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Occupations That Have Faded Away

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I think guards are now called senior conductors on passenger workings, on freight you only have a driver these days i believe.
 
Guards are also known as Assistant Train Managers!!or so I am told and porters are now Station Operatives or managers.
Nico, there is a butchers in Tamworth that still hangs the fowl outside at Christmas.
Sue
 
The laundry man has also disappeared, my mom used to have the Co-op Laundry, they collected the dirty washing and delivered it washed and pressed the next week. This was mainly for bed linen, towels, and my dad's underwear. My dad hated wet washing drying around the house, and he gave mom extra to pay for the laundry, this was before we all had washing machines at home.
 
Nan had a mangle which broke all the new plastics buttons and bent the metal ones. My aunt who ran a children's home had her charges sent home from school as they couldn't afford to supply them with the uniform which included starched shirt collars. They had rubber ones which you wiped she said. I do remember the seperate collars fastned with a button at the back I think, and collar stiffeners.
Mum's 1st job was in a grocer's shop. She weighed the butte and patted it with wooden patters? They were grooved and smaller than table tennis bats. Some old ladied only wanted a tiny piece of butter which she would weigh and wrap in grease proof paper. Her 2nd job was in a metal bucket factory. I think they are mostly plastic now. They also made coal scuttles. Two of my mates' dads were a French polisher and a brass polisher. Did your mum write her name on the sheets Sylvia or did she sew them on or embroider them on?
 
My partner found her mum's excercise book. She had to design her own intricate pattern and then embroider it on to her handkerchief. I have one of my family's escercise books, at about 11 the education level was far superior to mine. It was a science book and included how the body works. Each part was drawn and then added to the body so you could lift it up like a pop up book. It included the reproduction of cattle. All my female relatives were skilled needleworkers. I am told they don't teach house keeping anymore.
 
Neville Philpott said:
I think guards are now called senior conductors on passenger workings, on freight you only have a driver these days i believe.
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Grandad told me someone used to walk in front of either the tram or the train in bad fog, with a whisle and a lamp and a flag. Am I right?
Nico
 
Hi Nico, must say I enjoy your many interesting posts. In answer to your query mom used to write her name and a number in Indian ink which didn't run into the material. If my memory is correct the Co-op also used little pink labels with the number written on and these were pinned on the article with very small brass? safety pins.
 
Hi Sylvia, Thak you! We used to get a wad of our named and addressed labels printed out on little white strips with red silk letters, I had a lot for my school things. Clothes, sports gear pumps, pump bag. Etc. All our hankies were embroidered. We have tissues only now. I can smell the steam coming off the washing on the yard on a cold sunny day, the heat of it kept me warm. My one mate's mum was an invisible mender. She mended carpets but took in clothes at home to boost her income. He was a latch key kid he said. You don't see many alteration tailors now either. Or habidashers. We used to have what looked like an adjustable wooden foot. As far as I know we didn't have a cobbler in the family I wonder if it was for stretching shoes. It had holes in the side too.
Nico
 
sistersue61 said:
Guards are also known as Assistant Train Managers!!or so I am told and porters are now Station Operatives or managers.
Nico, there is a butchers in Tamworth that still hangs the fowl outside at Christmas.
Sue
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No body seems to say fowl these days, its always chicken.
 
Nico, your adjustable wooden foot would have been a shoe stretcher, I have one from nan when she passed away and very useful it is too - currently in use stretching a pair of shoes for mom!!
And the only reason I used "fowl" was that they also have pheasants and other birds, not just chickens.
Sue
 
Nico said:
Grandad told me someone used to walk in front of either the tram or the train in bad fog, with a whisle and a lamp and a flag. Am I right?
Nico
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I don't know about that Nico but I saw conductors guiding buses in thick fog.
The bus would be showing a single fog light, which shone into the kerb, and the conductor would walk in front, with his waybill behind him, to reflect the light.
Birmingham buses, unlike other cities I have been in, seemed to be determined to get through, whatever the weather. I wonder if they still do ?
 
That's what I mean Sue, you didn't say chickens hanging up cos chicken used to mean chicken, and lamb meant lamb, not mutton and fowl.
 
