The Origin and Growth of Framework Knitting in Keyworth
By Bob Hammond
Domestic framework knitting, along with farming, was the mainstay of the Keyworth economy for much of the 19th. Century, but we are not sure when it was introduced into the village. This essay offers an account of how it may have originated and grown, and outlines the sources on which the account is based, working back from when the industry was at its peak in Keyworth.
The 1881 census recorded highest number employed in framework knitting (nearly 200) together with the maximum population reached in 19th. Century Keyworth (nearly 900). In that year, the industry accounted for more than all other forms of employment combined, and more than three times the number engaged in farming. Forty years earlier, at the time of the 1841 census, framework knitting and farming were roughly level pegging. However, some guesswork is required here because this census omitted the occupations of “wives, sons and daughters living with their husbands and parents, and assisting them” (quoted from instructions to census enumerators). Most seamers were therefore uncounted as these were almost invariably the wives and daughters of framework knitters; so were unmarried sons and daughters working on family farms. Nevertheless, there appears to have been a considerable expansion in framework knitting in Keyworth between 1841 and 1881.
Before 1841, there are no census records of individuals' occupations; earlier censuses only give occupation aggregates in categories. In 1831, six categories are used: - farming, manufacturing, (which in Keyworth was probably roughly synonymous with framework knitting), retail/handicraft, capitalists/professionals, servants and others; but only males over 20 were counted except for servants where both sexes were included. Farming in 1831 registered twice as many as manufacturing (most, if not all, framework knitting).
Going back to 1801, the earliest census, the occupations of all were counted but in fewer categories. Keyworth then had 130 employed in agriculture and 67 in 'trade, manufacture and handicraft'. It is not possible to be sure how many of the latter number were framework knitters and seamers, but trade and handicraft accounted for almost as many as manufacturing in 1831, so they probably were proportionally no less in 1801. On that assumption, farming accounted for at least four times as many workers as those involved in framework knitting and seaming - there were perhaps 30 men, women and children over ten engaged in the hosiery industry in 1801.
The census is not the only source of information on past employment. From 1813, Church of England baptismal registers recorded fathers' occupations of children being baptized. In the ten years 1813 to 1822, seventeen different fathers are named as framework knitters in Keyworth. Of the 135 baptisms recorded during these years, 38 were of children whose fathers were framework knitters (representing an average of more than two children per father), 73 were the children of farmers, cottagers (small-holders) and labourers, and there were 24 others. This suggests that there were twice as many fathers involved in farming as in framework knitting in Keyworth between 1813 and 1822, though this ratio will have been affected by the age structure of the two groups: if framework knitting was growing at that time, which seems likely, it would probably have involved more men with young wives of child-bearing age, than would the more established occupations associated with farming. On the other hand, if this ratio is taken as representative of the whole age range, the fact that it is closer to the 1831 estimate made above than to that for 1801 suggests the growth in framework knitting vis-à-vis farming to have been greater in the first two decades of the 19th. Century than in the third.
The 17 framework knitters in the baptismal registers between 1813 and 1822 included five Pikes, two Towles, a Richards and a Cook. Pike, Richards and Cook are old Keyworth names: they are found in the parish registers from the early years of the 18th. Century. Towle seems to go back no further than the 1790s, while the other names among the 17 do not appear in any of the 18th. Century parish registers. This may be of significance because boys usually learnt their trade from their fathers. The likelihood is therefore that framework knitting was established in Keyworth in a small way in the 18th. Century, among the Pike extended family and perhaps a few others; but that its expansion in the early 19th. Century was at least in part due to an influx of new families from elsewhere.
