Quarrying at Keinton Mandeville

For centuries quarrying was important and valuable to the people of Keinton Mandeville.The large number of workers, earning more than agricultural labourers, supported several trades and services including dressmakers, tailors, and shopkeepers. The cash wages earned by the stone workers allowed them to live in fairly good houses and to purchase clothing and household goods. They could afford to patronise a glass and china dealer in 1841,[1] a watch and clock cleaner in 1871, and an upholsterer in 1881.[2] The family economy was enhanced by the many wives of stonecutters who had their own businesses including shopkeeping. Very few in the stone trade had a resident servant from outside the family but many sisters and daughters were employed as servants, often for their own families but sometimes for others Amelia Chalker, a marble mason’s wife with five children in 1861, gave her occupation as ‘slave to the rest of the family’.[3]

[2]     Ibid. RG 11/2379.

[3]     Ibid. RG 9/1628; RG 10/2394; RG 11/2379.