From Dorset to Salop 1870s

[LenVin]

Sometime in the 1870s my ancestors moved from Dorset to the Bridgnorth area of Salop. This probably took place after the 1871 census as they were still in Puddletown at this time.
Is this because some sort of job fair had taken place and people moved for a better life and work in that area?
If anyone has knowledge of this happening I would be interested to here about it.
Regards
Len

[stanmapstone]

See English Farming Past and Present
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND RECOVERY, 1874-1914
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010136ernle/010136ch18.htm


Stan

[stanmapstone]

My grandfather and his three brothers moved from Somerset to Sunderland, County Durham, between 1874 and 1880. I as understand it the great agricultural depression had set in in the early 1870’s as a result of a series of very wet summers and autumns, with a consequence of very bad harvests. Labour left the land, and the villages and went into the mines of South Wales, and the industrial areas of the north.

Stan

[LenVin]

Thank you Stan
That now makes some sense as to the move.But it appears from census information that they stayed in agriculture.
Regards
Len

[Jeuel]

In my own research I've found that ancestors sometimes move a long way to find work.

I have Gloucestershire agricultural labourers who moved to Glamorgan to work in coal mines.

I have Norfolk ancestors whose traditional work - fishing and ag labbing - was dangerous or insecure.  One of them went to work in a munitions works in Newcastle.  One went to be a coal miner in Yorkshire.  One of them became a corn merchant in Liverpool.  Several of them joined the Metropolitan police.  The Met actively recruited people from outside London as they were considered healthier.

[LindaJ1959]

My Dorset ag lab ancestors moved from rural Dorset to Bournemouth between 1861 and 1881, and became brickmakers and builders. Some of them became comparatively wealthy, but I'm not sure where the money went!

 

Linda