Why would my family move from London to Liverpool in 1858

[vharvey1]

Hi, has anyone any knowledge and or ideas to explain why my family, who were wheelers/ladder makers would move from near the Tower of London to Toxteth in 1858 along with 3 young children.All I can think of is to get away from London, the smell and the Cholera, but why why would they choose Liverpool ? Would they have a job to come to or just hopes of a better life? They were all living with their employers in Park Road Toxteth park.

[lindylou]

That sounds like an interesting story vharvey1.

Not sure how you would go about finding out about this.

[chippie]

Hello vharvey1, what were their employers in Toxteth, a firm of wheelers and ladder makers as in London?

[vharvey1]

Timber dealer

[Ged]

Could even have been to emigrate. Many arrived here from other city's within the UK and even other countries to the gateway to the new world, many staying here in the end after finding work or running out of money and ultimately settling here.

[wallasey]

Maybe Liverpool was seen as a good place to break away to? They would more than likely be able to find jobs working in the many industries around the city with the scope for emmigrating?

To be honest, the mere idea of breaking away from London must have seemed attractive reagardless of where they ended up. Luckilly for us, they came here and stayed!

[Wato]

Liverpool can fight London

[Georgec]

Hi!

I have been puzzling over a very similar question - my family moved from a little village in rural Norfolk to Liverpool around the 1870s.

The rural economy at the time was collapsing, so I understand why they moved out of Norfolk, but others in the family went to London but my great-grandfather came to Liverpool.

I have come to the conclusion that they planned to emigrate but for one reason or another they didn't. I have read that many such people fell foul of con merchants who took their money on the promise of "sorting the passage out for them". But I doubt I'll ever know for certain.

At least it stopped me being American - so I should be grateful I suppose.

[valbee]

Hi
We often think people are more mobile now than ever before but this doesn't seem to be the case. I'm tracing my family history and realized just how much and how far people moved around. I've followed a branch of the family from Devon to Liverpool in the mid 1800s. There was a lot of poverty in rural areas and Liverpool and Manchester needed people to work in the expanding industries. A guarantee of work must have been a lot more attractive than the workhouse. Very interesting idea from Ged- perhaps that's what hapened to G Grandfather!
Val

[valbee]

Hi
If you're interested try this website: www.devonfhs.org.uk
Click on Links then scroll down to "moving on". There's a link to Workhouses Including Devon, and Migration & Emigration. It isn't happy reading.

Cheers
Val

[bluesareus]

My greatgrandad and family did the same move in1863, He was transfered
to Liverpool to work at Central Station.

[Waterways]

Lots of people moved from London to Liverpool. The first job I had, at James Troop on the Dock Rd had a few Londoners working there. Many moved because of the shipping industry in some way.

When I was a paper boy, the man who sorted and gave us our papers was an old East Ender, complete with Cockney accent and Alf Garnett attire - right in the middle of Liverpool 8.

A part of my family came from the Lake District. This year I went to where they came from in the 1840s, and thought.."why"? The place they came from was heaven!!!!

Liverpool was a boom city in the 1800s. It was the second richest city in the world at one time and for around a two or three year period, joint richest with London. Many wanted to earn a wedge and return to where they came from, much like the one million Poles we have in the UK today. Inevitably a few stay.

To Ged, most who emigrated to America from Liverpool,were from other countries: Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, etc. GB was a rich country, so why should most of the locals move?