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Thank you Sue

Have you tried Ken Dodd? I seem to remember he had a tickling stick. Bob

I have a friend that owns a sheep farm and she told me years ago that her granmother used to Tickle the wool.I asked her what it was and she showed me the combs and how to tickle the wool.


Also there is this site for Bradford Mills that have different surnames on for the jobs that were done in the woollen industry.

http://www.ayorkshiredynasty.co.uk/page17/page17.html

Found this - wikipedia's explanation
Could have been a Tickler - making the ticking!

Ticking (fabric) is a cotton or linen textile, tightly woven for durability, and used for mattresses and bed pillows.[1] It commonly has a striped design, in muted colours such as brown, grey or blue, and occasionally red or yellow, against a plain, neutral background.
Although traditionally used for mattresses and pillows, the material has found other uses, such as serving as a backing for quilts, coverlets, and other bedding. Ticking is a tightly woven fabric, originally to prevent down feathers from poking through the fabric.[2] It is sometimes a twill weave.
Ticking is no longer restricted to a utility fabric, and has found uses in interior decorating styles intending to evoke a homespun or industrial aesthetic. Modern uses for ticking include furniture upholstery, cushion covers, tablecloths, decorative basket liners, and curtains.
[edit]See

Santa Sue

I thought it might be something like that but have hunted on every website.
can you tell me where you found this information so I can take a look please?
or do you know from your knowledge of the wool industry?

thanks

A Tickler was a person who used to comb the wool into straight stands of wool..

brummie jan- thanks for your idea of world of wool history. I contacted them and they responded.
They have said that there used to a be a job called Tickler, who ran the tickler-machine in the silk industry.
I am not sure if this is the answer because it does say wollen mill on the census
but it looks like the most feasible answer yet.

thanks to everyone for their help

Could it be something to do with "tick" which was a linen cloth used for clothing and bed-linen?

I think it looks like tickler. The T is identical to the T of Thomas above. The other letters apart from 'l' seem clear but I can't think what else it could be.

Like the rest of you I can't find what a tickler might be.

Thank you Jan .
I have sent them an e mail and see if they can shed any light on it.

It might be a very local term which just died out.
The only other thing I can suggest is to see if there are people out there who have a particular interest in the history of the woollen industry who might be able to help.
Did a quick google search, maybe this site might be of interest:

http://www.worldofwool.co.uk/history.php

Jan

Dea
Picker sounds a possible job too.
I guess that still in 1901, a person was completing the census from information given by the family and it could be easily misinterrpreted Picker- Ticker-tickler!

thanks

Jan

the job Hackler sounds as though it could be a job for a youngster.
I thought at first the T may not be a T but then thought there was the small mark where they check it off and then looked at Hartley Blackburn further up the page where he is a Taker in of and the first letter looked the same so thought it must be a T.
Really not sure
thanks for your help. I was intrigued as to what it was, but some things are hard to
work out.

What would make much more sense is if it said a 'Picker' in Woollen Mill, particularly for a 13 year old girl, however, the 'l' before the final 'er' does seem to be there.??

Dea x

Are you sure that 1st letter is a T? Might it be H? Though I am sure the 2nd letter is an I, might be worth considering this:

'Hackler A person in the linen trade, who separated the coarse part of flax or hemp with a hackle, an instrument with teeth.'

Jan

the details are :
Her name is Martha H Sutcliffe born 1887 in Halifax.
the census is 1901, she is shown as age 13 and living with William and Mary Sutcliffe plus her siblings. The address is 3 Exchange street.

thanks

Can you post details here please so folks can have a look?
Jan

Thank you all for your responses.
I have re looked at the census and it looks like tickler woolen mill.
She was just 13 so not sure that she would be old enough to be an" overlooker of weaving shed workers".
I have looked at lists of occupations and can't seem to find anything similar and I cant seem to find any info on wollen mill sites.

Any other suggestions would be great, or it may just remain one of those mysteries.
thanks

Might be worth viewing the image

Jayne, you might find this site useful for Victorian occupations:

http://www.census1891.com/occupations.htm

Jan