Daunton M. The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, Volume 3: 1840-1950
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
Another useful literary extract which details something of the structure of
small towns in the mid-nineteenth century is to be found in Thomas Hardy’s
Mayor of Casterbridge. ‘Casterbridge’ (based on Dorchester) in the s was
deposited in a block upon a cornfield. There was no suburb in the modern sense,
or transitional intermixture between town and down. It stood, with regard to the
wide fertile land adjoining, clean-cut and distinct like a chessboard on a green table
cloth. The farmer’s boy could sit under his barley mow and pitch a stone into the
office window of the town clerk; reapers at work among the sheaves nodded to
acquaintances on the pavement corner; the red-robed judge, when he condemned
a sheep stealer, pronounced sentence to the tune of Baa that floated in at the
window from the remainder of the flock browsing hard by; and at executions, the
waiting crowd stood in the meadow immediately before the drop, out of which
the cows had been temporarily driven to give the spectators room.
39
This highlights the compact nature of most small towns at mid-century.
Within this small space, however, there were considerable social gulfs to be
found. Neil Wright describes the social geography of Lincolnshire towns suc-
cinctly and his statement is of general applicability: ‘In there were still many
people living in the centre of towns – tradesmen or shopkeepers living over their
premises and working people in courtyards and lanes behind them.’
40
Early
industrialisation reinforced rather than rearranged this pattern. Towns like
Bromsgrove and Hinckley located their domestic or workshop industries behind
the main streets. In Hinckley the framework knitters mostly resided in terraces
or lean-to dwellings in the yards of the inns and farmhouses that had fronted the
main streets of the old market town. As their number increased and proper access
became necessary, the former farm lanes behind the yards were paved, giving
Hinckley a system of parallel streets in its centre, apparent even from the late
eighteenth century (Map .). The wealthier people at mid-century still lived
on the main streets, some of them in buildings that doubled as shops or other
commercial premises.
Change, however, was imminent both to the internal geography of the small
towns and to their distribution and function:
‘Casterbridge’ in was doubtless an odorous town ruled by a brutal code of
law in which the desperately poor lived in the shadow of the immoderately rich.
But as a town it was still an organic whole . . . an identifiable unit that was greater
than the sum of its parts. It would see more change, qualitatively, in the next
hundred years than it had in the previous thousand.
41
In non-fictional Lerwick: ‘soon houses would be appearing in the area between
Hillhead and Burgh Road [the New Town], gas would illuminate the streets and
Stephen A. Royle
39
T. Hardy, The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge,a Story of a Man of Character (London, ),
p. .
40
N. R. Wright, LincolnshireTowns and Industry, – (Lincoln, ), p. .
41
R. Chamberlin, The English Country Town (Exeter, ), p. .
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Map . Hinckley, Leicestershire,
Source: J. Nichols, The History and Antiquities of Hinckley (London, ).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
lanes and tap water was not all that far away. Lerwick was on its way.’
42
For
Scotland generally ‘the future development of towns lay in the complex and
ever-changing interplay of sources of raw materials, markets, labour supply and
transport: the industrial town was about to come into being’.
43
(ii)
The census estimated that the urban percentage of the population of
England and Wales rose from . to from to . The overall spatial
pattern of this urban growth was identified by Brian Robson thus: ‘the growth
of industrial production [and associated urban development] was focused on the
mineral bearing and carboniferous areas of “Highland Britain”’.
44
This was
somewhat anomalous in British urban history where hitherto urban growth had
been in the overwhelmingly dominant London and the South-East of England
– lowland Britain. (For much of the twentieth century the pattern of urban
growth in lowland Britain reasserted itself.)
Maps . and . are taken from Robson’s analysis. The former presents the
urban pattern (of places above ,) of England and Wales at with details
of rates of growth in the previous decade. The latter does the same for
when the imposition of Victorian industrial and urban growth in the mining and
manufacturing regions upon the pre-existing, more evenly distributed urban
network is clear. In , in addition, the suburbanisation around London stands
out and the growth of seaside resorts can also be identified.
Buried within these overall analyses was the development of the small-town
sector. Robson’s smallest category of town, from ,–,, though increas-
ing in numbers – in , in – became proportionately less impor-
tant, falling from . per cent of the total urban places in to . per cent
in . N. Raven stated that ‘“small towns” shared the fortunes of nineteenth
century rural England, experiencing demographic growth and economic expan-
sion up to c. but subsequently suffering from decay in crafts and local indus-
tries with the resultant depopulation’.
45
Richard Lawton, too, linked the
agricultural areas and the old market towns and showed that there was a general
decrease in population of such areas after because of the concentration of
industrial employment, greater mobility brought about by railway development
and a relative decline of countryside employment.
46
On decline, Christopher
Stephen A. Royle
42
Irvine, Lerwick, p. .
