The Census project 1841-1901 showed there had been a significant decrease in the number of Agricultural Labourers between 1871 and 1881. This event had been seen in our comparisons with Colin Watt’s research at Clophill but the timing was different – can we establish why? Were there any national, regional or local issues which affected this type of worker?
This project aims to identify what happened to those village residents – did they leave the village? did they find new employment or did they upgrade their skills whilst still working on the land?
The project listed all the named agricultural labourers and their families from the 1871 census and sought to establish whether they had died before 1881 or what occupation they had in 1881 and where they were then living.
Reference material: BHRS Vol 60, 1981 ‘The Bedfordshire Farm Worker in the 19thC’ – Nigel Agar
Analysis of the data shows many different reasons for the decline:
The project was completed via a presentation to the SLHG in spring programme 2009, the MS Powerpoint file is in the archive.
December 12, 2008
141 names on the list of Aglabs in the village in 1871. There was a 75% reduction to 36 in 1881. Changes in the government scheme for classification of jobs does not seem to explain this decrease. There had been an increase in Aglabs in Clophill for this same period, their decrease did not happen until later.
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January 10th 2009
In the 1870s, nationally, there was a most severe Depression caused by (a) Cheap Grain from US and (b) Cheap Meat from Argentina, Australia and New Zealand .This resulted in ‘the more energetic and mobile of the farm workers leaving the land in ever increasing numbers'.
The NALU was encouraging some workers to emigrate to the Commonwealth.
The Aglab's cottages in Coffle End had been highlighted as being amongst the poorest standard in the county.
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February 10th 2009
Analysing the 141 named workers: Only a Half (54%) were still in the village in 1881, Only a few (20%) were still Ag Labs, some were Unemployed, most had other jobs as General Labourers, jobs on the railways were popular
Of the people no longer in the village the destinations of 50% were determined and analysed; quite a number (30%) had just died, very few (6%) were still Ag Labs at some other location, even less had become unemployed but labouring jobs in other heavier industries were common.
