestyle of working women in particular.

References

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