Decline of the cloth industry in Uley
Daniel Baglin was born and grew up in Uley during the decline of the local cloth industry which began about 1810 when Yorkshire started to make fine cloth cheaper and quicker. In spite of attempts by Uley to compete trade deteriorated and the mills slowly crashed, first the small ones and later the big ones, the last mill to crash being the Sheppard’s in 1837. At the start workers were well paid; in 1814 a cloth weaver could earn 40/- (£2) a week at a time when farm workers wages were about 7/- (£0.35) and in 1820 there were six large and twelve small water-powered mills; but over the years as the industry declined in Uley so did the wages, eventually bottoming out at 7/- (£0.35).
The worst economic years for Uley was sometime between 1820 and 1830 when as unemployment rose so did the poor-rate on land owners to pay for the ever increasing poor relief; £3200 being paid out in Poor Relief in one year. At one point the local parish set the poor-rate at 27/- (£1.35) in the pound on the value of the land, and consequently land owners with no other means were ruined. The situation was eased in 1830 when the old Workhouse at the top of Fop Street was repaired; this was then used as a Poor House to house three families at any one time. Within two years of resurrecting the old workhouse unemployment in Uley had evaporated?

Children
Offspring of Daniel Baglin and Ann Poulton (c1817-1879) | |||
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
James Poulton Baglin (c1835-1912) | 1835 Uley, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom | 1912 Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom | Caroline Lovell (c1842-1872) |
William Edward Baglin (1839-1908) | 10 April 1839 Dursley, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom | 23 August 1908 Keynsham, Bristol, England, United Kingdom | Mary Stallard (c1839-1904) Gertrude Rosa Burgess (1874-1958) |
Footnotes (including sources)
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