PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Agriculture
Wider social changes affected the area
An English agricultural revolution happened in the century or so after 1750, and an expanding population from this time on was largely fed by home production. In 1750 the English population stood at about 5.7 million. It had probably reached this level before, in the Roman period, then around 1300, and again in 1650. But at each of these periods the population ceased to grow, essentially because agriculture could not respond to the pressure of feeding extra people. Contrary to expectation, however, population grew to unprecedented levels after 1750, reaching 16.6 million in 1850, and agricultural output expanded with it.
During the Middle Ages, the open field system initially used a two-field crop rotation system where one field was left fallow or turned into pasture for a time to try to recover some of its plant nutrients. Livestock were grazed on the common land and meadow around the fields. Seed was sown by hand and until the 18th century most livestock were slaughtered at the beginning of winter because farmers could not grow enough food to feed their animals through the winter months.
Later, a three-year three-field crop rotation routine was employed, with a different crop in each of two fields, e.g. oats, rye, wheat, and barley with the second field growing a legume like peas or beans, and the third field fallow. Usually from 10–30% of the arable land in a three-crop rotation system was fallow. Each field was rotated into a different crop nearly every year and each family in the village was allocated strips of land from each field.
The ploughing of these strips has left an indelible mark on the present landscape in the form of “ridge and furrow”
It was the farmers in Flanders (in parts of France and current-day Belgium) that discovered a still more effective four-field crop rotation system, using turnips and clover (a legume) as forage crops to replace the three-year crop rotation fallow year. The four-field rotation system allowed farmers to restore soil fertility and restore some of the plant nutrients removed with the crops. Turnips first show up in the probate records in England as early as 1638 but were not widely used until about 1750.
An important feature of the Norfolk four-field system was that it used labour at times when demand was not at peak levels.
Fallow land was about 20% of the arable area in England in 1700 before turnips and clover were extensively grown. and fallow steadily declined to reach only about 4% in 1900. Ideally, wheat, barley, turnips, and clover would be planted in that order in each field in successive years. The turnips helped keep the weeds down and were an excellent forage crop—grazing animals could eat their tops and roots through a large part of the summer and winter. There was no need to let the soil lie fallow as clover would add nitrogen back to the soil. The clover made excellent pasture and hay fields as well as green manure when it was ploughed under after one or two years. The addition of clover and turnips allowed more animals to be kept through the winter, which in turn produced more milk, cheese, meat, and manure, which maintained soil fertility.
It was partly these new farming techniques which forced land enclosure. When fodder crops, such as turnips, were grown in the open field system, communal grazing would benefit other people's livestock. Between 1700 and 1845, 6 million acres (2,4 million hectares) of land was enclosed in England. Offley Hay common was not enclosed until 1841
Other agricultural practices changed hugely during the so-called Agricultural Revolution. The use of the seed drill and the development of the design of the plough meant that farmers could use horses to pull machinery rather than oxen. Selective breeding developed more productive livestock which could be adapted to different conditions and uses. The mix of crops also changed, replacing low-yielding types, such as rye, with higher-yielding types such as wheat or barley. Wheat yields increased by about a quarter between 1700 and 1800, and then by about a half between 1800 and 1850. The key to increasing cereal yields was nitrogen, which we now know was the 'limiting factor' in determining cereal yields before about 1830. Before this time, farmers did not know formally of the existence of nitrogen, but many of their actions were designed to conserve existing stocks of nitrogen, and to add new nitrogen to the soil.
The balance between arable and permanent pasture also changed, so that more productive arable land was replacing permanent pasture. This does not mean that fodder supplies were falling, quite the reverse, for the loss of permanent pasture was made good by new fodder crops, especially turnips and clover, in arable rotations. Not only did these crops result in an increase in fodder yields, but they were responsible for the reclamation of many lowland heaths from rough pasture to productive arable farms.
This new system of farming was remarkable because it was sustainable; the output of food was increased dramatically, without endangering the long-term viability of English agriculture.
But just as a sustainable agriculture had been achieved, the development of chemical fertilisers and other external inputs undermined this sustainability. An essentially organic agriculture was gradually replaced by a farming system that depended on energy-intensive inputs dependent on the exploitation of fossil fuels. Besides the organic fertilisers in manure, new fertilisers were slowly discovered. Massive sodium nitrate deposits found in Chile and deposits of guano started to be imported after about 1830. Bones, by-products of the British meat industry were ground up or crushed and sold as fertiliser and by about 1840 about 30,000 tons of bones were being processed. By the 19th century farmers had dramatically increased the quantity of nitrogen in the soil available for cereal crops.
However, the revolutionary effects of the late eighteenth century, were not felt on the heavy lands, like those in the Eccleshall area, Attempts by improving landlords and farmers to increase arable yields and to expand the livestock sides of their farms, failed, because of the difficulty of growing fodder crops on undrained clays.
