Commerce. Kinship. Key men.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (91) provides a summary of this year’s third quarter articles. The main themes to emerge include the commercial landscape, kinship, and key men.

Victorian Bournemouth (91): commercial landscape

Stable growth

In the resort’s early period, its commercial sector remained both small and simple. Few business categories existed, while shoppers had little choice within them. Bournemouth always had two main target audiences: visitors and residents. At that time, the former had more importance than the latter. In due course, the town’s infrastructure developed. The number of residents increased. Customers consisted of working and middling people in addition to affluent visitors.  Several articles in this quarter have covered different parts of the commercial landscape during Bournemouth’s second period (1856-1870). The number of commercial units grew fast, While some owners found sufficient opportunity for them to stay in the town. Hitherto, a process of immigrant to emigrant had applied in many cases. Now the possibility to settle down and raise a family came into view for middling and working people. Third generations of natives began to appear, an indication of stability.

Wider choice

Articles about tailors, photographers, hotels, and education show how the economy broadened. The growth of tailors suggests that, to an extent, the population had developed an appetite for display and self-esteem. In addition to the primary need of protection, clothes allowed them to win recognition and self-actualisation. This marks a community’s social development. The arrival in Bournemouth of photographers touched the same need. Buying photographs signified wealth, but now this perhaps applied to middling residents as well as affluent visitors. Another aspect of the widening economy lay in the appearance of increased choice. Thus, private education split into two segments, according to advertised fee levels. Schools at the top end catered for ‘imperial children’ while those lower down educated offspring of the area’s wealthier families. Hotels, too, segmented, providing hospitality for commercial travellers in addition to affluent tourists. Thus, Bournemouth’s economy had moved beyond satisfying basic needs.

Victorian Bournemouth (91): kinship

Networks

Two articles touched on kinship. One concerned the Hinton Martell carpenters, the other a group of ‘British Indians’. The former, a nexus of working-people, appeared to follow a practice of kinship interconnection as dedicated as that common amongst aristocrats and royalty. The ‘British Indians’ drawn to Bournemouth at this time perhaps belonged to a society having similar close connections with each other. Intermarriage emerged from the analysis, but the Europeans resident in India may have evolved a degree of recognition and familiarity, if not friendship. If activated, kinship may support both protection and progress. The carpenters perhaps used their kinship connections for the latter: continuous carpentry work. The ‘British Indians’ at Bournemouth perhaps used their kinship more to achieve the former purpose, educating their children in ‘Britishness’. Divided by a wide social gap, these affluent types and their working counterparts followed similar strategies for success and continuity.

Communication

Both groups involved related people born elsewhere than in Bournemouth, yet the resort had attracted their attention during this period. This leads to considerations of the communication process that had transmitted messages about the resort’s advantages for work and pleasure. During this period, Bournemouth’s success, on occasion its notoriety, had commanded growing attention from newspaper editors. The town would have accrued substantial energy to drive word-of-mouth messages. Kinship and friendship groups would have accelerated that process. Compared to 1871, very few ‘British Indians’ visited Bournemouth in 1861. Thus continuous messaging must have occurred to attract them in such numbers during a decade. Not all the carpenters came to Bournemouth at once, so, once again, continuous messaging must have occurred. Thus, kinship groups can also act as media.

Victorian Bournemouth (91): key men

Census enumerators

The census provides much of the primary information used in these articles. The article which explored and analysed the social backgrounds of Bournemouth’s census enumerators enriched the understanding of its collection. Those who give their personal information to census enumerators encouraged him to enter their private world. The extent to which they trusted this individual could have affected the extent of that welcome and, thus, the quality of the information provided. If they saw the enumerator as a distant figure, a representative of governmental authority, then they might have reduced their willingness to share private information. According to the analysis of enumerators’ regular occupations, those who collected Bournemouth’s data would have had the standard requirements of literacy, numeracy, and so on. Deeper examination, however, suggests that census officials may have tried to match an enumerator’s social background to the people he had to survey. This should have facilitated better data.

Prominent people

An article studied how W. E. Rebbeck, a successful man in Bournemouth, its first established estate agent. He suffered several attacks on his property, person, and reputation. The analysis suggested that the local community may have seen him as a ‘tall poppy’ and, thus, a legitimate target for criticism. Another article analysed the public negotiation that occurred between Reverend A. M. Bennett and the local branch of the Odd-Fellows, a society benefitting working-people. Bennett, the town’s first established incumbent, championed temperance amongst working people. He took exception to how the Odd-Fellows seemed to encourage alcohol taking. He may have agreed to their wish to establish a Mechanics’ Institute, despite earlier objection, in return for their acknowledgement of the dangers in excessive use of alcohol. Both events involving these prominent men suggest that Bournemouth’s society had evolved its role as a resort for affluent outsiders.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (91) has reviewed the articles published in the last quarter. Several themes have emerged. Bournemouth’s economy widened as it increased; its community established foundations for native growth. Kinship groups acted as communication media to qualify Bournemouth as suitable for them to achieve protection and progress. The events involving Mr Rebbeck and Reverend Bennett suggest that Bournemouth’s community had advanced beyond a supply system for affluent visitors.

References

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