Economic and Social Change in a Midland Town Victorian Nottingham 1815-1900

This book was first published in 1966. The city of Nottingham grew from the nucleus of a smaller and older town to become one of the nation's leading industrial centres, and although it was not a product of the industrial revolution Nottingham was completely transformed by it. For most of the nineteenth century the major activities were the production of hosiery by an industry whose methods, organization, and outlook remained traditional for many decades, and the manufacture of machine-made lace, a progressive and mechanized industry which from its early years featured factory production. This text explores the relationship between the development of power based machinery and the more traditional crafts of the area.

Introduction 1. Nottingham in 1815 2. A backward industry: the hosiery trade and framework knitters 3. The rise of machine-made lace industry 4. A progressive industry: growth and fluctuation in the machine-made lace trade 5. Poverty and the new Poor Law 6. Chartism in Nottingham 7. Problems of urban expansion: enclosure, the railway and municipal reform 8. The reformed corporation and urban society 9. 'New Nottingham': the changing economic structure, new industries and associations 10. The hosiery industry: technical innovation, the factory system and the board of arbitration 11. The lace industry: change and expansion, and the amalgamated soceity of lace operatives 12. Victorians and economic society 13. The emergence of a modern municipality 14. Victorian city: the University college and social development

Roy A. Church