43
Adams, Urban Scotland, p. .
44
B. T. Robson, Urban Growth (London, ), p. .
45
N. Raven, ‘Occupational structures of three north Essex towns: Halstead, Braintree and Great
Coggeshall, c. –. Research in progress’, Urban History Newsletter, (), .
46
R. Lawton, ‘Population changes in England and Wales in the later nineteenth century: an anal-
ysis of trends by registration districts’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, (),
–.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Law identified urban places which between and did not experience
major urban growth (less than per cent).
47
If this map is compared to a map
of urban centres in , it can be seen that outside London and the Home
Counties, and the industrial areas, a large proportion of urban settlements come
into this category. In the main they are either market centres (not the lowest
grade since most of these have already been excluded by the imposition of a
The development of small towns in Britain
47
C. M. Law, ‘The growth of urban population in England and Wales, –’, Transactions of
the Institute of British Geographers, (), –.
Map . Urban distribution and growth –, England and Wales
Source: B. T. Robson, Urban Growth (London, ).
0 kilometres 100
0 miles 62
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
threshold of ,) or decayed ports such as Chepstow, Chichester or Lynn
which lost trade with the coming of the railways.
More successful were the of the original small towns of and
which reached , before . They are located on Map . and most were
either industrial or, alternatively, suburban areas around London, though some
were market towns which had grown and prospered by having ‘demonstrated an
imperial tendency to annex the trade [of other market towns] by virtue of
Stephen A. Royle
Map . Urban distribution and growth –, England and Wales
Source: B. T. Robson, Urban Growth (London, ).
0 kilometres 100
0 miles 62
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
railway connections and superior shopping facilities’.
48
In situations where most
towns had a railway connection, however, the comparative advantage a link pro-
vided was neutralised. This was the situation in southern Shropshire where it was
the smaller towns that benefited most from railways, increasing their range of
functions more quickly than the two larger regional centres of Bridgnorth and
Ludlow, both of which lost population from to (⫺. per cent and
⫺ per cent respectively). Transport developments per se were another factor that
had led to the growth of some of these towns, such as Swindon, a railway
town whose population of , almost doubled to , by .
In Scotland more small towns expanded with more than per cent increas-
ing their population between and . In Scotland they clearly fall into
two categories: the rural counties such as Caithness and Inverness and the smaller
industrial counties of the Central Valley where small-town growth was associated
with industrialisation. There was some suburban growth in central Scotland, too.
Helensburgh (which increased per cent from to ) and North
Berwick ( per cent) were ‘pleasantly situated towns [which] evolved as resi-
dential retreats for the cities because the railways made it possible’.
49
Wales had
a similar experience to Scotland in that rural counties like Merionethshire and
Radnorshire stood out as did industrial counties such as Flintshire and
Glamorgan. Carter specifically separated the ‘market principle’ which he saw as
the factor which best explained the distribution of Welsh towns in an earlier
period from the ‘“industrial principle” whereby the controls of town location
are the same factors which determined the location of mining and industry’.
50
Thus, regarding Caerphilly, ‘no settlement of any significance had grown around
the huge castle [but it] quickly became a mining town of considerable impor-
tance and entered the upper ranks of the urban hierarchy [a population increase
of ,. per cent from to ]’.
51
England, with more of its urbanisation in cities, had fewer counties showing
sustained growth in small towns. Some rural counties such as Rutland stood out
in (Map .) and in England there was another category of county whose
small towns had grown – those like Surrey close to London which became
enmeshed in metropolitan development – ‘the modern world . . . submerging
it’.
52
All fifteen of Surrey’s small towns increased in population from to
, some to become substantial urban places such as Kingston-upon-Thames,
Richmond and Reigate.
Accessibility was an important factor in explaining growth. Less accessible
country towns and their tributary areas continued to lose population with del-
eterious effects upon their economies. Within a framework of agricultural
The development of small towns in Britain
48
Waller, Town,p..
49
R. J. Naismith, The Story of Scotland’sTowns (Edinburgh, ), p. .
50
Carter, The Towns of Wales, pp. –.
51
Ibid., p. .
52
G. Bourne (pseudonym of G. Sturt), Change in the Village (London, ), p. .
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Stephen A. Royle
Map . British small towns reaching , residents by and
Source: based on census data.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
The development of small towns in Britain
Map . Proportion of county populations living in small towns in Great
Britain
Source: based on census data.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
depression which hastened the decline of some Lincolnshire towns where only
twelve of thirty-two in the cohort increased in population between and
, Wright asserted that the fine detail within this pattern was related to
accessibility, with those towns with a railway station faring better.
53
In Market
Harborough the opening of the railway in had led to the local tradesmen
considering how this increased accessibility could benefit the town. The result
was the new Corn Exchange.
