History
Except during the 17th century, Stratford has played little part in the history of
England. The neighbourhood was the
centre of the Gunpowder Plot; Clopton House was
rented, about Michaelmas 1605, by Ambrose Rookwood, one of the conspirators, and various Popish relics
were discovered when the house was searched by the
bailiff after Fawkes's arrest. (fn. 1) During the Civil War
the position of the town at the junction of several
important roads, and its proximity to a number of
garrisons of both parties, made it the scene of considerable activity and some fighting.
In January 1642, three days after the attempted
arrest of the Five Members, the corporation decided
to replenish the town armoury: (fn. 2) and in the following
May or June the inhabitants were assessed to the first
of many contributions, for 'the Kinges forces at Evesham'. (fn. 3) That summer was occupied in feverish recruiting, the Parliamentary leaders in each county attempting to enforce the Militia Ordinance, and the Royalists
the King's Commission of Array. In Warwickshire,
owing to the energy of Lord Brooke, the former secured
the initiative. A meeting for the hundred of Barlichway
was held at Stratford on 30 June, when 400 armed and
260 unarmed volunteers, besides the Militia, came in
to join the Parliamentary standard. (fn. 4) The Commission
of Array was proclaimed here by the Earl of Northampton on 29 July but with what result does not appear. (fn. 5)
In August Lord Brooke raised a loan in the county on
the Public Faith, to which, by 24 September, the
corporation and citizens of Stratford had contributed
£348 in money and plate. (fn. 6)
After the battle of Edgehill when a part of the
Parliamentary Army fell back on Stratford, (fn. 7) at least
seven soldiers were buried here and there are numerous
payments for the care of the wounded. (fn. 8) In February
1643 the town was occupied by Royalist forces under
Colonel Wagstaffe, but it was recaptured by Lord
Brooke on the 25th after an engagement about 1½ miles
out of the town along the road to Warwick. (fn. 9) The
Royalists drew up their forces under the Welcombe Hills,
overlooking the road. Brooke placed his artillery in the
van and so disposed the rest of his troops 'that we stood
tryangle upon three hills in full view each of other'. (fn. 10)
A burst of artillery fire threw the Royalists into confusion and they fled back into the town pursued by the
attackers 'so fast as our carriages, and the plowd lands
well softened with the raine, would permit us'. The
town was occupied without further incident except for
the destruction of the Town Hall, where three barrels
of powder were stored which blew up about an hour
afterwards. Having disarmed the town, Brooke returned
to Warwick. Prince Rupert passed through on his
return from the capture of Lichfield in April and was
here again (fn. 11) on 11 July, when he met Henrietta Maria,
returning from Holland to join the king at Edgehill.
The Queen was then the guest of Susanna Hall,
Shakespeare's grand-daughter, at New Place (fn. 12) and the
occasion was celebrated by bell-ringing and feasting. (fn. 13)
Stratford lay on the main route for supplying the
Parliamentary garrison at Gloucester, which was cut
off from direct access to London by the Royalist forces
in the Cotswolds. In March 1644 a convoy marching
from Warwick under Commissary General Behre got
as far as Stratford, but retired in the face of opposition. (fn. 14)
On a second and more successful attempt, about a week
later, Behre's troops were again quartered in the town,
which during this and part of the following year seems
to have been almost continuously occupied by Parliamentary troops. (fn. 15) The last Royalist raid, by a party of
600 horse from Worcester, took place in April 1645.
Balked of intercepting another convoy between Warwick and Gloucester they rode into Stratford and
demanded £800 as ransom from plunder, though they
were obliged to content themselves with only £10. (fn. 16)
In June 1645 Fairfax's Army, on their march from
Naseby to the west, was encamped at Clifford and
quartered in the town. (fn. 17) Cromwell was here, probably
in the following December (fn. 18) and again, before the
battle of Worcester, on 26 August 1651.
The claims made by the corporation and the inhabitants for loss and damage by the Parliamentary
forces from the beginning of the war to the end of
January 1646 amount to about £2,542; (fn. 19) 119 townsmen sent in bills, rather more than half the number of
those afterwards assessed to the Hearth Tax. The
total estimate is confessedly incomplete, nor does it of
course include losses suffered at the hands of the
Royalists. About 55 per cent. of the claims (£1,412) were
on account of taxes, loans, and contributions. Of these,
the largest single item was £878 paid in the weekly
contribution to the garrison at Warwick Castle; to
which in May 1643 the town was required to pay £20
a week. This was reduced to £14 a week in August,
and to £10 a week in December 1643. (fn. 20) The loans
raised by Lord Brooke in 1642 and afterwards by the
Committee at Coventry amounted to £398. From
claims on account of free quarter and of plunder and
requisitions, amounting altogether to £1,095, it seems
that although when Lord Brooke captured the town he
forbade plunder, his orders were not implicitly obeyed. (fn. 21)
Requisitions included food, which was supplied to the
Scots Army at Birmingham and Droitwich on its way
south in 1645, teams and carts, cavalry horses and
provender. The same system was followed in the
second Civil War, the town being ordered to supply
provisions for Lambert's troops during the Worcester
campaign. (fn. 22)
On 23 June 1647 the corporation offered to make
some repayment to those who had laid out money for
the Royalist forces, (fn. 23) and on 1 Aug. 1649 the corporation reimbursed twelve persons to the extent of £41
out of the borough revenues 'because ther is noe other
way of gettynge ye same in an ordinary way, beinge
moneys laidout in the middest of the wars'. (fn. 24) As late as
1654 the bailiff was still attempting to recover the
money lent to Parliament by the corporation and by
private persons on the Public Faith. (fn. 25) The disturbing
effect of the war on ordinary life appears also in a
number of other ways. During the war years attendance
at council meetings declined and rents became more
difficult to collect. Between 1643 and 1645 the arrears
increase from 10.7 to 20.3 per cent. of the whole
rental of the corporation.
It cannot be said that the townsmen as a whole
showed much spontaneous enthusiasm for either side
during the struggle. The exactions of Charles's personal
government aroused resentment here as elsewhere.
