Work at the loom and underground
Ribbon weaving, hat making and coal mining gave Bedworth overlapping identities. The coalfield reached close to the surface here, while domestic looms brought textile work into households. Work was vulnerable to changes beyond the town: the 1860 trade treaty with France removed duties on French silks, intensifying the ribbon trade’s collapse. [3]
Some unemployed weaving families left for Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Others turned to decorative beadwork. Hat factories subsequently supplied another source of employment; Pickerings and Woottons were important local employers. Industrial change could mean changing craft, changing workplace or leaving the town altogether. [3]
Coal supports charity
At Collycroft, mining and philanthropy were directly connected. The Northern Mine Research Society records Charity Colliery as sunk in 1830 on land belonging to Nicholas Chamberlaine’s charity, during a depression in the silk trade, to provide employment for ribbon weavers. Lease income helped pay for a school and almshouses. The pit closed on 13 September 1924. [4]
Coal therefore mattered both as a source of wages and as an asset belonging to a local institution. Chamberlaine’s land purchases in 1682 and 1686 had created an estate whose mineral wealth later supported his educational and charitable legacy. [5]
A foundation older than its famous buildings
The original almshouses stood south of All Saints Church, in the grounds associated with Bedworth Hall. The county Historic Environment Record says they were already in use by 1715, when Chamberlaine left money for their improvement. The familiar buildings are their successors: completed in 1840 on a new site to the north, rather than surviving from the early eighteenth century. [7] [5]
A place in the hospital, as almshouses were then called, brought lodging, money, clothing and fuel. It also imposed obligations. Residents had to attend church and prayers, and the original Bedworth birth requirement was eventually relaxed. Charity offered material security within a closely supervised religious community. [2]
Water, rooms and shared life
The 1840 courtyard contained two different water supplies. One hand pump reached groundwater for drinking; another drew stored rainwater from an underground tank for washing. Roof water was collected through a system of pipes. This small building makes the daily labour of carrying water and washing clothes part of the almshouses’ architectural story. [6]
The Trust now provides self-contained accommodation for older people, with shared facilities and support. A Bedworth connection remains important, but admission no longer requires membership of the Church of England. The institution has adapted its rules as well as its rooms. [6]
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