A richer mixture

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (184) finds artisans in increasing number practising a widening array of trades and crafts during the 1880s. Their greater presence suggests broader consumer tastes amongst Bournemouth’s residents and visitors.

Victorian Bournemouth (184): overview

Population trends

The analysis consists of employed males aged over 15 working as artisans. The sector covers a range of skills: food, textiles, leather work, watchmaking and jewellery, smiths and others. In 1881, it occupied about a tenth of adult employed males, similar in size to professionals, and below building artisans and those working in commerce. Labourers, though declining in proportion, still comprised the greatest category (a quarter). Artisans doubled their share of employed males 1851-1891. The main sub-categories retained their proportions over the period, but new trades appeared later. Printers, textile workers, wood trades, confectionery, musical instruments, vehicles, taxidermists attracted small numbers during the 1880s and 1890s. Furthermore, different skills emerged within the larger sectors. Leather-work had consisted of harness-makers, but acquired several saddlers. Watches and jewellery attracted gold and silversmiths, lapidaries, engravers, and mosaic workers. Thus, artisans covered a wide and growing sector of skilled workers.

Geographic distribution

In the 1860s, about two thirds of artisans resided in the town, the rest in the rural hinterland, a few occupying the embryonic suburbs. Changes then occurred to this pattern. The growing suburbs of Moordown, Winton, Springbourne, Boscombe, and Pokesdown attracted artisans as well as skilled construction workers. Over time, the proportion living in the rural hinterland dropped, while that of the town and suburbs grew. The latter, however, during the 1880s and 1890s increased until taking a greater proportion than the town. The residential role of the suburbs, however, did not apply to artisans as much as for skilled construction workers. Smiths of varying type and footwear manufacturers appeared to prefer living in the suburbs, while homeware makers (e.g. cabinetmakers), jewellers, and tailors resided more in Bournemouth than its suburbs. In 1891, artisans accounted for about 2% of the town’s entire population, but 3% of those inhabiting the suburbs.

Victorian Bournemouth (184): trade survey

More complex economy of made-goods

Skilled construction workers began including men capable with new technology or greater specialisation within, for example, bricklaying. The artisan sector underwent a similar, but perhaps greater level of complexity within the economic sector of made goods. The homeware sector shows this well. Early, the sector consisted of cabinetmakers, upholsterers, and basket-weavers. By 1881, it included makers of chairs, carpets, cutlery, picture frames, and umbrellas. The 1861 census recorded 1 upholsterer and 3 cabinetmakers. By 1881, the numbers had increased to 30-40, but a decade later cabinetmakers had more than doubled, upholsterers increased just under that rate. The 1871 census listed two coachbuilders. By 1881, the category had undergone specialisation. Men listed their occupations as chassis builders, bodywork painters, trimmers, smiths, and wheelwrights. The new category of bicycles also created several employment opportunities for artisans: builders, machinists, mechanics, and fitters. The growing complexity of the artisan sector offered wider employment opportunities.

Greater consumer choice and expenditure

An earlier survey of long-established spas found even in the 1840s enormous complexity and specialisation. Bath, Cheltenham, and Brighton offered wide ranges of choice across and within many categories. During Bournemouth’s early days, a few traces of specialisation appeared, but analysis of artisan jobs suggests that by 1870s-1890s Bournemouth and its suburbs had moved far towards the model of complexity and consumer choice found in the ‘developed-spa model’. Just as analysis of skilled construction workers’ trades suggested greater expenditure available for the structure and decorative aspects of property, so that of artisans suggests the same for items both within and outside the house. The apparent increase in coach production suggests expenditure made by the residential or visiting gentry on display, while growth in bicycles, a product available to a wider social group, implies interest in greater physical mobility. Artisan analysis, thus, provides insights on developments in consumer behaviour.

Victorian Bournemouth (184): social analysis

Immigration pattern

In common with skilled construction workers, many immigrant artisans originated in Dorset and Hampshire, though to a lesser extent. Over the decades, their numbers increased, but their proportion of the male workforce dropped. By 1891, about half the employed artisans originated in these counties. This compared to skilled construction workers for whom the proportion ran at two thirds. Thus, artisans born further afield than nearby counties sought commercial opportunities in Bournemouth’s growing economy. This perhaps illustrates a difference between construction and other artisan trades. The former would have had little contact with end-users of their work. They built houses for developers, who rented them. Other artisans catered for the general public, whose taste widened as technology developed. It seems plausible, therefore, that such trades might draw from the widest pool of labour. Thus, the increasing complexity of Bournemouth’s consumer tastes perhaps enriched the social characteristics of its skilled workers.

Settlement

In households containing artisans, almost two thirds of the men headed them. Thus, most had sufficient income to settle, get married, and, in many cases, produce children. This proportion remained stable throughout the period. In contrast, a higher proportion of skilled construction workers headed their households. Construction work perhaps offered greater stability than other artisan trades. Lodgers, on average younger than the heads of household, had perhaps yet to settle on their work patterns and relationships. In some cases, the household heads perhaps employed their lodgers, as both followed the same trade. Artisans as heads of household had a greater likelihood of working at the most popular trades: footwear, homeware, smiths, tailors, bakers. Thus, greater and perhaps more predictable consumer behaviour supported a higher level of social stability amongst those who fed the demand. This illustrates how some of the town’s society developed on an economic base.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (184) has surveyed and explored the category of artisans, skilled craftsmen working at a range of trades other than construction. Their number grew at a steady rate as the town’s footprint spread. During the 1880s their population more than doubled. Over this period, the variety and complexity of occupations indicated a widening of consumer demand.

References

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