At the time of the 1841 census, one of my ancestors in Nottinghamshire, England was undertaking his apprenticeship with a tailor. A decade later, on the 1851 census, my ancestor is recorded as a "tailor (master)". The apprenticeship must have been completed by 1846, when he married (age 22). Unfortunately his marriage certificate (1846) and son's birth certificate (1848) only give his occupation as "tailor", so there are no clues there as to whether he was a master at that time.
I am trying to understand this ancestor's "professional" life between the completion of his apprenticeship and 1851.
What was the process for becoming a master tailor? On completion of an apprenticeship in the 1840s, could one immediately become a master, or was there further qualification required (such as admission to a guild)? I understand that often tradesmen would spend a period as a journeyman after their apprenticeship, but I am uncertain whether this was traditional or even compulsory.