ABSTRACT
For the purposes of this chapter, the term ‘recipient’ has been interpreted as any member of the working class in the period 1890-1940 in receipt of assistance from various governmental and other agencies. The recipients were manual workers and their families, wage rather than salary earners who lived in three northern towns, and each of these towns had a rather different economic base. Preston had a heavy dependence on the textile industry-a dependence which was somewhat diminished in the inter-war period partly because of the decline in the cotton trade and partly because of the growth of various engineering concerns. Barrow-in-Furness was predominantly a town of heavy industries such as ship-building, engineering and the production of iron and steel. Lancaster had a more mixed economy, with a particular emphasis on the manufacture of linoleum and oil-cloth and many service industries.
