White’s 1872 Trade Directory for Lincolnshire

White’s 1872 Trade Directory for Lincolnshire. – A link to a scan of this directory can be found on the page here – https://crowle.org/?p=1433

Crowle.

Crowle Township included Eastoft although by this date it had become a separate parish with its own church.

Crowle is described as a small thriving market town, 6 miles north of Epworth, 12 south of Goole and 16 North East of Doncaster. Scunthorpe is not worth mentioning and in any case apart from rail the Trent prevents easy access. Epworth is recorded but at this time appears much less prosperous than Crowle.

The population increased fro 1343 in 1901 to 3,122 in 1871 add Eastoft it is 3813, total acreage 7,350 plus 500 of moor land in Yorkshire, of this 200 had been enclosed and warped in the last 25 years.

The vicar Rev. Frederick William White, BA, JP had a stipend of £1,100 per annum when most thought themselves lucky to be on 10 to 15 shillings a week (£25 – 40 a year). Eastoft’s vicar was on chicken feed at £150 per annum, but would have been very content with himself.

The people mentioned would have had to pay a subscription to be in the Directory, so most must have considered it as a form of advertising.

There are 9 however who have no occupation,

Mrs Maria Adamson of Godnow Road,

Mrs. Mary Batty of Cemetery Road, unusual this was often called Mill Trod.

Mrs. Anne Tonge, Vicarage Walk,

Mrs Elizabeth Wainwright, Market Place

These superior ladies were probably widows who wished to be considered of some importance.

Mr. Benjamin Hill, Ealand,

Mr. Cornelius Maw, High Street.

Mr. William Riley, Church Lane.

Mr. Benjamin Snowden, High Street.

Mr. Joseph Wall, Fieldside.

These five gentlemen have no occupation recorded, presumably with the ladies above would be recorded separately in some Directories, as Professional, Titled, or Independent Means. When considering the professions, farm sizes and family history of the rest they would not have stood out.

There was only one very superior aristocratic person.

William Coulman, Esquire, J.P., (county, West Riding) but even he admits to earning a living (or others earning one for him) and farmer, Eastoft Hall, Yorkshire. Only two other addresses are so important to be highlighted, Police Station and Inland Revenue Office.

334 people are recorded with their occupations and address. Assuming 4 to 5 people per household 35 to 45% of the population would be represented. 26 of those advertising were women, with some surprising occupations.

Anne Bleasby, BLACKSMITH, High Street, there were 8 in total.

Two FARMERS, Mrs. Mary Isle High St., and Sarah Ann Wainwright, Manor House, Church St.,

One grocer and two shopkeepers should not surprise us, but Mrs Mary Water, STRAW BONNET MAKER, Cemetery Road, unusual but not regarding the maker’s gender.

The rest are dressmaker’s schoolteachers.

There are no nurses or midwives but there would be ladies probably trained by their mothers acting in this capacity. A woman would act as a midwife, nurse and lay out the dead. The surgeons would know whom they could trust.

When Midwives were first registered they were and still are banned from general nursing and laying out the dead. This is to prevent the 100% fatal childbed fever caused by the birth attendant carrying bacteria from infected people to the birthing room.

Medically there are two,? father and son, described as surgeons. Both are Members of the Royal College of Surgeons, indicating basic training in anatomy and surgery. You would not find any Fellows of RCS out in the sticks. That is not to say that father and son were not good at their job. Only one has a university degree, MD, Doctor of Medicine the other is Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries and could have been apprenticed to an apothecary to learn his basic medicine and drugs.

There were three Druggists, descended from the apothecaries and precursors of Chemists. At this time there was intense competition between the doctors and druggists for the limited number of paying patients.  One druggist, John Sharp, Market Place was also the Veterinary Surgeon. It makes one wonder how often he strayed into treating people and how often the surgeons strayed into treating animals.

Crowle Trades and Professions.

What stands out immediately and when I first saw it shocked me.

ACADEMIES AND SCHOOLS

Marked * take boarders

Richard brewer, 1687, Thomas Walkwood, 1692 and Richard Clark 1721 left three houses, ten acres and extensive common rights to the church for the education of the poor. The Charity Commissioners to the National School, which we knew of as the C. of E. School on Church Street had appropriated these. Elisha and Mrs Sarah Fuller were master and mistress. In Eastoft, where my mother was mistress from the age of age 20 to 30, Elizabeth Birkett was Mistress. In addition 9 women and two men ran day schools of which three took boarders.

This should not have surprised me. The need of the aspiring working class and lower middle class for education was recognised, by the large Sunday School rooms that are found alongside the majority of non-conformists churches. It was not just religious education but basic reading, writing and arithmetic that was taught on Sundays in these places to adults as well as children. The First General Education Act was not passed until 1870, the Council or Board School on Fieldside still had to be built.

It is interesting to note the multiple positions held by some, Frederick Chapman for instance, a tradition continued by his son Earnest Arthur and grandson Alf, whom many older Crowle residents will remember, Alf being the fifth consecutive member of his family to be registrar of Births Marriages and Deaths.

Crowle had its own version of Zachious, the tax collector we all sang about at Sunday School

“ Now Zachious was a very little man,

And a very little man was he,”

Inland Revenue Office. Market Place. Richard Wiseman, officer.  Even the surname seems appropriate.

Industrialisation still had some way to go.

There were 8 boot and shoemakers in Crowle and 2 in Eastoft.

Milliners and dressmakers, Crowle 6, Ealand 2.

Tailors 11.

Drapers Crowle 5, one a silk mercer. Eastoft 4.

There were 118 farmers, many with other trades. Flax merchants 11.

One joiner made trashing machines.

Post Office.

Post, Money Orders, Letters despatched via Doncaster, 5: 30 pm. Wall letterbox in Eastoft cleared at 4 pm.

William Walker’s omnibus runs from the High Street to meet all trains, at Wharf Road Station on the Doncaster Barnsley Branch of the M.S. & L Railway.

Carriers.

Doncaster. John Wilson Saturday.

Epworth. John Wilson Thursday.

Goole George Kershaw and William Holliday, Wednesday and Saturday.

John Wilson. Monday and Wednesday.

Why my especial interest?  Ancestors.

Great Grandfather Edmund Oates, boot and shoe maker, Eastoft, lived at six acre Gaythorne farm, but did not regard himself as a farmer. He married the daughter of my great x2 grandfather William Till, farmer Eastoft. John Till a cousin also farmed in Eastoft, not sure about Thomas Till, bricklayer, Pademore, if you see the amount of land attached to the cottages there, he could have added smallholder.

Great grandfather John Everatt plus three Everatts, Gardham, Henry and Isaac cousins were all farmers in Eastoft.

John Everatt’s father-in-law Robert Staniforth died in Crowle in 1867 but that still leaves me with cousins of varying degrees

George Staniforth, drainage surveyor, Cock Lane.

George Staniforth. Blacksmith, Ealand.

John Staniforth. Joiner, Wheelwright and farmer, Common Side.

Staniforth, weigh clerk, North End.

This is just from my maternal side, my father being a foreigner from Derbyshire.

Have a look yourselves especially if both parents are from the Isle of Axholme.

Bill Goldthorp