Boot Machiner ?

[ral91]

Hi,

I know there is a similar thread in regard to Boots, however my question differs slightly.

Would anyone happen to know what a 'Boot Machiner' is/was?

My gt, gt, Grandfather was such in the 1901 Census and I haven't a clue what it is?

Thanks for any help.

Ryan

 

[leefer]

Hi Ral...probably a boot/footwear maker but on a machine.
Ware in the country was he living at the time?

 

[ral91]

Hi Leefer,

He was living in Bethnal Green, London at the time.

 

[davelambert271]

Hi Ral

some bedtime reading

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66568

dave

 

[leefer]

http://www.localhistories.org/london19th.html

And the bottom of this link confirms that Bethnall Green was full of shoe makers....your rellie Ral was probably on a machine for stitching or sticking...maybe for cutting the leather.

 

[Disappointed]

Hello, I'm new here. I hail from Bethnal Green. My gt gran worked in the boot trade and managed to support nine children and her Mother after she was widowed in 1901. There is or was a cordwainer's college in Hackney in the 1950s.
P

 

[gwenythgreen]

Hello, I'm new here. I hail from Bethnal Green. My gt gran worked in the boot trade and managed to support nine children and her Mother after she was widowed in 1901. There is or was a cordwainer's college in Hackney in the 1950s.
P

Hi Disapointed

welcome To FHUK, hope we can help you with your research, if you can have a look at the forums and maybe put a post on the introductions forum we can all say welcome to you.

Don't be shy we are all here to help you.

Gwen

 

[Figgypud]

Hi, my g grandfather was a bootmaker and was from Bethnal Green also. He trained to become a bootmaker on the Trainingg Ship TS Arethusa, which belonged to a charity and homed destitute boys and trained them as sailors, bootmakers, etc. He is shown on the census as a bootlaster or bootmaker though, not as a machinist. Unfortunately conditions on the Arethusa were dire and he died at the age of 30 from the TB contracted on the ship.

 

[ral91]

Hi Figgypud,

Yes, several of my ancestors are also listed as 'Boot Lasters' and such. I do not know, however, where my ancestor trained to become one- will be interesting to find out.

Thanks for sharing

Ryan

 

[Zen Rabbit]

My ancestors from Stafford were largely boot and shoemakers. Originally cordwainers (a specialist branch of the trade originally, making boots with Spanish leather, later it came to mean anyone who made boots from scratch, anyone who repaired shoes was a cobbler) and later boot and shoemakers in the factories. In 1850's new machines were introduced from America, the introduction of which caused a near riot in Stafford with folk refusing to use them, and these were made by a company called Blake so a boot machine operator might also be known as a Blake operator.

 

[leefer]

So basicly you are talking a load of old cobblers then Zen
Seriously did not know that Stafford was a big shoe making area...just assumed like Stoke it was mainly pottery.
Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[Zen Rabbit]

Thanks :biggrin:

 

[p.risboy]

Northampton rules, for cobblers OK.:2fun::2fun:

 

[duckweed]

I was reading that Leeds was a big area for making Boots. Maybe the business grew because they made army uniforms there too.

 

[Zen Rabbit]

Stafford was very big in boots at one time and even supplied the army with boots for the Napoleonic wars. However it all dwindled with the end of the war and loss of trade to America, also significant competition from Northampton.
William Horton was the fore runner of the factory system with his shoe factory, supplied by a system of outworkers.
It ain't all pots in Staffordshire :wink: