Ronge and White Iron.

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Stanley
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Ronge and White Iron.

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Ronge and White Iron.

One of the great virtues of the study of local history is that it allows very close focus on matters which the general historian recognises but hasn’t the time or the resources to look at in detail. This implies no criticism of their work, indeed it falls to them to make the connection between local developments and the wider picture. A good example is the suggestion of a link between rising population in our district in the 16th and 17th centuries against the national trend. This was because the availability of an income from textiles enabled young people to gain earlier independence and marry younger when they were more fertile. This in turn forced the early enclosures of the waste and a general increase in economic activity which eventually resulted in a burst of industrial evolution that shaped the world we live in today.

One of the fundamental aspects of textile history is the importance of the domestic textile industry in this story. This was the system whereby householders and farmers subsisted or augmented their income by taking in yarn from a clothier or manufacturer and produced cloth for which they were paid by the piece. There were many factors which combined to drive this activity but I believe that the roots can be traced back much further than is generally acknowledged.

I’m convinced that the shortage of labour caused by the Black Death half way through the 14th century gave the mass of poor people in England their first glimpse of independence. For the first time in history they held the whip hand for a while until the Establishment reacted and asserted control again. The key word here is control, independence allowed some small freedom of action. 200 years later this was reinforced by nonconformity and a change in mind-set which allowed the belief that humans could control their own destiny, indeed, that success in this venture was a sign of grace.

There were many routes to this independence but in West Craven the major opportunity was textiles. Almost every small yeoman inventory includes the tools of the trade, cards, spinning wheels and looms. Some also include a stock of yarn and cloth and these are almost certainly the higher class of weaver who was buying his raw materials and selling his cloth independently. Once these men started putting yarn out to other weavers they were on the first rung of the long ladder which led to being a manufacturer.

One such manufacturing family was the Bracewells of Coates. By 1800 they had amassed enough money to virtually have a monopoly of the putting out trade in the Barnoldswick/Earby area and had built their own water powered mill for processing cotton into yarn. Notice that I don’t assume they were spinning. There is no evidence of spinning by water power in Barnoldswick until much later. What they were most likely doing was carding cotton and producing roving for the hand spinners in the cottage industry.

This domestic or cottage industry was profitable but from the very beginning, the manufacturers who ‘put-out’ materials and paid for cloth by the piece had difficulties in controlling their out-workers. Independence and an adequate living encouraged free-thinking and freedom of action. If the weaver had a small agricultural holding the textile trade became secondary in times of harvest or other essential field operations. There was no pressure to consume, people tended to work for subsistence and perhaps modest savings for a rainy day or family expenses such as marriage or funerals. Once they had reached their preferred level of weekly income, the weavers tended to take the slack up by leisure. The long weekend had arrived, ‘St Monday’, the practice of taking weekdays off, became the norm. What made it worse was that this was most likely to happen when demand for cloth was high and so piece rates were good. Production tended to fall just when the manufacturer needed it most.

The manufacturers had no sanctions against this as they were being held to ransom by their outworkers. An early attempt at control was the ‘dandy shops’ where a manufacturer installed a number of improved hand looms and employed weavers to come and work on his own premises. It wasn’t until the advent of a complete spinning and weaving system driven by water power spawned the factory system that this problem was solved.

There was another major flaw in the system which explains the strange title of this article. This was embezzlement of yarn by the outworkers and was a serious problem. There were various names for this practice, Atkinson, in his history, ‘Old Barlick’ talks about ‘Ronge’ and David Whitehead of Rawtenstall in his autobiography refers to the stolen yarn as ‘White Iron’.

When a manufacturer contracted with his outworker to produce a certain amount of cloth he had to estimate how much cotton fibre or yarn he had to allocate to his outworker in order to make it. A certain percentage had to be added to what the finished weight of the cloth would be to cover wastage in the process. The better the out-worker the less the wastage and no doubt this was taken into account when making this estimate. Legally, this fibre or yarn was the property of the manufacturer and on completion of the cloth the excess over what had actually been used had to be accounted for. I have never seen any firm evidence for how this practice worked as these transactions were not recorded in writing. However, there is reason to suppose that to a certain extent the excess yarn, whilst nominally the property of the master, was regarded by many out-workers as a perk of the trade. Indeed, the more skilled the worker, the more excess there was.

Atkinson is quite specific about the evils of this practice, he states that the accepted practice was that the excess should have been returned to the master but that dishonest weavers kept the ‘Ronge’ back and concealed it. He mentions that there were ‘Ronge dealers’ who came round and would buy the stolen yarn. This allows for the fact that there were manufacturers who would quite happily buy the stolen yarn from the Ronge dealers and recycle it in their business because being stolen it was cheap. He even suggests that the introduction of the power loom was seen by honest weavers as a punishment on those who had indulged in the practice as it deprived them of their freedom.

David Whitehead describes how, when travelling in the Pendle Forest area as a packman selling drapery he was often offered what he describes as ‘White Iron’ in payment for his goods. He was also approached by local shopkeepers who had a stock of White Iron taken in as payment for necessities.

So, despite the paucity of firm evidence, we can be fairly certain that the practice of embezzling yarn was widespread and structured with miscreants, middle men and dishonest manufacturers who would buy the stolen goods. The really pernicious thing about it all was that the honest workers and good crafts persons suffered the most by the practice. It was almost as though their was a penalty on good honest work and there is little wonder that men like Atkinson and Whitehead regarded it with such abhorrence.

I am not suggesting that this was the sole reason for the introduction of the factory system but there is no doubt that it was seen as a positive factor in favour of it. It is perhaps ironic that with the introduction of set working hours and factory discipline the vagaries of the market could be better controlled at the expense of the workers so piece rates were set at a level which ensured a profit for the factory owner even in times of low cloth prices and the only benefit to the workers of a strong market was increased working hours.

The end result for the workers was a loss of independence and control over their lives and income which led to terrible conditions both at work and in the home. However, it’s interesting to speculate that though repressed, the yearnings for independence and control never faded away. The long process of struggling for control started with the loss of independence and eventually led to combination and the trades union movement and improved rights. As to how big a part was played in this by the sprit of nonconformity which we noted earlier, I’ll leave you to decide. This is another story and one well worth pursuing.

SCG/16 July 2004
Stanley Challenger Graham
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

Post by Nolic »

I missed this first time around. Thanks Comrade for putting these rare posts back up. Nolic
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

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Good! I keep thinking I should repost more of them. Even if Doc gets the complete archive back up is there any harm in them being posted again? Opinions?
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

Post by Wendyf »

I think you should repost as much as possible Stanley.
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

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I went and started on it.......
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

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Bumped.
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

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Bumped again to keep it current.
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

Post by Gloria »

Keep bumping them up Stanley, they are very good “reads”, and of just the right length to keep them interesting.
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

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Thanks for responding Gloria. I often wonder if they still read well..... :biggrin2:
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Re: Ronge and White Iron.

Post by Gloria »

Stanley wrote: 13 Nov 2022, 10:03 Thanks for responding Gloria. I often wonder if they still read well..... :biggrin2:
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