I'm looking for names or titles and descriptions of jobs connected to old Sheffield & its heavy industries. eg. Tenters, Farriers, Pit Brow Lass.

Planning to include this as part of an art proposal to highlight 'lost' phrases which are linked to the 'lost' industries.

Some of my ancestors are described as "Delvers" in the census, although they lived in the Penistone area rather than Sheffield. I always understood this to be the occupation of digging up ironstone (Iron Ore bearing rock).

I have a booklet called A Glossary of Old Sheffield Trade Words and Dialect. It was originally published in 1936 and reprinted in 1979 by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society. I see that the City Libraries have 3 copies in their system, according to the online catalogue.

This has lots of technical terms to do with knife and other blade making.

Some which caught my eye:

Turning the hat
A term used by hand file cutters when working under trade prices; ¼ round meant a cut of 5 per cent.; ½ round, 10 per cent.; ¾ round, 15 per cent.; and all round, 20 per cent. below agreed prices.

Fetching a grinder
In the old days, when a grinder had been away drinking too long his shop mates took a hand cart to fetch him back to work, holding him down in it with a broom. Every inn on the journey was visited, where all took part except the drunkard, who was offered beer tantalisingly, but not allowed to taste it. On arrival at the shop he had to start work immediately. This seems to be the relic of a much more elaborate ceremony including the recital of traditional nominies, and the flourishing of the branch of a tree.

Mary Ann
A mysterious and malevolent person who visited the workshops of blackleg workmen and destroyed their tools or machines. (See Rattening) Now happily obsolete.

Hugh

I believe the term "thirteen to the dozen" arose in the Sheffield cutlery industry when the cutlers had to deliver thirteen of their product to the merchants in order to get paid for a dozen.

And the grindstone or wheel at which the grinder had to sit with much risk to life and limb was called a "milkmaid".

Fettling is a good word; I think at one time it had a very precise meaning but these days is applied to the black art employed in any process ;)

I have a booklet called A Glossary of Old Sheffield Trade Words and Dialect. It was originally published in 1936 and reprinted in 1979 by the Sheffield Trades Historical Society. I see that the City Libraries have 3 copies in their system, according to the online catalogue.

This has lots of technical terms to do with knife and other blade making.

Some which caught my eye:

Turning the hat
A term used by hand file cutters when working under trade prices; ¼ round meant a cut of 5 per cent.; ½ round, 10 per cent.; ¾ round, 15 per cent.; and all round, 20 per cent. below agreed prices.

Fetching a grinder
In the old days, when a grinder had been away drinking too long his shop mates took a hand cart to fetch him back to work, holding him down in it with a broom. Every inn on the journey was visited, where all took part except the drunkard, who was offered beer tantalisingly, but not allowed to taste it. On arrival at the shop he had to start work immediately. This seems to be the relic of a much more elaborate ceremony including the recital of traditional nominies, and the flourishing of the branch of a tree.

Mary Ann
A mysterious and malevolent person who visited the workshops of blackleg workmen and destroyed their tools or machines. (See Rattening) Now happily obsolete.

Hugh


Hugh. William Broadhead, the instigator of the Sheffield Outrages in the 1860's always signed his threatening letters 'Mary Ann'. Could this be where the saying comes from do you think? Regards Nigel

I think it's very likely. And they went beyond damaging equipment - they were prepared to blow people up as well.

Hugh

Wow thats all really interesting... will have to have a look for that book!
Thanks guys, keep 'em coming! ;)

Fettling is the term still used for cleaning up castings, usually sand castings, whereby the remnants of the sand mould which has fused together in all the nooks and crannies of a casting are removed with steel tools and wire brushes. Nowadays though it can be applied to any job of cleaning up or generally making sound. I'm sure plenty of people have a"fettle" around their houses when they mean clean or tidy up.

Fettling is the term still used for cleaning up castings, usually sand castings, whereby the remnants of the sand mould which has fused together in all the nooks and crannies of a casting are removed with steel tools and wire brushes. Nowadays though it can be applied to any job of cleaning up or generally making sound. I'm sure plenty of people have a"fettle" around their houses when they mean clean or tidy up.

OOhh! Ive heard people using that term around Sheffield... ;)

Nowadays though it can be applied to any job of cleaning up or generally making sound.
I still say "I'm gonna "Fettle" a piece of steak tonight.
Which means, if we are having steak for tea, I will devour or "Fettle" it.

what a strange topic

I still say "I'm gonna "Fettle" a piece of steak tonight.
Which means, if we are having steak for tea, I will devour or "Fettle" it. My Mum used to say when she cleaned a room thoroughly "I gave it a good fettle" This was in the 40s and 50s

My Mum used to say when she cleaned a room thoroughly "I gave it a good fettle" This was in the 40s and 50sShe used to take a hot dinner between two plates to my Dad on the tram from Parson Cross to Trafalgar Road, or Carver Street where my Dad used to help a LITTLE MESTER..A cutler.My Dad said that my Mum used to help sometimes too,and she was the fastest worker he knew at putting knife handles on knives. We always had a drawerful of handleless cutlery at home. They were rejects ,of course,but you still could eat dinner with them.Again this was in the 40s& 50s

Hi,

Fettling casting was full-time, filthy job, but that's where you often started as a kid. If you stuck it out and showed promise, then you might be moved on to something else. Something more rewarding and of course, cleaner and better paid.

