Butlers odder

[sillsie]

On the 1911 census occupation given as Butlers odder, Bleach Works, Cotton cloth. Has anyone any ideas as to what this was?

[JenB]

I think it must actually be a beetler's odder, not butlers.

From the Dictionary of Occupational Terms:

beetler, cloth beetler, beetling machine tenter
feeds, minds and takes cloth off, beetling machine, which beats cloth with a succession of wooden hammers while it is wound round an iron beam, thereby consolidating its fibres and giving softness and lustre to its surface.

odder, beetler's ; beetler's porter, odder (finishing)
conveys cloth on wagons to beetling machine and assists beetler

[sillsie]

I think you're right. Thanks JenB