Clay-land farmers on all but the most fertile soils suffered after the Napoleonic wars because of their inability to increase production. The wheat crop traditionally paid the rent on arable clay-land farms and the dependence on corn for a livelihood was particularly a problem for the small farmer.
By the late 1830’s grass lands on the clays were exhausted, because of the dependence on hay as the main form of stock feed. It was only when the increased supply of oilcake and widespread use of bones and chemical fertilizers from the late 1840’s released meadowland for summer grazing, that the changes occurred on clay-land farms. However, despite the improvements in farming, food for ordinary people remained plain and monotonous. For them, meat was a luxury. They lived mainly on bread, butter, potatoes, and tea.
This extent of this activity is impossible to quantify but may have affected some 30 per cent of the agricultural area of England, from the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries. It is certain that without this agricultural revolution, the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible. This also had an effect on the area, luring workers away from agricultural labour to the burgeoning factories in the east of the county. During the 1800s the factory system gradually replaced the system of people working in their own homes or in small workshops. During the 19th century life in Britain was transformed and Britain became the world's first urban society. By 1851 more than half the population lived in towns. The population of Britain boomed during the 1800s. In 1801 it was about 9 million. By 1901 it had risen to about 41 million.
The agricultural revolution, especially enclosure, upset traditional rural society. There was a shift from the self-sufficient, open field villages to farms rented by tenant farmers employing labourers. Hiring was on a casual basis and no payment was given if no work was done. After enclosure it became more common for labourers to be paid by the day or week or by results, and to be employed for short periods for harvesting, hedging, ditching, threshing, and so on. 'Living in' disappeared. Farmhands were transformed into casual labourers with no guarantee of work. Pay declined because of the surplus of labour. There was a permanent surplus of agricultural labour following changes in agriculture.
The social and financial gulf between farmer and labourer widened. Hiring for less than a year meant the unemployed could not claim on the Poor Rates. The Speenhamland System of 1795 attempted to redress the balance but became part of the framework of the labourer's life instead of a safety net in hard times. The system encouraged low pay and discouraged labourers from working hard. Productivity fell, so poor relief was cut as a deterrent - the attempt to cut it further was one of the causes of the Swing Riots of 1830. After 1815 the labourers' struggle became a crisis because the boom turned into an acute and prolonged recession. The rural labour market was swamped by demobilised servicemen at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The Speenhamland System only gave relief and guaranteed a minimum wage, so labourers had no protection. There was no security because of short contracts and cash-in-hand wages. The rural workers of the arable south and east of England rose in revolt. They demanded higher wages and an end to the threshing machine which destroyed their winter employment. They reinforced their demands with rick-burning, the destruction of the threshing machines and cattle-maiming among other things.
The 'Swing' riots were the first large-scale demonstration of agricultural labourers' strength, although outbreaks were localised. Agitation continued, especially after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. There were no agricultural trade unions because jobs and therefore homes, in the form of tied cottages, were at stake. The 'Swing' riots did influence the passing of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, but wages and conditions did not improve. Average wages for farm labourers rose from 8/11d (around 45p) per week in 1795 to 9/6d (around 48p) per week in 1850, but real wages (i.e. how far the money went) declined. Agricultural labourers continued to be the worst paid, worst fed and worst housed of all the working communities
The Fulling Process
Before the 13th century, the fulling process would have been carried out by pounding the cloth, which was soaked in urine, with human feet. The increasing use of mechanism during the 13th century meant that a mill, driven by a waterwheel, could provide the power to beat the cloth with wooden hammers. ‘Walking’ the cloth meant removing odour and oils from sheep’s wool and converting a relatively loosely woven fabric into a close-knit one. All walk mills have been cloth or fulling mills at some period in their history.
From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth usually happened in a water mill, known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or a tuck mill, and in Wales, a pandy. The cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks or hammers. These were of two kinds, falling stocks, which operated vertically, used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks.
Driving stocks were positioned so that the head of the hammer struck the cloth horizontally. The Driving stock had a tub holding the liquid and cloth. This was rounded on the side away from the hammer, so that the cloth gradually turned, ensuring that all parts of it were beaten evenly. The hammer head was triangular in shape, with notches to help turn the cloth. even so the workers needed to take out the piece of cloth about every two hours to undo wrinkles.
The names for workers who performed these tasks (fuller, tucker, and walker) have become common surnames.
The fulling trade declined during the 18th century and there was an increase in the corn trade, so many Fulling Mills were converted to grind corn.
Bread Baking
The bakehouse at Stores House would be one of the vital elements in the life of the hamlet. Indications are that there had been a small shop on the site from earliest times, perhaps run from the house itself or from one of the original small buildings fronting onto the lane. Ovens were not a standard fixture in any household, so bread-baking never really entered the home in the medieval period, but by the 18th century merchants and shopkeepers were starting to be able afford ovens and to bake.
