Travelling to Work: Glemsford to Sherborne

My interest in the migration of Glemsford people in the Nineteenth Century has been re-ignited by Angela Russell's research into the family of Walter James Brown.

He was married to Susan Ann Middleditch. Angela's research shows that they were mainly employed in the silk industry in Glemsford (although living in Sudbury).
Whereas Walter's brother George, and sister Joanna Maria (married to George Craske), by the 1901 census had moved their respective families to Eccles in Lancashire, Walter James moved his complete family of eight daughters and one son, sometime between 1891 and 1897, to Sherborne in Dorset.

Here in 1901 Walter is recorded as overlooker at the Silk factory and all his daughters were silk weavers.

Angela goes on to ask: did any other families move to Dorset? was the silk industry at Glemsford in decline then?

If there is anyone reading this who can shed light on this, and the silk industry in Sherborne in particular, please let us know.

And I would add other questions to those: how did ordinary factory workers find out that employment was available in other parts of the country? - how did they travel? - were the relatively-new railways a factor in making people more mobile? - did people like the Browns and Craskes travel with the intention of staying permanently? - how did they sort out accommodation?.

I know some of these questions seem naive, but I doubt whether we should treat the answers as taken for granted or, in any sense, obvious.

So: if anyone has anything else to add to the question of Suffolk migrants, please get in touch - whether with concrete evidence or simply family anecdote.

Steve Clarke

Celebrity Status

Many of us have been fascinated by the "Who Do You Think You are?" series on the dear old beeb, and particularly by Clive Paine's revelations about Mr Paxman's humble Suffolk roots.
The fact that members of the family travelled north in the middle of the 19th Century, almost as part of an enforced migration, is interesting in itself.
But the Glemsford censuses reveal several other examples of a somewhat similar movement later in the Century.
Skerton, part of Lancaster, in Lancashire was one town that received migrants from Glemsford (and other Suffolk towns, like Lavenham) some time in the 1870s. "Matting weavers" are to be found on the 1881 Census for that area, on Earl Street and Lune Street.
Families such as Brown, Debenham and Middleditch can be identified - they were in Glemsford in 1871, in Skerton in 1881 and (mostly) back in Suffolk by1891. There were, apparently, 2 matting factories in Skerton at that time.
Why and how the families moved , and why they mostly returned, would make a fascinating historical study.
Anybody up for it?
Oh, and the Brown family involved can be read about in more detail here: