Iron Moulder - apprentice?

[Jan65]

Hi all

I've been reading some of the postings regarding apprenticeships, and have also read the TNA research guide via the link given in some responses.

If I've understood it correctly, it seems that apprenticeships weren't necessary (? -correct word?) for trades that did not exist when the rules were written, so my question is this:

Would my ancestor, who was an iron moulder, have been apprenticed in this trade, and would that have been when he was around 14? He was born about 1811, so the time frame would be in the mid 1820s, and the location would be North Yorkshire/Durham/Northumberland.

I've always assumed that he would have been apprenticed, but now I'm not so sure.

[Geoffers]

I'm not going to be a lot of use here - sorry - He may have been apprenticed; but then again he may not.

In my wife's family two brothers became iron-moulders having previously worked in other construction jobs so it is unliekly they were apprenticed as such (this was in the 1830's and 1840's). One of my mum's grandfathers was an iron moulder in Lancashire - he started young but was not apprenticed (that was 1870's).

Apprenticeship records being for the most part private agreements do not always survive and are not always easy to locate. I don't suppose there was a local workhouse and they put your chap out to work? - and if so do any records survive there??

[Jan65]

I'm not going to be a lot of use here - sorry - He may have been apprenticed; but then again he may not.

I don't suppose there was a local workhouse and they put your chap out to work? - and if so do any records survive there??

Hi Geoffers, quite a lot of use because it's made me think about other possibilities when I tend to get tunnel vision! I hadn't thought of the workhouse.

I had originally suspected the reason for him moving away from his family's village was to live with (possible) relations in Stockton Tees, and he was certainly there from 1834 at least, because he married there in that year.

I've never been able to ascertain when he moved to Stockton though. I had always assumed it was when he was younger, in order to take up an apprenticeship, and he maybe lived with these (supposed) relations. But then when I read the TNA guide on apprenticeships this made me doubt my theory.

There was a workhouse built in Stockton in 1851, and it was described as the "new" workhouse, so presumably there was an earlier one. I will have to look into this. Many thanks for the suggestion.