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Occupations That Have Faded Away

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Sorry don't know what happened. Saw some pups and kittens in glass lit display cabinets at night in Doncaster in the early 60's you could walk around them. I don't know how they got any air. Here they had mice and hamsters in fishtanks. You don't see corn merchants now either. I used to buy a bag of hay a bag of straw, rabbit food and some tiny pony cubes and grandad supplied the wood shavings. He built them big sturdy hutches with 'bedrooms' and sacking 'curtains' for my rabbits, I wish they could have run out though, they did when they escaped, dogs in hot pursuit, they wouldn't hurt them though, they knew they weren't cats. Grandad was to build me a run but he never made it sadly. Have you fed them rabbits yet mum would shout and out I went with the muck lamp.
 
James_the_3rd said:
Neville
We had a coal fire years ago. (30years) now time flies. The house we bought had no gas so had to use coal to heat radiators. Even back then coal was so expensive to use. In the end we paid to have gas put in. We had to pay to have gas piped from main road. But it was the best thing we ever did. Apart from not having to clean out the ashes every morning it was so much cheaper It paid for itself in the matter of months. I would hate to think how much a bag of coal cost these days.
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Remember fire bricks? I used to wake up to mum raking the ashes on her dressing gown. She loved the gas fires.
 
Bought one of our dogs in the late fifties from a lady outside the market hall in town, she had a soggy wet cardboard box with pups in, what a brilliant dog she turned out to be.
 
One of the rabbits was an amateur magician's rabbit, too big for the hat who worked with my grandad. He was always a bit sickly. Grandad bought the other 2 from a reputable breeder for him till Nan got jealous of them. It was either her or the rabbits, it was a close call! We accuired a pedigree silver tabby from a lady who worked with mum. A stray tom came in and killed her cat's kittens except one. She couldn't bare to see him so we ended up with Smoky. Dad said he had all the characteristics of a dog. I am sure they didnt have puppy farms when I was a kid!
 
I have found a very odd occupation on the 1841 census - that of my 4xGt grandfather. I have never found it since and that is the occupation of Table Dresser. We had not got a clue what it was until very recently. He and his wife ran a lodging house in Bristol, but then they moved to Liverpool where they ran a Temperance Hotel. The business card for the hotel advertised 3000 covers, but when I found the footprint of the house on the 1880's Ordnance Survey map I could see clearly that they were not able to cater for three thousand people, it was not that large. We eventually came to the conclusion, looking at the business card, that a lot of their business was renting out crockery and silverware as well as catering for the non-drinker who visited Liverpoool - it was a stone's throw away from Lime Street Station. They advertised candelabra, and silverware, including Kings pattern, and even waiting staff. The 'table dresser' as an occupation was never used on another census, but it does become clear that he obviously knew how to set a table for important functions, and not just for fish and chips. I will try and attach the business card in a few minutes. I am only presuming I am right, I am having to read between the lines, so if anyone thinks otherwise, I won't feel offended. All comments welcomed.
 
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Shortie said:
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Fascinating stuff Shortie. We too have found unusal occupations listed for family members. It sounds like your grandad was the fore runner of a wedding planner/celebration specialist.
One of ours was a copperplate writer.He did legal documents and bills and it was a school subject and he passed an exam for it.
My granded led pigs to the slaughter as his first job, when he killed his first pig he ran home in tears and never went back. The 1st pig bunted him in to the canal. He was about 12 years old.
My one great aunt was a silver cutlery cleaner at a posh residential school and one great grandmother was a hand saddle stitcher.
Another uncle was a waterman. I don't know what that is. My late cousin was a professional plucker and was in great demand at Christmas time for poultry farmers. She said she was the fastest and neatest plucker and trusser in the 3 counties, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Herefordshire.
Nan was a rabbit skinner when she was hard up, which was a lot of her lifetime.
I will now go and trawl through cerificates.
Great stuff. Nico
Nico
 
Nice a Waterman is a man who sold water from a good source, as most water from wells was contaminated. I had one of those too. A copperplate writer in the family? How lovely, I just love that beautiful writing, I wish I was able to do it.

It was my 3x gt grandfather who did this 'table dresser' stuff, but that was 1841 - from thereon in, he was a temperance hotel keeper. It also said that on his death certificate.
 
Thanks Shortie. I thought he may have been a water baliff but that makes sense as he lived in Malvern. My cousin does copperplate I think. He uses a special pen and writes on parchment type paper and uses a wax seal. He also uses rich language. We learned it at school in our craft class but they didn't call it copperplate so I don't know if it was or a different style. Caligraphy I suppose.
I have nan's story book given tp her by her granma who wrote inside it with this special writing. Nan's mum wrote the names in my parents' wedding album too. I don't think the children of today can write well at all.
My one old neighbour was a signalman on the railway and the other's dad opened the gates when the train was coming.The cottage went with the job.
My gt gran's best friend was a paid companion as was grandad's cousin. Don't see them anymore. Gt Gran started as a acullery maid aged 11.
Nico
 
When I was at school I did what they then called 'mauscript' which was almost the same as calligraphy, but not quite. Copperplate is something quite different and fantastically ornate. I have in my possession an old Will which is written on some strange sort of paper which is very waxy, and the writing is absolutely mind-boggling.

All the other occupations in our family have, apart from the table dresser been fairly ordinary - I have a waterman, a carter, a furniture remover, a spoon polisher (a filthy job) a cordwainer, a horse-keeper, and then later on some rich folk with several pubs in London, including Westminster, a manager of a cycle factory, and other jobs that you would probably find today.
 
