Analysis of Occupations in Gaywood, Norfolk

One of my ancestors came from Gaywood in Norfolk (it is now one of the suburbs of King's Lynn).

I was interested to see what occupations existed in Gaywood so I analysed the census for the whole area for the year 1851. Here are the results.

 

 

Watermen: Competition and Opera

Competition

Doggett's Coat and Badge is the prize for the oldest rowing competition in the world run amongst watermen apprentices. Thomas Doggett was an actor and comedian who became the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. He relied on the watermen to get him from his house in Chelsea to the theatre and so funded a race that first ran in 1715. Doggett offered a wager for six apprentices to race in the four seater wherries that they used, and to go between "The Swan" in London Bridge to "The Swan" in Chelsea. It took place when the tide was against the racers and this plus the heavy boats meant that the race could take two hours. It was held on 1st August to commemorate the accession of George I the year before.

The race was held each year from 1715 until 1721, when Doggett died. He left instructions in his will to keep running the race, and it has continued since. It has been changed so that the race does not take as long: it was changed so that it would run with the tide, and moved to September to be able to coordinate with the tides; the boats were changed to rowing sculls; the race time was reduced to 30 minutes.

Three winners of the race.
Pictured, left to right, are: J. J. Turferry (winner in 1900), W. H. Campbell (1850), A. H. Brewer (1901) [1] 

The winner gets a red coat and a badge that displays the Horse of Hanover (because of George I), also a miniature badge and some prize money. In the 18th and 19th centuries winning would mean that they could attract more trade; in the 20th and 21st centuries it is still prestigious.

[1] By John Benjamin Stone - Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures - Festivals, Ceremonies and Customs. Published by Cassell & Co. London. 1906. Scanned, cropped, cleaned and optimised by Smalljim., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6435892 

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggett%27s_Coat_and_Badge

Opera

Charles Dibdin, a composer amongst other talents, saw the race and wrote a ballad opera that incorporated the race into the plot [3]. Titled "The waterman: or, the first of August: a ballad opera, in two acts.", it is available to be read online [4].

I read the opera in text form and it is definitely written for the time. The plot goes like this:  Mr and Mrs Bundle have a daughter Wilhelmina (Mr Bundle complains that Mrs Bundle chose Wilhelmina's name and it took him a long time to be able to pronounce it correctly). Mr Bundle is (probably) a gardener and has a friend Tom Tug who is a waterman. Mrs Bundle tries to rise above her station and takes Wilhelmina to see plays where she has promised Wilhelmina's hand in marriage to Robin. In the meantime, Mr Bundle has promised Wilhelmina's hand to Tom.

There is a whole act that is either Wilhelmina convincing herself that she should decide who she should marry for herself, then every time either her father or her mother (or Robin or Tom) ask her for her commitment she commits to the man that they have promised her to, so promises her mother (and Robin) that it is Robin, and promises her father (and Tom) that it is Tom. 

At the end they are all at The Swan at Chelsea waiting for the race to finish, and Tom comes in the winner, so finally Wilhelmina chooses Tom and tells Robin that she will not marry him after all.

The opera obviously does not appeal to a 21st Century person such as myself, although I can probably not appreciate it without the music, so I googled Charles Dibdin to see if he was considered to be a great writer. The wikipedia entry [5] shows that he was well regarded in his time, although he was not a great businessman and had many failed partnerships and business deals. The page does mention that there is a song that Dibdin wrote that is still performed at the Last Night of the Proms, which can be found on YouTube [6]. It appears that he was a great composer after all!

Let me leave you with some of the words from the songs contained in the ballad opera that record Dibdin's view of a waterman's life and the race:

"And did you ne'er hear of a jolly young waterman,
Who at Blackfriars Bridge used for to ply?
He feather'd his oars with such skill and dexterity,
Winning each heart and delighting each eye;”

"Then, farewell, my trim-built wherry,
Oars and coat, and badge, farewell!
Never more at Chelsea ferry
Shall your Thomas take a spell,”

[3] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol3/pp300-311

[4] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004832013.0001.000?view=toc

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dibdin 

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQq4mUeDDM

Threats to the Lighterman and Waterman trades

My great-great-grandfather on my mother's side was Henry Munns. In many censuses, his trade is listed as Lighterman and Waterman. You can find the description of these trades elsewhere on this site.

On the Thames Lighterman site [1] they hypothesise that "the trade for watermen dwindled with the construction of bridges". I wanted to see if Henry's work was affected by the construction, so I have mapped his census entries to the dates that the bridges were constructed. 

Henry is shown as "HM". His father was named Charles and shows as "Father C"; Henry's son George is shown as "son G", and his sons Henry and Saxby are shown as "sons H & S". The census entry is the same colour as the bridges that were built just after that census was published.

Census entries mapped against the building of bridges in London

It seems that he did not cease to be a waterman in any censuses, so I could conclude that he was not affected. However, the excellent documentary that is provided at [1] states that most people of this trade held licenses for both lighterman and waterman, so it could be that Henry was working as a lighterman but had waterman written into the census.

Again in the excellent documentary at [1], a former lighterman points out that the industry was mostly adversely affected by the advent of containers. Goods are no longer offloaded at docks on the Thames, but are offloaded at Tilbury (further toward the mouth of the river) and loaded onto trucks and trains for transport to other parts of England.

A recent article in The Guardian [2] shows that the way that lightermen and watermen are licensed is changing. Since 1555 they have had to complete a five year apprentice; this is now being replaced with a an apprenticeship of just two years length, plus six months of local knowledge training. The article has quotes from an existing lighterman who is stating that this will undermine safety. I believe this will also allow more people to get a license, and it will no longer be the job for life that it used to be.

[1] http://www.thameslightermen.org.uk/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jan/02/britishidentity.patrickbarkham

Blog Purpose

My Ancestry

So far this blog has a few posts that are about my ancestors.

Me and my dad have been researching our family history through Ancestry. Where I have found an interesting story I have written it onto this blog, so that I can share them with the rest of my family.

If you have anything to add that would be helpful, please add in the comments!

Watermen and Lightermen

 Watermen

A waterman [or wherryman] is a river worker who transfers passengers across and along city centre rivers and estuaries. Using a small boat called a wherry or skiff they would ferry passengers along and across the river. With bad rural roads and narrow congested city streets, the Thames was the most convenient highway in the region. Until the mid-18th century London Bridge was the only Thames bridge below Kingston upon Thames. [2]
The trade goes back to Roman times and before but was first licensed under Henry VIII 500 years ago. [3]

[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thames_waterman_soliciting_passers-by_c_1825.jpg

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterman_(occupation)

[3] http://www.thameslightermen.org.uk/ 

Lightermen

A lighterman is a worker who operates a lighter, a type of flat-bottomed barge, which may be powered or unpowered. In the latter case it is today usually moved by a powered tug. The term is particularly associated with the highly skilled men who operated the unpowered lighters moved by oar and water currents in the Port of London. [2]

A lighter is a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships. Lighters were traditionally unpowered and were moved and steered using long oars called "sweeps" and the motive power of water currents. They were operated by skilled workers called lightermen and were a characteristic sight in London's docks until about the 1960s, when technological changes made this form of lightering largely redundant. Unpowered lighters continue to be moved by powered tugs, however, and lighters may also now themselves be powered. [3]

[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lighterman_standing_on_the_bow_of_a_lighter,_hauling_on_a_rope._RMG_L8581.jpg

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighterman

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighter_(barge)