THEME Business, trade and industry

Sir Thomas Lipton

Sir Thomas Lipton

Sir Thomas Lipton, the very embodiment of the cliche, ‘Poor boy makes good’, was born in 1850 of working class Northern Irish parents in Glasgow. Lipton started work as n errand boy and became a millionaire through the vast chain of grocers shops that he had created and by 1908 he was one of the…

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Mathematical Society Spitalfields.

Mathematical Society Spitalfields

Like many of the ‘societies’ of its time the Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, founded in 1717, was run as a club where people of like minded interests could meet, discuss and debate the latest news, views and ideas of their chosen interest, in this case mathematics with a bit of physics thrown in for good…

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Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill, social reformer and one of the founders of the National Trust. Octavia Hill was born in 1838 into a family of social reformers, her grandfather was Thomas Southwood Smith a public health reformer and her father was a friend of Jeremy Bentham so from an early age she was exposed to the need…

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The Framework Knitters Declaration 1812

Frameworkers
This entry is part [part not set] of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals
This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series Agricutural Revolution

The issuing of this declaration by the framework knitters was in response to the machines that as the workers saw it was bringing down wages and producing inferior quality goods. The framework knitters (also called stockingers), launched the Luddite protests in Nottingham in 1811, justifying their actions by referring to the 1663 Charter of the…

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The Framework Knitters 1821

Almost ten years on from the 1812 ‘Declaration of the Framework knitters’, conditions for the framework knitters of the counties of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester has not seen any sign of improving. The pay for these workers, of whom there were estimated to be about 15,000 in these three counties, was insufficient to keep them…

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Leadenhall Market

Leadenhall Market

A trip to the City of London is not complete without a visit to Leadenhall Market. Walking amongst the high rise office buildings in the City of London it is easy to miss the ancient market of Leadenhall. It can be found in the triangle made up of Gracechurch Street, Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street…

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Clothworkers Company

clothworkers company

The Clothworkers Company, one of the livery companies of London. The grandeur of England is to be attributed to its golden fleece, the wealth of the loom making England a second Peru and the back of the sheep and not the entrails of the earth being its chief mine of riches. The silkworm is no…

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Medieval Markets and Fairs Gazetteer.

medieval markets and fairs

Medieval markets and fairs. Medieval markets and fairs made up the economy of Britain both before and after the Black Death. The world of the market then and now would be strikingly similar to today. The archives have revealed tax records that give some insight into how the market economy of Medieval Britain was directed…

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