... "Also bear in mind that the vast majority of married women didn't work in those days". Hmm - formally, not - but they were very much involved in supporting their husbands and in many cases perhaps worked harder.... (snip)
Hmmm indeed. And you missed a few things off that list, not the least of which was being almost permanently pregnant over their fertile years. But - and it's a big but - we are talking at least 100 years ago when things were very very different from how we see them today.
And that applied of course to both sexes. We may do well to recall what WW1 veteran Harry Patch had to say about going over the top. "You had about six seconds to make up your mind whether to go over to face almost certain death, or stay behind and be shot by your own side for cowardice." And a lot of those in that situation were lads still in their late teens and would be considered little more than children by society today.
I meant, and I am sure you knew I meant really, that women generally did not work
for an employer after marriage in those days.
But there were, in a way, some small upsides compared to what we have today. There was a baker and a butcher in most villages, and local farmers would sell their produce to the locals rather than send it off to market (where much of the perishable stuff would have gone off by the time it got there anyway). If you did live somewhere more remote the chances were that somebody with a horse and cart would come round every week and sell you provisions at your door. To an extent I witnessed the last vestiges of that way of life when I was a lad - my mother went to the shops, about a 5-minute walk away, virtually every morning clutching her shopping bag, and if all of what she wanted wouldn't fit in the bag that day, then she bought it the following day.
Severn Beach was brought up somewhat tongue in cheek. Weston or Weymouth more popular??
That wouldn't have happened until the railways came, and even when they did...
It is about 70 miles from Melksham to Weymout, or 140 miles return. Even on a Parliamentary train at 1d per mile, to get two people there and back would have cost £1..3s..4d, with any accommodation costs on top of that of course. And if you were earning between £2 and £3 per week, that is half of a week's wages gone in one go. Of course, if your new father in law was better off and your new wife came with a dowry (you know, those amounts of money paid in ancient days by men to other men to take what were considered useless daughters off their hands...) that might have been a different matter.
Always remember the old saying "the past is a foreigh country. They do things differently there."
