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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Devon => Topic started by: Trees on Saturday 30 June 07 23:49 BST (UK)
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Hello Everyone,
I have no less that 36 people in my data base who were employed making gloves in the Beaford/St Giles in the Wood /Ashreighney area.
Does anyone Know who was the principle employer around 1851 in that area?
Does any one know how big an area would be covered by out workers?
How can I tell if these women were factory workers or home workers?
thank you for your interest
Trees
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Hi Trees
have a look at this snippet in google books. It looks like Great Torrington's chief business used to be glove making employing outworkers, and Torrington is only 3 miles from St Giles in the Wood and 5 miles from Beaford.
http://books.google.com/books?id=UcoIKv-YBskC&pg=PA362-IA11&ots=kXg_t7IdIL&dq=glove++Beaford&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=Dev98J0sqK9oyvJ8dPc61Kgn8Ro
A further google of gloves and Great Torrington brings up the following useful information
http://www.championfh.net/cfh/docs/glove%20makers%20v1.0.pdf
regards
Margaret :)
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Many thanks for the links Margaret I have found that the Torrington factory was Vaughan Tapscott's. William Vaughan was a Bible Christian and had the factory built in the style of a Methodist Chapel He went on to be Mayor of Torrington on several occasions and was instrumental in having a Cottage Hospital built http://www.great-torrington.com/history/index.html Also have found an interview with a glovess which appeared in a Canadian newspaper which may be of interest
http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/beharu/mgt_smale.htm
Its building up a very interesting picture
Trees
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Hi if you email the great torrington museum they will help you they have about the glove making factory as one of the displays. The factory is boarded up but still standing i,m sure it was still for sale when we went past when on hols in June. My hubbys rellies also worked in the glove making jobs.
Cher
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Many thanks for that Cher its a good idea I didn't know Great Torrington had a museum
Trees
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you could try here also
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonMisc/NDJchronology.html
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/DEVON/2000-03/0952065686
and this from notes I made for a booklet I wrote on the Devon wool trade....
' The Glovers and the worker in leather traded in wool as a by-product of their craft. They purchased wool fells, sheepskins. Before they could process the pelts, the fleece had to be removed. This done, they sold the wool to dealers and other manufactures. Almost everyone wore gloves and glove makers were great dealers in wool. In small towns the glove trade supplied a large source of employment for centuries.
The trade in Great Torrington, for instance, can be traced from the 1500’s right up until the immediate past, where the glove factory there closed in 2000. '
There is an image of the factory, I think, in the Great Torrington website.The town also has a reinactment attraction called 1646.
Great Torrington has transcribed it's Parish records and they can be found in Genuki.
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Sorry not to have replied before just back from a break in the midlands Many thanks for this information.
Trees
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Does anyone know anything about J.W. Tapscott and Sons, glove makers, of Calf Street, Torrington, and when they came into existence? There is a fair bit of information on the Vaughn family's glove factory, but very little on J.W. Tapscott. I am helping a friend with his family tree and we have found that his father's maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Gould, was a gloveress. She lived in Calf Street between 1901 and 1911, and was an "errand woman at a glove factory" in 1901, though in the years prior to that she had been employed making gloves from home. It would be good to establish, if that's possible, whether she was working for the Tapscotts or the Vaughns by 1901.
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I expect you have found these both are informative.;
http://www.highgen.com/html/places/greattorrington.html
Thementioned book "Strong's Industries of North Devon 1889".can still be found in Torbay library and on sale on line
http://www.devonheritage.org/stentiford/Issue_29/Article1/4May1art2.htm
Did you see the Greg wallace who Do You Think You Are he was stood right in front of the building talking about his glover ancestor its still on the i player.
I thought there was only the one enterprise Vaughan Tapscott, so did two firms merge?
Vaughan was a prominent Methodist and his factory shows the influence in its architecture.
Tapscott specialised in Chamois leather gloves if that helps. Chamois is leather of sheep and goats . Torrington had been a wool town and the chamois gloves developed from that industry. The WDYTYA program talked of the ancestor sewing silk gloves too so may be each firmworked with different materials and eventually merged It would be worth contacting the museum in Torrington to find out if they can tell you more.