Some of the big companies and corporations around town, with large foundries, had dedicated fettling shops just devoted to cleaning castings.

As noted previously, a lot of the work was removing sand from the casting but in big, complicated castings (I'm talking about castings in the 40-80 ton range, and beyond) some of these had not just sand, but fire bricks, chills,steel hangers, etc.

Knocking all this stuff out of a casting was sometimes like demolishing an old house -lots of choaking dust and bl**dy dangerous.

Slightly off-topic but a "chill", refered to above, were blocks of iron or steel which were set in the mold sand close to the surface where the metal was to be poured. When the hot metal entered the mold and came close to one of these chill blocks, it cooled very quickly ("was chilled") and became very hard.

If one of these chill blocks happened to fall on you, it could break a lim or kill you.

Falls

I'm looking for names or titles and descriptions of jobs connected to old Sheffield & its heavy industries. eg. Tenters, Farriers, Pit Brow Lass.

Planning to include this as part of an art proposal to highlight 'lost' phrases which are linked to the 'lost' industries.

Hi,

I would really like to know what a "Tenter" is. I assume its nothing to do with "camping". It must have been an important trade years ago to have a street named after it.

The road that comes up from the traffic island at West Bar to the island where Broad Lane starts (at the bottom of Townhead Street) used to have two names. The part nearest to West Bar was called "West Bar Green" but the other section (beyond Queen Street/Scotland Street) used to be called "Tenter Street". Don't know if this is still true. I assume that this is where most of the "Tenters" used to ply their trade.

Falls

The term Tenter was and probably still is used in the paper making industry. They had back tenters as well and I think it is used more in the Lancashire mills to describe the machine minder. I beleive it equates wet end operator or Dryerman in other parts of the industry as wet end operators. Somebody from Oughtibridge will tell you better than I can.

[Originally Posted by KATIEB_23
I'm looking for names or titles and descriptions of jobs connected to old Sheffield & its heavy industries. eg. Tenters, Farriers, Pit Brow Lass.

Planning to include this as part of an art proposal to highlight 'lost' phrases which are linked to the 'lost' industries.

Hello Katieb_23
The term Tenter was and probably still is used in the paper making industry. They had back tenters as well and I think it is used more in the Lancashire mills to describe the machine minder. I beleive it equates wet end operator or Dryerman in other parts of the industry as wet end operators. Somebody from Oughtibridge will tell you better than I can.

An engine tenter was someone who 'tended' a stationary engine. Such an engine would provide power to the different processes within a works, or to different little mesters in a shared building.

Hugh

My father was a scythe grinder at what is now an industrial museum in beauchief, it closed in the early part of WW2, 1940 and the grinders were transferred to Little London works.

'Tenter' is nothing to do with the steel industry at all.
it is a word from the cloth weaving industry. When the cloth 'pieces' were made on the looms, they had to be streched to pull the cloth out.

To do this they were laid in fields and stretched in the shape of a 'tent' and left for several days until the cloth had expanded.
The man who did this was called a 'tenter'.

The cloth was often stolen, as it was unattended. To be caught doing this incurred the death sentence.
In Halifax, this was done by the Gibbet, an early guillotine.

Nowadays cloth is strecthed on a machine called a tenter, and is set, using steam on a complex machine, a stenter.

'Tenter' is nothing to do with the steel industry at all.....


occupations from Attercliffe, 1891 census:

engine tenter 54
stationary engine tenter 27
engine tenter (stationary) 14
engine tenter stationary 7
engine tenter (steelworks) 3
engine tenter at steelworks
stationary engine tenter steel works
steel works engine tenter
engine tenter at iron works 4
engine tenter (iron works)
ironworks engine tenter
stationary engine tenter at iron works
boiler tenter
boiler tenter iron works 2
boiler tenter & labourer
boiler fire tenter
cupola tenter 2
cupola tenter (steelworks)
cupola tenter (foundry)
cupola tenter (iron foundry)
foundry cupola tenter
cupola tenter (oil)
furnace tenter 2
retired engine tenter
engine tenter (pit)
engine tenter colliery 2

:D
Hugh

Has anyone else come across the word 'fertle' - to have a good sort out or to take a good look around.

Love to hear if anyone still uses this word.

Happy Days!

I think the trade "Tenter" is a corruption of the word Attendant. My GGrandfather was down on the Census as an "Engine Tenter", which I presumed was someone who looked after a stationary engine in a factory etc... which drove a line shaft, which in turn powered other machines.

