General Chat

Hi
Not a forgotten occupation but one that now has a completely different meaning.
OH has an ancestor who at his marriage in 1873 gives occupation as net worker.
Von

Dont know Foyboatman, but remember Ferryboatmen.
OH's ancestors were Thames waterboatmen.
Just Googled and the Foyboatmen are still much in existence, mooring boats on Teeside.

most of the mill workers are gone now as the mills all have closed down in yorkshire. anne

Does a Foyboatman still exist

Wondering about tanners - years gone by the hides used to be soaked in urine I believe - wonder what they use now?????

Coalmen are pretty rare now too.

Thanks, thats a good start. I am sure there are more that used to be out there that we can remember.

How about bus conductors. You don´t find many of them these days.
Marion

Scrimshawing, now that is really old. Very often a crossword question, that is how I remember it.
Julia in Derbyshire

My suggestion is Colliery Farrier, as opposed to a Blacksmith. We have no more colliery's here now, so no more Farriers.
Julia in Derbyshire

A lot of the shoe makers skills are gone with mass prodution and cheap(by comparrison) shoes from the multiple chains.
I have whitesmiths too, I believe they worked in tin, not silver, so don't think there are similar trades now.

Linda :o) XxX

Two occupations thata re sorely missed Jean. Typesetting in the days of proof reading so that we didn't get the glaring errors in Newspapers thatw e get now, and the road men, wouldn't it be lovely to know our roads were being so well looked after? I bet they each took great pride in "their" bit of road.

I can name two occupations that no longer exist.
My brother-in-law's family had three Lengthmen. These were council workers who were allocated a length of road, say 5miles. which they had to keep in good order. Trim the hedges and the grass where necessary, keep clean of rubbish, keep the drains working and fill in small potholes. They also joined a larger gang when roads were being resurfaced. Much respected members of community.
The other , my son trained as a Stonehand in the printing trade. This was setting up type, backwards, of newspapers etc, by hand , with letters that were made fresh every day from lead which they melted and moulded themselves. Then computers came in and the job disappeared except for a few craft works.
maybe you can think of some more. Back this evening.