Please let us know what you find anyone with North Devon ancestors is bound to have glovers involved. :)
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Hi, Trees
The Greg Wallace episode on WDYTYA was one of the few I missed, much to my annoyance, but if it's still available on iPlayer, I'll definitely watch it!
J.W Tapscott intrigues me because of the Calf Street connection. A trawl of the census returns turned up a James Tapscott who was a silk glove cutter in Torrington, but he was born in South Molton in 1863, and only appears in Torrington for the first time in 1891, which is after William Vaughn built his glove factory in White's Lane, and info I have found online suggests that William's business appears to have been known as William Vaughn and Sons at that point, not Vaughn Tapscott. (The 1901 Census says Vaughn was a silk glove manufacturer, which was helpful.) It does sound as though a Tapscott went into business with the Vaughn family in later years, though, which is why I'm trying to establish when the business in Calf Street began. James only appears to have had one son, called Cyril, so I'm wondering if the J.W. Tapscott who ran the Calf Street glove factory is a different person altogether. I think I may have to pay my library a visit this week and see if I can find anything in their local history section, and possibly reserve the "Strong's Industries" book if it can be taken out. My friend may be keen to visit Torrington Museum, anyway, as he has already visited the church there to see if he could find the graves of family members.
I will definitely post any findings as there are bound to be other people, as you said, who will find the information useful. Apparently, there were 13 glove manufacturers in Torrington by the 1850s so it would be good to get up a list of their names for family tree researchers with gloving ancestors in North Devon to refer to.
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It looks very much as though Tapscott's came into being after 1906: there is no mention of them in the Directory for that year, but the Kelly's Directory for 1923 lists "Tapscott, J & Sons, glove manufacturers and leather dressers, Halsdon Road," which confirms your remark about them being makers of chamois leather gloves, Trees. Unfortunately, there were no Directories available for the years between 1906 and 1923 to help pinpoint when they came into existence more accurately than that, but at least I now know they weren't there when Mary Elizabeth Gould was working from her home in Calf Street.
I had a look through the earlier Directories that were on the shelves in the Local Studies section of my library and made a list of all the glove makers/manufacturers who were in Great Torrington over the years, as I'm pretty sure that it will be useful to others with gloving ancestors hailing from there:
White's Gazetteer 1850:
Susan Bageshot - New Street
Joseph Bangham (Junior and Senior) - New Street
John Burrow - South Street
John Chapple- Well Street
Michael Chapple - New Street
Thomas Chapple - Well Street
Thomas Keen - Mill Street
Thomas H. Lake, John Lang (presumably partners as they're listed together?) - New Street
Thomas Pettle - Well Street
George Toms - Castle Street
Thomas Vaughn (father of William) - Mill Street
White's Directory 1878 (all listed as glove manufacturers):
Joseph Bangham and John Jackson - New Street
Richard Barrow - New Street
Henry Beer - New Street
Dent & Co. - New Street and London
Richard Pettle - Well Street
Edwin Rudd (also a manure and seed agent-interesting combination!) - New Street
William Toms - New Street
William Toms Junior - Castle Street
William Vaughn - New Street
Miss Agnes Wills - New Street
Kelly's Directory 1906:
Thomas Allin - 46 South Street
John Jackson (also athletic goods manufacturer) - New Street
Mrs Lucy A. Rudd (silk gloves) - New Street
William Vaughn and Son, Ltd. (silk gloves) - White's Lane
Kelly's Directory 1923:
J. Jackson (Great Torrington) Ltd. - New Street
L.A. Rudd, Ltd. (fabric and silk gloves) - 10 New Street
J. Tapscott & Sons (glove manufacturers and leather dressers) - Halsdon Road
William Vaughn and Son, Ltd. (silk glove manufacturer) - White's Lane
According to Strong's, William Vaughn's factory was producing a staggering 24,000 pairs of gloves per week, around 1889. No mention is made of any of the other glove manufacturers in the area, though. I have taken out two other books on Torrington local history, and once I've been through them and made notes, I'll add anything that might be relevant to this post.