AA patrolmen on motor bike and sidecar.

When I was a child, late 40s/early 50s, in the days before mobile phones, on the side of AA patrol boxes (of which there seemed to be hundreds)there was a blackboard and messages were left for car numbers or peoples names to call home or the police.
 
I remember seeing some copperplate and it was all whorls and twizzles. And house deeds too and the language is very different. It must have taken them ages to write anything but they were works of art weren't they.
My dad's family were all in the bicycle trade and the job descriptions are interesting, gran cleaned at the mortuary during the blitz.
Mum's were in thr glass industry and drivers, cooks and clerks or they worked on the railway.
Gt Gt Gt uncle was an optician. He and my aunt ran a pub then a children's home mainly for evacuees. She gave me a painted plaster boy about 3 feet high. He had a plate at his feet denoting him as a coster boy. Nan said it was like a barrow boy. Another trade that has gone I think.
Of my birth family, the paternal side were all builders, the maternals had a carpenter, butcher, gardner, wreath maker, builders and miners. One branch were butchers in Brum's meat market.
Interestingly my partener's side one was a fish hawker and died in the poor house. Very sad.
My old neighbour came from Norfolk. Her dad had an inn and he transported society ladies up to Sandringham for parties by carriage.
Would like to see some copperplate Shortie.
Nico
 
I had forgotton the AA boxes. We had an RAC and AA badge which was screwed on to the grill at the front. I am not sure but I think there is still a box on the Ambleside to Keswick Road.
The Combinations that Olive sat in, in On the buses!
I also recall beat bobbies a thing of the past with the tall helmet and chin strap.
One of my classmates was a gypsy and his dad was a rag and bone man with a (beautiful well turned out) horse and a cart. I happened to be attending the christening that followed that of his baby's and his family trotted their horses pulling ornate light carts in front of the church. This was circa the late 70's.
 
Nico - well I am just about to go out but I will see what I can do a bit later. Do't be sad about people dying in the poor house - better than on the streets and there are many reasons that they were in there. For instance pregnant ladies used to book themselves in because the medical facilities were better than at home. Some people went into hospital at the workhouse (without living in the workhouse) again because they were well looked after. It's not all bad although I don't think it was a piece of cake. I went to a lecture by Dr Chris Upton about workhouses a couple of years ago, and it was quite enlightening - for instance the meals at Birmingham workhouse were apparently quite good, the quantities per person were not too mean, so I think you have to distance yourself from some of the things you hear.

I now have the will in front of me, will scan it in later today.
 
Shortie said:
Nico - well I am just about to go out but I will see what I can do a bit later. Do't be sad about people dying in the poor house - better than on the streets and there are many reasons that they were in there. For instance pregnant ladies used to book themselves in because the medical facilities were better than at home. Some people went into hospital at the workhouse (without living in the workhouse) again because they were well looked after. It's not all bad although I don't think it was a piece of cake. I went to a lecture by Dr Chris Upton about workhouses a couple of years ago, and it was quite enlightening - for instance the meals at Birmingham workhouse were apparently quite good, the quantities per person were not too mean, so I think you have to distance yourself from some of the things you hear.

I now have the will in front of me, will scan it in later today.
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Thanks Shortie. That might make someone feel better. His name was Boaz, what a lovely name eh!
 
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Here you are Nico - the front of the Will. I am afraid this one is just in script rather than copperplate, but the other one I had was in copperplate, at least in part.
 
Nico, when I was at school handwriting was called "Penmanship". I wonder if that was the word you were thinking of ?
At Highters Heath Juniors, in the first year we had to learn knitting, (I couldn't do it now but I remember we used to chant "In, over, through, off"". The result of our labours was called a Pen Wiper, we used it to wipe our inkwells too.
We were only allowed to use the steel nibs. Making a blot on your page would get you twenty lashes from the cat o' nine tails and (later) using a Biro was punishable by instant death !
 
Howdy Baz. No it is the type of writing I was after maybe Shortie said it. I was good at it I recall. We had 3 Indian lads who arrived in our last year in the juniors. They sat them with one of us each and we were to 'help' them. The teacher's heart was in the right place and I suppose he was trying ro integrate them. Their English wasn't word perfect but they were adept with their hands. The lad I was supposed to help, helped me instead and I made a friend. We had to make a sewn design on card with silks a bit like a spirograph would make. Remember them? I made a pig's ear of mine. Other lucky kids got to weave scarves or baskets. Another disappearing trade.
I blobbed too and I was kept in. Dad was sent for. Overeaction from the teacher I thought. Then I was kept in again after dark and Nan went up and beat seven sheets of xxxx out of the teacher with her handbag, in er ommer ond. I had to face 'teacher dear' after though.
Nico
 
Kettle makers? Is there a name for them as we all seem to have electric ones now. Ours gets a brown deposit. The old kettles we put a pebble in to stop them furring up
 
Nico, that has made me recall nan having a ball of what looked like wire in her non-electric kettle, wonder if that was for the same reason?
Sue
 
The theory was that the furring was attracted to the coiled wire. Don't recall furring was that big a problem with Brum water.
 
There's a load of tripe on TV Nick, as nan would have said. My neighbours used to boil it. Pooh! When I go abroad and see the fine meat and vegetable displays I think we are missing out on that. L remember some butchers had game outside expecially at Christmas. My friend's 1st job was gutting poultry.It upset her as some of the fowl had tiny eggs in sometimes.
 
You don't have firemen on the railway now do you, or porters for that matter.
 
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