Nail makers (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 15:14 (4859 days ago) @ jmay

Thats right ! I've been interested in British industrial history since some years after I moved away from the Forest as a graduate engineer in the 80s, paradoxically like so mnay schoolfriends we moved to find work as Forest factories etc started running down. Since starting on my FH research last year and joining this truly fantastic society I'm quite ashamed to have been ignorant wrt the quite significant industrial history the Forest has played, particularly Lydbrook area, in the 18th Century. We all know hear about Ironbridge etc, but what about the Forest ?!

Re Cirencester, now I dont know it, but I'd have said(semi educated guess) its essentially always been a town based on agricuture (wool?) and associated markets, not industrial particularly. I wonder if the nail making was needed by a local requirement for new buildings say, perhaps woolen mills and associated hardware ?.

In that respect have you tried Googling the Trade Directory sites for Cirencester and your ancestors ?

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/b1.asp

For Cirencester c1850 see pages 115 onwards of this,

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/EXE/tiff2png.exe/0000D7L7.PNG?-i+-r+80+-g+4+-h+1,4...

although when I input Nail Maker into the same sites search engine there were several hits but I didnt see one in Cirencester, perhaps you have more time than me, sorry.