Like most employed in waterway maintenance, Puddlers had a hard job, to make drainage channels, canals or raised river banks waterproof by puddling the clay lining which was either dredged from the bottom of rivers or dug from nearby pits.
Drainage channels in the Fens needed to be kept clear and it was in the 19th century a painfully laborious job for Slubbers. The word slub is an alternative for mud or ooze.
In the late 19th century digging drainage ditches was still a very labour-intensive job. These men are posing on a drain which they have made, showing both the number of people involved and the sheer size of the ditches and banks which had to be built
OTHER UNUSUAL JOBS
What is a Saggarmaker's Bottom Knocker?
This may not be a job linked to the Waddelows but Saggarmaker's Bottom Knocker is a facinating job title thats bound to baffle anyone who has not heard of it before and is fun to say.
A frame-filler and a bottom-knocker work side by side, early 1900's
However, making the bases of the saggars is a less skilled job which can be left to a lesser craftsman, namely the saggar maker's bottom knocker, who makes the bottom of the saggar by placing clay in a metal hoop and literally knocking it into shape.
The Waddelow Society is a non profit Family History Group, established in 1988, interested in reasearching the Waddelow/Wadlow name.
This Website replaces our old freeserve
and blueyonder websites.
Site Created August 2011
Updated: 13th April 2017
Web Author: Susan F. Waterhouse (Secretary)
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