Knighton and district
Earning a living
  Tradesmen: timber merchants to miscellaneous  
Don't forget!
The surnames are first

extract from Slater's DirectoryWatch and clock making was a very skilled craft indeed. The craftsman would not have today's modern precision tools. Only the better off in Victorian times would be able to afford a watch though. Most would have to manage without.

The woolstaplers were the men who bought fleeces from the local farmers and sorted them, and sold the wool on to others who would spin it into thread which could be woven.
With so many sheep grazing these border hills the woolstaplers had an important role. Notice that William Banks also had a wool mill in Knighton where cloth was woven.

 

This final list of local tradesmen, clerks and craftsmen is of those people who cannot easily be placed in any other category.

Notice the Gas Works at Temes Green. Here coal would be heated until it gave off inflammable coal gas. This could then be piped through the streets to houses for gas lighting and gas cookers.
Gas was just being introduced in small towns in this way and not many houses in Knighton would have been able to afford it. Gradually more and more town houses were connected up.

Robert Phillips the guano dealer had perhaps one of the more unpleasant jobs (certainly one of the smelliest !). Guano was rotted bird droppings used as a fertiliser.

 
 

Knighton now has a regular police force with a police station in Pig Market and a regular police officer in PC John Newman.

Back to Knighton Earning a living menu


Link to sources
Back to top
Go to Knighton menu