Heptonstall parish registers

[Sue]

I am trying to find out the most common employment of the people of Heptonstall in the 1700s. Its a wool industry area, so I have had obvious things like wool comber, wool farmer. But what do you think web is. It may be w &b . So far I have actually found no weavers, which I think would be home weavers . Whatever it is most seem to do it. Look at this list, the last item on each name is the occupation, so reading down the list is

web
web
butcher
carpenter
web
cordwainer...what is that?
spinster base ( base child?)
spinster
mason.

Often the list is always web.

CE9F7C88-63C8-4349-A4A0-BF583904C8C9.jpeg

[Sue]

Oh and I have a couple of occupations listed as REPUTED FATHERS

[Sue]

Could it be this


WOOLEN BILLY PIECER Worked in the woollen mills to piece together the broken yarns

Would there be so many of them? Surely there weren’t that many worsted mills in Heptonstall area in the mid 1700s for that many?

[Tripps]

cordwainer...what is that?

Look here - cordwainer

Explains the difference between shoemaker and cobbler which I think we discussed a couple of days ago on another thread. Strangely enough the name immediately triggers thoughts of 'Beyond our Ken' and Kenneth Williams. Can't see any evidence for that. Just coincidence I suppose that The Honourable Company of Corwainers is based in 'Mincing Lane' .

Indulge me. . . .

[Wendyf]

Webster.

[Sue]

What is a webster. Later register shows definitely

63C342D7-46D4-4B58-82D4-B62762901255.jpeg

w&b

[Sue]

cordwainer...what is that?

Look here - cordwainer

Explains the difference between shoemaker and cobbler which I think we discussed a couple of days ago on another thread. Strangely enough the name immediately triggers thoughts of 'Beyond our Ken' and Kenneth Williams. Can't see any evidence for that. Just coincidence I suppose that The Honourable Company of Corwainers is based in 'Mincing Lane' .

Indulge me. . . .

Thanks for that, there are a few cordwainers over the years

[Wendyf]

Webster is an old term for a weaver, I've come across it before in parish registers.

[Sue]

Does that fit in with w&b, as in second register. I haven’t found it on the newer registers with proper forms

[Wendyf]

I think that might be an e not &. Does the word before it say Height? If so the e is backwards in that too.
Just guessing

[Sue]

I did wonder and webster makes sense it was 80 % of the entries in Heptonstall. Thanks, that is what I have written in my chapter.

[Sue]

Yes you are perfectly right about the e in Height. I knew someone would know the answer on this site.

[Wendyf]

[Tripps]

I'm watching Hobson's Choice for the umpteenth time. This time though- I know that Will Mossop was a cordwainer.

[Sue]

I'm watching Hobson's Choice for the umpteenth time. This time though- I know that Will Mossop was a cordwainer.

Wendy, sometimes there was an r after the b. It makes sense now

[Stanley]

I missed all that! Glad you have sorted it out.
One thing you haven't mentioned, the term 'delaine' means wool, quite common when they were distinguishing between wool and cotton weavers.
As a matter of interest.... Mincing Lane etymology;
"Nothing to do with either ground meat or funny walks, Mincing is in fact derived from an Old English term for a female monk; Mincheon or Minchun. In John Stow’s Survey of London (1598) he recalls the name as Mincheon Lane, because the residents here were Minchuns of St Helen’s Bishopsgate (a church nearby)."

[Sue]

I do love the origin of street names

[Stanley]

Like Gas Street in Bacup......

[plaques]

Throstle Terrace in Nelson was indirectly related to birds . Can you guess its meaning?

.

Throstle Terrace Nelson.JPG

[Stanley]

I'll not spoil it P. A textile rather than an ornithological connection I think.

[plaques]

Stanley has pointed the way. although Throstle is a dialect word for the song thrush, locally it was used to describe the sound from the cotton spinning frames
From Wiki...The throstle frame was a spinning machine for cotton, wool, and other fibers, differing from a mule in having a continuous action, the processes of drawing, twisting, and winding being carried on simultaneously.[2] It "derived its name from the singing or humming which it occasioned,"[3] throstle being a dialect name for the song thrush.

In Nelson the spinning mill on an adjacent road was called Throstle Nest.
In Burnley a similar mill was simply called Throstle Mill

[Stanley]

It all gets a bit complicated but the throstle was the thing that marked the difference between the English 'Great Wheel' which was intermittent action and the forerunner of the Mule and the Belgian Wheel which is the usual 'traditional' spinning wheel you see in use which employed the throstle and was continuous spinning. Arkwright managed to combine the throstle with roller drawing action in his water frame. He didn't invent any of the mechanisms but combined them and as James Watt said during the court cases over the Arkwright patents, he deserved credit for 'making it work'. Said with feeling because Watt's patents were under attack at the same time.