Just three shillings a week!

In 1840, 13 year-old Alfred Chilcott of Burton Bradstock was signed up to a seven year rope making apprenticeship with Ephraim Matthams from Bridport. He was to be paid three shillings a week (15p) during the first year rising to seven shilling (35p) in the final year. His contract required him, during the term of his apprenticeship, not to:

1) Marry or commit fornication.

2) Play at cards or dice tables.

3) Haunt taverns or playhouses.

4) Absent himself from his master’s services unlawfully day or night.

Young Alfred Chilcott, in agreeing to sign the contract, agreed to forfeit also any right to follow the trade of a miller or baker.

In 1851, he was to marry blacksmith’s daughter Maria Knight in Burton Bradstock. A decade later, with a young family, they had moved to Portsea Island, Portsmouth. No doubt he was attracted by better pay making ropes for the Royal Navy. Around 1870, Alfred moved to the growing commercial port of Southampton living in the St Mary district.

Burton Bradstock born rope maker, Alfred Chilcott died in Southampton in August 1896. (Source: Farmers, Fishermen and Flax Spinners by Elizabeth Buckler Gale - 1983.)

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