Travelling to Work: Glemsford to Sherborne

My interest in the migration of Glemsford people in the Nineteenth Century has been re-ignited by Angela Russell's research into the family of Walter James Brown.

He was married to Susan Ann Middleditch. Angela's research shows that they were mainly employed in the silk industry in Glemsford (although living in Sudbury).
Whereas Walter's brother George, and sister Joanna Maria (married to George Craske), by the 1901 census had moved their respective families to Eccles in Lancashire, Walter James moved his complete family of eight daughters and one son, sometime between 1891 and 1897, to Sherborne in Dorset.

Here in 1901 Walter is recorded as overlooker at the Silk factory and all his daughters were silk weavers.

Angela goes on to ask: did any other families move to Dorset? was the silk industry at Glemsford in decline then?

If there is anyone reading this who can shed light on this, and the silk industry in Sherborne in particular, please let us know.

And I would add other questions to those: how did ordinary factory workers find out that employment was available in other parts of the country? - how did they travel? - were the relatively-new railways a factor in making people more mobile? - did people like the Browns and Craskes travel with the intention of staying permanently? - how did they sort out accommodation?.

I know some of these questions seem naive, but I doubt whether we should treat the answers as taken for granted or, in any sense, obvious.

So: if anyone has anything else to add to the question of Suffolk migrants, please get in touch - whether with concrete evidence or simply family anecdote.

Steve Clarke