Strange sounding occupations!

[margarita]

I have three:
Mop spinner - I can find no information anywhere about what that may involve

Preparer of gold beaten skin - involved in preparing gold leaf, I believe.

Envelope folder in 1871 - presumably before automation. Boring - or what

Regards,

Maggie

[Jan1954]

Mop spinner - I can find no information anywhere about what that may involve

Hi Maggie,

I would imagine that this was a person who, as boring as it may seem, spun yarn to make mops. This could have been from either really heavy duty yarn, such as the waste from the textile industry or from rags. Early mops were a collection of rags bound together and date back to Roman times.

~says she who studied textiles an aeon ago~

[Coromandel]

Yes, many a mop was made at the (sadly now defunct) blanket factories in Witney. Once the yarn was spun, someone had the job of what was essentially a scaled-up version of making a pom-pom - winding the yarn round and round, tying it up, cutting it and then fluffing it up - and then fixing this on a short spike for attachment to a mop handle.

[Tinker]

I've just come across this post today, and read with interest the info on Trinity Pilots. Some while ago, while tracing a friend's family, we discovered that his great-grandfather, John George Royall, was a sea pilot at the time of the 1881 census: the family was in Mile End Old Town at that point. We subsequently found that three of his children, John George junior, Thomas Charles and Alice Maud, were born in Port Louis, Mauritius, between 1871 and 1878. Is there any way I could find out more about J.G.R senior's job, and how he came to be in Mauritius? I've just tried googling his name and Trinity pilot/sea pilot but not had much joy.

[Kerrywood]

I've just tried googling his name and Trinity pilot/sea pilot but not had much joy.

You might want have a look at the links in post #6 above?

[Tinker]

Oops, thanks Kerrywood, I missed the link to the LMA leaflet, although I had had a look at the other one!