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Here is my list:
Our Devon glove makers A-L
Mary wife of William BENNETT [13253] Roborough 1851 - 1871
Mary wife of John HANCOCK [12950] Dolton 1861
Mary wife of George HANDFORD [2527] Frithelstock 1851
Mary wife of Thomas HEARD [10279] Beaford 1851
Mary wife of Samuel HOOKWAY [12914] Wear Gifford 1851 aged 63
Mary wife of Joseph WELSH [4902] Merton 1851-1871
Ann Hockway ARNOLD [18652] Monkleigh 1861 cotton
Jane ARNOLD [18651] Monkleigh 1851 aged 14, Buckland Brewer 1861
Fanny ASHPLANT [17625] Monkleigh 1861 described as gloveress (all sorts) aged 14
Maria ASHPLANT [6026] Beaford 1841
Susan ASHPLANT [16485] Wear Gifford 1841
Jane ASHTON [4850] Beaford 1841 Winkleigh 1851 * sisters
Mary ASHTON [4851] Beaford 1841 aged 14 * sisters
Grace BAKER nee SANDERS [10986] Beaford 1841-1871
Emma BEER [13012] Monkleigh 1851
Mary BEER [10943] Beaford 1871
Mary BEER [12960] Little Torrington 1861
Eliza BENNETT [4714] Great Torrington 1851 aged 11 years, 1861 (cotton), St Giles in the Wood 1871
Eliza BENNETT [13677] Roborough 1871 -1881
Grace BENNETT [13100] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Mary BENNETT [16187] St Giles in the Wood 1871 * sisters
Lucy BENNETT [16188] St Giles in the Wood 1881 * sisters
Sarah BENNETT [16189] St Giles in the Wood 1881 * sisters
Mary BENNETT [11819] Roborough 1861, Dolton 1871
Mary BENNETT [10163] St Giles in the Wood 1861 - 1871
Ann BIRD [208] Bideford 1851 aged 12 years
Ann BIRD [4142] Beaford 1851
Catherine BIRD [4140] Beaford 1851
Catherine BIRD [16242] St Giles in the Wood 1851 -1861 and a knitster in 1881
Ann BISSETT [6269] Dolton 1871
Mary BISSETT [9957] Dowland 1851
Jane BLAKE [16329] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Betsy BLIGHT [18649] Monkleigh 1851 aged 12 * sisters
Jane BLIGHT [18648] Monkleigh 1851 aged 14 * sisters
Ann BRIGHT [17377] Dolton1841
Betsy BRINSMEAD [19038] Beaford 1851
Mary BRINSMEAD [14985] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Betsy Folland CLARKE [11039] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Elizabeth COPP [6034] St Giles In the Wood 1851
Susan COPP [17433] Frithelstock 1881
Emma CUDMORE [13680] Roborough 1871
Elizabeth DAVEY [12936] Bideford 1851 a glover, 1861 a silk glove sewer in and and 1881 glove maker
Ann DENNIS [12985] Lttleham by Bideford 1851 * sisters
Fanny DENNIS [12947] Lttleham by Bideford 1851 * sisters
Dorothy DOWN [11661] Dolton 1841
Charlotte DYMENT [43] Beaford 1851-1881
Eliza DYMENT [420] Beaford 1845
Elizabeth DYMENT [47] Beaford 1844
Jane DYMENT [555] Beaford 1841 aged13 years
Joanna DYMENT [74] Dolton 1851 aged 12 years * sisters
Martha DYMENT [93] Dolton 1851 * sisters
Mary DYMENT [99] Dolton 1851 * sisters
Susan DYMENT [127] Dolton 1851 aged 14 years * sisters
Mary DYMENT [11610] St Gles in the Wood 1871
Sarah Ann [459] St Giles in the Wood 1881
Susan DYMENT [126] St Gles in the Wood 1851
Susanna DYMENT [483] Dolton 1861
Susanna DYMENT[582] Beaford 1841
Elizabeth DYRE [10870] Dolton 1861 aged 12 years
Ann EBSWORTHY [11262 ] Merton 1861
Elizabeth ELLACOTT [18459] Dolton 1871
Elizabeth FOLLAND [5991] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Elizabeth Ellen FOLLAND [6257] Ashreigney 1871 aged 13 years, 1881
Esther FOLLAND[5992] St Giles in the Wood 1861 aged 12 year
Grace Ann FOLLAND [10971] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Rachel Gray FOLLAND [10838] St Giles in the Wood 1851 aged 15. She died two years later.
