Genealogy Chat

More in a mo...................

I have the accounts for repairs and alterations made to the home of my ggg-grandparents in 1863 and 1894. I thought some of you might be interested in what people were paid etc.............These are just a few snippets from a dozen sheets of foopscap: 1863: 4 days a plasterer, 12s 6 days each 2 masons and a labourer, £2 - 17s 4 days each 2 carpenters, £1 - 8s 120 days worked by craftsman and labourers total £18 - 8s - 1d Total bill for all materials, inc several oak window frames, hundreds of yards of oak planking, and other timber, bushels of cement and plaster and loads of paint, nails, screws, sand, lime, locks, bolts keys, metal railings etc etc plus the above wages .....£155 - 6s - 9½d 1894: The general builder worked a 9½ hour day Mon-Fri and 8 hours on a Sat. He earned 6d per hour. He seems to have been capable of just about anything, including pruning trees, cutting firewood and picking fruit as well as the more usual carpentry, plastering, bricklaying, plumbing, glazing, decorating and roof tiling etc I notice he was paid 8 hours for making a ladder from scratch! Imagine doing that today?! Any questions? Merry

Hi Merry, What's their address. I'd sure like to use them. Paul

LOL!! For the first lot, please contact William Glanvill of Banbury, Oxon. and the second please contact Samuel Choyce of Adderbury, Oxon. Neither seem to be on the phone or email :o(( Merry

Hi Merry, good holiday?( I did read your account of it....excellent results lol) My grandfather was a Master builder in the late 1800's and paid his 'workers' the sort of money you mentioned...lol.....he build/and owned his house.....had one of the first telephones, (which granny refused to use, as she thought it was the devil!!!) Each friday night grandfather, use to met his workers in the local pub and give them their wages for the week, and buy them all a drink or two....it seems that money just went further in those days?????....lol.....Lilly

Hi Merry, Thanks. Have made a note. It only goes to show how things have changed. I've just paid thousands of pounds to have trees removed and fences replaced. The workmen worked hard but basically one weeks work. Paul

I have a handy little pocketbook (lol) as used by Quantity Surveyors in the 1920s, which gives not only a rigid set of wages for all building work, but also the time allowed to do a specific job. It makes rivetting reading! OC

Thanks for that Merry - my great great grandfather was a builder in Battersea in the 1880's/1890's. That gives me more insight. Rachelxx

Ouch Paul :o(( Lilly - your ancestor sounds like a good employer! This Samuel Choyce who did the work in 1894 was remembered by my grandfather who was born in 1888. He said it was watching Sam Choyce at work that caused him to have an interest in buildings and led to him training to be an architect which gave him a great career. If any workman said a job wasn't possible, my g-father would say that Sam Choyce could have done it! This man's name is still ''famous'' in our family today! My ggg-grandmother who employed Sam in 1894 when she was an old lady, used to go up the ladders in her floor length skirts to see what he had been doing! This shocked the villagers to the core.......a woman employer up a ladder? Whatever next?? She said it was only because she wanted to learn about his work.....another convert? (she was about 80+!) I don't think Sam Choyce had any children :o(( ....I wish he did, as I would like to share these memories with his descendants :o(( Merry