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Andover History |
 | Threshing was traditionally done by hand on the cobbled floors. At the beginning of the 19th century the daily life of the agricultural labourer in general, was depressing. The deterioration of their standard of living had left many people penniless. Their existence was made even worse by the introduction of machinery, both on the land and in the factories, and the labourers realised that these would deprive them of many of their traditional sources of income. | | The use of such new machinery meant that eight men could thresh in a week what it use to take ten men six months to do. This inevitablly led to mass unemployment. The rules of claiming the poor rates .(similar to today's Income Support) were much stricter then. No work meant no money and no food. |  |
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