Historical Notes
Contents
Coinage
Britain has only had a decimal currency since 1971, and the meaning and
value of the older coins may be unfamiliar to the under-forties, and to
overseas genealogists. Click here for
British Currency.
Lace Making
Lace-making was a very important occupation in Desborough, as in other
parts of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Read about
lace-making and lace-schools in
Northamptonshire Lace-Making.
Places
Desborough in Northamptonshire is an interesting small town
dominated in the nineteenth century by a small number of
occupations and a small number of surnames. The
Desborough menu page lists a growing number of pages including
general information: location,
population, church and chapel, employment, schools, traders; full transcriptions of the
1841, 1851,
1861 and
1871 censuses, with breakdowns of occupations and families.
Schools
Board schools, National Schools, British Schools: all existed at at one
time or another in the relatively small location of Desborough. How did they
differ? Click here for notes on Education
in England.
Weaving
Another important occupation in Desborough was silk weaving.
The Victoria History of the
County of Northamptonshire provides some background on this.
