The Boot and Shoe Town
In 1924, the boot and shoe industry dominated Northampton’s workforce. The Boot and Shoe Operatives Trade Union had 13,104 members; officials estimated that only 5% of adult workers were outside the union.
With factories running at full capacity — some even on overtime — wages were not high but were considered comparatively good for the time.
A Town Managing Unemployment and Migration
Unemployment had fallen sharply:
- 7,000 receiving grants in January 1921
- Under 2,000 by June 1924
- 1,468 totally unemployed
- About 400 men also worked in part-time relief schemes.
War-time immigration had complicated matters. Northampton had been a training centre for soldiers, and around 1,000 married ex-servicemen stayed after the war—mostly unskilled labourers, among whom unemployment was highest.
Support schemes ranged from distress work for married men to detailed advisory services for every school-leaver.
An “unemployed restaurant” served reduced-price meals to around 100 people daily, supported by a £300 Town Council grant.
Crime, Licensing and Social Order
Crime in 1923 included 303 indictable offences, with only 12 juvenile prosecutions. Magistrates often gave cautions for minor offences, contributing to a decline in serious youth crime.
Licensing of intoxicants had steadily decreased over the previous decade. In 1923, there were 405 licences—one for every 224 residents—with an additional 27 registered clubs selling alcohol. Thirty-nine people were prosecuted for drunkenness.
Health: Gains, Losses and Reluctance
Northampton’s birth rate had been consistently below the national rate for a decade, and its death rate matched the national figure in 1923. Forty-three per cent of deaths were of people aged 65 or older.
Tuberculosis was the greatest concern. In 1923, 165 cases were notified, with another 12 deaths from previously unrecorded cases.
Reluctance to notify of the disease was a major obstacle, driven by fear of stigma from employers and colleagues.
Phthisis (tuberculosis of the lungs) caused 41 deaths among people aged 25–45, over a third of all deaths in that age bracket.
Infant mortality was lower than the national averages. Premature birth was the main cause of infant deaths (37 out of 95). Authorities linked this partly to reluctance to attend prenatal clinics, and to dental costs for expectant and nursing mothers—even at reduced rates.
First, a note about data collection. The general scheme in each town was to collect data from between 800-1000 working-class households. See Researching inequality – Northampton and the Welfare State for an outline of how the working class was defined. In the case of Northampton, this required collecting (sampling) data from 1 in 17 houses. In the final figures, 826 households’ data were collated.
The most common type of property in the town was the house, 2 up, 2 down, with a kitchen. In the data, this is the 5-room property. Most of these houses had been constructed in the newer area of the town between 1890 and 1920, typically arranged in straight streets.
Housing: A Crisis Across Classes
Since 1913, only 1,080 government-subsidised houses suitable for working-class families had been built, and some were too expensive for their intended tenants.
Around 2,000 households were on the waiting list, though many more would have joined had they known it existed.
New houses were larger but restricted by a regulation allowing room heights as low as eight feet, less than many older houses.
Investigating Households: A Story of Suspicion
Housing conditions were considered so unsatisfactory in Northampton that little difficulty was found in getting particulars of them. In no single case, for instance, was the amount of rent paid withheld, nor again did a tactful investigator fail easily to gain knowledge of the composition of the household according to sex and approximate age.
However, income was another matter—especially among better-off workers. Fears ranged from tax inspections to social revolution.
The boot industry’s wage system added complications. Basic wages were topped by a fluctuating, semi-secret “supplementary wage,” often treated by workers as private pocket money, unknown even to their spouses. This secrecy made precise income reporting almost impossible.
As a consequence, it was not possible from the data collected to correlate housing costs with family incomes. We can still get an insight into relative living conditions.
From the 826 households, the population included:
| Total persons in 1924 | |
|---|---|
| Men (over 18) | 1137 |
| Women (over 16) | 1299 |
| Lads, boys and girls | 157 |
| Children under 14 | 799 |
| All persons | 3392 |
A glimpse of wages in the boot and shoe industry for males and females between the ages of 14 and 23 was given for 1924. At age 23 a man could be earning 60 shillings i.e. £3 per week, equivalent to £159.20 at 2025 values. Values in the table below are shillings/pence per week.
| Age | 14 | 14½ | 15 | 15½ | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men in all departments except heel binding, stock and shoe rooms | 12/3 | 14/3 | 15/9 | 17/6 | 29/3 | 22/9 | 29/- | 35/3 | 42/9 | 53/- | 56/3 | 60/- |
| Men in heel building, stock and shoe rooms | 17/3 | 57/- | ||||||||||
| Women | 10/6 | 12/3 | 13/9 | 15/3 | 17/- | 21/- | 25/6 | 31/- | 36/- |
Rental costs
It was possible to classify houses according to Rent and the Number of rooms in the property. Rent here includes rates (Council Tax) and water charges. Median rents for each number of rooms were also compared for 1913 and 1924, showing the 1924 rents had increased by a little over half, and the equivalent ‘rent per room’ rose from 1s. 1d. to about 1s. 8d. Values are restated at 2025 values.
| Number of rooms in house | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total houses | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of houses | 4 | 12 | 124 | 629 | 53 | 3 | 1 | 826 | |
| Median weekly rent (shillings/pence): | Mean Rent | 2025 value | |||||||
| 1913 | 3/6 | 4/3 | 5/3 | 6/4 | 7/6 | 6/- | £15.92 | ||
| 1924 | 5/10 | 6/2 | 8/9 | 10/5 | 8/7 | £22.82 |
Pensions and Pensioners
Of the 826 households, war pensions were stated in 17 families (7 being for disability, 7 to war widows, and 3 others). Two men had railway pensions, one had a pension from a Friendly Society, and one had a pension from a previous employer.
The concept of a universal old age pension was still relatively new, having only been introduced in 1908. There were 78 Old Age pensions, 41 to men and 37 to women. Single claimants over the age of seventy were paid five shillings a week1, while couples in which the husband was aged over seventy got seven shillings and sixpence per week2.
Read more in this series:
- Researching inequality – Northampton and the Welfare State
- Northampton on the Eve of Change: Life in 1913 and 1924
- Parks, Libraries and Leisure: Northampton’s Social Life in the 1920s
- Schools, Skills and Community: Education in Northampton, 1913–1924
- Work, Housing and Health: Northampton Behind the Numbers (1924)
© Copyright : Graham Ward. All rights reserved.