Wood Turner.

[gowjani]

Would a wood turner have been employed in a sawmill or more likely a joinery or carpentry shop?
The one I am interested in started working in Glasgow before moving to Rochdale. Would he have been employed in a mill doing wood turning? Trying to figure out how my grandparents met.
Many thanks for any help, Graham.

[John915]

Good afternoon,

He would have worked in a turning shop or even at home depending on the era. Woodturning was a seperate industry from carpentry and joinery.

They made a whole range of household goods, from spoons to bowls and plates. Others, including bodgers, made chair parts. Bodgers worked with green wood out in the woods.

John915

[gowjani]

Thanks for replies. I only know that he was a wood turner. No idea what kind though. I just wondered why he went to Rochdale. Possibly he changed his line of work.

[mazi]

Turning wooden bobbins for use in cotton mills was a good source of employment in Lancashire.

Mike

[gowjani]

Thanks Mazi. I thought that might be the case.

[joboy]

A big industry for wood turners was bannister rails and supports which were (the vertical support rails) turned by the hundreds according to the size of the building.
All done on a wood lathe ..... it was a good job particularly if you were able to afford a wood lathe.
Joe

[youngtug]

http://texts.wishful-thinking.org.uk/BygoneIndustries/BobbinMills.html

[gowjani]

Thanks joboy, I remember being told by my mother that my father brought home a small wood lathe & proceeded to fashion a table lamp on it. Unfortunately she had just finished her Spring cleaning. As my mother never swore I wonder if she made an exception that day?

[gowjani]

Thanks youngtug.