Thus in January 1637 a levy for ship money was ordered
apparently without question, but on the last writ, of
1639, the corporation could not agree to make an
assessment at all. (fn. 26) There had always been a strong
Puritan tradition in the town, but it was not so rigid
as to prevent the gift of £4 to the curate's wife in 1644
'to buy her a fairing at Stratford Faire'; (fn. 27) or the Town
Clerk, when entering in the 'Book of Damages' the
amount paid Warwick garrison out of the corporation
tithes, from adding the ironical comment that these had
originally been 'given to pious uses'.
The Parliamentarians indeed asserted that it was at
the invitation of the inhabitants that the Royalists had
occupied the town in February 1643. (fn. 28) In 1646 the
personal estate of the bailiff, John Wolmer, was
sequestered for delinquency; but he was allowed to
compound for £50 in consideration of his services to
Fairfax's army when quartered at Stratford and of his
loan of £40 to the service of the Parliament. (fn. 29) Throughout the period there are only two doubtful instances of
removal from the corporation on political grounds; (fn. 30)
and the many changes down to 1660 seem to have been
accepted with equal readiness.
Economic History
From at least the 16th
century until the development of the tourist industry within the last fifty years, the prosperity of
Stratford depended rather on trade than on manufacture.
A petition of 1818 for the alteration of the market day
describes it as 'the central point betwixt the towns of
Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, from the supplies of
which the main consumption of corn, seeds, &c. in
Burmingham, Dudley and Wolverhampton must of
necessity be principally drawn'. (fn. 31) More than two
centuries earlier Shakespeare's friend Richard Quyney
gives a similar picture: the town, he says, is 'Auncient
in thys trade of malteinge & have [sic] ever served to
Burmingham from whence, Walles, Sallopp, Stafforde,
Chess. & Lanke allso are served'. (fn. 32)
Evidence of the economic relations of Stratford with
the surrounding districts is afforded by the toll books
of horse sales in the borough in the 17th and 18th
centuries. The earliest of these, in 1602, (fn. 33) though only
12 sales are recorded, shows, in the places from which
the buyers and sellers came, the importance of some
of the principal roads going through or near the town:
the road from Oxford to Birmingham; the Fosse Way,
which crosses this road at Halford-on-Stour, 7 miles to
the south of Stratford, and the Banbury road at
Eatington, 5 miles to the east of it; and the road going
out to the west, through Alcester towards Worcester.
At the fair on 24 Sept. 1646 there were no less than
217 sales of horses, (fn. 34) and at the fair only 10 days
previously there seem to have been 141 sales; at the
May fair in 1646 there were 58, and the undated record
of another fair, held apparently about the same time,
gives 74; (fn. 35) but at none of the 18th-century fairs of
which the toll books survives were there more than 19. (fn. 36)
The toll books show that, like Coventry and unlike
Warwick, Stratford was in the 17th century 'a town
of common road'. (fn. 37) The fair of 24 Sept. 1646 attracted
sellers from the heaths and open pastures of north-west
Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire,
one of the great horse-breeding districts of 17th-century
England, connected with Stratford by the Fosse Way.
One of these dealers, Arthur Dobbs of Atherstone, sold
over £79 worth of stock, and another, John Alcocks of
Wolvey, nearly £52 worth. Six dealers from Strettonon-Dunsmore sold between them 35 horses, colts, and
mares for £128 4s. 4d., and the sales of 7 persons from
North Kilworth realized £58 11s. 4d. The principal
buyers came from the west: from the forests of Arden
and Feckenham, from the north Cotswolds, and
especially from the middle Severn and lower Avon
valleys and the thickly planted villages between Stratford
and Worcester. (fn. 38) Some of these men too were dealing
on a considerable scale; Thomas Hill of Norton-byEvesham bought a mare, 2 geldings, and 5 colts for
£44 2s. 10d.; John Harris of Fladbury, 7 beasts for
£37 6s. 8d.; and the purchases of 6 persons from
Severn Stoke came to £60 10s. 6d. There is, further,
a marked connexion, which also appears in 1602, with
the country to the south-east; the vale of Red Horse,
the north Oxfordshire uplands, and the valley of the
Swere.
The roads into Stratford from the west were also
routes from Wales to London. In a proposal, in 1702,
to obtain an Act of Parliament for levying toll at the
bridge, the toll of Welsh sheep is specially mentioned; (fn. 39)
and the parish registers provide evidence of Welsh
migration in the later 16th century, (fn. 40) mainly of the
poorer classes, for few of these Welshmen attained
prominence in the town, though one of them, Lewes
ap Williams, rose to be bailiff in 1564.
The first grant of a market at Stratford was made by
Richard I to Bishop John de Coutances in 1196. (fn. 41)
The market was to be held on a Thursday, and the
grant was confirmed to Bishop Walter Reynolds in
1309. (fn. 42) In 1214 John granted to Bishop Walter de
Grey a three days' fair here on the eve, feast, and
morrow of the Holy Trinity. (fn. 43) A second fair, on the
eve and feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and the two
following days (13–16 Sept.) was granted to Bishop
Walter de Cantilupe in 1239. (fn. 44) In 1269 Bishop Giffard
obtained a grant of a third fair, for three days at
Ascensiontide, (fn. 45) and in the following year the Trinity
fair was extended for a fourth day. (fn. 46) In 1309 Edward
II granted to Bishop Walter Reynolds a fair on the
feast of SS. Peter and Paul (29 June) and the fifteen
days following. (fn. 47) The first charter of incorporation, in
1553, besides confirming the weekly market, established
two fairs; on the eve, feast, and morrow of the Exaltation of the Cross (13–15 Sept.), and on the feast and
morrow of the Invention of the Cross (3–4 April).
The charter of 1610 added three others: on the
Thursday and Friday before Lent, 14–16 July, and
5–7 Dec. The April, September, and December fairs
were confirmed by the charter of 1664, but the dates
of the two others were altered to the eve, feast, and
morrow of the Annunciation, and the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday before Corpus Christi. The dates
were again altered by the charter of 1674, which
provided for five three-day fairs; on the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday after the Annunciation, before
Michaelmas, and after Whitsuntide, the eve, feast, and
morrow of the Exaltation of the Cross, and on 2–4 May.
Thus, two of the fairs in 1646 already referred to were
held on days not mentioned in the governing charter.
A Trinity fair, though not included in any grant since
1270, is mentioned as being held in 1666; (fn. 48) and by the
reign of George III the prescribed times were very
little regarded. From 1763 to 1787, when the records
of the tolls are practically continuous, it seems to have
been customary to hold three fairs a year; on 14 May,
on 25 Sept., and on a day in the first, or sometimes in
the second, week in October. (fn. 49) In 1806 there were
seven fairs in the borough, several of which, says
Wheler, have 'been of late years established'. They
were held on the third Monday in February, (fn. 50) the
Thursday after 25 March, 14 May, the last Monday in
July, 25 Sept. and the following Thursday, and the
second Monday in December. In addition there was a
statute fair for the hiring of servants on the morrow of
Old Michaelmas Day. (fn. 51) This last, the only fair now
kept, is still celebrated in the midlands as Stratford
Mop, a name which first occurs in 1675. (fn. 52)
In the 17th century it was customary to proclaim
the fairs in all the neighbouring market towns: in 1666,
for instance, the Lady Day Fair was proclaimed at
Henley-in-Arden, Southam, Evesham, Kineton, Alcester, Warwick, Chipping Campden, and Shipstonon-Stour. (fn. 53) But by 1795 the simpler expedient had
become possible of advertising them in the Birmingham, Worcester, Oxford, and Coventry papers. (fn. 54) On
market and fair days Stratford must have presented a
scene of great activity, for the stalls, with the vendors
of different commodities each in their appointed place,
occupied a great part of the centre of the town. The
glovers had their stalls at the High Cross. (fn. 55) In 1608
'the sellers of butter cheese and all manner of whitemeate and wicke yarne and funicles' were removed
from their previous standings to the cross opposite the
chapel. (fn. 56) The country butchers occupied the west side
of Chapel Street; (fn. 57) the butchers' shambles were built
near the market house in 1640. (fn. 58) The ironmongers and
nailers were opposite the 'chewer' in Bridge Street, (fn. 59)
and in another part of Bridge Street were the stalls of
the collarmakers and ropemakers. (fn. 60) The sellers of raw
hides occupied the space by the cross in the Rother
Market, (fn. 61) and the braziers and pewterers the Rother
Market end of Wood Street, (fn. 62) while lower down Wood
Street stood the coopers. (fn. 63) All tanned leather had to be
brought to the market house to be searched before being
sold, (fn. 64) and under the arches of the market house the
mayor or his officers weighed the cheese; (fn. 65) a necessary
precaution since 'great store of cheese is usually brought
to the faires . . . and . . . great deceipt is used both in the
weighinge and weight' of it. Piccage, amounting to 1d.
per stall, was collected by the sergeants-at-mace. (fn. 66) In
Shakespeare's time the market was closed, by the ringing of the market bell, at 11.0 a.m. (fn. 67) During the 18th
century it was prolonged, until in 1789 it was agreed
between the mayor and the principal dealers that business should cease at 1.30. (fn. 68)
The right to the tolls of fairs and markets was not
formally granted to the corporation until the charter
of 1610, though they seem virtually to have established
their claim to it in a dispute with Sir Edward Greville,
lord of the manor, 10 years earlier. (fn. 69) The toll of corn,
which was principally in question, amounted in 1601
to £10. (fn. 70) By an order of 1609 the toll of butter and
cheese was given to the bailiff, (fn. 71) and when cheese was
made toll free at the Michaelmas fairs in 1764 the
mayor was voted 10 guineas a year in compensation. (fn. 72)
The tolls on corn, cattle, and horses—the last of which
still belonged to the lord of the manor—were abolished
in 1788. (fn. 73) The present cattle market near the Great
Western station was opened in 1832. (fn. 74)
Although the times and number of the fairs were
frequently changed at the discretion of the corporation,
the market was regularly kept on a Thursday until it
was moved to Friday, the present market day, in 1818, (fn. 75)
on the ground that the markets of Birmingham, Banbury, and Stow-on-the-Wold were also held on a
Thursday and those of Chipping Norton and Chipping
Campden on a Wednesday, so that Stratford lost much
of the natural advantage of its position as 'the proper
medium point' between the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire markets and dealers from Birmingham and the
Black country.
The importance of Stratford as a centre of trade was
considerably enhanced by the navigation of the Avon.
Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, early in the
15th century, is said to have intended to make the river
navigable so 'that smale vessels as the water wold bere
myght have be conveyed fro Teukisbury to Warrwik'. (fn. 76)
But no such enterprise was actually undertaken until
1636, when William Sandys of Fladbury obtained the
consent of the Privy Council to his project for making
the Avon navigable as far as Stratford. (fn. 77) The work was
finished in three years, the river being made navigable
for vessels up to 30 tons burthen; (fn. 78) but as late as
October 1641 Sandys was petitioning the corporation
for 'assistance in his navigacon'. (fn. 79) During the Civil
War the works were broken down and the Avon waterway fell into disuse. (fn. 80) After the Restoration the scheme
was taken up again by Thomas, Lord Windsor, afterwards Earl of Plymouth, and a group of promoters
among whom the ingenious Andrew Yarranton was the
moving spirit. (fn. 81) Yarranton speaks of 'the River being
a Brat of my Brain when I contrived it', (fn. 82) and envisaged
an enterprise which would make Stratford 'to the West
of England, Wales, Shropshire, and Cheshire, as Dantzick
is to Poland'. (fn. 83) The new waterway would link one of
the richest corn-growing districts in England with the
coal and iron of Shropshire and the forest of Dean,
with the cloth of the Middle Severn Valley and, through
Bristol, with all the various commodities of foreign
trade. (fn. 84) The situation of Stratford was also well suited
to industry, and Yarranton selected two sites for
development. One was at Milcot, at the junction of the
Stour and the Avon, where a 'city', which he called New
Haarlem, might be built capable of employing 10,000
people in the growing of flax and the manufacture
of linen and thread. (fn. 85) The other was at Bridgetown,
where on 30 acres of Sir John Clopton's land 'there
would be in a very short time as great a Town built as
Stratford now is; and there have as great a Trade as
any city in those parts of England (Bristol only excepted)'. Here the principal industries were to be
linen-weaving and the brewing of the Brunswick beer
known as Mum, from which Yarranton proposed to
name the colony New Brunswick. (fn. 86) There were also
to be three large granaries, one for the brewers, one for
the linen workers and the relief of the poor, and a
public granary in which the neighbouring gentry and
farmers might store their corn. (fn. 87) 'I pray observe', he
says, addressing the inhabitants of Stratford, before
you had that River Navigable, you were lockt up in the
Inlands, and could not come to any Navigable River
under twenty miles. . . . But see now how the case is
altered by this new River coming to your Town.
