Moving around the country to find work isn’t something new. From 1833 onwards business was booming for mills in the north of England but finding people to work in them wasn’t always easy.
By 1834 mill owners were so desperate to find workers that they arranged for families from agricultural communities in the south and east of the country, where there were high levels of poverty and unemployment, to move north. Several families migrated in this way from Cranfield in Bedfordshire to Mellor in 1835.
During official interviews in 1836 several months later, these families spoke positively of their new lives, mentioning improved wages, the price of coal and the availability of beer and meat.
