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INTRODUCTION

People have lived where Spratton now stands since early days. From the Domesday Book we see three French nobles had been granted land in Spratone. Over the centuries a number of families held farms but much of the land was worked communally as open fields until the Enclosures. The Church was in the hands of the Abbey of St. James until Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy, 1534.

As a farming community the village was affected by all the vicissitudes of the agricultural economy right up until the First World War. In Victorian times cottage industries of Lacemaking and outworking for Shoemaking flourished. The main occupations of wage earners 1777-1901 were recorded:

Occupation 1777 1841 1881 1901
% % % %
Agriculture 20.8 46.2 37.8 23.5
Textiles 32.8 4.8 0.9 0.6
Shoemaking 3.0 8.0 8.4 12.7
Domestic Servants 8.9 16.2 20.3 28.7
Craftsmen 11.9 10.0 11.6 6.0
Shopkeepers 10.4 7.7 8.4 13.6
General Labourers 8.9 2.4 11.3 10.7
Professional 3.0 4.4 2.5 4.0

All this and much, much more is described in our book "SPRATTON, A VILLAGE HISTORY"

Escorted walking tours of the village for groups can be arranged by appointment.

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