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By Richard Bilton BBC News
Mark Addy's great-grandfather and his children were buried in an unmarked grave
A century after a ground-breaking investigation into unemployment, the
remarkable journey of one British family has been traced. It starts amid the
deprivation of industrial Yorkshire and ends in the glamour of film stardom.
A century after a ground-breaking investigation into unemployment, the
remarkable journey of one British family has been traced. It starts amid the
deprivation of industrial Yorkshire and ends in the glamour of film stardom.
Continue reading the main story
In today's Magazine
Exactly 100 years ago an extraordinary investigation began into the lives of
the poor. It provides a detailed account of the staggering poverty many of our
grandparents or great grandparents endured.
"Up at five, walked round and round the town until 12. Nothing doing anywhere,
so I was fairly sick of walking about. No breakfast, no tea and no supper. Went
to bed around 7.30."
In 1910, Mr Nevinson was having a hard time of it. Living in York, he was out
of work, out of luck and running out of money. If he didn't find a job, he and
his family didn't eat. From his diary we know the family were only eating about
a third of the calories they needed.
They reveal that in one week they had just tea and bread for most meals.
Occasionally they could afford margarine or jam as well. Sundays seemed
plentiful in comparison.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Sunday:
The Nevinsons were only keeping a diary because of a unique investigation
launched by Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, who ran the family chocolate company.
The family were Quakers and their faith deeply influenced how they ran the
company, but also Seebohm's interest in the poor.
York was a relatively wealthy city, but the Nevinsons' story was by no means
unusual. Far too many of its population were living in poverty, according to
Rowntree, who campaigned to ensure the rich and powerful knew what was going
on.
The young Winston Churchill was an admirer, saying Rowntree's findings made his
hair stand on end. "I see little glory in an Empire which can rule the waves
but is unable to flush its sewers," he said.
In 1910 there was little that we would recognise as a welfare state and little
interest in the likes of Mr Nevinson. Rowntree sent researchers out into the
city of York with instructions to speak to every one who was struggling to find
work. As the concluding report notes, there were hundreds of them.
Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree Pioneer in highlighting the problems of poverty -
Seebohm Rowntree
It was the first time the poor had been given their own voice. Of the
Nevinsons, they said: "They are in arrears of rent and have a heavy bill at the
corner shop. Until that is paid off, the family will continue to live almost
entirely on bread and margarine."
It's a chilling insight into a world most of us would barely recognise. Only
100 years ago life was brutal if you were without work.
Neighbours testify that the family were sober, decent and well living, always
willing to work however poorly paid.
"Nothing is against the Nevinsons but back luck," they added.
Blind daughter
Infant survival rates were shocking at the time. Mrs Nevinson lost almost all
her 22 children either in childbirth or as infants. They had three surviving
children, a son called Sydney and daughters, Audrey and Ivy, who was blind.
The names in the Rowntree study are all changed to protect their identity. But
Ivy's blindness provided a clue as to their identity. A girl the same age with
the same family background was enrolled at the local blind school. Her name was
Ivy Addy.
Mr Nevinson it turned out was in fact John Thomas Addy.
So what became of John Thomas Addy and his children? We know he moved to a
better house. But we don't know whether he found work. He lived for another 20
years and it's likely things improved for him.
Ivy, the blind girl, only lived to be 23. But Sydney, who worked in York's
expanding chocolate industry, and Audrey both grew up and had children of their
own.
Ian Addy is one of the so-called Mr Nevinson's grandchildren. He lives in a
bungalow no more than two miles from where his grandfather kept his diary.
Cutting up boots
He had no idea his family's history had been so carefully recorded or that his
own father, Sydney, grew up in such abject poverty. His father never talked
about being poor.
Sydney Addy Sydney Addy - one of only three of the 'Nevinsons'' children to
have lived
The diary describes Sydney aged 12 as underweight but healthy. Another diary
entry has John Thomas Addy cutting up some old boots to repair his son's
footwear. When Ian was shown the diary, not surprisingly he found the details
very moving.
"It's just an age that's gone by and looking through a keyhole and seeing that
and realising how lucky I am now," he says.
Ian grew up in a simple terraced house in York. His dad's steady job at the
cocoa works meant they weren't desperate.
"I found reading what my ancestors had done and the struggle of that particular
time was just something that was amazing really."
Rowntree's study was published and - along with all Seebohm Rowntree's work -
went on to influence the creation of the welfare state and provide an escape
from poverty for families like the Addys.
The striking thing about the Addys' journey through the last century is how
much has changed for working-class families.
Film star in family
John Thomas Addy couldn't earn enough money to buy food. His son Sydney was
poor but had regular work. By the time we reach Ian, there were far more
opportunities. He spent his working life as a glazier in York Minster.
Ian and Mark Addy Ian Addy and his film star son, Mark
Post-war Britain was a place of great social mobility - and the Addys' ascent
from grinding poverty up the ladder of prosperity is testament to that. It
perhaps no more apparent than in the experience of Ian Addy's son, Mark.
He lives a life as far removed from that of his unemployed great-grandfather as
you can imagine. Mark Addy is a successful film actor whose breakthrough film
was The Full Monty, about unemployed people in Yorkshire. He recently starred
as Friar Tuck alongside Russell Crowe in Hollywood's latest depiction of Robin
Hood.
"What are the chances of that," he says, speaking of the diaries. "But that's
I suppose that's the nature of these things you never know where the path will
lead you to."
From poverty to Hollywood in four generations, Mark Addy works all over the
world but he still lives in York. He too had no idea about his family's story,
but says he's proud of what his great-grandfather did.
"He was just being truthful about the way he lived and the way his family lived
but it is extraordinary that it is part of... our social history."
Below is a selection of your comments
It is astounding that such a climb could happen so quickly. But I understand
it, a similar climb occurred in my family as well. Hopefully, such ascents into
better life can continue.
Maegan, Gainsville, USA
Oh! that is amazing, I was reading Addy and remembering a doctor, I worked with
in Leicester, she told us that she was Mark Addy's cousin, about 1996? She
worked there, so they came on in many ways, (She had a different surname so
could have been from a different wealth background, but cousins all the same)
Heather, East Lyme, CT, USA
It does seem modern Britain forgot what it's like to be poor with all the
wailing and bleating over taking child tax credits off people in the 40% tax
bracket. We had kids growing up on tea and bread but apparently we have so much
'poverty' in Britain something has to be done. It's not poverty, it's being
relatively not so well off. The days when families could only afford bread and
tea for a week was poverty.
Dave, Bridgend
The Addys were lucky-although poor they were a united family-although of humble
origins they moved up the social ladder because of hard work, ambition, self
control and respectability - what a difference to the so called jobless poor
nowadays. John Addy would weep if he could see us now.
Christina Burton, Eastbourne
I don't really understand the 'spin' put on this otherwise interesting story.
It's hardly a case of ascending some supposed post-war ladder of prosperity is
it? More like a shift from unreliable employment to relatively dependable but
modest employment for two generations followed by a lucky break (a Hollywood
career is hardly the typical experience of most working class people is it?). I
wonder what the typical trajectory would be for a member of the wealthiest 20%
in that time.
Dave Pinnock, York
Your touching story depicts life in many African communities. For many of us,
we are the Ians of today- the immediate succeeding generation. We are
encouraged however by the emergence of Mark. Our children and grandchildren
will not share in our experience.
Agadah, W.O., Yenagoa, Nigeria
I have been researching my family tree and suspect that my family background in
Leicester was rather similar. My ancestors, back in the 1870's, were part of
the migration from countryside to city where there were opportunities in the
new factories. But from the little I've ascertained life was hard. It really
makes you think, doesn't it? Especially when so many have the luxurious
recourse now of Social Security.
Paul, London
What a moving article. This is what life was like in Britain before the welfare
state.
Andy Walpole, Romford
Is this supposed to be some 'good luck story'? How fortunate the Addys must be
to have survived the 1st WW, the flu of 1918 and the depression. No doubt most
of the other people interviewed back in 1910 didn't have anything like the
success. Please don't tell us how such reports affected Winston Churchill, the
people of Wales know exactly what he thought of the poor.
John Bennett, Swansea, Wales
The infant mortality numbers are the real story here - when children survive,
and mothers are able to have only 1 or 2 children confident that they will live
to adulthood, they are able to live much more productive lives. I wonder how
the daytime TV generation would handle the thought of having twenty two
children, and watching nineteen of them die as infants? I would imagine there
would be a lot less whining about benefit cuts.
Ian Lowe, Airdrie, Scotland
Well, after reading that story, i suppose I shouldn't be bitter that I was
informed yesterday that my employment with the council is now ended. At least
my husband still has a job, and we have a roof over our heads, albeit a static
caravan. At least we're not living in the streets (yet).
Sonja Griffin, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria
Poverty was often seen as a crime by those in power or wealth, the workhouses
were the first attempts at social welfare and were brutal, cold and awful
places so much so that people committed suicide to avoid them. Families were
split up, children never saw siblings or parents again and many died young from
rampant diseases, all this while the wealthy built enormous palaces on cheap
labour.Period drama's only focus on the life of these wealthy few when the
reality is abject misery, grinding poverty and early death for a large part of
society.
Andy, Skipton
Growing up in Belm in the 40s was hard, I can tell you (so I will). Like the
Addys', us Jacksons' didn't have a lot of a lot of food and really had to tough
it out, often surviving on scraps we found in the neighbourhood yards. We
mainly ate stale bread and powder but once a month we would go into nearby
Osnabrück and feast on weisswurst and obazda cheese. Things improved when we
later moved to England but I'll never forget my early childhood in Belm.
Provastian Jackson, Belm, Lower Saxony, Germany
he move from the grinding poverty described in this article to our relative
comfort with the welfare state was not evolutionary, nor was it primarily
changed by the Rowntrees or any of the other philanthropists - however well
meaning. The changes were fought for and won over many years by ordinary
people. In 1943 this was summed up by the Tory MP Quintin Hogg saying "We must
give them reform or they will give us revolution". It worries me that a group
of millionaire Old Etonians (We are all in it together!?) are doing their
utmost to reverse those reforms so hard won. We have the largest disparity
between rich and poor since the days seen in the article, hearing Cameron using
Kitchener quotes it smacks of "Our Sacrifice" of WWI where the poor suffered
most and the "Land fit for Heroes" failed to materialise. Pass the marg!
Jezz Etheridge, Ramsgate, England
An utterly moving account of the state of the nation. How different life was
then. As we look down the barrel of the forthcoming age of "austerity", it puts
some perspective on our comfortable financial position. Yesterday's interview
with the PR exec who couldn't give up his real ale appears somewhat trite in
comparsion. It's also hard to imagine that in 1914, men were queuing up to go
to war, just so they could earn a wage. Sad times.
Chris, Godalming
Can I suggest that those interested in this story read The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. This book is a defining account of working
class life in the early 20th Century.
David Howie, Dunblane, Perthshire