Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
(1563) was not being enforced, indeed as stated earlier it was abolished in
1814, as it was seen by government and employers as outdated and not suited
to the new market place. The prevailing spirit of 'laissez-faire' meant that the
building industry was not investing in its future, with provision for apprentice-
ships, and although a seven-year apprenticeship was theoretically operational,
it could in reality be as short as four or five years.
A correspondent in
The Builder
of 18th December 1847 (597) picked up this
concern:
On more than one occasion we have mourned over the decay of skill amongst
our operative bricklayers…. Bricklayers are no longer animated by the right
spirit; pride in their work they have none; anxiety to excel exists no longer.
…The men themselves are scarcely to blame: they have not had fair play. There
are few apparent inducements for good work or superior skill; rapidity and bad
work are what their masters have desired, and the result is, that men capable of
executing good work are with difficulty to be found…
The Tylers and Bricklayers Company managed to recoup many of the financial
losses of the eighteenth century, and this money was used wisely to keep a close
alliance with the craft it represented. Although its powers of search and craft
supervision had long since lapsed, it concentrated much of its effort in sup-
porting the building trade training schools. From the 1870s, to ensure a future
supply of much-needed bricklayers skilled in the craft, the company gave a
£25 premium to master bricklayers willing to take apprentices (Bell, 1938, 57).
This sponsorship succeeded in salvaging many skills, badly needed for the next
century that might otherwise have been lost.
In 1878 the City and Guilds of London Institute was established by the
Corporation of the City of London (the 'City') and certain of the London Livery
Companies (the 'Guilds') for the advancement of technical education. In the
1890s, by examinations of apprentice and journeymen, it was hoped to bring
skilled recruits to bricklaying. The Tylers and Bricklayers Company, in a sub-
stantial grant to the City and Guilds, helped to support the project by giving
£20 towards medals and prizes to encourage industrious study.
Despite these commendable efforts to raise craft standards and pride, there
remained much concern about the true benefits to the bricklayer on site. This
was particularly true for those needing to be highly skilled and educated in
order to set out and produce the quality gauged work then being designed, yet
have the craft protection the guilds once offered.
The emergence of newly legalised trade unions in the 1870s meant that over-
all conditions began improving for building craftsmen and some sense of craft
pride returned. The Operative Society of Bricklayers was formed in Manchester
in the early 1800s (Postgate, 1923), their aim being to align themselves to