54
Map . identifies the relative importance of the small towns within their
county’s population and the national decline from . per cent to per cent
from to is reflected in the increase in counties in the lowest category,
with the industrial counties being joined by some of the Home Counties where
many towns had grown beyond the , threshold. Many towns in the cohort
remaining under , were traditional market towns that had failed to take on
new industries. Others were manufacturing towns whose industry had not pros-
pered in the new era.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, localism which had been the
principal characteristic of the traditional market town for centuries, began to
decay. ‘The intimacy of the small market town suffered invasions, and the local
provision of services was encroached upon.’
55
Further, the growth of govern-
ment regulation and the increase of national legislation ‘tipped the scales against
the self-sufficiency and individuality of country town life’.
56
Especially
significant was the way in which the traditional country town became little more
than the agent for city or big firm interests as long-standing local industries col-
lapsed in the face of competition from major capitalist concerns. Philip Waller
exemplifies such developments in milling and brewing. Milling had been a
locally based activity which in employed , people, mainly in small
facilities in or just outside country towns. Fifty years on the development of cap-
italism had seen the growth of large vertically integrated regional, even national,
companies dealing with not just milling but also seed crushing, animal feed pro-
duction and the marketing of end products. These big firms took advantage of
the increased importation of grain by erecting huge mills at the ports. New mills
employed modern roller grinding techniques which were more efficient than
the old mill-stones but to establish a factory using them required major invest-
ment beyond the reach of local, traditional millers. Transportation improvements
permitted even bulky products like grain to be moved fairly readily and so the
big mills could take in grain from a large area. All these developments combined
to see the decline of the local miller, unable to compete. ‘By the market
was effectively dominated by actual or emerging giants, Joseph Rank, Spillers,
Bibby, Thorley, Silcock, the CWS [Co-operative Wholesale Society] and
Stephen A. Royle
53
Wright, Lincolnshire Towns.
54
J. C. Davies and M. C. Brown, Yesterday’s Town (Buckingham, ).
55
Waller, Town, p. .
56
Ibid., p. .
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
BOCM [British Oil and Cake Mills Ltd]. Bibby’s alone, for instance, employed
people in Liverpool by , , in .’
57
With regard to brewing a similar pattern emerged. In Waller estimated
that there were , breweries and , private brewers; by just ,
and , respectively. The decimation of the private brewers is especially
significant here for these were likely to have been small-scale local operations
characteristic of the market towns. Small towns with an industrial element to
their economies thus had to invest or see their economies suffer. In Hinckley,
though, there was another depression in the s when the American Civil War
cut off the cotton supply. The town’s entrepreneurs finally modernised its pro-
duction facilities from domestic frames into proper factories and were rewarded
by Hinckley’s population having increased per cent between and .
By contrast, manufacturing towns whose industry was not modernised declined.
Dickinson singled out old Norfolk woollen towns such as Diss and Kenninghall
and Coggeshall in Essex where there was ‘a rapid decline in the formerly pros-
perous crafts and small industries’.
58
Coggeshall’s population declined per cent
between and .
A diverse economy could also be helpful. Melton Mowbray, with food pro-
cessing and fox-hunting supporting its central-place functions, saw its popula-
tion rise . per cent. Nearby, Lutterworth, a more traditional agricultural
service town which did not change much, experienced a population fall of
per cent. Further down the hierarchy some places fared worse, including Market
Bosworth which declined . per cent. Dickinson pointed out the lack of func-
tional diversification of East Anglian towns which failed to grow such as
Swaffham, Norfolk (⫺. per cent), and the Suffolk towns of Bungay (⫺.
per cent), Eye (⫺. per cent) and Woodbridge (⫺. per cent). These were
amongst those towns where functions such as livestock markets and/or corn fac-
toring declined in face of larger-scale, more accessible facilities elsewhere.
59
Thus, it is clear that by the end of the nineteenth century, if a small town
could not adapt to change it faced decline. Marlborough had a population fall
of per cent from to , despite the success of its college founded in
, for ‘it remained as it had been, the capital of an agricultural kingdom’,
without ‘new industries’.
60
The detail of life in the small towns of late Victorian Britain continued to
depend upon the type of town it was. Thus regarding the small towns of Surrey,
enmeshed in the growth of the metropolis, George Bourne catalogued, with
regret, the change this ‘invasion of a new people, unsympathetic to [the old]
order’ wrought to customary traditions and mores. ‘As he [Bourne’s labourer]
sweats at his gardening, the sounds of piano playing come to him, or of the
affected excitement of a tennis party; or the braying of a motor car informs him
The development of small towns in Britain
57
Ibid., p. .
58
Raven, ‘Essex towns’, .
59
Dickinson, ‘East Anglia’.
60
Waller, Town, p. .
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008