DaveBrigg Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 We had 'cowboys' who fetched the cows One of them rewired my house a few years ago, leaving us occasionally in the dark. Another of our casualties was a radio telegraphist, and one was a telegraphic clerk (who joined the RE telegraph section and died on duty in Tanzania) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 8 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 8 February , 2014 We had 'cowboys' who fetched the cows for the dairymaids to milk and took them back to pasture. usually the younger boys up to the age of 13 or so. Several found in casualties families.In my home town we had a mill operated by 'Fullers'. something to do with fullers earth for linen whitening? I wonder did they use Fuller's earth for decontamination during WW1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 One of them rewired my house a few years ago, leaving us occasionally in the dark. Which reminds me another lost trade is Bodger - they turned chair legs on primitive lathes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 I have often wondered what a sagger maker - or indeed his bottom nocker- was A sagger maker put little clay legs on unfired pots so they didn't stick to the bottom of the kiln. The bottom knocker knocked them off the bottom of the fired pots (if you look at some old pots you'll see little unglazed circles on the bottom of the pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockdoc Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 I have often wondered what a sagger maker - or indeed his bottom nocker- was The trade my Jackson ancestors were in for generations up to my Great-grandfather. In a bottle kiln, which was ubiquitous in potteries until the clean air act killed them off, the heat was not even and, being coal fired from a number of grates around the circumference, there was smoke and soot around, too. Nobody is quite sure where the word saggar comes from but may be a corruption of safeguard. They were earthenware bowls, with a flat base and vertical sides, that came in various shapes and sizes. The pottery for firing was placed into the saggars which were then stacked inside the kiln, the different shapes of saggar allowing the kiln to be filled efficiently. The bottom knocker was the chap who made the bases for the saggars. The maker added the walls, a much more skilled task. A knocker can be seen at work in this video: http://youtu.be/f5jYFzUBRHw. At about 17 minutes, you can see Tony Robinson working with saggars in a kiln in this one: Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 Radio telegraphist still exisits! Known by other titles now but the Royal Signals TA did at least train some up until very recently. Trained on Voice, morse and data. Clerk still exists within the assurance/underwriting field. Pit ponies.............very recent use! http://www.pitponies.co.uk/index.php/modern-pit-ponies One occupation that no longer exisits in the British Army is Miner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 Loblolly boy - there were still some assisting merchant ship's doctors as late as the end of the 19th century and possibly into the 20th but they've gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 On the cooper front did say London ,I assume plenty in Portugal or Spain? ,probly find most in UK imported from China . . Tonnellerie du Monde are said to be the worlds largest wooden barrel makers with plants in France and the USA making barrel staves which they sell, to a number of cooperages run by English brewers and Scotch distillers amongst other customers I believe they export barrels to China amongst other countries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 John Richardson's The Local Historian's Encyclopedia, Historical Publications Ltd, 1974, has an interesting, albeit brief section, on old names for traders and occupations. A few caught my eye: Badger - pedlar of food Cashmarie - fish pedlar Hacker - a maker of hoes, mattocks etc ( rather more salubrious than the modern meaning) Hooker - reaper (same remarks as above) Higger - itinerant dealer, generally with a horse and cart Jagger - an itinerant fish pedlar (Mick, of Rolling Stones fame, seems to have had a mobile,smelly ancestor) Pigman - a crockery dealer Whittawer - a sadler TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 A higgler was some one who sold eggs from a cart - possibly specialised higger? On the other hand Jaggers are sometimes people who had a Germanic huntsman in their ancestry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 My post should have said "Higgler' - my typo, which I accept. However, Richardson is quite clear about what it meant. He also gives an egg dealer as an Eggler. TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 My post should have said "Higgler' - my typo, which I accept. However, Richardson is quite clear about what it meant. He also gives an egg dealer as an Eggler. TR Clarity does not always equate to accuracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 8 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 8 February , 2014 Nothing as colourful or mysterious as some of these entries. My great uncles were tailor and shoemaker. When I told my mother's cousin her father joined in 1916 and gave his occupation as shoemaker, she commented that he must have completed his apprenticeship he started in Keith which must have been quite a journey to have made in those days on a daily basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 My post should have said "Higgler' - my typo, which I accept. However, Richardson is quite clear about what it meant. He also gives an egg dealer as an Eggler. TR According to Thomas Hardy amongst others a higgler was an egg dealer, some Yorkshire based sources say a dealer in eggs and poultry products in general,in West Indies it means a market trader (a sort of "Del Boy") Elsewhere it means an itinerant pedlar of trifles. For many of these old terms it's probably unwise to take a single source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 8 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 8 February , 2014 Trifles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghazala Posted 8 February , 2014 Share Posted 8 February , 2014 According to Thomas Hardy amongst others a higgler was an egg dealer, some Yorkshire based sources say a dealer in eggs and poultry products in general,in West Indies it means a market trader (a sort of "Del Boy") Elsewhere it means an itinerant pedlar of trifles. For many of these old terms it's probably unwise to take a single source. "He was a foot-higgler now, having been obliged to sell his horse, and he travelled with a basket on his arm." Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 8 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 8 February , 2014 Found a Navy man killed 1/8/18 but where others have stoker, telegraphist etc. he has 'pensioner'. That can't be a naval trade or profession surely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveBrigg Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 There's a 59 yr old man in Hull listed in 1911 as 'Organ builder prostitute dealer' . It seems that someone on Ancestry was unfamiliar with the pianoforte. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 9 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 9 February , 2014 Cheers DaveBrigg - just about choked on that - tea everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 There's a 59 yr old man in Hull listed in 1911 as 'Organ builder prostitute dealer' . It seems that someone on Ancestry was unfamiliar with the pianoforte. Or perhaps he has an insight into pre-war human trafficking in the East Riding that we don't David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aradgick Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 During my research of local men, I came across a couple of caddies. Nothing to do with the golf course, a caddie was a messenger boy or gofer. Andrewr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest exuser1 Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 Few years back sold a RN pair pre war trade on enlistment Profesional roller skater . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 Trifles? A trifle meant an amusing toy, a diversion or treat - trifles that we eat took their name from this as originally they were very light, frothy and insubstantial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 9 February , 2014 Author Share Posted 9 February , 2014 A trifle meant an amusing toy, a diversion or treat - trifles that we eat took their name from this as originally they were very light, frothy and insubstantial. Thank you for that definition and explanation of the dessert variety roots. It makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 9 February , 2014 Share Posted 9 February , 2014 Just a few references From The poultry Yard 1884 Of the 2,571 millions of eggs produced, no correct estimate can be formed of the number consumed at home, or sold by the cottager to his neighbour, or given in exchange for groceries to some tradesman from an adjacent town. Where there is a surplusage beyond such local requirements, and the poultry keeper has enough to make it worth his hile, he often takes them to the nearest market town and sells them there at the current rates, which vary from week to week according to the demand, or disposes of them to the higgler," who does this business for him and charges as his commission one or two additional eggs for each shillingsworth he purchases. Poultry culture for profit 1908 "Alfred Edgar Coppard, the son of a Kentish journeyman tailor and a hosteler's daughter, wrote his first short story at the age of 43 and achieved fame in his lifetime, for his vivid depictions of the English countryside and its rural characters. The Higgler, which first appeared in his anthology Fishmonger's Fiddle in 1925, is one of his finest works; a strangely unpredictable tale of an itinerant dealer in poultry and eggs whose emotional involvement with the mother and daughter of an isolated farmhouse on the moors threatens to become an obsession." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now