19th and 20th century Stockings in Southwark

My four-times great-grandfather Thomas STOCKING and his descendents are found in the censuses and via BMD certificates in Southwark and nearby Bermondsey for many years.  The area is steeped in history throughout the development of London, St George the Martyr  often being the location of their baptisms and marriages.

St George the Martyr in Borough High Street is not far from Castle Street where the family were living in 1841-1851.  Castle Street has since been renamed Thrale Street, nearest tube being Borough.  About 7-8 minutes’ walk away is what is now (since 1905) Southwark Cathedral, then the parish church of St Saviour, and the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe.  The area has been much written about in Victorian times, and Dickens’ Little Dorritt was christened at St George the Martyr, opposite Marchelsea Prison, where Susan nee BROWN was also christened.  Castle Street appears briefly in Charles Booth’ s archive in a notebook on a walk around Newington in May 1899 (364, p24-25), as a single, rather stark line suggesting the area's poverty.

The 'Lost Industry of Southwark ' website gives an insight into the great industrial explosion of the area in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1841 census, Thomas STOCKING is described as a labourer. By the 1851 census he is working as a rope mat maker, an occupation he is still holding ten years later at the time of the 1861 census, along with some of this sons and his second wife. There was a large rope manufactory in Southwark, close by the sailworks and other industries relating to shipping and the docks. Long 'rope walks' provided 'avenues' of between 600-1200 feet in length. I am not sure whether rope mat making was associated with the rope works, or a separate industry, but the website gives an indication of the density of industry around Southwark, not least the leather works and hatters. In 1843, Christy's Hat Makers of Bermondsey Street was the largest hat and cap making factory in the world. Some of Thomas' female descendents were hat makers and trimmers, including some of his grand-daughters and great-granddaughters.