The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I can't believe how times have changed-I saw a picture posted by staggeringman of a lamplighter and suddenly realized I actually REMEMBER seeing one lighting the gas lamps in our street in the early 1940's! Then seeing his long stick made me remember the 'knocker-upper' coming round in the early mornings-he had a similar long pole to knock on the bedroom windows of the mill workers(couldn't afford an alarm clock?). They paid him a little a week, I assume HE was always early clocking on!
Anybody younger than 50 must find it hard to believe how enormously things progressed by the end of the 50's, early 60's.Even in the 50's some people still had 'tipplers' at the bottom of the garden!

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

By tipplers gordon, i assume ya mean the "Long Drop Bogs"? me nan had one still when she died early 60s.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Yes, cashman. An outside loo, flat board to sit on,4 to 6 ft drop to a counterbalanced bucket above the sewer. When full its weight made it 'tipple' into the sewer with a big 'WHOOSH'.No water seal so they smelled.
We once heard a 'meiowing' down my grandfathers. We lowered a long brush and a big ginger tom climbed on-he was lucky his weight hadn't made it 'tipple'! He took some washing as I remember. Don't know why we washed it, it wasn't even Grandads cat!

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

same thing happened to me, came home from school one day n me nan had clothes prop down n next doors cat climbed out, i posted about that a good while ago, cant remember which thread.:D;)

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

'twas the waste water from the kitchen sink that activated the tippler mechanism.:pain30: How things have changed.:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Hey I don't know Beni I still have newspaper cut into six inch squares and stuck on a nail in the loo:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I can just about remember the lamp lighter, he kept his pole in the council yard behind our gaff in Monarch St

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

The Observer used to have a lovely texture! What's it like now?

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Lonsdale St in mid '50s and Maden St after that - but we did have proper toilet paper.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Don't know Gordon wouldn't wipe my backside with it these days:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Even in the 50s my grandparents, although they obviously had electric lighting, still had the 'fantail' gas lights in some rooms. They hardly ever used them but when lit they burned white and gave the rooms a lovely soft light like candlelight.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Can't remember having them at home but my Grandmas Sister who live round the corner had them and can remember watching her light them with a taper

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Finally found a good use for the "Mail" have we;)? Hopefully, the coalition government will be issuing a few white papers for back up:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

My gran had them upstairs in her house on Victoria St. up until the mid-fifties ...

And I remember those wonderful cast iron fireplaces, with the warming ovens, and the thingimajig that you put the kettle on .... I think that the world as we knew it really started to head down the tubes when folks tore those wonderful things out and put the dinky little tiled monstrosities in ... or maybe the beginning of the end was the dumping of toasting forks in favour of electric toasters;)

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

We bought an old cottage on White Ash Lane in the late 60s and the only loo was a tippler down the yard. Wish I had taken it out in one piece it would have been quite a conversation piece.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Only read the Mail on line Eric:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

How do you keep the monitor clean:confused:

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

My grandmother was a "knocker upper"each friday i had to go round the area and collect her knocking up money.that would be about 1950.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Wt wipes:D or scrunched up copies of the Guardian

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Mi mother was one too, she used to knock on mi bedroom door every morning and shout get up ya lazy sod:D:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

You would be well advised not to tell any Amnetricans that your granny was a knocker up, as it has a meaning over there simiklar to our term - knocking off, as in. " Ah were knockin' mi mate's wife off"

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Ya and don't go into a shop and ask for a rubber if your after something to rub pencil lines out with either:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I remember when the Todmorden Council installed little clocks in the gas lamps to turn them on and off thus saving a few mens wages, there was uproar and suspicion that these "New fangled devices" would explode and wipe out half the street.
I can't recall a "Knocker up" but we did have two mill hooters, one went at 7am to waken workers and the other at 7.30 am to signal the starting of the mill engine. Only two mills in the village so it worked well. The next rude awakening was my ma shouting up the garret steps telling me it was 8.30 and time to get up, all the lane heard her.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

"8.30 and time to get up" - you were obviously still a schoolboy.
I started work before that time, as most people did.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

No Margaret I was attending the Calder College for Further Education and our class started at 9am, I was on day release from work as an apprentice engineer.
I had left Grammar School but got up earlier then to catch the school bus or walk the two miles down the valley. Bus fares were repaid in those days but my ma gave me the money and the school paid it back four times a year, no matter what the family income.
I would buy sweets with the money and walk on some days then give the sweets to my favourite girl friend, Oh happy carefree days behind the bike shed. Bike shed by the way has two meanings, I only knew one and didn't have a cycle.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

In Canada, to "knock someone up" is to impregnate her. And someone who is knocked up or KU'd is pregnant.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

It means the same here but of course we'd never say that-we're British, don't talk about such things don't you know,by gad.
These colonials! Don't let them change you, Eric.
Gremlin, 'garret steps', that's a new one on me. Is that a Yorkshire one?

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

gar·ret

(grt)
n.
A room on the top floor of a house, typically under a pitched roof; an attic.= attic.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

nooo, he's alright to say that, my great gran was a 'knocker upper' not a 'knocker offer' ;)

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I were a knocker off Shaz always knocked of at 5pm:D:D

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

i'm more a 'knocker outter' John ;)

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Whatever turns you on Shaz:rolleyes:

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Flashy, just wondering, did she do that before she went to the mill herself? I always assumed the 'knocker-uppers' were mill workers earning a little extra(what a hard way to do that!).

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

don't know Gordon, i think my dad will have to answer than one

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I was a school boy Margaret until I left at 16 years of age early in 1954.
I just realised I never put the date of the clocks being fitted to the gas lamps, maybe that confused you.

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Was that at grammar school Gremlin, school leaving age was 15 in those days I stayed on another year to take GCE (which was by choice then)

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Yes jaysay, Todmorden Grammar School, they taught pupils there until they were 18 years old if they were good enough to graduate up from a lower one.
I left after year 5 which would make me 16, I would have had to continue Latin and found it very hard to take in. My brother left at the end of the year Upper sixth and went onto University.
Many famous people were educated at Todmorden Grammar, Sir John Cockroft was one , he was the one who split the atom. The headmaster was annoyed, he wanted it kept in one piece.

A quick change of subject, my screen font has just gone bigger but only on this forum. Is there a way to make it smaller again so there are more lines on the page or is it something the admin has done?

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

Think your better off opening a new thread in Feedback Suggestions and Help Gremlin

Re: The 'knocker-upper' and lamplighter
 

I will do that jaysay.