Don't discount travel by sea - although Teddington lock (tide-end-town) on the river Ouse now separates the city of York from tidal waters, before it was built small vessels sailed right up into the heart of the city. The coastal waters of the North sea were the M1 motorway of Britain back in the day, and goods were moved around by sea and river all the time.
If the mother was unmarried she could well have contacted family members asking for their help in finding a craftsman willing to take on her boy as apprentice, someone with his own workshop, a 'little mester' able to put family connection first, or repay a favour. Traveling away from where the child was born left behind any problems there might have been over his lack of his father's name.
The pottery industry - Wedgewood and many more firms, had the white china clay from the West Country quarries delivered by boats able to sail around the coast and navigate the rivers and canals, and the pots were then loaded onto other vessels and sent far and wide. One large order went to the Russian czarina packed into straw skeps on barges all the way from the factory pond to the lady's park.
Anne the Pleater :ootd:
I presume to dictate to no man what he shall eat or drink or wherewithal he shall be clothed."
-- The Hon. Stuart Ruaidri Erskine, The Kilt & How to Wear It, 1901.
Bookmarks