Ann FORD [6278] Ashregney 1861-1871 leather
Elizabeth FORD [6277] Ashreigney 1851
Elizabeth FOWLER [2570] Great Torrington 1851
Amy FRIEND [11496] Dolton 1871
Celia FRIEND [14451] Dolton 1861
Susan GOODING [10731] Beaford 1861
Mary GORDON [21155] wife of Andrew ROWTCLIFF Merton 1851
Sarah GRIGG [12869] Monkleigh 1861 .
Ann GREENSLADE [18018] Chumleigh 1841
Mary GUARD [16217] St Giles in the Wood 1861 - 1871
Mary Ann HAMMET [10898] St Giles in the Wood 1871
Sarah Ann HAMMETT [13114] St Giles in the Wood 1871
Mary HANCOCK [13046] Dolton 1861
Emma HANDFORD [2529] Fithelstock 1851 aged 14 years daughter of Mary JUDD [2527] * sisters
Mary Ann HANDFORD [20153] Fithelstock 1851 daughter of Mary JUDD [2527] * sisters
Bessie HARRIS [9937] Shebbear 1871 aged 15 years. Daughter of Jane DYMENT [555] * sisters
Mary Jane HARRIS [9934] Beaford 1861 aged 15 years. Daughter of Jane DYMENT [555] * sisters
Mary HARRIS [11491] Dolton 1871
Agnes HEARD[10909] Beaford 1841 aged 14 years
Elizabeth HEARD [10894] Beaford 1841
Ellen HEARD [10756] Beaford 1861 daughter of Susan GOODING [10731]
Mary Heaman HEARD [13655] Dolton 1861
Rebeccah HEARD [6171] Beaford 1851
Rebecca HEARD[6117] Beaford 1871
Catherine HELLINGS [18969] St Giles in the Wood 1851 - 1861
Mary HELLINGS [18958] St Giles in the Wood 1851 - 1861
Betsey HOOKWAY [18646] Wear Gifford 1841
Jane HOOKWAY [18663] Wear Gifford 1851
Susannah HOOKWAY [707] Monkleigh 1851, Bideford 1861 silk glove sewer aged 64
Charlotte HUNKIN [18878] Shebbear1851
Mary HUXTABLE [9955] Dowland 1851 - 1861
Mary JAY [1950] Monkleigh1851
Mary JUDD [2527] Fithelstock 1851
Anna Arnold JURY[18656] Monkleigh 1841 aged 15
Hannah JURY [8930] Beaford 1841
Fanny LILE [19067] Great Torrington 1851
RachelLUGG [17451] Dolton 1871
Grace LUXTON [2390] Great Torrington 1851
Elizabeth LYNE [18366] Dolton 1871
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And L-W
Mary MARTN [13043] Dolton 1861 Beaford 1841
Martha Anna MATHEWS [18963] St Giles in the Wood 1881
Grace MITCHEL [18680] Bideford 1841
Betsey MITCHELL [6369] Beaford 1841
Jane MITCHELL [4043] Beaford 1851 - 1861
Maria MITCHELL [9] Beaford 1861 - 1871
Mary MITCHELL[6322] Beaford 1841
Mary MITCHELL [4143] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Grace MOORE [2446] Beaford 1861 aged 13 years with her mother Elizabeth nee ROCKEY [2441]
Jennie MOORE [10944] Beaford 1871
Mary MOORE[16198] St Giles in the Wood 1861 described as formerly a glover
Ann MOORE [1996] Beaford 1861 - 1881 * sisters
Jane MOORE [1993] Beaford 1841 - 1851 * sisters
Rebecca MOORE [1994] Beaford 1851 - 1861 mother of Susan [10752] * sisters
Susan MOORE [10752] Beaford 1861 aged 14 yrs
Grace PICKARD [2106] Beaford 1841 aged 10 years 1851, 1861, 1871 married Henry DYMENT [57] in 1870
Mary Ann PICKARD [7483] Beaford 1841
Charlotte POW nee YOUNG [17565] Gt Torrington 1851 glover 1861 cotton glove maker
Elizabeth POW [17562] Great Torrington 1851 aged 8, 1861cotton glove maker
Eliza Anne POW [17571] Great Torrington 1861 cotton glove maker
Mary POW [17570] Gt Torrington 1851
Grace PUDNER [10935] St Giles in the Wood 1871 mother of grace Ann FOLLAND [10971]
