Before alarm clocks

[Newsenmum]

A lighter thread!

I’ve read that before alarm clocks people used to pay ‘knocker uppers’ to come and knock on their doors or shoot peas at their windows to wake them up! But who woke up the knocker uppers? Does anyone know? Did they sit up all night and watch the clock? When were clocks first used?

Does anyone have this fun knowledge and what else do you want to know that just seems impossible now?

Wouldn't they have a good amount of something to drink just before bed so they'd wake early to relieve themselves?

No idea sorry but I love these threads! Watching!

Oh possibly! and then they’d have a clock to watch? When did clocks become common place? The thing is I assumed ‘knocker uppers’ weren’t very well paid so how did they have a clock if the factory workers didn’t?

I think they slept during the day. I can't believe knocker uppers were a thing until as recently as the 1970s!

Google candle alarm clocks. Simple but effective.

Seriously? I was thinking Victorian times!

I wondered if it was people who worked nights earning a bit extra before bed....

is a link to The Water Babies on YouTube. At 8 minutes 33 seconds there is a knocker upper. No idea about it, but your post reminded me of this film, and as it’s a cult classic I felt obliged to share it 😀

I think ( don't quote me for certain ) that a lot of knocker uppers were retired sailors who could tell from looking at stars roughly what time it was before clocks were popular, perhaps they were to look at the town hall clock or lived near it?

Obviously a talent rendered useless on an overcast night!

A knocker upper would often pay a/the night watch man to knock them up at the o’clock they needed to get up to start their rounds. It was like a pyramid scheme.
In later years, a night Bobby could knock people up as a side hustle on his beat.

Most towns had a town clock then and the parish church would ring the hours. The rich would have their own clock in their home and it could be set ahead of or behind the town clock as it suited them- ie if the master/mistress were habitually late they may set their clock a half hour ahead of the town clock.

The point of the above is that people were not fussed about a time being accurate. Being woken up at 3 o clock didn’t have to be at exactly 3, and time of the town clock may be different from the time on the closest big city’s clocks. In Medieval London, different churches had their clocks slightly staggered by a few minutes so their bells would not compete with each other but be rung in a series of pleasant individual peals.

My Nan used to hit her head the number of times of the hour she needed to wake up at. Eg 8 am was 8 pillow head buts. That seems mental written down, but she swore it worked / was never late.

Is that where 'getting knocked up' comes from? Did they do extras 😅

You could put nails in a candle at set points so that when they dropped the noise woke you up.

This is fascinating! Something i knew about but had never really thought about, if that makes sense!!

Yes that is where the saying comes from- being knocked up means being woken up by knocking. The American version to mean being impregnated was an misappropriation.

I've just had a look online, seems that it was a popular job for ladies of a certain age in more modern times ( perhaps they had trouble sleeping? ) seems to be a job that fitted night owls very well.

Clocks have been around for centuries, but for most of the workers in the knocker up days owning a clock was probably a luxury few could afford

Yeah the knocker uppers would usually not own a clock. They’d depend on the night watch man- who is paid to patrol and call out the hours in the night.

This is just the kind of thing I need to know.

In the days before public transportation became commonplace, most people lived close to work.

I was under the impression that most knocker-uppers were employed by factories, back in the days when a lot of housing was employer-owned (like mining villages).

Some factories had a whistle... a loud one, to alert the workers to a certain time. A bit like a school bell.

Yep, in the case of small mining towns and factory barracks, the knocker upper would wake up all the workers as an employee of the mine or factory owner.

Alot of people lived close to work measured by distance but not by commuting time- ie 5 mins in a car takes you much further than 20mins by foot.

The factory whistles had warning whistles and a final if you show up after this whistle your wages are docked and you work the day unpaid if you wanted to keep your job.

I have a really good book on Victorian working women. I will try and dig it out so I can post the author and title for anyone interested.

My parents swore by this, and I do too! It does work (for me).

I've tried this and it does work, weirdly!

I remember as a child staying with my grandparents. My GF worked in the shipyard and they had a huge “whistle” that could be heard for miles. It would sound half an hour before work started then 10mins before as a reminder. The whistle also sounded to signal the start and finish of lunch and the end of the day.
GPs lived on a small island connected to the mainland via a bridge. They also used to sound a whistle if the bridge was raised. And the most memorable noise was the fog horn to warn shipping, it was just like the one in Scooby Doo cartoons.
Many industrial towns had factory whistles rather than use knocker uppers, the factory owners also built clock towers for the workers.
As did some rural land owners. There is a huge clock tower near to us that was built for the land workers. Placed on a gap between two hills so it could be seen in both valleys either side.

My mum swore by this method too!