Page 130 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

shown as single – one is a woollen weaver, another as a silk gasser and nothing stated for the last one. The status of the final female is not stated, but she is probably single and is certainly working as a cook.
The occupations of the 30 male heads of household are much more varied than was the case for the 1861 census. It is difficult to categorise, but there has definitely been a movement into more white-collar occupations for a few – headmaster (who is also a Methodist minister) (1), civil service examiner in accountant general’s department at the GPO (1), bank clerk (1); an incursion into the retail trade for others – fish frier (1), grocer (1), wine and beer seller (1), commercial traveller (1); gaining entry into houses – house painter (1); a continued presence in the railway industry – railway signalman (1); development of skills – cabinet maker (2), French polisher (1); work within the woollen and cotton industries – dyers labourer (2), foreman cloth fuller (1), spinning overlooker (1), stuff presser (3), and silk dresser (4); and other occupations where the locations are less clear – brass moulder (1), carter (3), mechanic labourer witter (sic), and stoneman labourer (1).
While there are changes of occupation among these heads of households compared with the 1861 census, the importance of the woollen trade still remains evident. It is not just the older members who are involved for, as we shall see, it provides work for some of the younger members of the households as well. Some have branched out into trades conducted outside the factory system, but there is only one grouping which has largely moved away both from the north and from the traditional industries.
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Derived from Thomas (c.1802-?) and Elizabeth (née Mitchell) Soothill
Entries in the 1911 census
126