Elizabeth ROCKEY [2441] Beaford 1861- 1871
Mary Ann ROWTCLIFFE [21172] Merton 1851 daughter of Mary GORDON [21155]
Mary SELDON [10733] Petrockstow 1851
Eliza SHEARS [10541] Monkleigh 1861
Jane SHEARS [526] Monkleigh 1861
Mary SHORT [2581] Merton 1851
Susan SHORT [2111] South Molton 1881
Eliza SNELL [4134] Dolton 1861
Eliza SUSSEX [2727] St Giles in the Wood 1851 - 1881
Elizabeth SUSSEX [4] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Elizabeth SUSSEX [16219] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Ellen SUSSEX [16226 ] St Giles in the wood 1871 aged 13 years
Jane SUSSEX [10164] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Jemima SUSSEX [6492] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Lucy SUSSEX [16253] St Giles in the Wood 1871
Rachel SUSSEX[10421] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Susanna SUSSEX [10422] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Elizabeth TANTON [19014] Beaford 1851
Mary TANTON [18982] Beaford 1851
Mary Ann TANTON [16] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Elizabeth THOMAS [11519] Roborough 1871
Susanna THOMAS [11522] St Giles in the Wood 1851
Louisa TRICK [11029] St Giles in the Wood 1881 aged 14 glove pointer
Elizabeth TURNER [11611] St Giles in the Wood 1841 - 1871
Betsy VODDEN [61225] Beaford 1851
Selina VODDEN [6127] Beaford 1861
Ann WARE [1976] Dolton 1861
Elizabeth WARE[12062] St Giles in the Wood 1861
Mary WARE [16199] St Giles in the Wood 1871
Wilmot WARE [15003] Huish 1851 aged 14 year
Charlotte WELSH [2719] Merton 1861 aged 8 years * sisters
Grace WELSH [2722] Merton 1861 aged 10 years * sisters
Jane WELSH [4903] Merton 1861 aged 10 years * sisters
Sarah WELSH [10402] Merton 1861 aged 10 years * sisters
Thomas DYMENT [11619] Great Torrington 1891 a fabric glove cutter, 1901 a cotton glove cutter.
After serving in the R.M. His step son William BASSETT was a tailors cutter
John SQUIRE [14956] Great Torrington 1861 cotton glove cutter
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this is what I have on the Devon Glovers on our web site
Cottage Industries
Glovers.
A large number of our ancestors were working in the glove making industry, the vast majority being female. There are only three men involved in the industry among our ancestors two worked in Worcester and one in Great Torrington Devon. Gloveresses are found in three areas, Worcester, North Devon and East Oxfordshire.
A few people give an indication of which material they worked. In Devon Eliza BENNETT [4714], Charlotte YOUNG[17565], Elizabeth POW[17562], Eliza Ann[17571] and sisters Ann and Jane ARNOLD and Thomas DYMENT [11619] worked with cotton and Ann FORD [6278] worked with leather while Susannah HOOKWAY [707] and Elizabeth DAVEY [12936] worked in silk. In Oxfordshire Eliza ANDREWS [8632] also worked with leather. In Monkleigh, Devon Fanny ASHPLANT [17625] was a Gloveress (allsorts) which may indicate that she was able to make a whole glove rather than just the decorative back. In Middlesex Jane GUARD [17633] and her sister both worked with both ladies and gents gloves.
