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Trading Stories, Working Lives

Trading Stories, Working Lives: Victorian purse maker, pub landlady and devoted mother, Naomi Cave

The working lives of our female ancestors can be tricky to pinpoint. “The census returns do not reveal the full story of female employment,” writes David Hey in Journeys in Family History. “The seasonal or part-time work of women was rarely recorded, especially as the home was the usual place of work, though in fact the earnings of the women… were essential to the well-being of working-class families.”

Keen to redress this skew in the historical record, Graham Barker – in his  latest ‘Trading Stories, Working Lives’ article – takes a closer look at Naomi Cave (1830-1906), his 3 x great grandmother. At first glance, the details of her working life are scant; only her time working as a purse maker merits a mention in one census return. Yet some resourceful research helps broaden the picture of her working and domestic life.

Read the full story here: Naomi Cave – a Victorian purse maker, pub landlady and devoted mother

The X Road Inn is circled on this Ordnance Survey map of Freemen’s Common

You might also like to take a look at the other articles in our Trading Stories, Working Lives series:

The Barker brothers in WWI

The Caves of Leicester – Tories or Whigs?

William and Samuel Whittle, yeoman farmers and rabbit warreners of Charnwood

Nathaniel Orringe, miller and baker of Shepshed

Tom Crew, football referee and broadcaster

Samuel Taylor, beadle of Loughborough

Thomas Norman, elastic web weaver

John W Barker & Son, painters and decorators

Mary Ann Norman, Victorian laundress of Paradise Place

John Collins, Victorian fishmonger and game dealer

John and George Firn, monumental masons

Polkey boatmen of Loughborough

The Harrisons: gardeners, nurserymen and seeds merchants

George Robinson, Victorian letter carrier