What is a puddler

[Jayson]

Does anybody know precisely what a puddler in an iron works would do?

Jayson

[meles]

I suspect he would reline the kiln with fire clay.

meles

[stockman fred]

The Victorian Dictionary says "Puddler- One who converts cast iron onto wrought" . I'll have a rummage and see if I can find any more this evening unless anyone knows about it.
Fred

[Gadget]

Hi Jayson, cousin in law 

It's a very skilled and strenuous job concerned with the making of iron for wrought iron. If you go here and scroll down to Iron Puddler:

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/i-k.html

and click on more info. It gives you all you need to know and more.

Gadget 

PS I think some of my Parrys did this work at Pontyblew Forge

[Jayson]

Hi everybody

What would I do without my friends on rootschat? I have a few reference books here at home but none of them, frustratingly, mentioned what a puddler did.

Thanks very much for the links, Gadget, cousin in law nice to hear from you again.

My 2X great-grandfather Israel Rowley (lovely name) was a puddler. He was born Etruria/Hanley in Staffordshire. I thought at first that it might have something to do with the Wedgwood factory.

Jayson 

[meles]

Do you know that he worked in the ironworks (there was one in the area)?

A puddler also worked on the canals, puddling clay (treading the cly into the canal bottom), and the area had a numer of canals.

meles

[Jayson]

Hi meles

I tracked him down on the 1881 census & he was described as "Puddler of Iron". At that time he was living in Biddulph, Staffordshire.  He gave his children what I thought were unusual names:

Mahalah (my great gran)
Leda
Eber

I've never come across these names before.

Jayson

[meles]

OK - it's iron works, not canals, then.

meles

[behindthefrogs]

My list has three entries for Puddler.  The two already described in the iron works and canal but the third will confuse you even more.

He works the clay into a puddle prior to it being made into pots.

Since posting this I have checked the reference and think it may have confused the process with preparing the clay for use lining canals.

David