Devon.
All our Devon Gloveresses lived in the vacinity of Great Torrington and Barnstaple. In Barnstaple the glove factory was Pilton’s and in Great Torrington there was a busy Glove factory founded by the Bible Christian.William Vaughan, indeed the facade of his factory resembled a Methodist chapel. Vaughan eventually became Mayor of Torrington on several occasions and lived in the biggest house in the town. As an Alderman William Vaughan did much to help the community his workers inhabited, and helped to establish a Cottage Hospital in the town. In 1880 the Vaughan Tapscott factory employed over 600 people (both in the factory and out workers). [http://www.great-torrington.com/history/index.html]
An interview with Margaret Gorvett nee Smale who was born in Bideford about 1738 appeared in the St Thomas Times journal Ontario on 3 Aug 1918. In the report Mrs Gorvett told how she was taught to sew black kid gloves embroidering the backs with white thread. She also talks about the packmen bringing supplies to the cottage and taking the completed gloves back. [http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/beharu/mgt_smale.htm]
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Good grief, Trees, your family is choc-a-bloc with glovers! You might be interested to know that Yeovil in Somerset was another centre of glove making - another friend of mine is descended from Farrants who were in the trade there, though some of them ended up in Worcestershire and in America, in a town called Gloversville, when the industry took a downturn in England.
Yesterday's visit to the library, and a trawl through old newspapers on Find My Past in the afternoon, paid off. An article on William Vaughn's funeral in 1903 reveals that "his coffin was borne to the grave by the following glove cutters employed at the [Vaughn's] factory: Messrs W. Bowden, H. Squire, J. TAPSCOTT, W. Gilbert, P. Judd, W. Quicke, C. Booth and W. Thomas," so the James Tapscott I located in the census returns was an employee of Vaughn's. Tapscott left Vaughn's to set up his own business a few years later, but by 1928 had retired and moved to Exmouth, while his daughter Florence Gertrude's husband, a Mr Charles Ebsworthy, managed the business. At this point Tapscott's was in New Street and the company seems to have survived well into the 1980s - moving to the Calf Steet premises along the way. It only amalgamated with Vaughn's in 1989, apparently (hence the White's Lane factory being generally remembered as "Vaughn Tapscott"), and they were then taken over by Sudbury's who finally closed down in the early 2000s.
James Tapscott was a staunch member of the Baptist Church and, like William Vaughn and John Jackson, a prominent figure in the town before his retirement. Tapscott must have been well paid by Vaughn, because he owned a three-storey house in New Street by 1892 - either that or he or his new wife had money of their own! Most of the big glove manufacturing families seem to have socialised with each other generally; I found a reference to Hannah (eldest daughter of glove manufacturer Joseph Bangham) Handford's younger daughter marrying Richard Pettle, another glove manufacturer, and all the big names regularly crop up at the funerals of fellow tradesmen.
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;D ;D ;D and that's just the Devon list I've quiet a few in Worcester and Oxford too.
Now your latest finds are very interesting perhaps its time I had another look at my Glovers and up dated the page. as you can see it all started back in 2006 when I had turned up simply 36 glovers I don't think I had access to old newspapers and the like back then and was relying on an annual trip to the Barnstable RO. Are you located in N Devon?
Oh by the way I have several glovers in Gloversville too mine were originally from Worcestershire do the names Jones, Hometige or Marshall ring any bells over there?
Charles Henry JONES was a 14 year old glover in Worcester in 1871. I haven't got too many male glovers so he stands out from the crowd.
I also have a Harriet Guard and her daughter Jane GUARD born in Queen Camel in Somerset but they moved to Middlesex
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You've got plenty to keep you busy! I've got to the stage with my ancestors where I'm just filling in gaps in the info as I've got back as far as records available online allow and they weren't exactly prolific breeders on either of my parents' sides, which is why I (happily) get sucked into helping other people research theirs! Yes, I am in North Devon, and have access to the Local Studies centre in Barnstaple library - at least until the powers that be get their way and relocate it to Exeter - so if you need anything looking up at any point, let me know.