Now all Improvements offer themselves to you.' (fn. 88)
Such a vision of prosperity, though Wheler afterwards poured scorn upon it, was not so fanciful as it
appears. Yarranton had the support of Sir John
Clopton, William Bishop of Bridgetown, and 'my
friend the Town Clerk of Stratford-Upon-Avon'. (fn. 89)
He speaks of the building of New Brunswick as having
been already begun, (fn. 90) and this can be confirmed from
other sources. The navigation was open by 1672,
when John Woodin, who owned the greater part of it
under Lord Windsor, had twenty vessels plying between
Stratford and Tewkesbury. In May of that year he
was petitioning the Privy Council against the impressment of the navigators of his boats for service in the
Dutch wars. (fn. 91) Woodin settled in Bridgetown about
this time (fn. 92) and in May 1674 obtained from Sir John
Clopton a lease of the 'new erected Messuage or Tenement' which he was then occupying, with a brick kiln
and clay pit, a storehouse, and a coal yard extending to
the bank of the Avon. (fn. 93) Ten years later a reference to
an iron mill at Ruin Clifford indicates a further extension of the works. (fn. 94) The new venture was not popular
in the neighbourhood, for in May 1674 Woodin was
again complaining to the Privy Council that mobs 'of
the poorer sort of People' had stopped up the locks
and sluices, broken into the mills and seized the corn,
and cut open the bags of corn brought for sale to
Stratford market. (fn. 95) But though Yarranton's scheme
was never completely carried out, the river traffic
continued for another two centuries. The Earl of
Plymouth, who died in 1687, settled his rights in the
navigation of the Avon upon his widow. These rights
took the form of an annual rent of £400 from the
carriage of coals down the Severn and up the Avon, a
trade which, according to the countess's complaint, was
temporarily stopped by the coal tax of 1695. (fn. 96) Defoe,
writing about 30 years later, speaks of the Avon
navigation as 'an exceeding advantage to all this part
of the country and also to the commerce of the city of
Bristol. For by this River they derive a very great Trade
for Sugar, Oil, Wine, Tobacco, Iron, Lead and in a
word, all heavy goods which are carried by water
almost as far as Warwick [sic]; and in return the corn,
and especially the cheese, is brought back from
Gloucestershire and Warwickshire to Bristol'; (fn. 97) and
most of the 18th-century topographers echo his words. (fn. 98)
Indeed Stratford at that time must have had, as Wheler
says, 'the appearance of a small sea-port town'. (fn. 99) The
main quay was at the Swan's Nest, but there was also a
quay and coal yard at the Ferry at 'Southern Lane
End'. (fn. 100)
The rates of tonnage, which had given rise to frequent disputes between the owners and the persons
using the Navigation, were fixed by Act of Parliament
in 1751. The river was by that time divided into the
Upper and Lower Navigation (respectively above and
below Evesham). (fn. 101) George Perrott of Fladbury,
Baron of the Exchequer, died seised of the whole Navigation in 1780 and bequeathed it in trust for George
Perrott, his nephew, who obtained an Act of Parliament
enabling him to sell it, with other of his uncle's estates,
in 1793. (fn. 102) The Navigation was then leased at a rent
of £1,227 a year and was said to have been gradually
improving for thirty years past. But owing, apparently,
to the spread of canals, it had 'become precarious' and
was 'attended with a Risque which may be dangerous
to an individual Proprietor'.
When Wheler wrote the trade had declined and he
expresses a fear that it 'will in a short time utterly cease'.
There was a revival, however, in the early 19th century,
due partly to the enterprise of Thomas Lucy, owner of
the large mills below the church, who purchased great
quantities of Irish corn and launched a steam vessel to
bring it up the Avon from Gloucester. (fn. 103) A new company was formed to manage the navigation, (fn. 104) and in
1830 the trade was said to be 'principally for West
Indies produce from Bristol'. The weekly supply of
corn to the mills was then estimated at 3,000 bushels. (fn. 105)
In 1859 the proprietors conveyed their rights in the
Navigation to the Stratford Canal Company. The
Great Western Railway Company acquired control in
1863, and the river traffic was finally abandoned in
1875. (fn. 106)
'At Stratford or thereabouts', says Yarranton, 'is
always the best and cheapest Wheat and Malt in all
them parts of England.' (fn. 107) This was the foundation of
his whole scheme, and from the 16th to the 19th century
malting was the principal industry here. (fn. 108) Richard
Quiney speaks of 'Or houses made to noe other use
then maltinge' and complains that the town is 'deceived
by reson of contreye malte kylnes wch make ther owne
Benifytt in malting ther Barley att home, wch usuallie
was Brought to be solde att or m'kett & ther made &
converted to malte'. (fn. 109) A survey taken in 1598, (fn. 110) a year
of high prices and great distress, shows that 75 persons,
probably a third of the more substantial householders
in the borough, had stores of malt on their premises,
amounting in all to 696 quarters, while 30 of them had
also 65 quarters of grain of various kinds. In the bonds
of indemnity (1603–1714) and in the Hearth Tax
Returns of 1662–3 the maltsters still form the most
numerous class among those whose occupations can be
identified. This probably explains the formation of a
Maltsters' Company—more than half a century later
than any of the other trade companies—in 1666. (fn. 111)
But as nothing more is heard of this company it must
be assumed that household malting, as a side-line,
which would make it difficult to enforce a monopoly,
still persisted. Of the malt returned in the survey of
1598 rather less than two-thirds is classed as townsmen's malt; the remainder, 250 quarters, is strangers'
malt. The list of 'strangers' who were storing their
malt in the town is significant of the importance of
Stratford as a market for malt even before the days of
the Avon navigation. It includes Sir Thomas Lucy
(with 28 quarters), Sir Edward Greville, Sir John
Conway, Francis Smith of Wootton Wawen, and others
of the neighbouring gentry; Sir Fulke Greville's cook
and Robert Pennells, servant to Sir Thomas Lucy;
and men from Coventry, Rowington, Ipsley, Ladbroke,
Burmington, Whatcote, and other places.
