Elizabeth was born in the parish of St. John Sepulchre in Norwich and at the time of their marriage both were ‘of full age’. I have not seen the 1851 census records, but from 1844 until 1866 Edmund and Elizabeth moved about in a small area near Aylsham producing a family of nine children, eight of whom survived. The localities of the births – Hevingham, Brampton, Skeyton, Buxton, Lammas – mark their passage until finally they reached Norwich. I have not sent off for the various birth certificates because the Riches are not actually on my genealogical line, but these documents might be expected to provide interesting information, such as the occupation, or occupations, that Edmund followed as he accumulated and provided for his substantial family. The 1861 census lists him as a ‘Dealer’, his oldest son William was a ‘Labourer’ and his oldest daughter, Martha, was a ‘General Servant’ in Norwich.
Migration
At some time between the birth of their last child, Thomas, in about 1866 and the end of the decade a great change took place for Edmund, Elizabeth and the family. It was probably increasingly difficult employment prospects in Norfolk that provoked the change. Contemporary accounts note that the area was heavily dependent on agriculture, but prices were falling. This was the golden age of the Victorian period when the advent of cheap wheat and other commodities, transported across prairies, plains and pampas to the coast by (often) British-built railways, then by cheap shipping to English ports, was able to undercut domestic production. Norfolk, too, was losing industrial employment to the new towns on the coalfields where power was cheap and costs could be driven down.
Under these circumstances some of the population of East Anglia – and indeed other areas – was drawn away to pursue better employment prospects elsewhere. There was movement abroad, such as to the Americas, undoubtedly to London, but also migration to the industrial areas of England, including the great cotton towns of Lancashire. With the exception of the years of the Cotton Famine of the early 1860s, these generally prospered from the 1840s to 1914[5]. A report from ‘The Bacup Times’ of 20th November 1875 provides an example of the extent to which internal migration might be organized. Headed ‘Importation of Millhands’ it stated:
“On Wednesday evening, about 50 farm labourers with their wives and families from Norfolk arrived at Bacup. They were under the care of Mr J. H. Turner and had been brought to work at the mills of Messrs Joshua Hoyle & Sons Ltd, both at Bacup and Sharneyford. Homes and houses had been provided for the strangers and in consequence of the wetness of the evening, a conveyance was placed at the disposal of those who had to go to Sharneyford”. [6]
Not everyone welcomed the newcomers. Comments attributed to a local resident said:
“They were brought in by the trainload to work in the mills... they were called yellow bellies. Why? Because they were foreigners - they worked for less. Some people say the Hoyle family (mill owners) ruined the town because they lowered the wages... bringing in these people.”
In any case, it seems to have been the promise of the booming cotton towns of Lancashire that attracted Edmund and Elizabeth for they certainly made the move – and appear to have settled in quite well. That being said, Edmund and William, his oldest son, may have been in a somewhat precarious situation. According to the 1871 census they were lodging in separate houses at Love Clough, a settlement between Rawtenstall and Burnley in what is called Rossendale, and only about three miles northwest of Bacup. There they worked as labourers in a calico print-works.
In the meantime Elizabeth and the other seven children had settled at Calderbrook, some ten miles to the east, near Rochdale. Elizabeth looked after the house, six of the children were ‘cotton operatives’, including Emma who was only nine years old, while little Thomas, only five, was a 'scholar'.
Not long after, both Edmund and Elizabeth, with the children, moved to Oldham, then on its way to becoming the world’s greatest centre of cotton spinning. It is a fact that the sporadic views we have of Edmund and Elizabeth in Lancashire never show them living together – in 1881 Edmund was living at Palmerston Street in the house of his son George, then married, and working as a factory operative; he probably died in 1890. Elizabeth, on the other hand, lived at Marsh Street, as a housekeeper with her son Charles and three of her other children. 1891 found her living at Fielding Street as head of family, accompanied by her children Julia and Thomas, both still single.
The Children
Four of the Riches children are known to have married in Oldham. George married Sarah Whalley of Milnrow (near Rochdale) at St. Mary’s church in 1879 and they had three children, Arthur (who died aged 8), Florance and Fred. George probably did quite well because by 1891 he had become a cotton spinner. The family were then living at Frome Street in Glodwick.
Harriet Eliza married John William Dunkerley at St. Mark’s church, Glodwick, in 1878. They had five children and their story can be read
here.
Charles married Mary Moss from Dukinfield at Heyside St. Mark’s in 1891. I am not aware that they had any children. In both 1891 and 1901 Charles was employed in a tube works, apparently making cops onto which cotton yarn was wound. He was living in Fielding Street in 1891 and at Roundthorn (near Glodwick) in 1901.
Emma Louise married John William Brooks of Oldham at the church of St. Stephen and All Martyrs, Lower Moor, in 1886. In 1891 they were living at Frome Street and already had a family of three children. John was a cotton spinner, Emma a cotton speed tenter.