Conclusions on Women's Life

There is little to be found about the womens' way of life in the Upper Hamlets of Princes Risborough, (Loosley Row, Lacey Green and Speen), before the seventeen hundreds. I feel sure that it had been exactly the same both before and after that time with little major change until the twentieth century. Even so a very women few do stand out, but I will come to them later.

For centuries women were expected to have one role in life - marriage. Children normally followed immediately. At first one is led to believe that a lot were were born prematurely. However I was told more than once that some men wanted to know that their woman was fertile before marrying her. I do believe that some may have been "shotgun weddings", judging by the look on the groom's face in photos. However, I can with no doubt at all, say that most first children were born within two years of marriage.

More children would follow every two years or so, sometime sooner, so the families could become very large. The babies were born at home. There would be the local "midwife" in attendance, and the mother's mother, another relation and/or friend to help with birth and feed the family. The father had no involvement now. Childbirth was a risky business and a marriage could end with the death of the mother and the baby. Left with other children the father had to quickly remarry. No one could afford to pay for childcare, a cook and a cleaner. I found one man who married 4 times, though the last was just for himself as his children from the various marriages were all grown up. To sum-up the married women were always pregnant or breast feeding which would be deferring the next pregnancy. There could have been little respite from that and then there was all the other chores to do as well.

The cottages were very small, most frequently one room up, one down, later with luck, a scullery on the back. Not a lot to clean. But in that one room everything had to be done. The fireplace was vital. It provided the only heat, the only means of cooking being in a pot over the fire, (hardly any cottages had ovens), and the only place to air or dry clothes, wet and dirty from working. Clothes washing had to be dried outside, taking it in and out to catch dry weather. Fortunate the woman who had a clothes mangle to squeeze out the washing water, though any man that was handy could rig together a clothes horse to air clothes on. Sitting in front of the fire was a dubious pleasure as your legs toasted and your back "froze" from draught drawn in behind you, which draught could also blow your candle out.

This scenario makes me image that the husband, coming home tired from work, almost certainly of a labouring nature, would be in need of a meal, then with a small home with family crowded in it, would head for one of the many pubs. Easy to imagine in the summer but not in the winter with the short days and long hours of darkness. Even candles were expensive.

Water presented hard work.