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Occupations That Have Faded Away

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mikejee said:
I'm afraid I must disagree with you Nico. The last thing I want is some person following me around and trying to persuade me to buy a load of expensive rubbish, because it is the "in" thing. "Advice" may have once been genuine, but today it is usually just trying to push the advisor's sales targets
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i hate that some one ready to pounce on you soon as you walk in so they got there bonus. i called them a pain in the proverbial. as with storwalkers spying to see if you nick some thing.
 
I have been helping my partner with some of her family history, for a change. (She usually helps me with mine.)
One of her relatives going back a couple of generations, in France, was listed as a Devideuse. It took me a while on several historic French sites to define that it was a woman, who unwinds threads, separates them in to weavable strands and removes any tangles. That occupation must have existed here too. Her husband was originally a cotton spinner.
 
As there are over 250 posts, I don't know if this has been mentioned. When I started work, I was amazed at the skill of Comptometer operators who could do any calculation. Calculations that I needed them to do was pricing Tons Cwt Qrt at £ s d per ton. This was a skilled job for women in many offices.
 
DavidGrain said:
As there are over 250 posts, I don't know if this has been mentioned. When I started work, I was amazed at the skill of Comptometer operators who could do any calculation. Calculations that I needed them to do was pricing Tons Cwt Qrt at £ s d per ton. This was a skilled job for women in many offices.
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My dad was a Costings Clerk at Rolls Royce he used a slide rule & weights & measures books. Different weights for different substances bushels & pecks etc.
 
On navigable rivers not sure about canals, on pea souper foggy days, a man in a boat would play a big triangle. A warning. How it worked I know not. I heard it in the lyrics of The Auld Triangle, which is an Irish song.
 
They probably will but it won't be for the good. My draughtsman mate was replaced by a computerised system with lower salaried lower skilled operatives at the GEC. The new templates were always out and even upside down.
 
For a very short time I was a "progress chaser", for PYE Telecom, Richard, then they promoted me to byer, but couldn;t stand inside work, and left!!
 
Dad was a toolmaker, eventually becoming foreman of a toolroom at Chamberlain and Hookham. His father was apprenticed as a boilermaker then manufactured pram wheels at Ariel Wireworks becoming a factory owner, then losing the lot (he maintained two families!), his grandfather was a chainmaker in Oldswinford and Sheffield Brightside. He married the daughter of a French sea captain who sailed a privateer in the Napoleonic war who changed sides. His ggf was also a chainmaker then master blacksmith.

I'm the first male not to work in the metal trades. Though my school in Smethwick taught us to braze, weld and use a lathe. Dad died when I was a baby, I often wonder if I would have followed him into the metal trades had he lived. The road not taken. There are long generations in my family.

Mom's people were cooks and gardeners in service and before that carters and canalboat workers in the Black Country. I've respect for those who work with their hands in metal and cooking and growing food and flowers.
 
My maternal uncle was a farm worker who ploughed with horses and laid hedges. He served as a machine gunner in the Coldstream Guards in the Great War and trained for the gas contamination squad in WW2. Fortunately there were no gas attacks in Britain. I was honoured to help bear his coffin when the time came.
 
Stokkie said:
Dad was a toolmaker, eventually becoming foreman of a toolroom at Chamberlain and Hookham. His father was apprenticed as a boilermaker then manufactured pram wheels at Ariel Wireworks becoming a factory owner, then losing the lot (he maintained two families!), his grandfather was a chainmaker in Oldswinford and Sheffield Brightside. He married the daughter of a French sea captain who sailed a privateer in the Napoleonic war who changed sides. His ggf was also a chainmaker then master blacksmith.

I'm the first male not to work in the metal trades. Though my school in Smethwick taught us to braze, weld and use a lathe. Dad died when I was a baby, I often wonder if I would have followed him into the metal trades had he lived. The road not taken. There are long generations in my family.

Mom's people were cooks and gardeners in service and before that carters and canalboat workers in the Black Country. I've respect for those who work with their hands in metal and cooking and growing food and flowers.
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Derek, point well taken! Back in the day depending what side of the tracks you were born on cast your lot for a career or job. I was born on 1943 to a family who worked in factories or farms. Even at Handsworth and Aston Techs on day release we were for the most part channeled in that slot. There was no talk or option (at least for me) to go to university. When I got to the US, I took an entrance exam and was admitted as a night student, they rest as they say is history. I have been blessed to do post graduate work at Caltech, Oak Ridge and university of TN Knoxville where I studied under Dr Demining.
Having said that my wife and I watch quite a lot of British TV and I am very happy to see have many new universities there are which provided more openings for students.
 
Richard Dye said:
Derek, point well taken! Back in the day depending what side of the tracks you were born on cast your lot for a career or job. I was born on 1943 to a family who worked in factories or farms. Even at Handsworth and Aston Techs on day release we were for the most part channeled in that slot. There was no talk or option (at least for me) to go to university. When I got to the US, I took an entrance exam and was admitted as a night student, they rest as they say is history. I have been blessed to do post graduate work at Caltech, Oak Ridge and university of TN Knoxville where I studied under Dr Demining.
Having said that my wife and I watch quite a lot of British TV and I am very happy to see have many new universities there are which provided more openings for students.
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It is great that 'The American Dream' and your own talent and efforts enabled you to achieve your potential, Richard. As a whole the expansion of higher education in Birmingham has been successful, but poorer families are cautious about the debt involved currently £9,250 per year for fees. The transition of the universities to businesses can be fraught especially for the humanities and I suspect I studied and taught in a golden age, though we probably didn't recognise this at the time. Derek
 
Stokkie said:
It is great that 'The American Dream' and your own talent and efforts enabled you to achieve your potential, Richard. As a whole the expansion of higher education in Birmingham has been successful, but poorer families are cautious about the debt involved currently £9,250 per year for fees. The transition of the universities to businesses can be fraught especially for the humanities and I suspect I studied and taught in a golden age, though we probably didn't recognise this at the time. Derek
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My goodness, that is a lot of money given low earning power. All of my tuition was paid by the companies I worked for. I would usually take three classes in the fall and spring semester’s then four in two very short summer semesters where we went three nights a week, 5.30 to 8 and 8.05 to 9.40. Tough summers. I had to buy my own books which I would buy at a used book store nearby, saved a lot of money, also eating dinner at the cafeteria also saved time and money.
Much of this comes down to how serious you are or how bad you want it!
With me I had a great job doing what I loved. My immediate manager was very supportive, when he moved up (quickly) I moved up, when he left the company, I moved up again. Unfortunately companies like that are few and far between In today’s world.
 
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