It's been a long while since I did the Farrants and most of the info on the American side was given to my friend and I by a descendant there, so I'd have to check my old notes to see if any of yours crop up. The Farrant men did the cutting and their wives and daughters did the stitching, so the families probably earned a reasonable amount when their income was combined. There is definitely a lot more info available online now than there was in the early 2000s. Newspaper articles reveal an awful lot of useful detail though you have to be quite patient and sift through a lot of rubbish to get the odd gold nugget! I was told yesterday that Facebook has a North Devon Glove Industry history page which is worth looking at - you might already be aware of it. I don't have an account myself so will ask my eldest son if he can get it up on his in the next day or so ;D, so I can see what they've got.
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Next time your in Barnstaple give my regards to Tim and Colin I think they are the most helpful archivist in the UK (use my web name or say Hazel from S.Wales they'll know who you mean) :)
If anyone can root out the history of Tapscotts it will be Colin.
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I will do! I'm surprised no one has yet done a detailed history of all the glove manufacturers in Torrington, not just Vaughn's, given that glove making was such a huge part of the local history of the area. There is plenty of material to make a very interesting reference book, and it wouldn't be that difficult to do potted biographies of all the major players using the info from census returns.
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Hello 'Trees' long time no see, I have several friends in Torrington so thought this may interest you: http://www.northdevonmovingimage.org.uk/glove-stories.html
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This one may interest you too: https://www.facebook.com/northdevonglovingphotos/?fref=ts
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Hi Bill, you managed to catch me on one of our trips away so was delighted to see your posts. what an interesting project wish we lived near enough to get involved. will keep an watch on what they fare doing Mant thanks for the links.
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Trees, I know this link relates to a much later period in the glove-making industry in Devon, but it may be of use to you or someone else:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1929/mar/20/gloving-making-industry
Sir Basil Peto was the MP for Barnstaple at the time, and the Pilton and Newport Road glove factory premises in Barnstaple employed a fair percentage of the locals.
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Many thanks Geordie daughter but sadly the link doesn't seem to work :(
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Oh what a shame! I'll see if I can unearth the web page again and copy out the details to post on here - it was only a short piece, so it shouldn't be a problem.
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Oh what a shame! I'll see if I can unearth the web page again and copy out the details to post on here - it was only a short piece, so it shouldn't be a problem.
I had a look
the url seems to be
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1929/mar/20/glove-making-industry
(glove-making, rather than gloving-making)
Boo
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"Glove-Making Industry
Hansard Vol 226: debated on Wednesday 20 Mar 1929
Sir BASIL PETO
asked the President of the Board of Trade the production of leather and fabric gloves during the last quarter of 1928 and, for comparison, the corresponding figures for the last quarter of 1925; and whether he can give employment figures in the leather and fabric glove industries in the same periods?
THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD OF TRADE
(Mr. Herbert Williams)
Certain particulars about output and employment are supplied to the Board of Trade by the Joint Industrial Council for the glove-making industry, from which it appears that, as regards leather gloves, 102,020 dozen pairs were produced in the fourth quarter of 1925, and 143,087 dozen pairs in the fourth quarter of 1928. During the former period the average number of persons employed was 7,430, and in the latter period 8,774. As regards fabric gloves, in the fourth quarter of 1925 24,069 dozen pairs were produced, and in the fourth quarter of 1928 57,024 dozen pairs. The average number employed in the former period was 692, and in the latter period 1,266. The figures for leather gloves are stated to relate to firms which, in 1924, employed 88 per cent of the cutters in that industry. The data for fabric gloves for 1925 relate to firms which employed, in 1924, 88 percent; and those for 1928 to firms which employed, in 1924, 82 per cent of the cutters in that industry. The numbers of workpeople are inclusive of outworkers.
Sir B. PETO
Do I understand that it is reasonable to shorten this by saying that the result of safeguarding the fabric glove industry has been to double production and employment?
Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHY
Will the hon. Gentleman say how much the wages have increased in that time?
Mr SPEAKER
That does not arise out of the question."
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Thanks for correcting the link, Boo - I'm going senile!!