Market Harborough, Liecestershire

[dot.haukes]

Would anyone have an idea as to why a single girl and her brother would migrate to market Harborough from the Cumbrian Coast in their late teens during the 1850? What industry was there in the mid 1800s that would attract them? They had no particular trade or skills seemingly. Though the sister was a milliner in later years.

[Mr Veritas]

During the 19th C Agriculture (as in the area around Mkt Harborough) underwent a severe depression.
This resulted in the younger & single members of families (those without family responsibilities) to seek work in other areas.
Such as these towns on the Cumbrian Coast:~
Barrow in Furness,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow-in-Furness
Whitehaven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehaven
Maryport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryport

If you read these pages from Wikipedia it won't take you long to realise that this short part of the Cumbrian Coast was(in the mid 19th C) probably the largest coastal industrial area in Britain,and as such was probably crying out for workers;being as the area that it was in was sparsely populated.
You also have to consider that this coast would also have had a large fishing fleet.
I have no doubt that a brother and sister (going somewhere new and strange) would have felt happier and more secure together than going alone.
Sadly,people had to travel what was(to them) large distances to obtain work.
Of course some families went as far as America and Australia to do the same,so moving to Cumbria was probably an easier option.

[Mr Veritas]

Apologies,I really need to get to Specsavers! LOL
In that case I have no idea.

[PurpleParis]

Hi Dot, I live 15 miles from Market Harborough, which is a lovely little place to live, my Grandmother lived there. She worked in a large haberdashery factory run by the Symington brothers, they were big there around the mid 1800's. I think there was one brother who ran the haberdashery and one who ran a mill, my aunt worked for them at the mill.
There was also a great canal system at that time, the Grand Union, maybe they were canal people?

[dot.haukes]

Lol yes it is from Cumbria to Leicestershire but also it is back again! A single girl migrates to Market Harborough in the early 1860s and works as a milliner, then marries a local man, her brother moves down there by 1871, then between 1874 and 1881 the family have moved up to the wife (and her brother's) hometown of Gosforth on the Cumbrian Coast and set up a boarding house. They did lose 2 children before moving back to Cumbria, it may well be that the agricultural industry had a part in their move, as the husband on the 1871 census was a 'manure manufacturer' !!! I am still curious as to why the girl woulkd move so far as a teenager to make hats though! But that haberdashery factory does seem a likely answer, I'll check her details again in the 1861 census.
Thanks all.