You don't see many chimney sweeps these days, although i think they still do exist...
 
nickcc101 said:
I remember when a well known Birmingham Chinese restaurant was caught selling cat instead of chicken, put me off Chinese for quite a long time.
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And Cov, it's still open though. Me too. Put me right off. We were offered Kanagroo, wild board and Ostrich in a snooy French restaurant at New Year once. They didn't like it when we asked for a plain steak. There was a pub in Torver, the Red Lion I think, Cumbria sold Zebra, Elephant and all sorts of steak. Don't like goat either had that passed off as lamb and horsemeat in spain as beef. Byuuuuuuurke!
 
Have you heard of Shifty Wong's? It's a joke I think but I wondered if he was a real person. Grandad used to tell a joke, which luckily I have forgetten but it had Aynock and Ay lie, and Who Flung Dung in it.
 
Maris said:
I had an ancestor that was a spoon polisher and another that was a purse maker.
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My dad had a wallett and a purse for his small change. A man's purse he said it was. I have it now, it has a hard side and you tip your change out in to the flat cup of it. I wonder did your ancestor make string bag type purses? Remember those you had on your belt? I had one from the Dandelion Market in Dublin. They punched the belt in my choice of pattern while I waited. Then you could have this rigid little purse which the belt threaded through. You had to be tucked in though. Nico
 
My great grandfather was a 'Shoeing Smith". According to Census info his background was as a blacksmith - a good, solid Birmingham trade which, as we know, dates back many centuries. He owned a smithy on Honduras Wharf, down by Snow Hill. In my mind I imagine him shoeing horses for the many bargemen bringing goods to/from Birmingham via the canal. Maybe this is a slightly romantic view, but in reality of course it would have been a very dirty, hot and physically challenging job.Viv.
 
A number of my Birmingham ancestors, (on my mother's side), were boat builders. I don't imagine there are many in that trade nowadays.
 
They could do with some boats Baz in this weather. Hope you are dry up there.
Cov has one (as far as I know) proper patisserie shop left. Druckers. Very expensive too. We used to have Elizabeth the Chef, The Kenilworth Bakery and Gladdings.
I put on an earlier post (somewhere) that there was a Swiss Patisserie in Moseley Village called Brunners.Late 50's. Cant spell it and a metal dipping place I have know learned was called Brama again cant spell it. Does anyone remember them?
 
Layer Outers if there is such a word? I wonder if entrusted old ladies still lay people out. My partner's dad's had it done to him. My gran used to do it for evrybody on the street, deliver babies and drown unwanted kittens. Yuk! She didn't have a full set of fingers either due to losing the on a machine in a factory.
 
Greetings all
Here is a photo of my Granddad William Davis who lived at the top end of Gt Lister St. As you can see from the photo he worked as a coalman but then had the job of keeping the fleet of coal lorries on the road. He could apparently strip an engine down and tottaly rebuild it. He worked in the plot of land next to the carriage cleaning works in Dollman St between Alma Cresent and Duddeston Mill Rd. The photo was taken at Curzon St wharf in August 1943. I attended ST Annes School in Devon St and one lunch time William turned up at our house in Inkerman St in his coal lorry because it was raining heavily and he drove me to school and I was the proudest lad in the school.
Regards ColinGranddad 1943.jpg
 
Great photo Colin I bet you can still smell it. Love old vehicles. Very occassioanlly my grandad used to drop me off too. I used to feel a bit embarrassed as in the early 60's there were very few folk at my school or in my area, with a car. His lorry had a big hump over the gear box which got hot (I think) and he used to put a cushion on it for me to sit on if Nan was next to him. I loved being hoisted up and down in to it.
 
Great photo Colin and such happy memories. How great to arrive at school in a lorry....
 
superb photo Colin, thanks for sharing the photo with us "a strong Birmingham chap" and great GUY 1930's wagon.
paul
 
All the coal yards and goods yards here have been built on as have the schools that had green spaces. Also sports grounds. Recreation grounds. Beggers belief. Remember the road sweepers with a hand cart. They have a few in the town equipped with chuddy (chewing gum) scrapers. I used to chat to them on my lunch break they said they were sick of being abused. Saw a van with French Polishing on they must still do it. Used to have a stall that sold foam pieces.
 
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