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

Being a real explorer, not like Dora but like Dr Livingstone and Captain Cook and poor old Captain Oates.

Still here!

It's not like every vocational course is 100% up-to-date.
I'd trust you if you gave me real-life examples.

There was a petition to stop the rides not long ago.
Its still a thing though

ps captainmycaptain ……I wanted that username, clearly you got there first 🥲

I still have a paperperson, currently a boy but have had girls

similarly do tallymen still exist?

This thread set me thinking about the WMC I used to watch bands in during my (misspent) youth. Some of the jobs probably still exist but not in the numbers they did when the clubs started.
Tacklers (tacklers and overlookers- weaving).
Dressers (warp dressers - weaving)
And my favourite 'fast and slow' proper name Carter's and Motormen.
Yes I live in a Northern mill town.

Tea ladies still exist. When I gave birth to DS there was a tea lady going round a few times a day.

I also worked in an office in Africa and we had a tea lady there.

This is all recent experience!

My Dad ran a company selling shoddy manure.

Fertilizer made from the by products of the woollen industry.

"Van makers in Luton."

The decline of the British car manufacturing sector over the last 20-30 or so years has just been incredible.

Ford stopped car production at it's Dagenham plant in 2002 and that was the last year that a Ford car was ever manufactured in the UK, and the last Transit van rolled off a British production line at Dagenham in 2013. The Bridgend plant, making engines, closed in 2020 but they do still have engine plants in Dagenham and Halewood.

Halewood makes transmissions so is likely to survive the transition to EVs, but Dagenham just makes diesel engines for Transit vans made abroad. What future do they have?

Just about the only part of the car industry that is thriving in the UK is the very niche area of motorsport - especially Formula 1.

Out of the ten F1 teams, six are based in the UK (including Mercedes and Red Bull). Of these, five are based in about a 20 mile radius of each other (between Milton Keynes and Chipping Norton) and then one, McLaren, is based south of London.

Video shop manager

I think you're right, although I definitely remember juke boxes in pubs in Leeds in 1995.

My dads first job in the 1940s was ‘Office boy’ - mainly ferrying messages and paperwork between different departments I think. There was also a Post Room with a Post boy

s a child in the sixties I remember the Betterware man who used to give me tiny sample pots of polish. And the Encyclopaedia Britannica salesman - people used to buy it one volume at a time, but it was much too expensive for us. We did buy onions from the French onion sellers on their bikes - I found that so fascinating.

The Motorail terminus for Scotland was a few minutes from my childhood home. I always used to love the fact that our station had a sign in French and German reminding drivers to drive on the left - “Links fahren”. It was pre channel tunnel but I think that people could join the train at one of the ferry terminals. And feasibly not have driven on a UK road till they got to Scotland. My Granny’s house looked out on to a field at the end of which the trains passed by and we used to love looking out for the Motorail coming past. I don’t know anyone who worked there as a car loader though!

In my favourite Dorothy L. Sayers Peter Wimsey book, Murder Must Advertise, the advertising agency employs several boys of 14 or 15 as messengers. They are supervised by a very strict female employee and kept to their own room when not working (till 6pm!). They run around London as well as their own place of work delivering and collecting things.

the roof, where the messenger boys did their daily physical jerks under the eye of the Sergeant

My dad's jobs were junior at a gentleman's outfitters. Think, "Suit's you sir." from the Fast Show, then a bread delivery man in London, then the 7th legalised croupier after the change in the gaming act in the 60's, then he bought a hotel on the Isle of Wight with my mum, then they went back to Lancashire for a bit and he worked for Alpine Double Glazing, then another hotel on the Isle of Wight. Then managing bigger hotels, then..
.
Not bad for for a kid whose best marks from school were from Esperanto and Technical Drawing. Before he left early.

It just seems like there was so much more social mobility in those days.

Shoddy for gardening is having a revival. Its sold un processed now.

Wool is apparently very good for deterring slugs. I'd give it a go if I found any for sale.

Are you a member of any of the facebook allotment or gardening groups? I have seen it for sale on there, not very expensive but usually needs to be collected.

No. I'm not but I might look for it now. Thanks.

I've had a quick Google and it seems to help if you live near Kidderminster because its made of carpet waste.

Our scrap metal man sings it !

I still use shorthand every single day of my work! I’m 57, and while I doubt I’m at 120wpm speed any more, it’s still effective and useful.

No wonder our country is how it is when those in charge of running it went to schools that endorsed this brutal system.