Edge tool maker

[oldtimer]

Hi!

Here is a nice site showing some of the trademarks of edge-tool makers of the past

http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/tradelogos.htm

There was a large edge-tool manufacturer, Gilpin's,  at Wedges Mills, near Cannock, Staffordshire. It was founded in 1791, and didn't close til the 1970s.

[JAP]

Stan, if you haven't come across Edge Tool Maker as an occupation I assume you don't have any lowly Sheffield ancestors   My lot there were mostly either edge tool makers or file cutters ...

Here is the 'E' section of occupations of claimants in the Sheffield flood:
http://www2.shu.ac.uk/sfca/indexOccupations.cfm?initial=E
A few Edge Tool Makers and also other Edge Tool specialisations (File Cutter is much more common).

The home page of the above site is very interesting as is the following site about The Great Flood at Sheffield-1864:
http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/sheffield/flood.html

JAP

[gales]

HI , Garethboxing, In those days people often changed jobs. Send me some details of your Gt Gt I will have a look see if I can come up with something. gales

[stanmapstone]

Stan, if you haven't come across Edge Tool Maker as an occupation I assume you don't have any lowly Sheffield ancestors   My lot there were mostly either edge tool makers or file cutters ...

JAP

Hi Jap,
It was not me making the original query I knew what an edge tool maker was

Stan

[Garethboxing]

Thanks, gales, but I'm fairly sure the "former edge tool maker" must be him.
    His name was Thomas Dowdeswell, born 1806, and a labourer in Barton St Mary, Gloucester in 1841; by 1851 he is a bailiff on a farm at Upton St Leonards; still there in 1861 and 1871, though a widower by that last census. Then, in 1881, a widowed TD turns up as a boarder with the Dutson family in Barton St Michael.
   I couldn't find any other likely TD, but you're welcome to look.
   Regards, Gareth

[mike175]

Just a thought on this interesting topic . . . surely a Tool Maker of any sort would have served an apprenticeship for several years. It seems unlikely to me that he would then have spent most of his life as a farm bailiff. Conversely, it would surely be difficult for a farm bailiff to become a skilled toolmaker?

I think I'd be looking for someone else . . .

Mike.

[Garethboxing]

Good point, Mike, but I wonder how rigidly that sort of thing was monitored. If somebody wanted to set up as a tool maker (and presumably was competent enough to make a living), would anyone have stopped him?
   And, of course, a census enumerator would put down what he was told. But, as I said earlier, you'd expect someone with a responsible job like farm bailiff - on one census he was employing four men - would see that as his main career even if he dabbled in tool making?
   The fact remains that, even allowing for the varied spellings of Dowdeswell around, there's nobody else that fits in 1881 and the only likely death is in Gloucester in 1888. Maybe this is one of those things we'll never know for sure. (Unless I can find a grave...)

   Gareth

[PAFC]

A large 18th/19th century branch of my family lived and worked in Somerset. Most of them lived in or close to Great Elm, a rural village near Frome and the Fussells Ironworks at Mells. The majority were edge tool makers, clustered together in cottage accommodation, probably supplying the local agricultural community with digging and cutting equipment. I don't know if there was a central forge or if each family had its own forge. The family name was variously Gawen, Gawn, Gowen or (finally) Gowan. There is a possibility that they originated in Ireland, as my mother said that idea ran in the family, and my DNA results do confirm that I have some Irish roots. But I haven't managed to research that far back! PAFC.