BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 7 Episode #4: David Mitchell

[Nick29]

It's Kim Cattrall next week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m42gr

[FAB Fiona]

I was interested in how those 3 Skye girls/women ended up working in a mill in Cheshire.  For those of us with Lancashire and Cheshire millworkers in our trees, I'm sure we all wonder how they came to be there from more distant parts of the UK.  Just like today's 'labour importers', I doubt whether the records were kept. 

I wonder what occupation the labour importers ('middlemen') put in the censuses as their occupation too.

Fiona

[Nick29]

I was interested in how those 3 Skye girls/women ended up working in a mill in Cheshire.  For those of us with Lancashire and Cheshire millworkers in our trees, I'm sure we all wonder how they came to be there from more distant parts of the UK.  Just like today's 'labour importers', I doubt whether the records were kept. 

I wonder what occupation the labour importers ('middlemen') put in the censuses as their occupation too.

Fiona

Yes, but what is the difference between these girls and our great-grandmothers who worked for the upper and middle classes as live-in domestic servants, often hundreds of miles from home  ?

Just the fact that they were drafted in to industry, and possibly the contract conditions, maybe ?

[downside]

I'm sure we all wonder how they came to be there from more distant parts of the UK.

In the Jeremy Paxman edition of WDYTYA his ancestors who had been subsisting of parish relief in rural East Anglia were forced to go to Manchester to work in the mills, otherwise their parish relief would be withdrawn.

[Goofy]

What a wonderful series this has been, I've really enjoyed it!  I think perhaps it may be because the celebrities in this series are of a younger generation than previously.

Goofy

[FAB Fiona]

I remember the Paxman one.  My comment in this instance was a reflection of the fact that I had not previously known of the existence of 'labour importers' with promises of a good life and education etc.

I agree, Nick, that domestic servants could very much be in the same boat in terms of how mill workers and servants could be let down by promises of a better life and being far away from their families.  
Actually, reading Elizabeth Gaskell novels, I believe domestic labour was a problem for the (growing) middle and upper classes in Manchester - and probably elsewhere as well.  Mills offered more money often because the mill owners were not always responsible for their accommodation (although they might having housing to rent out).  From the point of view of the millworkers, this could mean greater freedom.  
The 'new' aspect of the 'labour importers' was probably to do with the sheer numbers of mill workers needed.  A glut of workers in mill areas also meant that the mills were not dependent on the increasingly millitant millworkers who were demanding higher wages and better conditions.

Fiona

[Suffolk Mawther]

As Downside mentioned there was a scheme to move the parish poor to other areas where work was readily available.  Suffolk was a part of that New Poor Law set up in the 1830s.  The choice was Workhouse or move north with guaranteed housing and work.
It was a way of getting people to move to Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire to work in the cotton mills and woollen industry where there were jobs.  It was a sort of 'forced migration'.  The scheme did not last very long due to the decline in the Cotton and Woollen industries.

I got the impression that there were men on the island working to find youg women for the Mills on the mainland.  Telling their families of how well they would be treated and given education and work, when they were actually working long hours with little benefit.

I enjoyed last night's programme and found the Scottish information interesting having been searching in England (with short forays into Ireland and USA) for nearly forty years.  Always thought my Wilson connection would lead me to Scotland instead that is the Irish/American line.

Pat ...

[shanew147]

good episode.. it seemed like he came up with most of the questions on the spot for the on-screen researchers.

I liked the scene in the grave yard - I'm certain they just sent him there and he started looking around for the old church and his ggg-grandfathers headstone himself.

only ever seen him on QI but will watch out for him in other programs from now on...


Shane

[Windsor87]

This episode did seem less staged. I wonder if he really did take the lady in the manse by complete surprise? I was quite horrified to see that Forbes's Parish register is in private hands. Surely that should be in an archive somewher (it didn't look like a copy).

I like David Mitchell anyway, so that probably helped (I've watched 'Peep Show').

That woman Annie from the Sutherland estate - I thought I recognised her and I can now place her. She was my tutor in Second year at Aberdeen Uni. Nice to see she is doing well for herself...