Work

In this section:

Working from Home: working patterns in Hempstead between the wars

Workers at Hill Farm

A full analysis of the census returns for Hempstead will have to wait until the records, which are in copperplate script of varying quality, have been transcribed. Once we get them into a spreadsheet, we can really make some progress. However, we know from general history that the English agricultural economy, despite temporary fluctuations due to factors such as the Black Death, remained largely stable through the Middle Ages and up to the Industrial Revolution. During that time, the men of Hempstead would either have owned and/or farmed the land or (in the main) worked for those who did. Even a modest arable farm, pre-mechanisation, was a hugely labour intensive operation. Many of the workforce lived in humble tied cottages on the farm where they worked, which have subsequently been demolished or converted.

With the advent of technology such as the steam engine, which could power mills, mowers, reapers and threshing machines, unemployment for rural workers increased and this triggered migration from country to town, where jobs in factories or domestic service offered better opportunity. It is said that the male workforce of the English countryside declined by 40% between 1861 and 1901, although whether this was the case in Hempstead we shall have to wait and see. With falling food prices and the declining profitability of farms, the traditional association between land ownership and wealth began to disappear, resulting in the wave of land sales (for example the sale of the ‘Hempstead Estate’) at around the time of the First World War and subsequently.

A brief review of the census data for Hempstead from 1901 to 1921 shows that the overwhelming majority of men at that time were still employed in farming or in occupations directly related to farming such as horse‑keeping or hurdle making.  The only exceptions to this were men earning their living as butchers or publicans and those who worked in a semi-professional capacity such as the priest, the schoolteacher and the village policeman.

In 1901, 93% of men of working age (and in this category we also include boys for whom an occupation is noted, who could be as young as 14) were directly engaged in farming.   It appears that this percentage fell slightly in 1911 and 1921, because a few more men were engaged in carpentry, building work and trades such as shoemaking.   However, we don’t know whether the carpenters and builders were jobbing tradesmen or whether they were simply farm workers providing a more descriptive account of their work on the farm.  But whatever the precise statistics, the pattern of overwhelmingly agricultural employment did not change materially.

Women’s occupations are much harder to analyse because, in many cases, the census officer has left this field blank, whereas in others we have vague descriptions like ‘home duties’ or ‘assisting husband’.  In still other cases, a home based occupation such as dressmaking is listed but it is not possible to tell whether this was a significant source of income or whether the woman merely chose to respond in this way to a census officer’s question about how she spent her time.

What is noticeable is that in the 1921 census, following the First World War, there is a significant increase in the number of women who are explicitly described as ‘working on the farm’, ‘assisting with farm duties’, etc.  This description was almost completely absent from pre-war census returns and it seems highly likely that it reflects a social trend rather than just a more precise method of describing their day.

After 1921, the picture is harder to analyse.  The 1931 census records were destroyed by fire, the 1941 census did not take place and, in any case, all census data is subject to a strict 100 year rule to protect personal privacy.   The only comparable source we have is the National Register, taken in 1939 for the purpose of issuing ID cards and ration books, but this is heavily redacted so as to remove living individuals and so may not be representative.  In any case, it doesn’t tell us where people were born or where they worked.

The 1939 National Register for Hempstead still shows the population as overwhelmingly employed in agriculture, although other occupations are starting to creep in.  For example, we have  several men in the forces, a retired fireman, drivers of lorries and petrol tankers, a couple of civil servants, a chauffeur/valet, an architect, a milkman, a stockbroker, a retired tea planter and an author’s private secretary.

We have  several men in the forces, a retired fireman, drivers of lorries and petrol tankers, a couple of civil servants, a chauffeur/valet, an architect, a milkman, a stockbroker, a retired tea planter and an author’s private secretary.

At least up until the 1921 census and in all probability for several years afterwards, we can say with confidence that everyone in Hempstead who worked, did so in Hempstead.   One or two farm workers might have crossed the border into Great Sampford or the Camps but, other than a few girls going into domestic service in Saffron Walden, the pattern of local employment was fixed and stable.