Got another. One of my workmates was on a "Banksmans course" the other day. This was a course about loading/unloading safely. A Banksman was the man on the banks of the river (I guess) who loaded and unloaded barges. Incidently the part of a steel mill where the last operations are completed are still called the finishing banks, even when no river or canal are involved.

One of my ancestors Joseph Henstock b.1851 was a silver piercer as was his son after him and his son was a little mester

Got another. One of my workmates was on a "Banksmans course" the other day. This was a course about loading/unloading safely. A Banksman was the man on the banks of the river (I guess) who loaded and unloaded barges.

The term is still used today, to describe the driver's mate in a lorry when he is guiding him whilst reversing.

Tazz

Got another. One of my workmates was on a "Banksmans course" the other day. This was a course about loading/unloading safely. A Banksman was the man on the banks of the river (I guess) who loaded and unloaded barges. Incidently the part of a steel mill where the last operations are completed are still called the finishing banks, even when no river or canal are involved.

Hi Vasques Rich,
another use of the term Banksman was in the Mines, He was the man who let you on the cage or chair to go down the pit, after checking your pocket for matches, He also rang the bell to signal the Winderman to let the chair go down after he had pulled the chocks from under it. If he didn't get that right you were in trouble. remember Markham disaster?

My grandfather & his relatives were pearl button makers & lived in Pearl st.I remember the buffer girls with brown paper wrapped round their legs , their language was informative for a youngster.

A banksman could also be a 'slinger' - a crane-driver's mate. Responsible for chaining and slinging loads for the crane to lift. From my recollection of the steel industry 'slinger' was more usual than 'banksman'.

Tenter - or tender was generally applied to stationary engines I think, though in the case of 'cupola' and 'boiler' probably acting in the role of stoker.

My grandfather & his relatives were pearl button makers & lived in Pearl st.I remember the buffer girls with brown paper wrapped round their legs , their language was informative for a youngster.

I remember a woman silver polisher I worked with, the silver was passed to her belt for the last polish after the buffer girls had finished, the woman had only two fingers on her right hand but handled the cutlery faster than anyone else on the belt.

Oh! those Sheffield silver days :love:

one of my ancesters was a cupola painter, and I would love to know what a cupola is/was. Another trade that has gone is the one of knife handle making. I used to work for one in Rockingham st. in the 50s. the last time I visited the building was still there. The handle was made fron xylonite.

Has anyone else come across the word 'fertle' - to have a good sort out or to take a good look around.

Love to hear if anyone still uses this word.

Happy Days!

We used to use the word fertle, but it would be used when you had been " caught fertling with a lass" ...... like, we were having a fertle and her Fatha caught us. :P

one of my ancesters was a cupola painter, and I would love to know what a cupola is/was. Another trade that has gone is the one of knife handle making. I used to work for one in Rockingham st. in the 50s. the last time I visited the building was still there. The handle was made fron xylonite.

A cupola is a rounded dome ,so I should imagine he fancied himself as a Mural painter .
Like Michelangelo's paintings in St Peters, Rome.
Also in the dictionary 'Cupola furnace' but I don't think the paint would last long on these.
Take your pick

I remember a woman silver polisher I worked with, the silver was passed to her belt for the last polish after the buffer girls had finished, the woman had only two fingers on her right hand but handled the cutlery faster than anyone else on the belt.

Oh! those Sheffield silver days :love:
Hi pops, Tell me, was it a common occurance for buffer gals and polishers to lose a digit in the course of their work. I ask because I remember my Aunt Dolly was missing a finger, and even as a kid I wondered how it had happened. I reckon she must've done some kind of work like that.

one of my ancesters was a cupola painter, and I would love to know what a cupola is/was.

In these parts a cupola was generally the kind of furnace used in lead smelting. The smelting mills were usually sited on high, west facing, ground so they could use the wind to drive the fire. Many places with the name 'bole' or 'bole hill' indicate a lead smelting site.

Thanks for that sweetdexter, but I don't think that is what Hugw was refering to when he put Cupola tenter (steelworks) Cupola tenter (foundry ) etc.

Hi pops, Tell me, was it a common occurance for buffer gals and polishers to lose a digit in the course of their work. I ask because I remember my Aunt Dolly was missing a finger, and even as a kid I wondered how it had happened. I reckon she must've done some kind of work like that.

Texas, depending on what finger it was :hihi:

Thanks Greybeard, I can pass that on to my daughter who is doing the family tree. The ancestor was actually from Rotherham I suppose they did much the same thing there

"Tenter"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenter

this is a really good website for checking up old occupations from the census.

have a look :)


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

Hi, Fettling..My mother used to say this when she was going to give the house a good clean.

Knobbing/nobbing...I used to work as a file-cutter when I left school and this word was used to describe when you were working very hard.