The malting industry created certain social problems
which at the time of this survey were especially urgent,
for the general scarcity was widely attributed to the
greed of the maltsters in buying up corn which might
otherwise have been made into bread. One inhabitant
expressed the hope 'if God send mi Lord of Essex
downe shortle, to se them hanged on gibbetes att their
owne dores'. (fn. 112) The figures of the survey, which shows
only 44 quarters of wheat, mill corn, bread corn, and
rye, help to explain this feeling. The licensing and
restriction of maltsters is frequently referred to in the
early 17th century: they were prohibited from making
more than two quarters a week each in 1630 (fn. 113) or than
four quarters in 1649, (fn. 114) and for the same reason the
number of alehouses in the borough was restricted to
thirty. (fn. 115) But the total prohibition of malting, the
remedy which the Warwickshire justices were seeking
to apply in 1598, might have hardly less serious consequences in a town which depended so largely on the
trade for its livelihood; for as Richard Quiney pointed
out, 'manie nowe geve releefe to other poore wch then
wyll be disabled utt'lye'. (fn. 116)
In Stratford, as in other corporate towns in the 16th
and 17th centuries, the different occupations were
organized into companies. Within about the first halfcentury after incorporation there were ten different
companies in existence, some of which were reconstituted
during the period or enlarged to include additional
trades. The first to be formed was the Bakers' Company,
and its origin well illustrates the economic transition
from manorial to corporate status after 1553. The
licensing of 'common bakers' continued to be a regular
function of the court leet for the first three years after
the charter. (fn. 117) Then, in October 1556, we find the
order 'yt none do bake bred to syll wt in the burrow but
only the common baceres appoynted for the same but
yt they do agree wt thartyffeceres of bacares' under
penalty of 40s.: (fn. 118) and a year later Henry Sydnall was
presented 'for bakynge of bred contrary to the order of
the bacares book'. (fn. 119) A new 'Bakers' Book', which still
survives, was issued in 1598 (fn. 120) and contains some special
clauses which show that baking, more than any other
trade, was under the direct control of the corporation.
No baker might have more than one bakehouse or
permit any to use it but himself; and all members of the
company were to go every week to the bailiff to fetch
the Assise of Bread, the issue of which is frequently
recorded in the Council Books down to 1616. (fn. 121) The
Bakers' Company was finally merged in the last of all the
Stratford companies to be formed, the reconstituted
Chandlers, Soap-makers, Ironmongers, and Bakers of
1726.
The 'Faculty of Tailors' was in existence by 1568 (fn. 122)
and was reconstituted in 1586 as the Skinners and
Tailors, with 15 members, of whom 3 are described as
skinners. (fn. 123) The Walkers first appear as a company in
1569, (fn. 124) and received a new book of orders, under the
name of the Walkers and Fullers, in 1582. The Dyers
and Shearmen are first mentioned in 1570. (fn. 125) These last
two companies had been amalgamated by 1611 (fn. 126) and
renewed ordinances for the Walkers, Fullers, and Dyers
were issued in 1628. (fn. 127) In 1570 also comes the first
reference to the Smiths' Company, (fn. 128) and in 1572 the
earliest surviving set of ordinances, those of the Weavers.
In 1573 another new company was formed comprising
the Masons, Joiners, Carpenters, Tilers, Wheelwrights,
Ploughwrights, Tugerers, Thatchers, and Coopers. (fn. 129)
This heterogeneous body was afterwards split up, the
Joiners, Wheelwrights, and Coopers being formed into
a separate company in 1607, (fn. 130) and the others, with the
Glaziers, into another in 1613. (fn. 131) The ordinances of the
Shoemakers and Sadlers were issued in 1578, and a
ninth company, that of the Drapers, seems to have been
in existence by 1581. (fn. 132) More than twenty years then
elapse before any new companies are mentioned. A
corporation order of 1597 'that ev'ie man of any trade
or occupacon wthin this Towne shalle sorte hymselffe
into one Company or other', (fn. 133) made at a time when there
were said to be 700 poor in the borough, is significant;
and later evidence also indicates that the policy of
forming the inhabitants into companies had as its object
the maintenance of the poor as well as the regulation of
trade. (fn. 134)
Not until the opening years of the 17th century is
there much definite evidence of the organization of
companies among the wealthier trades. A company of
Haberdashers, referred to in 1603, (fn. 135) was merged in
what became the most important of all the companies,
the Mercers, Linendrapers, Woollendrapers, Hatters,
Grocers, Haberdashers, and Salters, whose book of
orders was sealed in 1604. (fn. 136) In 1606 the Glovers and
Whittawers Company was formed. (fn. 137) This was extended to include also the Collar-makers by a new
book of orders issued in 1637. There was then no
further development until the constitution of the
Maltsters into a company in 1666.
The subsequent history of most of these companies
can be traced only from the scattered entries in the
Chamberlains' Accounts of the half of the admission
and composition fees which was due to the corporation. (fn. 138)
Apprentices to any of the trades in the borough might
be admitted, after serving their term, on the payment of
3s. 4d. In the five earliest sets of ordinances, dating
1582–6, a stranger applying for admission has to
prove that he has served his apprenticeship elsewhere;
but from 1598 onwards this clause is omitted. The
corporation reserved the right to vary the composition
fee paid by strangers for licence to set up in the town.
