Blogs using the British Newspaper Archive
Blog #11
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Lamplighters
In an age of sinecures,
awarded to allies of the monarch, the sinecure of chief lamplighter to his
Majesty (George II) was worth 500 pounds per annum.
Stamford
Mercury - Thursday 22 February 1739 page 2 col. 2
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Lamplighters were not immune from risk, as the story
in the Derby Mercury of the 25 May 1744 reported. “ Last Monday evening a
melancholy accident happened t the Door of Colonel Hodges, in
Bloomsbury-Square, where a Lamp-Lighter belong to that place, had the
Misfortune to fall from the top of his Ladder, on the Iron-Rails before the
house, and several of the spikes run into his Body; he was immediately carried
to his Lodgings, where he lies in great Torment, and very small Hopes of his
Life.”
Derby
Mercury - Friday 25 May 1744 page 1 col. 3
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A female lamplighter, Mrs. Read, a printer, and Mrs Darvell, a lamplighter got caught up in
the work of extortionists/ arsonists, who wished to secure money by threats.
Derby
Mercury - Thursday 03 March 1748 page 2 col. 1
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A longer report appeared in the Ipswich Journal a couple of days later. It is a fuller account, as
more information may have been available from the authorities, about the first
letter to Mrs. Read, a printer in
Whitefriars, is printed in full.
“We, knowing you are a rich woman, desire you will lay
a guinea under an Oyster-shell, behind the Watch House in the Alley, that side
next Fleet-Street, on Wednesday Night without fili, or by God we will burn your
House, murder your daughter Mrs. Nunnely, when she is going home to Islington,
for all she has the Devil [i.e. printer’s errand boys] to guard her. Set no
watch, nor show the Letter to Nobody; for by God, damn our souls to the lowest
Pit of Hell, if you do, you know what you are to expect.”
Ipswich
Journal - Saturday 04 March 1749 page 3 col.1
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In the same issue of the Ipswich
Journal, on page 1, the second letter was printed of the extortionists to Mrs
Darvell, a lamplighter of Red Lion Court.
“The copy of a Letter …before the House of the
Widow Darvell…
You are desired, by Order of our
Committee, to lay one Guinea, on Friday Night, in the Place on the Right Hand
Side of Red-Lion Court going down (it joins to the Steps, for if you don’t, you
and all your family will will murder, and burn down your House by G-d, d-n my
Blood if I don’t; but if you do, it shall be returned to you very soon by the
Penny Post: But if not, you know what to expect; and by G-d it shall be done.
It is but one Guinea. Yours &c J.Q. Note.
There’s Witchcraft in the Case; Shew this letter to Nobody.”
Ipswich
Journal - Saturday 04 March 1749 page 1 col. 3
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Then, as now, low pay caused problems, and the
lamplighters of Westminster went on strike in February 1777 in an attempt to
secure higher wages. The streets of Westminster remained dark, and other
watchmen were put on duty to keep the streets safe. (It would appear, that the
lamplighters had a role in public safety, as they could see if people were
being mistreated, and take action,) A strike breaker was encountered by some of
those lamplighters on strike, and beaten up. Those unlucky lamplighters on
strike, who went to a pub in King Street, were unaware that a naval press gang would
waylay them and press them into service in the navy.
The
Ipswich Journal - Saturday 22 February 1777 page 2 col. 3.
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The work of lamplighters may have
become more organised towards the end of the 18th century. In a
notice dated the 27th July 1793, the Commissioners of Northampton
placed a notice in the Northampton
Mercury asking for proposal to light the street lamps. “The number of lamps
to be lighted are 324, which are to continue burning, on an Average, six hours
each Evening, for 120 Nights, between the 23rd of September next and
the 6th of April following; for which Purpose it is expected the
Contractor provides three Lamplighters.”
Northampton
Mercury - Saturday 10 August 1793 page 1 col. 2
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Lamp oil was a valuable commodity, for those many who
could not afford the oil to light their own rooms at home. It is perhaps
unsurprising to find lamplighters stealing oil intended for the illumination of
street lights. Two reports of 1806 in the Northampton
Mercury and in the Norfolk
Chronicle report what happened when
lamplighters were caught stealing, with harsh sentences being given. George
Bowker was “…sentenced to be confined for six months in the house of
correction.”
