Thomas and Jane, Hand in Glove
Frank Mason
ISBN 9781916919396
Worcester in the nineteenth century – a time not so far gone but very different from our own. A time of change, of growth, of financial hardship; of striving for success. Hand in Glove is the story of the glove industry, now largely forgotten but once a major part of the city, employing thousands and leading the world.
One family fundamental to this were the Ratcliffes: Thomas; his wife, Jane; and their children. Thomas was at the heart of the glove industry, a skilled craftsman turned entrepreneur and businessman, a pillar of the community, whose previously untold life story here opens the door to a wider view of Victorian Worcester.
Others feature here – the gloveresses, the cutters, the skilled craftspeople without whom the industry would not have been successful. There is also the hitherto untold story of those Worcester people who left in search of a new life, heading for America, to the town of Gloversville.
The Glover’s Needle might be all that remains of this once thriving industry but this story brings it all back to life.
Reviews
Frank Mason has provided us with not only a fascinating history of the Radcliffe family, but he has offered us some important insights into Victorian Worcester and beyond. This is a thoroughly well researched account of a family whose members played a significant role in local industry, and the religious and social life of the City during a rapidly changing era. In our current age of so much change, it is important we don't lose sight of an important part of our history that this book offers us
This is a vivid and lively account of a lost era - the thriving glove industry in Worcester, and the lives and hard work that supported it. Important to remember that Worcester gloves were ''without rivals and exported to all parts of the world, and command higher prices than any other ', (1880's). A vital source of income for women, the majority of whom worked from home, the author explores social and economic conditions in Victorian times. A vital period saved by this valuable book.
If your main interest is the history of the glove industry in Worcester, you will be richly rewarded. The author has done his research diligently. He writes well and presents very skilfully a study that could easily become rather dry.
There is, however, much more to this book. We come to know and care about Thomas and Jane Radcliffe and a supporting cast of characters. Their lives are not easy but the author uses their struggles to present us with an often fascinating social history.
This book is a meticulously researched piece of work not only centred on the world of glovemaking but on the socio-economic situation at the time in question.
As a frequent visitor to Worcester, but not professing to know the city well, I should now like to revisit the surviving landmarks in order to appreciate them with a new perspective.
Credit to the author for including the chapter on the struggles of women attempting to gain even a suggestion of equality in late Victorian society.
The theme of this book is the gloving industry in Worcester in the nineteenth century, when Worcester made the world’s finest gloves.
The Thomas and Jane of the title grew up in this era, marrying and raising a family. Thomas moved from worker to business owner, and it is through them, or what we can know of them, that the story is recounted.
I enjoyed reading this well researched book and can commend it to anyone keen on exploring the not too distant past.