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

I'm a woman in my 20s with a professional job and have a friend in his mid-80s. He was quite surprised that I didn't know shorthand!

@Eyresandgraces can you explain exactly what you mean by tick turner? Are you saying it was a job that you went door to door, house to house just to position people's pillows? Brain fog is rife today and I can't wrap my head around this at all lol

Telex machine operator. I really liked the telex, preferred it to typing on a typewriter.

A tick turner worked in a factory where bed linen was made.
After a pillowcase was sewn it had to be turned the right way round.
I assume aunt stood at a production line all day.

Rag and Bone man, they used to come down the street shouting for people's old stuff Rag-and-bone man - Wikipedia

And also newspaper sellers, they used to stand outside stations selling the Evening Standard and shouting in an odd way

I am old enough, sadly to remember both!

Oh that makes way more sense! Thank you, gotta love perimenopause for making you look stupid 😂

The book by Henry Mayhew "London Labour and the London Poor" makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in this sort of thing.

Aged 4 I heard the Rag and Bone man coming up the street.
I pulled the dress off my sister’s new doll( she was at school) ran out and swapped it for a balloon.
Dsis was furious.

I used a telex in my first and then we got the most modern, all singing and dancing, facsimile machine!

Silent movie theater pianist, organist or musician. I deliberately spelled theater the American way because I wasn't sure when the British term cinema came into common usage and "Silent film cinema pianist" sounded wrong.

They still exist!

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0fm4f8m/the-last-remaining-lamplighters-of-london

You were not alone in your confusion. I thought a tick turner maybe worked in a hotel 😂

Soon for the birds: web developer, graphic designer, UX designer, paralegal, marketer, TV editor, copy editor, translator...

I had this book as a child, a thoroughly depressing read,I agree 😔

Could you snooze them to come back every 10 minutes? 😂

The Pools lady.

Jobs which still exist in the shoe trade:

• clicker
• skiver
• toe puffer
• perforator
• last slipper
• antiquer

My dm was a shorthand typist in the 1960s.

Bus conductors, and meter men emptying the gas and electric meters.

Gong farmer

Sorry.
I wrongly assumed that Fogarty’s was still a well known bedding maker, turns out Dunelm bought them in 2015.

Oh your poor sister @Eyresandgraces !

My grandad was a sagger maker's bottom knocker for a time.

https://www.thepotteries.org/bottle_kiln/saggar.htm

I suppose they may still exist but there are not many potteries left, but they could probably 3D print the saggar now, or the saggar base.

Needlework inspector in schools. From reading an old book the other day.

Just looked that up. 🤮