The higglers

The word higgler has now fallen into disuse but was familiar in past times to describe a trader, a buyer and seller of goods, originating from the verb to haggle. During the 19th century, it referred to an itinerant dealer or pedlar, especially a carrier or huckster, usually with a horse and cart, who travelled the countryside purchasing poultry and other dairy products such as eggs and cheese, seeds and corn, and supplying minor but useful goods for household use that he had purchased in nearby towns in exchange.

One of the earliest references may be found in The Surgeon’s Daughter by Sir Walter Scott (1827) who writes of “the labours of a higgler, who travels scores of miles to barter pins, ribbons, snuff and tobacco, against the housewife’s private stock of eggs, skins, and tallow”.

A delightful short story by A E Coppard (1878-1957) called The Higgler, written in 1930, contains a more colourful description of Harvey Witlow, dealer in poultry, who travels the countryside in a two-wheeled cart pulled by a horse of mean appearance and notorious ancestry. The story enjoyed widespread success when it was filmed for television in 1972 in a series called Country Matters and is still available today in book form with a collection of the author’s short stories.

Higglers were part of the community in the Bourne area during the middle years of the 19th century and the records show that many lived in the town. One of the best known was William Elston, of Eastgate, who came to an untimely end when he killed himself on 11th April 1884. An inquest at the Butcher's Arms the following day was told that he had been a teetotaller for five months but in consequence of losing his horse, he got into financial troubles and started drinking heavily. This affected his mind to such an extent that he got up early on Good Friday morning and hanged himself from a roof beam in the stable were his body was found by a neighbour and as a result of the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of suicide while in a state of temporary insanity.

The earliest recorded higgler in Bourne was William Steel, of Eastgate, who is listed in Kelly’s Street Directory for 1876 and by 1882 we have George Grummitt, also of Eastgate, and the ill-fated William Elston, followed in 1885 by William Brinkley, South Street, John Hercock (no address given) and a woman, Mrs Fanny Steel, of Eastgate.

But by the end of the century, the higglers had gone, perhaps changing the nature of their occupation to carters, contractors and general dealers, leading a more settled existence from permanent premises, a transition influenced by the changing times while the old way of life is remembered today only in fiction.