The Bakehouse at Stores house was typical of many small-scale village bakeries. The bakehouse is an extension added on the north side of the farmhouse. Bread making was a skill handed down from one generation to the next, often from mother to daughter. Flour would come from the local mill. The flour was mixed with water, or sometimes whey left over from the dairy, and then yeast, a by-product of brewing beer, was added. The mixing was done in a large trough called a keeler which had a flat hinged lid on which to knead the dough. Salt and various ‘secret’ ingredients were added and the dough then put into the keeler and the lid closed and insulated with sacking to aid fermentation. When the dough was ready, it was moulded into shape or later put into tins which prevented it getting covered with charcoal and gave a more thorough bake. Normally two faggots were used per firing. Hand bellows might be used to raise the temperature.
The temperature was estimated in a number of ways, including tell-tale stones which change colour with heat, striking sparks on the hot bricks with a wooden stick, or throwing in flour and observing it singe on the bricks. Later thermometers were used, which showed the ovens to operate at up to 500 oF (260 oC), dropping to about 200 oF (94 oC) during the baking process. When the correct temperature was reached, usually after at least two hours, the embers were raked out with a garden hoe or a specially made rake and the dough placed in the oven. It was customary to swab the oven floor with water to create steam to improve the consistency of the bread.
Baking times depended on the size of the oven and what was being baked, but a loaf might take about an hour. Bread could go straight in, but pies, fancy cakes and meringues needed to go in long after the heat had subsided. In this lay the skill of the baker.
Even when no-one local remembers actually baking in the old unrestored oven, there may be memories of the importance of the bakehouse in village life. Often, they were a focal point for the community, with a central location. The bakehouse could be a place for women to socialise and exchange news. In places where a baker presided over the oven, it might be young people and children who got a chance to meet while handing in dough and picking up loaves. Pans of dough were marked with distinctive cuts or with metal "tallies" to make sure you got your own bread after baking. Few houses possessed an oven and householders who had one charged for its use or sold the bread they made to their neighbours.
World War II directly affected bread industries in the UK. Baking schools closed during this time so when the war did eventually end there was an absence of skilled bakers. This resulted in new methods being developed to satisfy the world’s desire for bread. Methods like adding chemicals to dough, pre-mixes and specialised machinery. These old methods of baking were almost completely eradicated when these new methods were introduced and became industrialised and there were not many traditional bakeries left.
The Ancient Order of Foresters
The Ancient Order of Foresters began in 1834, but its origins lie in a much older society called the Royal Foresters formed in the 18th century. Meeting in Leeds, this seems at first to have been a purely sociable society until the members decided that they had a duty to assist their fellow men who fell into need “as they walked through the forests of life'. This 'need' arose principally when a breadwinner fell ill, could not work and, therefore, received no wages. Illness and death left families financially distressed and often destitute. Relief of this need has been the main purpose of the Foresters throughout their long history. It was achieved by members paying, initially, a few pence a week into a common fund from which sick pay and funeral grants could be drawn.
In 1813, the Royal Foresters began to establish subsidiary Courts (branches) and the concept of an affiliated Order of Friendly Society was born, as opposed to the many individual local societies that had long existed, which, being small, often failed financially. Expansion across the industrial towns and villages of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire was rapid, but in 1834 the parent Court in Leeds became dictatorial and insisted that any changes in the rules governing all the Courts of the Royal Foresters should be in their hands alone. The majority of Courts seceded to form the Ancient Order of Foresters, based on democracy from grass-roots upwards.
The structure of the Order which developed consisted of Courts which were responsible for their own funds and for relief of their own members, all decisions being made by democratic vote. The majority of Courts linked themselves into Districts for mutual support. Every Court was entitled to elect a delegate to attend the annual High Court, whose purpose was to make any necessary changes to the common rules and to elect each year a group of members to act as an Executive Council. The ultimate authority was High Court.
Further expansion occurred in 1912. In that year Lloyd George's National Insurance scheme came into operation, compulsory for those earning less than the income tax threshold, which meant the majority of the working population. Friendly societies with more than 10,000 members, which of course included the Foresters, were organisations approved to administer the scheme for the government, along with commercial companies. At that point, many small local societies joined the Foresters to be able to take part in the scheme.
By the end of the 19th century, competition from other societies had grown. In particular, societies established by employers made membership of their scheme a condition of employment. This had consequences for numerical membership, as had the Depression years between the World Wars. The formation of the Welfare State in 1948 had a similar effect, but the Foresters kept going, eventually producing a range of financial products designed to meet changing needs in the changing world of the late 20th century.
A new museum has opened which is designed to recognise a society that acted as a forerunner of the modern-day welfare state.
The Foresters Friendly Society was founded in 1834 and currently has 73,000 members across 190 different UK branches.
Now the society has moved its archives from Southampton and opened a museum in The Boulevard, Tunstall, where visitors can find out about the organisation’s history and see some of its artefacts.
The local branch covering Offley Hay was the Court General Jackson Branch No. 4862 of the Ancient Order of Foresters. The Lodge was based in Bishop's Offley and the Trade Directory names Joseph Clarke as Lodge Secretary.