Occupations that no longer exist.

[Eyresandgraces]

I was changing the bed and remembered that in the 1970’s, so not that long ago, dh’s aunt was a tick turner for Fogarty’s.
She spent her whole working day turning pillowcases the correct way round and pointing the corners with her thumbs.
i can’t imagine such a monotonous job.

I found a list of old occupations but Tick turner is not listed.

A Tosher made a living by scavenging the Victorian sewers. Grim.

Please feel free to add any you can think of.

https://rmhh.co.uk/occup/a.html

From my dhs memories

Train platform porter
Live in school caretaker

I am an admin assistant and I'd think it's one of the most common jobs around still.

Yes.
In both areas we ve recently lived in
They also deliver other stuff these days too.

Just got a rush of nostalgia. The swish of the curtain across the screen at intermission, and following the little light on the usherette’s tray as she made her way to the front of the auditorium. Listening to the slurps all around as kids got to the bottom of the Kia Ora carton. God I’m old !!

Me too! It was so pleasurable😁
I was always disappointed when it was over, within seconds 🫤
We used to brush and French plait each others hair at break times.

My dh had a Saturday job whilst he was at school working at a garage as a petrol pump attendant. Mid 70s

And at adult performances the whole of the auditorium would have a fog like haze from people smoking.

It still being taught doesn't actually mean it's still being used. (I'm not saying it isn't still used, just that the content of a course doesn't prove anything).

@Hickory247

In my late MILs nursing home there was a man who used to be captain of a Premier League football team.
He had dementia and the staff used to have ensure live football wasn't played on communal tvs because he used to get very upset particularly if his old team was shown. He'd worry that the boys needed him and would try to get out of the home to go to them.

He was a lovely man, still very fit and athletic in his 80s and normally a pleasure to be around and it was very distressing to see him like that.

Corona pop man

Fake coal? Oh that sounds bad.🤦‍♀️

I used to get peat briquettes off mine from Bord na Móna until someone decided it wasn’t eco-friendly enough selling Irish turf in Ireland. So now he sells lignite briquettes from Germany 🤷🏼‍♀️

"I also used faxes as late as 1999"

I used faxes until 2005. Where I work now, one colleague still has to send faxes to a particular organisation that requires it. It's sent via an email service as we have no fax machine.

That was one of my first proper jobs back in the mid 80s. I worked in the international telephone exchange in Glasgow which was still a cord and plug switchboard.

The rag and bone man came along our street with his horse and cart. In our landing cupboard was a 'rag bag' ready for him with old stuff put in it for him to take. Also in the cupboard was a bag of my doll's clothes, many of them lovingly made by my mum and Nan. My Nan, who,lived downstairs, took the bag of dolls clothes by mistake and gave it to the ragman. So all my dollies were either naked or had no changes of clothes 😄. My poor Nan was mortified.

Dentist

Trying to remember when I last sent a fax.... I didn't enter the workforce until 2003 and definitely used them!

Feel a bit sad that at some point I must have sent my last ever fax and I don't remember it 🤣

People wanted their son's to be selected for this job. Obvious downsides, but it gave access to an education that the parents could never afford, hopefully setting the boy up for life.

Dedicated paid lock keepers, who used to live in the cottages next to the locks with their families.

I think they are called stenographers? the machine is different. https://bivr.org.uk/training/

They wouldn't bother teaching it, on an already busy timetable if it wasn't being used. Trust me! It is being used.

For us it was mid 90s. But haven't seen it as a thing since then.

Absolutely the best answer here!

Ah memories of going on holiday by train in the seventies. The doors were manual and you had to put the window down to open them and stick your head out. I was always scared if I had to do it and was so glad when the electronic doors came in that opened by pressing a button.

I remember the porter on the platforms shutting all the doors and blowing a whistle when it was time for the train to go. It did give the whole experience more drama and atmosphere somehow having that whistle blown as the train started to pull out the station.

How about ticket sellers at railway stations. There used to be manned offices at each railway station where you went in and bought your ticket. Then they started phasing them out and put ticket machines in their place.
No idea what they have now. Probably a ticket you buy online and show on your smartphone or something.

Railway Signalman

monkey wrench
chimeny sweeps (children)