The teenage sugar boilers

The only exception to this pattern that we have been able to find is linked to the employment, in 1921, of six Hempstead teenagers at the Thaxted confectioner George Lee & Co.   The first was  the 16 year old Fred Randall from Devon, who stayed at the old Post Office with the postmaster Harold Humphrey.  Fred was probably a relation of Humphrey’s housekeeper Bessie Randall.  His job title at Lee’s was  ‘assistant sugar boiler’. 

The second boy was the 16 year old Bennett Gibbs, the stepson of Charles and Eliza Willis in the High Street, whose 14 year old brother Arthur worked as a yard boy at the Crown Inn.  Curiously,  the third boy was also a Gibbs: the 14 year old Stanley, who was the eldest son of Hubert and Salome Gibbs of Stone Cottage.  Next we have Herbert Andrews, 17, from Witchtree Cottage and the 18 year old Frederick Brazier, who lived on Church Hill.

Finally, Sidney Ager, 16, was a young cousin of Henry and Eliza Godfrey of Cracknells.   Sidney was born in Paddington but had come to stay with his cousins after losing both his parents at a young age. We have discovered that he stay in the area for the rest of his life, living in Newport Road, Saffron Walden. He was a keen cyclist (perhaps from his days commuting to Thaxted) and in 1951, at the age of 46, he joined the Saffron Walden ‘Forty Plus Cycling Club’. For many years, he ran a cycle shop in Saffron Walden’s Central Arcade, in what is now the premises of Suitability, the dry cleaners. Tragically and ironically, he was killed in a road accident near Steeple Bumpstead in 1975, while riding his bicycle.

The George Lee sweet factory where the boys worked  later became the premises of Molecular Products, next to the Thaxted Town Sign.  We know from a 1911 report by Conrad Noel, Thaxted’s ‘Red Vicar’ at the time, that sixteen year olds working in the factory received a wage of eight shillings and sixpence a week – a little less than half the rate of an adult doing the same work.  They worked a ten hour day, five and a half hour days a week.   However, in 1913, the new wage boards were extended to cover sugar confectionery, so the position may have improved by the time that Sidney and his friends were there. 

Hempstead’s Mills

The largest and best known mill, a post-mill, was in the fields to the south of Church Hill, directly opposite St Andrew’s (to the rear of, and between, Hillside and Pippins). This is shown in a map of 1678 and in most maps since then until it burned down in about 1900: an eye witness described seeing the blazing mill at night, with the sails turning. We have no photographs of the mill and the names of the early millers are not known; however, the tithe map of 1842 shows the land as owned by John Drummond and occupied by George Moore, who rented the mill and the associated lands of about 10 acres. George lived in the Miller’s House, next to St Andrews, and also held the field now known as the Glebe but known in those days as Steeple Field (interestingly this was not in fact glebe land but also formed part of the Drummond estate),

George also operated a brick kiln (see below) on an additional 10 acres further south, but this seems not to have survived him. Well before he died in 1879 at the age of 79, George appears to have retired and handed over the mill to his son Joshua Moore, who is recorded as the miller from 1863. In 1881, the 51 year old Joshua is shown as occupying ‘Mill House’ together with his wife Susanna and their eight year old son Wilfred; Susanna’s sister Emma Humbleby was also in the house, but whether as a visitor or a permanent lodger we don’t know. There were also two domestic servants: Emma Willis (21) and Annie Johnson (13), both Hempstead born, and a miller’s labourer, John Bye (31).

By 1890, Joshua was using steam as well as wind power. After the post-mill burned down, power milling continued under G Harding: the mill at this time consisted of three pairs of stones and an oil engine.

Another windmill seems to have stood on high ground a little way to the east of Boytons, close where a spinney now stands. In the 1842 tithe map the adjacent 9 acre field is called Mill Hill (a name which survives to this day) but, unlike the mill in the village centre, there is no separate building shown and no obvious candidate for the miller – the field is shown as being occupied by Samuel Andrews, who had a sizeable farm alongside Hempstead Wood. Anoher potential candidate is Mill Meadow, which stands directly east of Little Bulls Farm.

