Pay and conditions

In 1677 the average weekly wages for a family working from home in the weaving trade were (the roughly equivalent values for 2006 are given in brackets):

Staged photograph taken by Henry Taunt of Oxford c1898, showing an imaginary cottage spinning scene.
grandmother (sorting wool) 3 shillings and 6 pence (£20)
husband (carding wool) 10 shillings (£59)
son (scribbling wool) 9 shillings (£52)
wife (spinning wool) 8 shillings (£47)
daughter (spinning wool) 8 shillings (£47)

This came to a total of £1 18s 6d for an entire family working, which is the equivalent of about £225 in 2006 [1].

During the first years of Queen Victoria's reign there was a great deal of protest and outcry amongst working people about unemployment, low wages, long working hours and bad housing. Handloom weavers, especially in the cotton industry, were being reduced to destitution by power looms and there was much pressure on the government to try and address some of these problems. One of the things they did was to commission an enquiry into the state of handloom weavers working in different parts of England.

A handloom weaver working in a Witney blanket factory in the 20th century.

Inspectors from the Commission visited Witney in 1838 and collected evidence about conditions and pay from both the blanket making bosses and some workers; this gives us an excellent snapshot of what life was like then for the weavers. At this time blankets had just started to be made in factories and mills; there were about six major manufacturers in Witney, nearly all members of the Early or Collier families. The companies owned the looms, and the weavers, with the exception of a few who still worked in their own premises at home, came to work for them in the mills. They did not earn a salary but were paid by the 'piece' (set length of cloth) and earned an average of 12-13 shillings a week, or more if they worked harder. Out of this they would have to pay for someone to do quill winding for them, which came to about 2 shillings a week. By 1838 the average weaver's wage in Witney had barely increased at all since 1768 [2].

Unlike most other trades in the woollen mills the weavers were paid according to how much cloth they produced and not the amount of hours that they worked. Richard Osborne was one of the weavers who gave evidence to the Commission and he noted the effect this had on his fellow weavers:

'It would be better if the weavers were... restricted to regular working hours, because they would earn more regular wages and it would be better for their families. Some of them come sauntering in on Monday towards the middle of the day, some get to work on a Tuesday, and some do not work the latter end of Saturday... the hardest work is on a Thursday or Friday' [3].

If any weaver was known to be absent from his loom because he had been out drinking, the punishment was to confiscate his shuttle for a couple of days, this way he could not earn his living and was ridiculed by his colleagues. Having your shuttle taken away was considered to be a disgrace among the men [4].

Richard Stiff was another blanket worker who gave evidence to the 1838 enquiry; he had also worked as a weaver in Dursley, Gloucestershire. He said:

'The masters here show the kindest feelings to their men, and the men the same to their masters... this was never the case in Gloucestershire. They cannot have that feeling when the masters are so careless about the working-man; there is no affection between them, but there is in Witney. The masters here come to the factories and look after business; they do not give authority to any foreman to usurp power over the labouring man. When a weaver goes before a master in Gloucestershire it is bad as if he were going before a judge.'

Even though Richard was offered more pay outside the area he preferred to stay in Witney at a lower wage because of the regular work and better treatment [5].

Group of women Witney weavers with the male weaving shed foreman to the left, 1920s.

Over a period of about 100 years weaving in the blanket mills gradually changed from a male dominated trade to a female one. By 1950 nearly all the weavers at Early's and the other mills were women and girls, by which time they were working on power looms but were still paid on the traditional system of piecework.

At Early's there was also an informal system of managing payments known as 'live horse and dead horse'; this was an agreement between the weaving shed foreman and the wages clerk which allowed the weaver to be paid for either blankets she had not yet woven or else save up her take-home pay into the following week.

Early's wages bag. For many years the weekly pay was brought from the bank in this bag by Ted Warner on his bicycle - with no security!

The historic method of paying by piecework came to an end at Early's mills in the 1950s when a firm of industrial consultants were employed to do time-and-motion studies and reform some of the working practices; the 200 or so looms were all fitted with individual pick counters and a system of payment per thousand picks was introduced [6]. Between the two World Wars wages in the industry began to be negotiated between employers and unions for the first time, at the West of England Joint Industrial Council [7].

References
[1] Honey 1998
[2] Clements unpub.: p20
[3] Plummer and Early 1969: p77
[4] Plummer and Early 1969: p80
[5] Plummer and Early 1969: p79
[6] personal communication: Brian Crawford
[7] Townley 2004: p99

Listen:
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Alan Pullin, a 'weft man' for Smith and Philips' blanket company (1964-1974) describes the start of his working day (114Kb).

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Alan Pullin describes the transport that was provided from the surrounding villages in to the Witney mills (115Kb).

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A former worker from Smith's of Witney recalls how he was paid when he first started at the mill (85Kb).

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Mike French, former engineer to Early's blanket manufacturers, describes that his working day was sometimes very long (113Kb).