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Occupations That Have Faded Away

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Although the road crossing sweeper has gone since the introduction of Tarmac, the street cleaner is alive and well. Saw two today in one street. Viv
 
I still see people undertaking street, and roadside clearance, but these days I think it is mostly those given Community Service orders.
Eddie
 
Anyone remember the knife sharpener man who used come door-to-door with a grinding wheel? Was it a named occupation? Not seen or heard of one of those for a long, long time. Viv.
 
The coal man was a sight to behold for me as a boy in 1950s Sparkbrook. He carried the sacks of coal off his lorry, onto his back and down our entry way, then he'd tip the contents into the cellar of our back-to-back house. I well remember his blackened face from the coal dust. I wouldn't have recognised him if I'd seen him not working.
 
Our local petrol station in Moseley has an attendant. I wouldn't call that out in the sticks!!
Janice
 
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For all the beer enthusiasts out there, some of these 6 ale occupation names are no longer in use. Any volunteers for the ale conner role?! Viv.

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One of the old methods for testing ale was supposedly to sit in it in leather breeches and see if the breeches stuck to the bench after a period of time, though there seem to be some differences as to how the results were to be judged (https://zythophile.co.uk/false-ale-...-in-it-and-seeing-if-they-stuck-to-the-bench/). There may be some truth in the story. Speaking as a chemist it might show whether sugars had been added to the brew (providing they had not all been turned to alcohol), but I it would probably only relatively recently have been an economical benefit to do that, because of the present low price of sugar
 
An occupation that hasn't entirely disappeared, but one that is less common. Demand for baskets must have significantly tailed off with the introduction of alternative containers and materials. Demand still exists, but I suspect it's mainly in the home decor/storage market. And are these products today made by a machine or hand ? Viv.

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BernardR said:
The theory was that the furring was attracted to the coiled wire. Don't recall furring was that big a problem with Brum water.
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furring was due to lime,in hard water.the rolling around of the items put in the kettel stopped it sticking. electric irons suffer'd from furring. as people called it. washing machines still do there is a tv add. for a chemical. that stops it it.
 
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Nico said:
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?
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#229, "disappearing park keepers", this is just a sympton, of Modern Britain, to have things such as Parky's, and patrol crossing wardens, and other forms of behavioural controls, you need a disciplined and respectful society. Britain now has at least 2 generations who have never known any form of discipline or been taught any type of respect for others. When I was young it was endemic, in both infant, and junior school education. Paul
 
The Greeks and Romans , knew what happens when you have a society that has lost the ability to be disciplined "Chaos".Paul
 
paul stacey said:
#229, "disappearing park keepers", this is just a sympton, of Modern Britain, to have things such as Parky's, and patrol crossing wardens, and other forms of behavioural controls, you need a disciplined and respectful society. Britain now has at least 2 generations who have never known any form of discipline or been taught any type of respect for others. When I was young it was endemic, in both infant, and junior school education. Paul
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I think they are afraid of being thumped or worse as I don't see much respect about. Not tarring everyone with the same brush though. My dad was a steward at Coventry City but the terraces got very violent. He gave up 1971.
We callef the park keeper the Parkie. And used to tip the benches over to annoy him. I was easily led. Till mum found out!
I remember toilet attendants.
We had a commissionare on the door at work.
WMCs had doormen. Always men.
 
My mother used to talk about one of her uncles who was a lamplighter, I've been trying to find out more about him but I'm struggling because I don't know which part of the family he came from.

He could be a Taylor or a Coughlin, those are direct family names but he could also be an in-law from either side.

As she used to say he lifted her on his shoulder and lent her his cap I can only guess she would have been very young at the time, she was born in 1909.

Any suggestions please?
 
I still have a coal man, his dad is also a chimney sweep. Milk deliveries are still done but are few, however, lockdown, I believe, has been a bonus for them. There are still some of the old style occupations but are more prevalent in rural areas where habits die hard. ;)
 
Well Edifi, you could spend the new few weeks trawling occupations in the area on the 1911 Census, but as they no longer appear to be indexed by occupation, it could be a long job.

EDIT: You may have noticed that occupations are coded by number from 000 to 998, but I can't find a lamplighter listed, so it may come under the miscellaneous code X. See here:-

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/1911-census-occupation-codes

US Censuses use a similar system but different numbering - lamp lighters come under section 77,71 there:-

https://www2.census.gov/library/pub...occupation-indexes/occupation-index-class.pdf

It's actually code 953, but if you are using FindMyPast stick the word lamplighter in the optional keyword box.

Maurice :cool:
 
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Eric Gibson said:
My mother used to talk about one of her uncles who was a lamplighter, I've been trying to find out more about him but I'm struggling because I don't know which part of the family he came from.

He could be a Taylor or a Coughlin, those are direct family names but he could also be an in-law from either side.

As she used to say he lifted her on his shoulder and lent her his cap I can only guess she would have been very young at the time, she was born in 1909.

Any suggestions please?
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Occupations are always a little tricky to search for.

The only local Taylor or Coughlin listed as a lamp lighter on the 1911 census is a Thomas Taylor b1857 Bham living in Yardley.
 
I'll go a bit further than that. There are actually 184 lamplighters in Brum in 1911 including the following TAYLORS:-
Henry Edward (49) & his son George Thomas (16) living at 30 Potter Street and
William Henry (34) living at Gt Colmore Street, but no COUGHLIN that I can see so far.

EDIT: Just one more TAYLOR - John Thomas (38) of 116 Havelock Road, Saltley. That's it - TAYLORs but no COUGHLINs. :)

Maurice :cool:
 
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I think you might have cracked it Maurice, I have a Henry Edward Taylor in my tree born 1861 died 1920 he has a son George but I don't have his dates.
I'll have a look at the census, there are more children named
 
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