New jobs for working men

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (151) explores the social profiles belonging to the increasing number of men driving cabs throughout the resort. The growing presence of cabs within Bournemouth’s transportation system provides insights into social change within the resort. Cabs provided for working men an alternative to service.

Victorian Bournemouth (151): background

Early years

The earliest available directories show several livery stables and, later, jobmasters, operating in the resort from the 1850s. They will have tailored their offering to an audience consisting, for the most part, of gentry and privileged people. James Stroud kept a stable at Exeter House, listed in the 1861 census, but still operating in 1881. In 1871, almost fifty grooms worked in at least five named stables. The arrival of the railway offered further commercial opportunities. At first, omnibus services connected arrivals at Poole or Christchurch stations with Bournemouth. By 1871, however, the railway reached Bournemouth. Owners of vehicles catering for individuals or families now had a new market. During the 1870s, a growing requirement for a cab or fly changed the nature of transport available for Bournemouth’s visitors and residents. A free market developed an impetus in response to the need, but the Improvement Commission soon had to regulate.

1870s

In 1874, an invalid visitor, staying at Bournemouth during the winter, wrote to the press seeking support for regulating cab prices. He wanted a flat rate of a shilling per journey. Getting a fly from a stable cost 2/6, plus a shilling tip for the driver. In 1877, a meeting of railway company heads at The Bath Hotel presented the Improvement Commission with an opportunity. They sought a meeting to gain help controlling the wild fluctuations in cab prices. By the end of the decade, however, the Commission had to address a different problem raised by the cab operators. Several Commissioners thought that the town had too many cabs. They wanted the number limited to 100. It seems that, without external regulation, supply and demand had perhaps induced price stability within the market. An additional issue concerned traffic control and access points: the number and siting of cabstands.

Victorian Bournemouth (151): cabs and cabbies

Category trends and structure

The census provides an indication of how the cab industry grew within Bournemouth. From 4 drivers listed in 1871, the number increased to 53 in 1881, then 162 ten years later. Those recorded as cab proprietors also grew in number: 7 in 1881 to 57 by 1891. Such numbers would have needed widespread support from associated businesses: stables, feed merchants, horse-sellers, coach builders and painters, wheelwrights, and blacksmiths. Between 1871 and 1891 numbers registered by the census for men working in the last three categories increased from 21 to 141. The number of stable lads grew threefold over the same period. These trades and businesses supported the entire equine and vehicle category, but the growing incidence of cabs will have played a significant role in creating employment within them. Cases concerning cruelty to horses brought by interested parties occurred with greater frequency amongst accounts of court hearings as time passed.

Demographics of owners and drivers

The cab proprietors recorded for 1881 came from humble backgrounds: labourer, woodman, groom and so on. They immigrated to Bournemouth, some as early as by 1861. Most continued as cab proprietors during the remainder of the Victorian period, in some cases as late as 1911. One or two changed to a different occupation. James Etheridge married the daughter of a widow who kept the Woodville lodging-house. By 1891, he had left the cab for running this business. Almost all remained as Bournemouth residents. Probates have emerged in two cases, the estates worth £1,000-£2,000. Heads of household who drove cabs in 1881 complete this social analysis. They differ little from the proprietors, indeed at least two recorded as owners in 1891, but thereafter working as drivers again. A couple appeared illiterate according to their marriage certificates. This may indicate a somewhat lower status for drivers over owners, but not in a marked way.

Victorian Bournemouth (151): assessment

Social and economic factors

The rapid spread of cabs within Bournemouth introduced both economic and social change. Whether or not they owned their cab, drivers had to behave in the proactive commercial manner associated with entrepreneurs. Court session records show that cabbies sometimes ignored the rule about taking customers only at stands. The need to cruise for customers suggests that the business experienced sharp competition amongst participants. Cabs provided working people with a new and constant source of employment. More revenue opportunities may have occurred during the summer, but Bournemouth’s winter season would have provided work throughout the year. Men having the ability to work with horses now had an alternative to domestic service. Their customers still came from higher social levels, those able to afford the fare, but in a relationship different to that between servant and employer. The increased presence of cabs, therefore, provided regular opportunities for a form of social fusion to occur.

Spontaneity and urgency

The invalid who wrote to the press in 1874 sought affordable mobility to facilitate travel up and down Bournemouth’s hilly terrain. The wider the built environment, the greater this need. In the early 1870s, when railway lines reached but terminated at the edge of Bournemouth, passengers needed assistance to reach its centre (and return). Thus, the town’s community acquired a growing need for more spontaneous, functional mobility than in earlier times. Use of carriages, having four wheels, employing multiple horses, belonged to wealthier types, some of whom may also have brought with them external footmen and grooms. Vehicular use there projected an image of wealth and leisure, but cab usage sent a different message. The passengers had a purpose beyond promenading. Sherlock Holmes, for example, had the habit of employing cabs when he had a specific purpose for rapid travel. Cabs, therefore, belonged to a new era where technology responded to urgency.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (151) has explored the rapid expansion of cabs and their usage at the resort. Cabs delivered two benefits. First, they answered a growing need for spontaneous, rapid travel at affordable levels as technology, for example, trains increased connectivity in society. Second, they provided a new form of employment for working men providing income throughout the year.

References

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