Can I find out any more?

[jane k]

I am intrigued by my grandfather who sadly died when my mum, his daughter, was only 6 so we don`t know much about his upbringing.  I have discovered that he was born in Ireland as his father was a saddler in the army and he then moved with his parents from Bishops Stortford to Leeds to London.  They were very much a working class family and I can`t imagine he had a brilliant education.  However, by the time he was 18 he was living on his own in Birmingham working as a sweep smelter refiner - he worked for a company who refined waste from the jewellery trade.  He continued in this line until his death, later being described as a mettalurgical assayer.  I believe he was definitely brains rather than brawn. 
I have no idea how a lad with his background would have decided this was what he wanted to do or how he learnt how to do it.  No-one else in the family did anything like this.  I would dearly like to find out more.  Does anyone know if there are any additional records that I could look at which might help me or do I have to resign myself to it being a mystery?

[jim1]

The jewellery trade in B'ham was huge with a worldwide reputation
& so there were many men & women working in it.
It may not be case of choosing to be a gold refiner but choosing
a decent job.
He's obviously worked his was up in the business to become an assayer
which was probably for the company he worked for rather than the Assay Office.
Whatever he learned would have been from others.

[Rena]

You haven't given any dates, but if he was alive and living in England in 1939 he will be included in the 1939 Register.  This register gives job titles,  birthdates, workplace etc  and was in full use by the newly formed NHS

url link:-   http://www.rootschat.com/links/01r60/

[Maiden Stone]

Grace's Guide to British Industry
https://gracesguide.co.uk
Can search by place, industry or company name. 

[jane k]

He died in 1929 so isn`t on the 1939 register.  According to the 1921 Census he worked for a company called John Padmore & Sons who were bullion dealers in Birmingham but I haven`t been able to find much about them at all.  I don`t know if he was with them throughout his working life either

[mckha489]

There are a few Newspaper entries via either FindMyPast or the British Newspaper Archive.

It looks as though it was a business by 1866.
Always in Branston Street.  And perhaps sold from the family in 1930.

[jane k]

thanks