ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. XXVI 1800 October 13th, was interred at Oldham, Joseph Mills, commonly cald Old Dot. He was remarkable for being a very emenient ringer. What a pity that we do not know more of “Old Dot”, the bell ringer. In the Mills family this bellringing seems to have run in the blood. What Oldham greybeard has not known or heard of the Oldham bellringers – Ralph Jackson, Abraham Taylor (the reed maker), Joshua Crowther, at Dolstile, and his dog, John Whitehead at Coach and Horses, the old man with the crutch – what was his name – and last, but not least, old James Mills, of Glodwick? October 18th – Manchester, this day, meal sold as high as £4. 4s. a load. Flour about the same. And at Oldham, meal 4s. to 4s. 6d. a peck. American flour 4s. 4d. a peck. Potatoes 15d. a score. October 24th – Manchester this day all sorts of provisions same as last week. October 30th – Died, Mr. Joseph Dunkerly, of Rodes House, age 21 years; disorder, a fever. It is with great concern that we see, after the poor have suffered so much by famine, it has pleased the Almighty to visit the poor in Oldham Workhouse with a most vilont fever, wich as carried of a great number, especelly old people. It is said that 25 are already dead and more are dying. It is now advancing in the neighbourhood, and a deal have already victims to its rage, wich I, for want of time, cannot particularize. We generally find epidemics of this kind following on a season of scarcity. No doubt this fever would be the result of bad food. In the beginning of this month Mrs. Alice Walker, of Chadderton-lane, was sold up, when her potatoes sold at 1s. 10d. per stroke, her oats at 7s. 3d. per thrave (24 sheaves), her wheat at 22s. 6d. a thrave (24 sheaves). Pottatoes – the crops of this usefull root have been very various, some having had verey good crops and some verey indifferent ones. They have been sold like other things, very dear. John Hilton, of Wood, sold his 1s. 9d. a stroke, wich is 14s. 6d. a load; turnips 10d a stroke. William Royle and Robert Smith, of Beartrees, turnips 1s. a stroke.
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November 8th – Little variation for some time in the neccssaries of life. November 10th – Died at Manchester, Mr. John Clegg, a gentleman of fine abilitys; a true patriot, and a firm friend to the cause of freedom; disorder, consumption. November 8th – Was intered, at Oldham, Thomas Mills, formerly of Red Tom Nook, a person far advanced in years. November 18th – Was intered, Alice, wife of James Droensfield, of Hollinwood. November 24th – All sorts of provisions still advances. Meal is selling 4s. 1d. to 4s. 2d. a peck. Flour 4s. to 5s. a peck. Old butter 15d. a pond. Beff or mutton 7d. a pond. Onions 3s 2d. a pond. Pottatoes 15d. a score. November 27th – A slight frost commenced, with a large fall of snow. It fell some little on the night of the 25th. November 27th – The sale of Chadderton Hall commenced. His oats sold at 7s. 3d. a thrave. Wheat 22s. 6d. a thrave. October 6th – This day, at Manchester, meal, flour, and potatoes rose astonishingly. At Oldham, meal 4s. 2d. to 4s. 6d. a peck. Flour about the same. Pottatoes 20d. a score. December 8th – Was intered, at Oldham, Sally, wife of James Hardy, of Top-’o’th’-moor. Disorder, childbed. It is very fine weather at this time. John Buckley, of Northmoor, sells meal 4s. 7d. a peck. December 9th – A misfurtinate accident happened to Thomas Barns, a banksman, being in a state of intoxication, and, going to the mouth of the pit he fell to the bottom, and was killed on the spot in Broadway-lane. December 14th – Died in Chadderton Workhouse, Betty Taylor. At Manchester the price of the necesareys of life same as last week. December 20th – Manchester, no material alteration in the price of provisions this day. |
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December 22nd – It is with happiness I relate that the fever wich as been so fatal at Oldham Workhouse and its neighbourhood is nearly subsided, there being but few sick at this time. December 20th – Last night some villains broke into the goose coats of James Lees, Thomas Holden, James Mills, and stole nine geese, with wich they made clear off. The distress of the lower class are so great there is a great deal of foot pat robbereys, housebreakings, &c., so that those that have anny property are thrut into the greatest consternation. December 23rd – it still continues to be exalent fine weather, the earth being dry, and the air warm. December 27th – Manchester: This day no material