Mrs Redhead – a best dress wedding

This deep blue silk dress is jacquard woven with a dot pattern and is recorded as the wedding dress ‘worn by Mrs Redhead, died 1936 aged 85.’ Research on the bride indicates lower class household composition and how the high death rates could affect a family’s fortunes.

This outfit is in two pieces. The separate silk bodice has a high round neck, a fitted waist, and fastens down the front with hooks and eyes. The buttons are decorative rather than functional and it is lined with calico.

The back has wide pleats below a waist band trimmed with two buttons. A plain calico under-bodice is attached to the waist of the skirt.

The silk skirt has soft pleats, and has a small integral train. Two loops of material sewn to the waist at the back simulate a bow and are trimmed with a silk fringe.

The ensemble was probably made by the bride.

The chance addition of Mrs Redhead’s year of death and age to the Museum’s Textile register, combined with her unusual name have allowed further research into her biographical details.

Since women in the Victorian period usually married in their early or mid twenties, a search for the marriage of a Redhead was made in the early 1870s. 

The marriage record shows that she was married to William Redhead in early 1873. Mrs Redhead’s maiden name was Martha Alice Manchester, and she was born in 1852.

She, her mother and her sister were drapers, and her father was a clockmaker. In 1861 the family of 6 lived in a household headed by her father with four lodgers.

Lodgers were often taken to ease the burden of rent. Ten years later it was a household of three with her mother, now a widow at the head. Their drapery store in the Market Hall kept the family financially afloat.

By the 1901 census Martha was herself a widow with a daughter, an adopted daughter and a live-in servant.

Kin

Family and relatives were very important in nineteenth century society. A network of kin formed an important source of support in times of hardship, and particularly for the working class, these times were never far away.  Around 85% of working class Lancashire families experienced a period of poverty.

There were recognised duties of kinship, especially among the Irish. These included giving assistance to less fortunate kin, and keeping in touch with kin by attending rituals such as funerals and weddings.

It was important to invite relatives to a wedding celebration because it was an opportunity to renew and create family bonds.

However, this should not be seen simply as some sort of insurance policy. 

There were genuine and strong bonds of affection found within most nuclear families and towards the wider kin group, who often socialised together.  

The bride wore blue

By the mid-nineteenth century a white wedding dress was the established middle class norm, and represented innocence and purity, which implied virginity. If white was not worn it might indicate that the bride was unable to afford a dress specially made for the occasion.

Coloured dresses were more economical because they could be worn again as a ‘best dress’. They could also take advantage of the new chemical dyes that were available from the 1850s and produced brilliant colours like the blue of this dress.

As a draper Martha would have been able to buy her material at cost and the dress would also have served as an advertisement for her business.