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Nailers and nailmaking

mikejee - if you could email them over that would be great, as i say, im not sure if i have a copy or not.

Terryb18 - its the work email at avoncroft so i wont be able to check it till monday but Ill let you know when i get in....sounds interesting anyway!

anvil man - that's great. the deeds would have been great but it doesnt matter if you dont have them obviously.

Thanks for your help everyone : )
 
Cliff2005.............. So far unable to send photos mentioned earlier but have sent you a private email via BHF (or I think I have!!!!!!!!!!!!) I must admit I'm a bit dull when it comes to computers
 
I have a number of ancestors, male and female, who were nailers in the Bartley Green area in the late 1800's. In fact most of the villagers seemed to be nailers. They worked many hours. With no TV, radio etc and probably unable to read how did they know what was going on in the world? They must surely have known about Parliament, the Monarch etc so where did they get the information to pass on? Did it come from the church that they probably visited on Sundays?One family left for a life in North America.
Suggestions please.
Thanks
Dave
 
There would have been travellers to the village, knife grinders for example, who would pass on information. Any information from the church is likely to have been "sanitized" to what was acceptable news. There used to be a website to the magazine "Birmingham historian",, which had a download of an article "Nailmakers of Harborne". this stated that in the later 19th century there was no longer a local nailmaster in the village who bought the nailmaker's nails, and so the nailers would travel once a week into Birmingham to sell their nails. this would have given then an opportunity to hear the news. Presumably the same happened in Bartley Green
 
Not knowing what is meant by the word nail in those days, I have trouble in visualizing manufacturing process. I suppose a forge might be required for making extremely large nails...maybe rectangular section...for shipbuilding and such but I can't see how individual nail handling would similarly be applied for small nails. Surely drawn steel wire would be delivered to the process which would be cut to length and cold swaged to a point at one end and head at the other. All of which could easily be automated and obviously was by the inventive.
So deliveries of material had to be made. Which would be some contact but I wonder how many of any industry had a view of the world at all. Most ordinary folk would scarcely move beyond a radius of 5 or 10 miles I suspect. Views of the world would be the domain of the aristocracy and politicos (probably the same thing)...merchant seamen...oh and the army and navy who held it all down.
I suppose we had the view of The Blues...hanging on by the 'skin of their teeth', to the second div.
When automation came in, this industry would have been wiped out together with the exploitation. The nail making machinery would be located at the wire drawing mills...why ship to other locations for processing.
 
mikejee said:
There would have been travellers to the village, knife grinders for example, who would pass on information. Any information from the church is likely to have been "sanitized" to what was acceptable news. There used to be a website to the magazine "Birmingham historian",, which had a download of an article "Nailmakers of Harborne". this stated that in the later 19th century there was no longer a local nailmaster in the village who bought the nailmaker's nails, and so the nailers would travel once a week into Birmingham to sell their nails. this would have given then an opportunity to hear the news. Presumably the same happened in Bartley Green
Click to expand...

Thanks mikejee! I think you are right - it would have been 'visitors' to the village who would bring news. No doubt many of the nailers weren't really interested in what was going on outside.
Dave
 
Rupert said:
Not knowing what is meant by the word nail in those days, I have trouble in visualizing manufacturing process. I suppose a forge might be required for making extremely large nails...maybe rectangular section...for shipbuilding and such but I can't see how individual nail handling would similarly be applied for small nails. Surely drawn steel wire would be delivered to the process which would be cut to length and cold swaged to a point at one end and head at the other. All of which could easily be automated and obviously was by the inventive.
So deliveries of material had to be made. Which would be some contact but I wonder how many of any industry had a view of the world at all. Most ordinary folk would scarcely move beyond a radius of 5 or 10 miles I suspect. Views of the world would be the domain of the aristocracy and politicos (probably the same thing)...merchant seamen...oh and the army and navy who held it all down.
I suppose we had the view of The Blues...hanging on by the 'skin of their teeth', to the second div.
When automation came in, this industry would have been wiped out together with the exploitation. The nail making machinery would be located at the wire drawing mills...why ship to other locations for processing.
Click to expand...
Thanks Rupert
Have a look at this website - an interesting account of nailmaking in the Midlands.
https://www.qlhs.org.uk/oracle/poverty-line/poverty-line.html
I think it was probably visitors who brought any glad tidings there were!!
Dave
 
brummie nick
I think you are correct! It was harsh and they were only just surviving so why worry about the outside world. Thanks for the web link.
Dave
 
7/- a week was maybe big money back then. When I started work in 1955, my wage was 10/6 a week. Not much more for doing a heck of a lot more qualified work than simple labour. Fortunately I quickly acquired a knowledge of the world...and left for good.
 
There are plenty of nailers in my family history Bartley Green and also Bromsgrove. When I first started and saw nail cutters I did not realise what it meant thought it was strange so many men cutting nails.
 
Our posts about the wages are off topic so i will edit in a couple of days but!

1955 , Average wage for men £10.17.5d, car workers in Coventry £12.

I was working as a Saturday girl in Woolworths and I got about 12/6d for one day

Bread 7.5 d ( 3p)
Pint milk 7d
bottle of beer 2 shillings (10p)
 
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This is a perfectly amicable conversation and the wages of Nailer's and comparisons to, is not off topic as I see it. I was an apprentice draughtsman in 1955 and 10/6 was the starting wage at General Electric in 1955 for this trade. You can not forget something like that. Sure after 5 years ones stipend rose to the average you quote or a bit above. Ones 'view of the world' is largely affected by what you can afford. As an aside, I have actually designed machinery for nail making about 40 years ago. In this instance a hot dip galvanising line for nails. Hmmm...that factory is gone also.
 
Mention of nailmaking in Harbourne...

'Out work'

My mother had several different out work jobs when we were kids, anything to earn a few bob whilst she was at home looking after us. One job was putting the curls on the end of badge or tie pins, 3d a thousand. They gave her a little tool which meant picking up a pin, putting it in a slot...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
I think I posted all my information to the wrong thread. My Great Grandparents were from Dudley. She was a Nail Maker from aged 10. I am struggling to locate just where they lived. The 1851 Census shows them as living in Old Mill Dudley. I cant locate an area called Old Mill. This might actually be OLD MILE There is an Old Mill but nothing showing as an area. Any info would be appreciated
 
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There is an Old Mill Street in Dudley, and also Old Hill near Dudley.

If you gave the name, someone could look at the census and may be able to help.
 
Thanks The name was Thomas Jones He was an Ironstone miner. His wife was Sarah They had 6 children at the time of the census. I am hoping to do more research into my ancestors lives. I dont expect to come across them mentioned in any publications seeing as how there were some 50,000 involved in Nail Making. Just interested to learn more about their lifestyle.
 
I assume that this referred to the following (from Pigots 1841 directpory):

CHUNK NAIL COMPY. (cut) BRITANNIA WORKS, Blews st
 
A great description of the Britannia Works. This sounds to me (and I could be wrong) that there were independent workshops within the Britannia Works complex. Viv.
 
On my paternal family tree is a branch whose name is Priest who lived in Rowley Regis area. My 4 x grandfather is Benjamin Priest and his wife Sophie. The 1861 census has their occupations when they were in their 60s as nailmakers.
The whole family seems to have been in the nail and chain making industry for several generations.
One of their sons, also named Benjamin, obviously prospered and founded a company in Old Hill. A couple of adverts for his company are attached.

Screenshot 2021-04-19 151157.jpg Screenshot 2021-04-19 150958.jpg

They were still going in the 1980s but I don't know if they are now.
 
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