Firewood Hawker

[jadzia]

Hi all,

I was just looking at a 1901 census for my G G Granddad and it shows his occupation as a Firewood Hawker (own account). What was a firewood Hawker, what did the job entail? Any ideas please I've never heard of it before

[HeleninGlos]

Hi Ness

There is a great list of old occupations here http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/h.html.

A Hawker was usually a street seller, just selling what they could carry. I had one who was a vegetable hawker.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I expect he went from door to door selling it.

OC

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Probably chopped up wood into sticks of kindling, then went round the streets knocking on doors to sell it.

Jay

[keldon]

This is a child version of it.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P3MOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA54&dq=%22firewood+seller%22&hl=en&ei=d8CQTcKkFcu4hAf0nem7Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CEwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22firewood%20seller%22&f=false

[jadzia]

Ahhh that's what it is, thanks guys for the info and the links....
I was just thinking about getting some firewood myself it's getting cold here :(

[grumpy]

A common occupation in the 1930's was Hawkers. The would sell practically anything that was portable, usually from a horse and cart and travel
door to door. We even had grocery hawkers. Another common site in Oz was the ubiquitious 'swaggie'- a man who had no home, carried all his
worldly goods on his back - hence swagman - and would offer to do odd jobs around the property for cash. Chop a ton of wood for 2 shillings.
Times were tough after the great depression of the early 30's
David