BBC documentary hopes to trace descendants of York families (From York Press)

BBC documentary hopes to trace descendants of York families

10:07am Wednesday 3rd February 2010 in

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THE Nevinsons were a decent family. They lived in a small four-roomed house somewhere on the outskirts of York, possibly New Earswick.

Mr Nevinson was well-liked. Nearing 50, he suffered from sciatica and, since being laid off two years earlier, had been unable to find regular work. He was up at dawn every day to see if he could get temporary work at the York wharf, usually without success.

The researcher who visited the Nevinsons’ home in 1910 as part of a study into unemployment carried out by Seebohm Rowntree described him as “a silent man, but when he talks he is often original, quaint, and worth hearing… he can neither read nor write, but the deficiency is largely atoned for by a fund of native shrewdness, adaptability and practical knowledge”.

Mrs Nevinson, the researcher added, “feels the heat, being very tall and stout, with a face radiating good nature and even hope”.

She worked occasionally as a char, or washerwoman. Yet the family were cripplingly poor. Some days, all they had to eat was tea and bread and, if they were lucky, some stale buns.

“They have had a very large family,” the researcher wrote. “But as Mrs Nevinson once remarked, ‘the undertaker has buried them a lot’.”

The Nevinsons were one of eight York families whose lives were followed in Seebohm Rowntree’s book Unemployment, A Social Study.

Each family was blighted by unemployment. There are moving descriptions of their circumstances; a tally of what they spent each day on food; and a diary kept by the head of the family about efforts to find work.

Rowntree’s work on unemployment is less well known than his study of poverty. But in its own way it was no less groundbreaking, says Guy Smith, a TV producer who is researching a documentary for BBC2.

The detail Rowntree recorded was impressive, Mr Smith says. He turned his scientist’s mind to analysing the causes of unemployment, and making the – at the time quite controversial – point that it wasn’t always the result of idleness.

After analysing the diet of unemployed families, Rowntree wrote that their inability to work hard was “often due to sheer physical weakness caused by starvation… a fact which the critics are too apt to forget”.

The causes of unemployment 100 years ago were much the same as they are today, Mr Smith says: young people without proper qualifications; older people whose skills were outdated; women who had been abandoned by their husbands to bring up children alone.

The documentary he is working on, provisionally entitled A Life Without Work, aims to compare unemployment in York today with the city in Rowntree’s time 100 years ago, to see how things have changed.

Mr Smith is keen to trace descendants of the original eight families featured in Rowntree’s research and interview them for the documentary. “We’d love to get the story of what happened to these eight families after 1910. Who knows what we could find out? If we could find the Nevinson family now, they could be millionaires, or they could be unemployed. But if they were happy for us to tell their story, what a story it could be.”

The families from 1910...

The Nevinsons

Lived in a small four-roomed house on the outskirts of York. Mr Nevinson was nearly 50, unemployed, with sciatica. He occasionally worked at the York wharf. Mrs Nevinson was tall and stout. She worked occasionally as a washerwoman. There were five living children – two married. At home there was a daughter aged 20, a son aged 12, and a younger daughter at the ‘Blind School’.

The Taylors

Lived in a house in a poor part of town facing a large square. Mr Taylor had left for America, abandoning his wife to bring up a boy, Bob, aged 12, and a daughter Kitty, aged ten. Mrs Taylor made a money by sewing, and occasionally gave piano lessons. Her widowed mother Mrs Wade lived with them.

The Campbells

A Scottish family, the parents both aged 40 in 1910. There was a boy aged 12 and two daughters. Mr Campbell once worked as an engineer and hot-water fitter. The family later moved back to Glasgow.

The Dunns

Mr Dunn, 57, had been out of work for eight years, but could turn his hand to anything from hawking to cab driving. He had a son aged 17, described as a “slacker”, and a daughter of 15.

The Raffertys

Lived at the end of a pleasant open yard known as Chestnut Court. Mr Rafferty was 41, but suffered from consumption after a lifetime of heavy toil. There were four children, the eldest a girl. The neighbour was Mrs Pinnock.

The Martins

Lived in a suburb of York. Mr Martin was 49. He was laid off in the recession of 1908. He had a daughter, 18, and a son, 15.

The Lovells

The Lovells lived in the last house in Tanner’s Yard, on the right hand side. Mr Lovell was 33, and suffered from lead poisoning, asthma and bronchitis. There were four young children.

The Archers

The family lived in a courtyard with a plane tree. Mr Archer, 31, had been employed by NER until laid off. There were three young children; Sally, Lily, and a baby.

• If you believe you might be descended from any of these families, contact Guy Smith at the BBC (0208 008 5777 or guy.smith@bbc.co.ukor Stephen Lewis at The Press (01904 653051 ext 336 or stephen.lewis@thepress.co.uk)

• The BBC2 documentary provisionally entitled A Life Without Work will be broadcast over the summer.