There was also a ‘steam flour and grist mill’ which came up for sale in 1906. The sale particulars refer to a ‘red and white brick built and slated building’ with a frontage of 31 feet and a depth of 24 feet, together with a garden and adjoining cottage in the occupation of Mr Frederick Fitch. The mill itself was described as “suitable for a warehouse or turning into a fair sized Cottage” and the machinery, comprising an 8hp horizontal engine, a boiler, three pairs of stones and lots of ancillary equipment, was sold separately.

This photograph shows the steam mill in its hey day. In the distance on the right, you can make out the barn which was later (during the 1930s and 1940s) used for storing animal meal and which still survives as the garage of the Old Bakery.

Steam flour and grist mill on the site of the present bungalows:

We know from several sources that, during the Second World War, the mill was converted into two houses.  Margaret Drane recalls that Mrs Sheridan, who lost her husband in the war, moved into the bigger half with her three children, two boys and a girl, as they had nowhere to go. Mr & Mrs Robinson were in the other cottage, possibly as tenants.

The fortunate discovery of a photograph album in the Essex Record Office recently turned up the three pictures below, which appear to show the conversion in progress.   It’s fairly clear that they show the same building – compare the brick line with the photo of the mill above. The house/ shop now known as Drapers is just out of sight behind the hedge and tree.

The two houses created from the mill must have been knocked down some time after the war, as they stand on what is now the driveway to The Wilderness. The rest of the mill site would have occupied the land where the bungalows now stand.

The Brick Kiln

A handwritten note to David Haylock from the Essex Records Office refers to “a brick kiln at map reference 634373” which was operated by George Moore in 1842. The 1842 tithe map below does show a brick kiln and an adjacent four acre field named Brick Kiln Ground. The grid reference also ties up with the modern OS map, although this shows no trace of the kiln. Nor is the kiln shown on the 1880 OS map held by the National Library of Scotland, leading one to speculate that the kiln may have been demolished and the land ploughed up after George’s death, which we know to have been in 1879.

As noted above, George Moore was also the village miller. The key to the 1842 map shows him as occupying the Miller’s House (next to the Church), as well as the acre of land known as Steeple Meadow now known as the Glebe (behind the Village Hall) and about ten acres to the south of Church Hill, where the windmill stood.

Here is a puzzle for readers to solve. There does seem to be a pattern of siting brick kilns near windmills. For example, Samuel Owen (1786-1857) painted Windmill and Brick Kiln on Riverside

Why should this be? Of course, some mills had kilns for drying corn before grinding, but the description ‘brick kiln’ seems to suggest that it was actually employed for manufacturing bricks. Is there something in the technology that makes it expedient to combine these two professions? Send your thoughts to info@hempsteadhistory.uk

Other trades

At least from 1855 to 1874, according to Kelly’s, Hempstead had a tailor, Peter Hales (or Hailes). The village was also plentifully supplied with boot and shoemakers who, of course, would have been in big demand in a farming community with hundreds of men working the fields. In the 1855 edition of Kelly’s three are listed: William Marsh, Deman Rutland and James Stock. Marsh and Rutland continue to appear up to 1882: a Charles Ryland is also listed in 1874 and 1882. By 1894, Deman Rutland has been replaced by George Rutland (presumably his son) and two new names appear, John Turner and Ford Musk. Walter Ford appears in the 1911 census and is listed again in the Kelly’s of 1914 and 1922.

Here are some other Hempstead tradesmen.

The table below lists all the people that we have been able to find, in the census records and trade directories to which we have access, who are listed in carrying out any manual trade in Hempstead over the years. Assigning them to specific buildings remains an unsolved puzzle.

We also have two pages from a small notebook of memories of John Drane, in which he describes the Burrough, which leads from Church Hill to Wellyards. This refers to a cobbler’s shop in a shed next to the Ring of Trees, as well as a barber’s shop run by Fred Halls, the village handyman.