A Genealogical Investigation of the Suffolk Seasonal Maltster Migration in 19th Century Burton upon Trent

Abstract

Local historians have drawn attention to Suffolk-born farmworkers who travelled annually by train over 150 miles northwest to Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, for over-winter seasonal work in the brewing industry as maltsters from the mid-19th to the early 20th Century. However, little was clear about the Suffolk seasonal migrant community in the initial decades of the initiative, or the extent of settlement in Burton. Using genealogical research techniques and key sources, this article reports on findings uncovered. The research established the person responsible for generating the original impetus and the names and geographic birth distribution and age profiles of the seasonal maltster migrants recorded in 19th Century Burton census enumeration books (CEBs) from 1861. A longitudinal sample of twenty-eight of the early ‘Persisters’ informed themes of settlement and relationships, occupations and mortality. The findings and associated data will be potentially useful to family and local historians researching both Burton and Suffolk people and communities. The research also contributes to seasonal studies and internal migration theory by possibly identifying a novel category of, or exception to, step-migration definitions.