What is an 'Oakham Picker?'

[AlanC]

In an 1861 census, ref; RG9/2677/88/22, the head of the household, a widow, is an Oakham Picker........sadly her 22yr old daughter is also a widow but the occupation of her mother is not one I've met before. I know Oakham is County town of Rutland but perhaps not relevant here?

[Sue from Southend]

Normally spelt "Oakum" there's an explanation here http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e...arge-oakum.htm

It doesn't sound like a fun job.....

[Vonny North West]

Picking Oakham was a task given to inmates, usually, in the workhouse, please read the following: dry picking of oakum was introduced : this is a tedious and irksome process of manual labour, by which junk, old shipping-ropes cut into pieces a few inches long, is untwisted, the yarns separated and reduced to shreds by the hand and fingers, and by rubbing against the apron worn by the picker : there is nothing unwholesome or straining in this employment, but it is tiresome, and various attempts were made to evade it : one mode tried was by boiling the junk in water, after which it is easily pulled into shreds, but the ropes lose their efficacy to resist water, and consequently the oakum is unfit for caulking, its destined use.
Taken from: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Liverpool
Vonny

[AlanC]

Vonny & Sue,.................that's very helpful thank you and you're right.............what an awful 'job.'

[Elwyn]

The culture of the Workhouse was supposed to be that people only applied for relief as a measure of last resort. Consequently there was a very strict regime with work like oakum picking which was deliberately intended to discourage people from going there, unless they had no other alternative. (You can draw parallels with some comments in the press and by politicians today who suggest that people who live on state support have a cushy life and that it shouldn't be so easy for them, and that they should be "made" to do things etc. I suspect that was possibly the view held by the authorities in the 1800s too).

[grumpy]

Picking oakum was a job given to navy men consigned to the cells as punishment even up to post ww2. Not a very pleasant task and apparently you were required to process

a fixed amount each day otherwise they had further punishments in store for the culprit.

[Olde Crone Holden]

It was also "work" for prisoners.

OC