Northampton
Mercury - Saturday 25 January 1806 page 3 col. 5.
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No less than seven lamplighters were tried for stealing lamp oil.
Perhaps the three found guilty, who were sentenced to three months
imprisonment, had the better sentence than those who were “…sent on board the
tender”. Those sent on board the tender may well have been pressed into the
navy, and could have spent years at sea, without seeing home or family.
Norfolk
Chronicle - Saturday 02 August 1806 page 2 col. 2.
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http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000246/18060802/003/0002
In an echo of events today, with local authority finances being
restricted and reduced, a plea by a Captain Leech on behalf of the inhabitants,
that two lamps be set up to illuminate Chandos-street, was rejected by the Town
Clerk of on behalf of the Bedford Improvement Commissioners, on the grounds
that “…their means were so circumscribed that they were hardly able to pay the
lamplighters at present”.
Northampton
Mercury - Saturday 19 December 1840 page 3 col. 5
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We can gather from a report in the Cork Examiner of 6th July 1846 that gas
lighting was quite extensive for the Dyke in Cork. A
Mr. Gould proposed that some of the 13 gas lamps used to illuminate the Dyke
could be re-distributed to other parts of the city. The decision whether to do
this was deferred (in time honoured fashion) to a new committee which would
look further into the matter. Complaints about the gas lamps being unlit in the
evening elicited a response about the routine that lamplighters were expected
to adhere to. “The lamplighters
were sent out each evening a quarter of an hour before sunset, and they were
obliged to have all their lamps lit within forty-five minutes time. On the
representation of the most humble person in the community, the lamp-lighters
would be fined for a neglect of duty.”
Cork
Examiner - Monday 06 July 1846 page 1 col. 4.
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http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000425/18460706/005/0001
It is fascinating to learn that an English company (unspecified in the
article) supplied gas to light the streets of Vienna, and that the lamplighters
were dis-satisfied with their pay.
Nottingham
Evening Post - Wednesday 11 October 1893 page 2 col. 6.
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http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/18931011/006/0002
The matter of employing women as lamplighters was discuss at a meeting
of the Pollokshaws Town Council. Mr. Baillie Munro, the Convenor of the
Lighting Committee, assured his audience: “…he had a good word to
say for the ladies,. It might be an improvement to introduce female labour into
the different public departments, and he was prepared to take the subject into
serious consideration”.
Dundee Evening
Telegraph - Saturday 12 August 1899 page 2 col. 1.
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The use of electricity came but gradually for
street lighting. Timers were being introduced to gas lamps, to automatically
turn on and off the lamp, giving “…an enormous saving in time and labour”.
Portsmouth
Evening News - Saturday 25 June 1904 page 5 col.2.
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Over twenty-five years later, but in a similar
fashion, the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette reported that: “Upper Weston’s lamplighter has done
his last round, for in future the village is to have the lamps clock
controlled”. The inference is that gas lamps were still being used in Upper
Weston in 1931.
Bath
Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 08 August
1931 page 11 col. 4.
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Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000514/19310808/079/0011
The gradual spread of electric lights in towns and villages is typified by a report in the Tamworth Herald in 1927. The Amington
and Stoneydelph Council was not charged for the conversion from gas to electric
lighting by the Pooley Hall Colliery Company, which carried out the work. The
benefits of electric lighting: “… had enabled the rates to be lowered or for
more extended lighting to be done for the same money. Special reference was
also made to the benefit which colliers receive from the electric street
lighting lamps in the early morning.”
Tamworth
Herald - Saturday 01 October 1927 page 5 col. 3.
Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created
courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000484/19271001/051/0005
The ascendency of electricity for street lighting appears
complete by the late 1940s. The photograph in the Hull Mail of 6th
March 1948 shows the staff and guests at the ball organised by the Insular
Electric Lamp Works Ltd. In acknowledgement of their origins “Lamplighters
Ball” remains the title of the event.
Hull
Daily Mail - Saturday 06 March 1948 page 3
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Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19480306/040/0003
Further reading:
Gas Lighting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_lighting
Street lights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_light
History of lighting and lamps: http://inventors.about.com/od/lstartinventions/a/lighting.htm
Google images: oil street lamps: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=oil+street+lamps&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=d9xGUeLtHOmI0AWqhoCQCg&sqi=2&ved=0CGEQsAQ&biw=1677&bih=864
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