Thus when Foulke Sellars, who afterwards became
mayor, was admitted to the Coopers' Company in 1668,
10s. out of his £5 fine was returned because 'Hee may
bee a person that may bee beneficiall in reference to his
trade to the Towne'. (fn. 139) But when Richard Cumberlidge
of Warwick wished to set up in Stratford as a smith in
1665 his composition was only accepted on condition
that he also entered into a bond for £50 to indemnify
the town against the risk of having to maintain him and
his family out of the poor rates. (fn. 140)
The development of a single craft company is well
illustrated by a comparison of the book of orders issued
to the Masons and allied trades in 1573 with their
revised orders of 1613. Forty years have seen a marked
advance in organization and a general increase in
fines. (fn. 141) The composition fee is raised from £2 to £5,
and foreigners who practise any of the trades in Stratford are liable to a fine of 10s. for every week that they
fail to compound. (fn. 142) On the other hand, membership
is open to all foreigners who pay their £5, whether they
have served an apprenticeship or not. The later orders
are directed rather against journeymen than foreign
masters, a change of emphasis which may be at least
partly due to the intervening crisis of the Great Poor
Law. In 1573 journeymen might work in the borough
for a fortnight and thereafter could become free journeymen on the payment of 2d. (fn. 143) If they failed to make a
living during their first fortnight they were to be ordered
to leave the town under a penalty of 3s. 4d. In 1613
journeymen working for their own profit are altogether
forbidden and masters employing them are liable to a
fine of £5 and 10s. a week until they are dismissed.
Our information is fullest on the Mercers' Company,
since, although their ordinances are lost, their Minute
Book 1652–1704 survives and from 1671 onwards is
continuous. (fn. 144) The Mercers differed in many respects
from the craft companies, amongst others in that their
membership was not confined to residents in Stratford.
William Venners (fn. 145) and Richard Perkhouse, (fn. 146) both of
Alcester, were admitted in 1639 and 1655 respectively,
and John Perkhouse of Alcester, son of the latter, was
admitted a love brother in 1675; while John Smith of
Warwick served as warden in 1686. (fn. 147) The members
are always classified in the minutes under the three
heads of Mercers, Drapers and Haberdashers, and
Salters; (fn. 148) but the three groups also include ironmongers
and apothecaries, a bookseller, Joshua Smith, who in
1692 was offered a monopoly of the sale of playing
cards in the borough on condition of his joining the
company, and even pewterers and braziers, whose
inclusion suggests that the Elizabethan Smiths' Company had disappeared. Thus the company was tending
to become simply an association of the leading retail
tradesmen in the town. In size and wealth the mercers
far exceeded any of the craft companies; 25 out of the
40 members mentioned 1652–1704 served on the
corporation. (fn. 149) Nevertheless, the company was by no
means fully representative of the trades included in it,
for the names of at least 9 other persons can be traced,
including 3 mayors of the borough, who followed one
or other of these occupations during the period, but
were never members of it. Membership steadily
declined from 21 in 1652 to 10 in 1704, and one
reason for this is probably the great increase in the
composition fee. This was a general tendency among
all the companies in the last period of their existence:
thus the composition of the Tailors and Skinners, fixed
at £3 6s. 8d. in 1586, was apparently raised to £5 in
1671, (fn. 150) and in 1711 to £10. (fn. 151) The original Mercers'
composition was £5, but their new orders of 1676 or
1680 (fn. 152) seem to have increased it very considerably and
£40 was exacted in 1701. It is not surprising that out
of the 19 admissions recorded in the minute book, 16
are by apprenticeship and only 3 by composition,
whereas in the Elizabethan companies the two classes
had been approximately equal. A Mercers' Company
was still in existence in 1741, (fn. 153) but a reorganization
took place in 1726, as a result of which a new company
was formed, comprising the Chandlers, Ironmongers,
Soap-boilers, and Bakers. The ordinances of this
company survive, as does also their minute book for
the years 1726–60. (fn. 154) There were 10 original members,
9 others were admitted at the second meeting, and the
maximum membership, attained in 1730, was 23. The
total membership during the period amounts to 42, of
whom 13, including 9 widows of deceased members,
were women. Approximately half the members were
bakers, and it seems to have been the custom for bakers
and members of the other associated trades to alternate
in the offices of master and warden. (fn. 155) In addition to
their ordinary trades the members of the company in
1735 maintained against the butchers of the town their
ancient right to kill pigs and sell pork in their shops.
The ordinances, compared with those of the earlier
companies, confer an increased freedom from corporation control. (fn. 156) Additional ordinances, made to bolster
up a trade monopoly that was becoming increasingly
difficult to maintain, restricted the number of apprentices, but the system of apprenticeship seems to have
been laxly administered. In 1741 the Mercers and
Grocers Company refused to admit one Kington, who
had lived with a member for seven years without being
actually apprenticed, and attempted to restrain him
under the Act of Apprentices from setting up in trade.
Counsel's opinion was given in Kington's favour, (fn. 157)
and two years later when the Chandlers Company
meditated suing a recalcitrant tradesman for fees and
fines, the opinion of two counsel was taken and both
agreed that, as Stratford was a borough only by charter
and not by prescription, the corporation had no right to
make by-laws excluding foreigners from setting up a
trade there. (fn. 158) These cases mark the end of the trade
companies as effective bodies. The chandlers, as late
as 1746, tried, in vain, to prohibit persons who had
neither served an apprenticeship nor bought their
freedom from setting up in the town. No further
composition fees were exacted, and between 1743 and
the last mention of it in 1760 the membership of the
company had sunk from 19 to 8. Of the craft companies,
5 survived into the reign of George II. These were the
Skinners and Tailors, and the Shoemakers and Sadlers,
always the two largest; the Weavers; the Joiners,
Wheelwrights and Coopers; and the Glovers. The last
reference to any of them is the entry of a payment from
the Shoemakers in the Chamberlains' Accounts for
1746.