But how did the industry make its first appearance in Keyworth? One possibility is suggested by two Settlement Certificates, which people wishing to leave their home for a different parish needed before the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, if they were not to be turned back. They are the certificates of John Hall (1723) who came from Cotgrave; and Isaac Bowley (1733) from Costock. Both are described as framework knitters and their certificates are both addressed to parish officials of Keyworth. Hall's stay in Keyworth appears to have been brief: in an indenture dated 1729 for the sale of a property 'at the neather end of the town' (of Keyworth), John Hall 'of the Borough of Leicester' and his widowed mother Jane of Clipston, were named as the vendors But Bowley's name recurs on numerous occasions in Keyworth records through the 18th. Century: first in the account book of the Independent Chapel (now the United Reformed Church) during the 1760s, where his payment of rent for the occupation of property belonging to the chapel is recorded at regular intervals; then in the land-tax returns, first, in the early 1780s as owner and occupier of land equivalent to about 1% of the parish arable (say 10 acres), suggesting that he had prospered modestly and been able buy land and diversify his means of livelihood; later, as an old man, still owning a small amount of land (perhaps 3 acres) but renting it out for someone else to work; and finally, in the Church of England burial register for 1789. So Bowley seems to have stayed in Keyworth from his arrival until his death 56 years later, and may well have introduced others in the village to the skills of framework knitting he brought with him when he arrived, though not necessarily depending fully on them himself.
The only other Bowley in the 18th. Century registers is his wife, buried in 1783; there is no record of his having had children baptized in the village, and his name is not among the 17 already alluded to in an earlier paragraph. A Bowley (John) does crop up in the later land tax returns (e.g. 1832) who may be a descendant of Isaac; and another (Henry) in the 1851 and 1861 census schedules for Keyworth, but he was born in Upper Broughton.
From the fragmentary evidence available therefore, it appears that framework knitting was introduced to Keyworth no later than the 1730s; that it remained a fairly minor occupation until the late 18th. Century, after which it grew rapidly to overtake farming as the principal source of livelihood in the village by the mid-l9th. Century.
Two questions arise: why did the industry grow so slowly in the 18th. Century? And why so rapidly for most of the 19th. Century? Answers to these require some speculation, but with regard to the first question, Keyworth can be compared with some of its neighbors. Those with easiest access to Nottingham, from which the industry was organized, had an advantage over rivals. This would favour villages near to Nottingham and on turnpike roads, of which Ruddington was the prime example locally. 'Open' villages like Willoughby, in which leading landlords did not discourage settlement, would be more likely to welcome newcomers and their skills than 'Closed' villages like Plumtree. Keyworth was an 'Open' village, near but not on a turnpike and not far from Nottingham. - Conditions favouring modest growth. But there is a danger of adopting too deterministic an explanation: ultimately, the industry's growth in particular localities depended on individuals weighing up its relative advantages as a livelihood compared with available alternatives, and we know nothing of the motives of those taking up the industry in Keyworth.
Answers to the second question, relating to rapid growth of Keyworth's framework knitting industry in the 19th. Century is also partly speculative. In the early years of the century, the industry was undergoing a difficult time as changing fashion - for instance, men's hose and breeches giving way to long trousers - led to a slump in demand and therefore lower prices, lay-offs, lower wages, labour unrest and frame-breaking which came to be known as Luddism from its supposed leader, Ned Ludd. This would hardly seem to be a good time for expansion, though hosiers might have been looking for cheaper supplies from less troubled sources. It was also a bad time for many farm labourers and cottagers who had lost out from recent parliamentary inclosure - in the case of Keyworth, in 1799. They lost access to common land, which had enabled them to graze a few animals, collect firewood and furze, wild fruits and mushrooms. Meanwhile, food prices rose more than wages during the Napoleonic War which ended in 1815, reducing many to near penury. The above two dates may explain why framework knitting in the village appears to have grown so fast in the first two decades of the century.
In short, it appears that hosiers were looking to new areas to rent out their knitting frames and obtain supplies of knitwear made by cheap, docile labour, while those dispossessed by inclosure were desperately looking for an alternative livelihood. Such were the conditions in which Keyworth's knitwear industry expanded, based in part on a rapidly growing population of Pikes and other local families, and in part on an influx of families from neighbouring villages with similar problems where landlords discouraged industry. It is also possible that slow but steady growth in Keyworth during the 18th. Century had enabled framework knitting to reach a critical mass, with enough skilled men to take on apprentices, service machines and support middle-men (“bag hosiers”), to give the impetus for further and faster growth throughout much of the next century.
Whatever the reasons, framework knitting grew in Keyworth so that, unlike neighbouring villages, it was able to support its growing population through most of the 19th. Century without net outward migration. It was not until domestic framework knitting began to decline in Keyworth in the face of mechanised production after 1881, that the Parish's population stopped growing at national rates.