alteration in the price of provisions. December 31st – This day the eighteenth century will end. Oldham meal sells 4s. 4d. to 4s. 8d. a peck; flour, 4s. 10d. to 5s. 2d.; barley flour from 3s. 3d. to 3s. 6d., Joseph Bradley sells that of 3s. 6d. a peck wich was never equaled for goodness. The meal of 4s 8d. is sold by John Buckley, of Northmoor, but it is of an exalent quality. The weather is exalent fine; it has been a small quantity of snow, with a keen frost, but it is now dissolved, and the earth dry and the air warm, but the miserys of the poor I am not able to describe, and it is with great concern that I state that the poor are in a very weakly condition, and that the fever is very prevalent all over the country, and as ended the miserys of many. The general distress of the poor, I leave futurity to judge. 1801 The year, 1801, or the first day of the nineteenth century, begun on Thursday, wich was a rainney, winday, boisterous day, and never was the first day of the new year ushed in with such distressing apearances. Poor people, as may reasonable be expected, never left off working, and not a poor person in this neighbourhood that had pies, ale or rast beff. On the conterary, they had hard work and light meals. Weaving of all sorts is brisk, but wages lowe; but hatting is extreme bad – worse than was ever known before, for a deal of hatters are entirely without work, and those that have any are limited to one half, but as many as can are turned to weaving and other trades. Mule spinning is very good, and wages high. From the newspapers of 1801 it is easily inferred that weaving wages were very low. It was proposed to settle wages question by boards of arbitration. The poverty would be very widespread, as most of the people were hand-loom wavers, and almost every house had its hand-loom. It has already been shown what the earnings were per head, and as provisions rose in price, the poor would be in a sad plight.
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Mr. J. W. Mellor tells me that his uncle, John Mellor, used to say that as a result of being underfed during these hard times people’s faces were covered with down, as if nature had made provision for them against these hardships. It is very seldom now that we see a really clemmed face. Even the ordinary workhouse face or that of the “casual” is bright and beaming, compared with a genuine starved phiz – described in the vulgar tongue as being as “white as a moss-crop” and “clemmed wur nor wedgewood”, whatever these expressions mean. But then the altered condition of the country accounts for all this, wages being five times more and flour five times cheaper than at the beginning of the century. The one bright spot in the horizon was “mule spinning” which commanded high wages. The factory system was very different then to what it is now, the carder being paid by the weight of yarn turned out, he paying his own cardroom hands. The spinners were paid by the score of pounds weight, finding candles and paying for turning. Prentice says:- Old inhabitants of the industrial classes shudder at the recollection of the sufferings endured in 1800 and 1801, when wheat which was before the war was 6s. a bushel, had risen to 16s. 8d., and this without any other advance of wages than such as could be attributed to the competition for labour occasioned by the introduction of new manufactures, the result of new mechanical inventions, while the wages of agricultural labour actually declined; and the poor rates, which at the commencement of the war amounted to £2,167,748, had risen to an average of £5,300,000. Mr. Hopkins, in his “Great Britain During Forty Years”, says:- “By the aristocracy, the clergy, the magistracy, and even the press, the war had been declared just and necessary, and the shouts at the Stock exchange had been echoed by the capitalists in every part of the country. Poorhouses and jails admonished them that something was rotten in the state of Denmark; short-sighted selfishness triumphed, and the most industrious and highly productive people on the face of the earth were doomed to bring into existence in abundance all that is necessary for the support and solace of man, only to have it abstracted by those around them.” Of course much of this is true, and in some points the dark contrasts should be heightened, but, at the same time, it must not be forgotten that during the war and on account of the war, this country secured a vantage ground in the commercial world which has never been lost. |
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