Role of Puddler

[crisGloss]

Hi
My GG was a puddler in England:

[1] A person who worked clay into puddle; [2] A person who worked with puddle to make things water tight e.g. canal walls; [3] A person who worked in puddling iron -- source: index of early trades: https://homepage.ntlworld.com/hitch/gendocs/trades.html.

He later worked in the Swan River WA Colony as a "boatman" :A "person who worked on a boat, predominately on rivers and canals. Also the name given to a boat repairer".

To help locate him I am wondering what size business would use a puddler? Also, are the above trades (puddler>>boat repairer) consistent progressions?

Chris

[jeanettemarie]

when researching my husbands ancestors, many of them were Puddlers and they all worked in the Iron industry in Staffordshire, and I thought it was something to do with the smelting process

Jeanette

[Peter Goodey]

Well quite - I would have said iron industry for puddler.

I can't speak for Australian usage but in this country a boatman was predominantly someone who rowed a boat (occasionally, a labourer in a ship or boatyard but context should make it clear)

[jeeb]

Hi Chris,
Generally a puddler was someone who worked in the iron industry but you are quite right in stating that puddlers worked with clay and moulded wet clay to form water tight edges to canals etc.
A Boatman was any person who worked boats on the waterways for a living but is generally associated with people who worked the canal systems, one of the main means of transport before the railways. Their barges were generally horse drawn and whole families often lived on the boats and often are absent from census returns. Boatmen's marriages and their children's baptisms are often scattered in different churches where canals pass through the parish.


Jeremy

[susan-y]

PUDDLER

My new word and occupation for the day.

What an educational site

sue

[crisGloss]

Hi

Thank you everyone for your comments..

Cheers
Chris

[crisGloss]

Hi again

Your comments have raised a dichotomy: but all good. Greasbrough, Rotherham District where there are Glossops, and in particular a James Joseph Glossop, born 1825, has an iron industry and a canal.

"The Greasbrough Canal was a private canal built by the Marquess of Rockingham to serve his coal mining interests in and around the village of Greasbrough, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.

The canal, which was opened in 1780, left the River Don Navigation, passing under the road to Rawmarsh, to reach a terminal from where the coal was loaded, on the eastern side of the village of Greasbrough...the Newbiggin Colliery branch [section of canal] closed in the late nineteenth century, whilst the lower portion, which still exists, fell into disuse during the First World War."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasbrough_Canal

Perhaps he was a canal maintenance worker.

Footnote: Moderator: hope you don't mind some observations arising from occupations...

Chris

[mikejee]

Puddlers with clay didn't (don't) just work with canals. a friend a few years ago wanted a pond in her garden, and wanted it to be done "properly", not with a pvc lining. Eventually she found someone who could do it. He may or may not have been called a puddler in todays language, but he did the same job as one

[jeeb]

Puddlers with clay didn't (don't) just work with canals

Indeed they did not. Lancelot (Capability) Brown the 18th century architect was known to use puddlers to make watertight ornamental lakes he created.

Jeremy

[Davran]

My ancestor worked in the iron industry - 1841 iron labourer, 1846 marriage cert puddler, 1851 forgeman, 1861 puddler of iron