Change of occupations

[cazm17]

While looking for an ancestor who became a Dockyard Labourer in the East of London (around 1871), I have discovered two possibles, both hailing from Stowmarket in Suffolk - One was a butchers' apprentice, and the other was a malster.

Does anyone have any insight as to why either of these occupations may lead someone to move to London and work in the docks?

Many thanks!

[Geoffers]

Just as today, patterns of work change - so they have always done and this leads to people seeking new opportunities and new employment away from where their family lived.

In modern times, heavy manufacturing is no longer the driving force in the economy; mining is not the mass empoyer it once was. People look for work in 'service industries'.

In the 19th century, people moved away from the land and local work as factory work increased and urban areas sucked in workers from the rural hinterland. Where someone may once have trained to be a butcher, the movement in population from where he lived may have made his employers business unviable. Where there had once been a local brewery, this may have been taken over/put out of business by a larger firm. The people who once worked may have heard of jobs being available in London, or Manchester and travelled there to earn money. People will always move in the hope of finding a better life. Your chap may have had other reasons as well, but work is a prime mover of men.

Geoffers