Compared with Coventry and its neighbourhood,
south-west Warwickshire was never an important
centre of the cloth industry. There was indeed a fullingmill in the manor of Stratford as early as 1252, (fn. 159) and
part of the mill near the church was being used for
that purpose in the reign of Charles I. (fn. 160) There is some
evidence too of a medieval cloth-trade here and of its
decline in the later 16th century. In the Gild Register
(1406–1530) 37 out of the 242 Stratford men whose
occupations are given are in some way connected with
the manufacture of cloth. (fn. 161) But a corporation petition
of 1590 described the town as 'now fallen much into
decay for want of such trade as heretofore they had by
clothinge and makeinge of yarne ymploying and maynteyninge a number of poore people by the same, wch
now live in great penury and myserie'; (fn. 162) and in 1615
the Mercers and Drapers Company assured Sir Edward
Coke that 'there is no clothes or stuffs made [in Strat
ford] but bought at London or elsewhere searched and
sealed'. (fn. 163) Moreover, while the Gild Register mentions
12 drapers in Stratford during the 15th century, there
were never more than 2 drapers in the Mercers and
Drapers Company in the later 17th. The Weavers or
Clothworkers Company, though it was still in existence
as late as 1742, (fn. 164) is one of the most obscure of all the
companies, there being no reference to it between
1590 and 1707. (fn. 165) There must, however, have been a
fairly considerable jersey combing industry here about
the middle of the 18th century, for Saunders speaks of
the jersey combers amounting to about two hundred;
with their banners of Jason and Bishop Blaize taking
the lead in the Shakespearian processions of the 1770's.
But he adds that because of the decline of the trade the
processions had to be discontinued. (fn. 166)
Stratford was for long a centre of the gloving
industry which was once widespread throughout the
whole district to the west of the town. The Gild
Register mentions 8 glovers, inhabitants of Stratford,
in the 15th and early 16th centuries. The heyday of
the trade was in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.
Glovers and Whittawers, including Shakespeare's
father, figure prominently on the Elizabethan Corporation. On market and fair days they occupied the most
important position in the town, at the High Cross,
where in 1618 'the seven glovers' were made responsible
for the paving of the street. (fn. 167) In the same year 6 out
of the 32 young tradesmen who received loans from
the charity moneys were glovers. (fn. 168) By their ordinances
of 1637 the Glovers, Whittawers and Collar Makers
Company were allowed to impose fines on all tanners
in the town who bought skins 'not belonginge to the
trade of a Tanner' and on all butchers who brought
mutton and lamb to the market without also bringing
the skins for sale. In the later 17th century the trade
seems to have declined. No glover occurs in the bonds
of indemnity after 1630, and of the members of the
corporation whose trades are known the last glover
was elected in 1647. In 1677 their standing at the High
Cross was being contested by the Mercers. (fn. 169) There
are few records of admission to the Glovers Company,
though it was still existing in 1732. (fn. 170) The trade, however, lingered on in Stratford and there was a firm of
glove makers here as late as the 1860's.
The prominence of the leather and wood-working
trades reflected the character of the surrounding
countryside. There is also some evidence of a metalworking industry. The Gild Registers mention 13
smiths as compared with 12 weavers, and there was
some migration of metal-workers into the town, more
remarkable indeed for its variety than its extent, in the
reign of Charles II. The bond of indemnity given by
a needlemaker in 1665 (fn. 171) is actually the earliest known
reference to that important industry in Warwickshire,
though it never became established at Stratford; and
John Becke, nailer, who settled in the town in 1674
with John Woodin as his surety, (fn. 172) was no doubt
attracted by the new industrial developments at
Bridgetown. A number of small nailers, gunsmiths,
and tin-plate workers survived even into the '80's of
last century. (fn. 173)
Among the various metal trades in Stratford, that of
bell-founding in the 17th and early 18th centuries,
calls for special notice. Richard Dawkes, described also
as a plumber, recast the great bell of the Chapel in
1606 and one of the bells of St. Nicholas Warwick in
1619. He may also have been responsible for a number
of Worcestershire bells. He died in 1627. (fn. 174) Richard
Sanders, 'Feltmaker and Bellfounder', who settled in
Stratford from Bromsgrove in 1719 (fn. 175) was no doubt a
connexion of the Richard Sanders of the Bromsgrove
foundry. He probably carried on a branch of the
business here, since there are bells bearing the mark of
Richard Sanders in the church, dated 1717 and 1733,
and one at Alveston cast in 1729.
The later 18th century was here a time of general
depression; in 1769 the corporation and the innkeepers of the town petitioned the Secretary at War
against the quartering upon them of two troops of
dragoons, alleging 'That the weight of Taxes are great
& severely felt by the poorer sort of people; . . . that
there is no Manufacture established in the place', (fn. 176)
and within the next ten years the Shakespearian
processions had to be discontinued because of the
decline of the jersey combers and flax dressers who
principally supported them. (fn. 177) The widespread distress
is shown by the fact that no less than one in ten of the
houses in the borough assessed to the Land Tax was
empty in 1781. The great falling off in the Avon
navigation noted by Wheler was no doubt both a cause
and an effect of these conditions. Other evidence,
from toll books and settlement certificates, points in
the same direction.
Before the end of the century, however, Stratford
was beginning to be affected by the Industrial Revolution. The road from Birmingham and the Banbury
road as far as Edgehill were turnpiked as early as 1726, (fn. 178)
the corporation advancing £200 towards the cost of
an Act for the purpose. (fn. 179) In 1730 the same trustees,
with the corporation of Stratford and others added,
took over the Shipston and Oxford road as far as the
top of Long Compton Hill. (fn. 180) The first Turnpike Act
for the Stratford-Alcester-Bromsgrove road was passed
in 1753, (fn. 181) and that for the Warwick road in the
following year. (fn. 182) The Wellesbourne road was turnpiked in 1770. (fn. 183) The turnpikes, especially after the
advent of the mail coaches, seem to have brought a
revival of prosperity. The White Lion, rebuilt by
John Payton in 1753, became one of the most celebrated hostelries in the Midlands; and improved
communications helped to make possible the Jubilee
of 1769, (fn. 184) which seems to have been promoted, among
other reasons, in the hope of bringing trade to the
town. In the early 19th century the increasing volume
of through traffic necessitated the demolition of Middle
Row in Bridge Street and the widening of the bridge.
