The Hinckley wedding dress

This ensemble was worn by Mrs Hinckley, a Bolton woman, in 1877. By examining the outfit and associated objects, and by doing a little family history research, it has been possible to develop what we know about the original wearer.

The bodice has a high round collar and was trimmed with brown silk on the front, shoulders, cuffs and on the yoke at the back. Unfortunately the trim has degraded considerably and much has been lost.

The long full bustle skirt has a small train, and is decorated with three cross-grain bands. The underside of the skirt is edged with lace, which would have become visible while the bride walked.

A cape fringed with the dress material accompanies the outfit and it was probably worn as part of the outfit.

The dress was donated with the record ‘Mrs Hinckley’s wedding dress, c.1870s’. Accompanying the donation was a ‘birth flag’ celebrating the birth of her son Herbert Higginson Hinckley, dated 1878.

Pregnancy with the first child tended to swiftly follow marriage at this time. If Herbert was her first child, it would mean the marriage was likely to have been between 1875 and 1877. Starting from this one date research revealed that the bride was Alice Hinckley, née Walsh.

She was the daughter of Eliza, the second wife of Joseph Walsh who had six living children in 1861. Alice married John Hinckley at the Park Street Wesleyan Chapel on the 26th September 1877. She was aged 24 and he was 25. The 1871 census showed that it was likely that Alice and John met when they were in service to the Ormrod family, she as a nurse and he as a footman. 

Bride in mourning

The most significant feature of this dress is the colour. The sombre hue probably indicates that the bride was in mourning for a relative, although we do not know for whom. One of the features of the Victorian era was the cult of mourning, the duties of which fell particularly on women.

The elaborate etiquette to be observed by those grieving for lost relatives required a woman to wear black in her everyday life if she was in full mourning, or grey or mauve if she was in half mourning.

Black wedding gowns were unusual; a bride in mourning was able to wear half mourning colours for her wedding, or stark white.

  The young Hinckley couple went from domestic service to the lower reaches of the middle class when John secured work as a clerk in a mill, and later in a brewery

As a group, the small lower middle class identified with middle class values and lifestyle, but their lower income meant it was often a struggle to maintain respectability. 

This supports the notion that the bride wore this dress on occasions after the wedding.  The skirt has three fastening positions, a frugal measure allowing for an increasing waist - her pregnancy with Herbert.

Unlike the grand celebrations of the wealthy middle and upper classes, a lower middle class wedding was of interest to only a small circle of close relatives, friends and colleagues.

In married life the husband went out to business while the wife did the housekeeping and childcare. If a servant could be afforded she was likely to be young and untrained. Laundry, the heaviest household task, was the first to be consigned to hired help. 

There was also the conflicting pressure to keep up appearances while making ends meet. These pressures may have encouraged the greater team approach to marriage, and lower middle class fathers were often involved in childcare.