The Road to Wigan Pier

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Faiaoga

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:cool: I have been rereading George Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier", his description of the lives of British miners in the 1930's. With his mastery of the English language, his sympathy for working men and his lack of cant, I have always felt that George Orwell (Eric Blair) was one of the best writers of the 20th Century.

Orwell is very descriptive concerning the difficult working conditions and family lives of the miners. He also gives a detailed budget for a miner's family. To put this in perspective for me, perhaps someone who knows British traditional knives could tell me the approximate cost (in 1937 shillings) of a workingmans's clasp kife that a miner might own- perhaps a William Rodgers. Please excuse my USA ignorance.
Faiaoga
 
Intriguing thread title. One of my great grandfathers was a miner then, chewed plug and drank his tea cold for the rest of his life (no smoking down the pit and got used to cold tea carried to work in a 'mash can'). He carried a Joseph Rodgers jack knife, but I couldn't tell you how much he paid for it, few Sheffield working-men paid much, if anything, for the knives they carried as so many worked in the cutlery trade themselves, and if they didn't, their neighbours and family members most likely did. In those days a pint of beer was only a penny or two, so I doubt a pocket-knife, the sort of knife an ordinary man would carry, cost much, not in Sheffield at least.
 
I always thought that George Orwell and John Steinbeck had a similar base of their writing. Both seemed to be interested in the underdog, the working man in a time of economic upheaval like the Great Depression years. Both were very good at bringing home the stark lives of the worker on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
 
Jack Black said:
Intriguing thread title. One of my great grandfathers was a miner then, chewed plug and drank his tea cold for the rest of his life (no smoking down the pit and got used to cold tea carried to work in a 'mash can'). He carried a Joseph Rodgers jack knife, but I couldn't tell you how much he paid for it, few Sheffield working-men paid much, if anything, for the knives they carried as so many worked in the cutlery trade themselves, and if they didn't, their neighbours and family members most likely did. In those days a pint of beer was only a penny or two, so I doubt a pocket-knife, the sort of knife an ordinary man would carry, cost much, not in Sheffield at least.
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Got any pics of it?
 
jackknife said:
I always thought that George Orwell and John Steinbeck had a similar base of their writing. Both seemed to be interested in the underdog, the working man in a time of economic upheaval like the Great Depression years. Both were very good at bringing home the stark lives of the worker on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
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I'd agree with you there Carl, though 'Orwell' was actually a toff. He wrote up one hilarious account of trying to get himself arrested so he could experience prison. He got himself drunk and accosted two policemen, but as he had a posh Eton accent, they were very polite to him and didn't want to arrest him at all. Eventually he took a swing at one of them, and so they put him up for the night in the cells, but were very apologetic about it, and he was released by the magistrate the next day. I get the impression John Steinback might have not have had to tried so hard! :)

Woodrow F Call said:
Got any pics of it?
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I'm afraid not, all my great grandfathers died before I was born, and the only thing I remember of his (this is my mother's father's father) was his old pipe. However, my (maternal) grandfather also carried a Rodgers Jack knife, which he said was like his father's. How much like it, I couldn't say, but it had a clip blade a bit like on ScruffUK's Trevor Ablett Barlow knife, possibly a little smaller, and a pen secondary, with the pen in front of the clip. It had a small steel front bolster and dark wood scales.
 
Orwell points out that miners in the 1930s were not well off (although the general public often thought they were). Figures he gives for gross wage are between 40 to 53 Shillings per week ( GBP 2 to 2.65 a week) This before any 'stoppages' 1 Shilling a week for lamp hire and tool sharpening before you could do the job!

Clearly money was tight and I doubt a miner would carry a knife down the pit (too much coaldust&grime everywhere) Off the job he would carry a simple cheap knife very likely. The sticky thread 'Old Knife Catalogues' gives some help here. Smiling-Knife posted details of 1930s I*XL knives, I found it difficult to read the figures but I believe a Barlow style knife or simple Barehead would be about 1 Shilling. More complex and fancier knives seem to go for 3 - 5 Shillings and fixed Hunters around 9 Shillings, well off limits for the average workman on these wages.
 
willgoy said:
Smiling-Knife posted details of 1930s I*XL knives, I found it difficult to read the figures but I believe a Barlow style knife or simple Barehead would be about 1 Shilling. More complex and fancier knives seem to go for 3 - 5 Shillings and fixed Hunters around 9 Shillings, well off limits for the average workman on these wages.
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Just to clarify what that is worth today, the pre-decimal British shilling is now worth 5p - 1 twentieth of £1 Sterling. The current average cost of a pint of beer in England is about £3.
 
My dad tels a story about his uncle who was
a Nottingham coal miner.In the 1940s They lived in house with earthen floors in Basfordwhich is art ofNottingham.(not out in the sticks)but they always had a big heap of coal.Perhaps why they were seen as well off.
 
meako said:
My dad tels a story about his uncle who was
a Nottingham coal miner.In the 1940s They lived in house with earthen floors in Basfordwhich is art ofNottingham.(not out in the sticks)but they always had a big heap of coal.Perhaps why they were seen as well off.
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I once went out with a girl who lived in Basford! :D

Long before I read The Road To Wigan Pier I can remember my mother telling me stories about my grandfather being encrusted with coal-dust all week under his shirt as there was only one bath to be had a week. I think pit-head baths were only introduced in the 1960's. The slum clearance in Sheffield was still taking place in the early 1970's, and until then people only had tin baths, which they'd have to fill with a kettle. At my paternal grandparents old house (which was demolished in 1970 or 71) all the girls and women would absent themselves one night a week, so the boys and men could have a bath, and then they would do the same another night. When I was a kid, a trip to my grandparents was like a trip back in time, but there were scores of streets of people living in the same way.
 
[video=youtube;13JK5kChbRw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=13JK5kChbRw#t=3s[/video]
 
wouldestous said:
had to look up what 'toff' means. lol
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Sorry! It's a very old-fashioned English word, which I think could be applied to Eric Blair, even if he was actually a reluctant toff! :D He actually referred to his class as being 'lower uper middle' :)

Michael Palin (one of the Pythons above) is from Sheffield, but I doubt his family ever lacked for a bath!

The audio track in this video (a satire on an old bread commercial) was played at the funeral of an old pal of mine the other week. I'm afraid there isn't a subtitle option! :D

[video=youtube;I2AcJSkUw6M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2AcJSkUw6M[/video]
 
JAlexander said:
"And then 'e threw me mum on fire." Who can't understand it?
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I think you'll find that's "on't fire" sir! :D

As an aside, I was once at a Sheffield gun club which allowed guests, when the Range Officer suddenly shouted "Which b****y idiot's written Tony Capstick in the signing-in book?!"
A shy Capstick stepped forward mumbling, "It were me actually." :D
 
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wouldestous said:
had to look up what 'toff' means. lol
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about 2.24 the nickname "spadger" always makes me laugh an all.
[video=youtube;8ZWRe9DFYZ8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8ZWRe9DFYZ8[/video]
Jack -who is Tony Capstick? my Grandads cousin used to call people daft wazzocks.
 
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