"Baller"

[Mike Thw]

I have a Wedding Certificate from 1907, Llanfabon, Glamorgan (roughly 4-5 miles south of Merthyr).

One of the fathers occupations is given as "Baller"

Any ideas what this could be?

 

[stanmapstone]

A baller was a puddler who worked at a ball furnace in which iron or steel scrap or bars of puddled iron were treated to form an even purer wrought iron than is made from cast iron.

Other "Ballers" worked in the textile industries but I don't think this would apply in Glamorgan.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

There was also a Baller in a Pottery who weighed out lumps of clay and shaped it with his hands into a ball for the thrower, he also took the ware made by the thrower to the drying stove.

Stan

[Mike Thw]

Thanks Stan,

Looking at the location, I think we must be talking Furnaceman.

Mike