When the latter project was under discussion in 1804
it was considered 'highly essential to the Interests of
this Town to promote and encourage the Travelling
and Posting Business as the same is now used from
Holyhead to London'; (fn. 185) and a proposal in 1821 to
take the London mail coach off the road called forth a
protest from the corporation to the Post-Master
General. (fn. 186) In 1817 at least 24 coaches a day, outgoing
or returning, passed through Stratford on the routes
from London to Birmingham, Shrewsbury, and Holyhead. (fn. 187) In 1830 there were 12 coaches to or from
London, while other coaches ran to Nottingham,
Coventry, Leicester, Leamington, Oxford, Cheltenham,
Bath, and Bristol. The principal coaching inns were
the White Lion, the Red Horse, the Shakespeare, the
Golden Lion, and the Duke of Wellington (now the
Coach and Horses) in Henley Street. (fn. 188) The London
coach traffic had disappeared by 1845, but a few local
coaches continued to run until the '50's. (fn. 189) The Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Company
obtained an Act for a branch to Stratford in 1846,
though the line was not actually built until 1859. In
1857 the Stratford Railway Company was incorporated,
and three years later it constructed a line to join the
main Great Western line at Hatton. The present
Great Western station was built when these two
branches were joined up by the Stratford Company in
1861. The Stratford Company was absorbed by the
Great Western in 1883. (fn. 190) A line to Birmingham via
Henley was opened in 1894 and the present North
Warwickshire line, which goes direct to Birmingham,
in 1908. (fn. 191) The present L.M.S. station at Stratford
was opened in 1873 by the East & West Junction Railway Company as the terminus of their line from Green's
Norton near Towcester. In 1879 the line was completed to Broom Junction on the Evesham and Redditch Railway. This line was operated by the Stratford
& Midland Junction Company from 1908 until 1921,
when it was absorbed by the L.M.S. (fn. 192)
In 1775 the corporation petitioned Parliament for
an Act enabling a canal to be cut to Stourbridge, (fn. 193) but
nothing came of the scheme. The proposal for a canal
to Birmingham seems to have been first mooted in
1791. (fn. 194) After some debate as to whether the new
canal should be made direct to Birmingham, or should
join the Worcester and Birmingham canal, the latter
course was adopted and an Act was obtained in 1793. (fn. 195)
The work, however, encountered many difficulties and
it was more than 20 years before it was completed to
Stratford. In 1795 it was decided, despite the opposition of the Stratford corporation, (fn. 196) to make a branch
to join the Warwick and Birmingham Canal at Lapworth and this necessitated another Act. (fn. 197) By 1798
the canal was navigable as far south as Hockley Heath,
about half the distance. But a third Act, to authorize
certain changes of course, had to be obtained in 1799 (fn. 198)
and with funds approaching exhaustion the completion
of the canal to Stratford became 'only a forlorn hope'.
It was therefore decided to finish the branch into the
Warwick canal, after which, in 1803, the work came
to an end. In 1808 the corporation advanced £2,000
towards the extension of the canal to a point 1¼ miles
south of Wootton Wawen. (fn. 199) A new scheme for raising
money to complete it was put before the company by
William James of Henley, one of the proprietors,
afterwards celebrated as a collaborator with George
Stephenson in early railway development. (fn. 200) The
canal was eventually opened on 24 June 1816, when
'amidst the rejoicings of many thousand people', the
first boat from Wootton Wawen entered the Avon at
Stratford. (fn. 201)
The completion of the canal inspired William James
with the further project of a horse tramway to connect
the wharves at Stratford with Shipston-on-Stour and
Moreton-in-the-Marsh. (fn. 202) This was being discussed
in 1820 (fn. 203) and an Act was obtained in the following
year. The Tramway Bridge at Stratford was built in
1823, (fn. 204) the line was opened to Moreton in 1826 and
the branch line to Shipston in 1836. In 1847 the tramway was taken over, on a lease, by the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Company. The
receipts then averaged about £3,000 a year. The line
was used principally for goods, which were conveyed
by the traders themselves, who paid £1 a month for
a licence to take passengers. It remained in operation
until 1881. (fn. 205)
These developments made Stratford once more the
centre of a considerable trade. Wharves were built
along the Bancroft, which now became a canal basin,
and at One Elm on the Birmingham road, where,
during the '20's and '30's something of an industrial
colony began to grow up: Messrs. Greaves, who were
then developing the stone quarries at Wilmcote, opened
lime-kilns here in 1824; (fn. 206) Flower's Brewery was
established in 1832, (fn. 207) and the first gas works in Chapel
Lane in 1834. (fn. 208) The manufacture of tarpaulin and
oilcloth was introduced and seems to have flourished
until the '80's. Until about the middle of the century
the canal traffic was in the hands of some half-dozen
different barge-owners, but by 1854 most of it seems
to have been monopolized by the firm of Ashwin & Co.
Stratford also became an important distributing centre
for Staffordshire coal, and there were at least 22 coal
merchants in the town in 1845. (fn. 209) In 1857 the canal
was bought up by the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Company.
Much of the capital for these enterprises was
provided by local banks. The first bank in Stratford
was started, on the south side of Chapel Street, by
Charles Henry Hunt, solicitor and town clerk, about
1790. (fn. 210) Hunt probably sold it to Horsman and Battersbee about 1796 (fn. 211) and by 1806 the firm had become
Battersbee and Morris. (fn. 212) Edmund Battersbee, who
bought the College in 1796, and was a large shareholder
in the canal, died in 1812. (fn. 213) The business was then
taken over by the Warwick bank of Whitehead,
Weston, and Greenway, who were still carrying it on
in 1830. (fn. 214) A second bank was established by Oldaker,
Tomes, and Chattaway in 1810. (fn. 215) After the death of
William Oldaker in 1834 the business was bought by
the newly formed Stourbridge and Kidderminster
Banking Company. This was amalgamated in 1890
with the Birmingham Bank, which in turn was absorbed
into the Midland Bank in 1913. The present Midland
Bank office occupies the site of the original bank of
1810. (fn. 216) It is worth noting that both the country banks
in Stratford survived the crash of 1825.