Never Too Late To Learn

Mrs. Shuttlewood

Its never too late to change your life. What has changed mine The answer is - a Computer. My Son during his last visit before emigrating to Australia in November 2005, presented me with a computer and a web cam. Here you are Mother, he said, We can keep in touch with these.

I have always been afraid of computers but at 69yrs of age I decided to give it a go. I enrolled on a Learn Direct Course at Coolspots at the Isle of Wight College. You can learn at your own pace, go at times to suit you and if you are on certain benefits, it is free. I arrived one morning very nervous. I was put at my ease, donned my earphones and my adventure began. I have gone from strength to strength communicating with my family by Email and MSN. My eight grandchildren would rather use this method than write or pick up the phone so we have more contact now.

Via the internet, I am researching my Family Tree. I have discovered that my paternal grandfather, born 1861, worked on a farm, as did most males in the Bucks and Herts area and often living in tied cottages. If you lost your job you lost your home as well. The males in poor farming families usually had the meat if there was any, while the rest of the family ate vegetables. My paternal grandmother, born 1865, was a Straw Plaiter, plaiting straw to make straw hats bonnets and baskets. She would have done this from a very early age and boys as young as 8 yrs in my family did this work. Straw Plaiters used an implement to split the straw into certain widths called splints which must have made their fingers very sore. It appears that competitions were often held with rows of old ladies plaiting away in their best clothes and hats. When my grandparents, Sarah Ann and Joseph were married 1884, my grandfather and the two witnesses Sarah and Joseph Smallbones, (lovely name) were unable to sign their names. My grandparents, it turns out, had eight children my Father being the youngest born 1908. I have traced all of my fathers siblings, who are now sadly all dead. I am compiling a record of their families history and occupations for my children so they will know a little about their Ancestors. Through my computer, I have been in touch with my Cousin Joe who is 81 yrs old and computer literate. The last time I saw him was at his wedding and I was just 13yrs old. We are now catching up on family news

I have traced my maternal great grandfather, Scerain Julian Pezoine Frazer, a carpenter and pianoforte maker and his wife Maria Frances . Curious to know where he came from, I found out that in 1866 his father, Auguste Pezoine Frazer, was a soldier in the Free French Army. I also traced my maternal great grandfather, William Pettifer and his wife Esther Lec. He was a Greengrocer. My Mother never knew the names of her grandparents or ever met them. My maternal grandfather, Frank Pettifer, was born in 1880 and had a varied working life

1901 shop assistant in his brother in laws Chandlers shop (ironmongers )
1905 Shopkeeper
1908 Confectioner
1910 Coal and Coke Dealer
1914 Greengrocer
1918 Laborer in Airplane factory
1925 Builders labourer
1929 Cats Meat Dealer (horsemeat) for feeding pets no Whiskers then

Quite a variety of occupations He died in 1929 age 46 yrs.

My grandmother took over the stall. My grandparents had six children, my mother being the second eldest and the only one still alive. My grandmother was 19 yrs old in 1901 (the year Queen Victoria died) and was a Domestic Servant living in a boarding house with nine other people who were

A Widow and her 2 children
A retired Railway Clerk age 76 yrs from Falmouth Cornwall. lame from birth.
A Clerk in musical instruments age 21 - German subject
An artist age 36 from Manchester Lancs.
A Clerk London Postal Service age 22 from Ireland.
A Coal at Grand Hotel ( stoker ) 26 German subject
A Cook Domestic age 58 from Bristol Glos.

This shows people tended to migrate to London for work.

Victorian Times.

Victorian times were not such good old days. Children as young as 9 years old were sent to Aylesbury and other prisons for what is now considered minor crimes.

For example

A boy age 10 years 1872 Crime stealing money 10 days plus 3yrs in Reformatory
A girl age 10 years 1872 Crime stealing a book 14 days plus 3yrs in Reformatory
A boy age 9 years 1872 Crime stealing watches 14 days plus 4yrs in Reformatory
A boy age 9 years 1871 Crime stealing money 1 month prison

What Happened to the children

Children were mainly sent to prison for stealing small amounts a haddock, pegs, handkerchiefs, small amounts of money and books, some were even whipped. Until the 1880s they went to the County Gaol, alongwith adult criminals. Victorian Reformers recognized that children should be kept separately, stating - The helpless and neglected boy ought to be dealt with differently from the responsible man. From about 1858, young offenders under 14yrs started being sent to Reformatory Schools. Some Reformatories were in neighboring Counties, some further afield. They would stay for between 2 to 5 yrs and receive schooling, religious instruction, and/or training for agriculture and industry. Reformatories often had a few acres of land for farming. Accommodation included a schoolroom, dormitories, punishment cells, a chapel and exercise yard. The intention was to reform these children by moral improvement and education. After their sentence was completed, they were found employment, returned to relatives or encouraged to emigrate or join the armed forces.

Aylesbury prison is still used for Young Offenders to this day.

The Workhouse

The Workhouse was a terrible place with families separated and where men, women and children were not allowed to meet, even in communal areas. Inmates rose at 5am and went to bed at 8pm.

Males over 15 yrs were fed 8 oz of bread or 6oz of bread and 1 pint of gruel or 1 pint of broth for supper and breakfast .
Females over 15yrs 6oz bread and 1pint of gruel or 1 pint of broth.
Children under 7months half a pint of milk and half an oz. of sugar.
Children between the age of 7 months and 2 years half a pint of milk, half an oz. of sugar and 2oz bread.
Children between the age of 2-7 yrs half a pint of milk 4oz bread and half a oz of cheese.

How they managed to carry out hard, physical work on these rations is amazing. The beds they slept in were like coffins.
In Service Servants

The life of In Service-Servants was very hard as well. Called Tweenies because thy worked Between Stairs , they would get up at 6am, collect shoes and boots from outside bedrooms on the way downstairs, start cooking the breakfast porridge, go to the dining room and brush the carpet, clean the fireplace, black lead the grate, set and light the fire. They would then go to the sitting room and repeat the same, brush and scrub the front step, take the clean boots back upstairs, go back down to kitchen, collect hot water to take up to the bedrooms, take hot water to the nursery for nurse to wash the babies, lay and light fires in other rooms. Having done that, they would take the breakfast tray to the nursery. At 8.15 were family prayers after which they would clean family and servants bedrooms. This routine carried on all day through lunch, dinner and supper end with washing up, banking down the fires etc.and at 11.30pm go to bed exhausted. All this for 6 shillings a week. Only relaxation was Sunday afternoon but still expected to attend church during this time and given only 1 weeks holiday a year.

Wages For Servants In 1888

General Maid (housework ) Ł10 -Ł16 a year
Cook Ł16 a year
Valet (mans personal servant ) Ł35 a year
Footman (5 6 ) Ł20-Ł22 a year
Footman(up to 6) Ł32-Ł40 a year. Why the size in height difference I havent discovered YET

And Finally -

Without my computer and the internet, I would never have found all this out . its a wonderful invention if used properly and I hope I may have encouraged some of you to try and find out about your Ancestors and find it as interesting as I have.

Using a Computer has changed my life for ever.

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