This book has explored how the provincial clothing trade operated during the first half of the nineteenth century, examining the interlocking supply networks that were used by working-class consumers. Rarely was one network used in isolation. Boundaries were crossed between first- and second-hand markets, ready-made and home-made, parish relief clothing or school uniform, to weave a complex provisioning process, both by individuals and those within the same household. Retailers also operated across fluid boundaries, some shops selling new and second-hand clothing side by side, as well as providing clothing for parish relief, or employing itinerant sellers to take stock further afield.

Shops which sold clothes to working-class consumers were scattered over the countryside, not just in the cities, towns or even larger villages. The importance of the rural market should not be underestimated. Up to 90 per cent of the population of Herefordshire and Worcestershire lived outside the large cities and either needed to journey into them to buy clothes or purchase them locally in small towns, village shops or from other networks. Buying clothes from shops in urban and rural areas was a normal practice by the early nineteenth century. Such shops could be the centre of communities, a place to meet and find out information, both news and about stock, a diversion from normal routine, as well as a source of good quality, well-priced goods.