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1/- |
In
1901, a pound was divided into 20 shillings.
There were 12 pennies in each shilling. The
way to write one shilling was 1s, or 1/-.
This was changed in 1971 to a decimal system,
with 100 pennies in a pound. Shillings (then
worth 5p) disappeared. One shilling often
called a 'bob' is equivalent to 5p in todays
money. It was worth a lot more in 1901. A
clerk in London would earn 16/- a week. A
good breakfast would have cost 1/2 a shilling
(6d or 2.5 pence of todays money) and you
could rent a sparsely furnished corner of
a partitioned attic for 4/- a week in central
London. In the first part of the century 7/-
was worth about £10 today. (Also see
penny.) |
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APPRENTICE |
An apprentice
is someone who has a contract agreement
to learn a trade from a master of that trade.
For example, in 1901, a boy could become
a lighterman's apprentice when he was 14.
He had to work for the lighterman for seven
years. Then, if he passed a test, he was
free to work anywhere on the river.
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ARMS
FACTORY |
An arms factory
makes guns and explosives. |
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BARGE |
A long boat with
a large hold (storage space), for carrying
cargo up and down rivers, canals and coastal
waters. A Thames barge has sails or an engine
or both, so it can go against the tide. |
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BOW
|
The front of a
boat. |
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CARGO |
Goods carried
in a boat or ship, to be bought and sold.
|
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CAUSEWAY |
A raised path
over wet ground. Along the Thames at low tide,
you need a causeway to get across the mud
to the water. At high-tide the causeway off
Crane Street is covered by water. |
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CHARRING |
Cleaning floors
and furniture in homes and offices. |
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COAL |
Coal is a hard,
black, shiny rock which splits into layers.
It burns well because it contains a lot of
carbon, like wood. |
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COLLIER
|
A ship which
carries coal. Colliers carried coal up and
down the coasts of Scotland and England.
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DOCK |
A dock is an
area of water by a wharf, where ships stop
to load and unload their cargoes. The docks
along the Thames are man-made. By 1800 there
were so many ships using the river, there
was not room for them all to stop in the
river. The first docks were dug on the Isle
of Dogs, the land north of the river opposite
Greenwich. Thousands of people from the
south side of the river worked here, loading
and unloading ships.
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DRAPER |
A draper’s
shop sells material for making clothes and
curtains. |
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ELECTRICITY |
From the 1840s,
people began to make cables to carry electric
current and electric signals. |
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FURLED |
Folded |
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GARDEN
STAIRS |
There are places
along the Thames shore where you can climb
down to the water at low tide. Watermen
used to wait at the river stairs for passengers.
If you wanted to go somewhere by boat, you
went to the river stairs and hired a waterman
in a skiff to row you there. Garden Stairs
are still found at Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich. |
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GUINEA |
21 shillings,
one shilling more than a pound. (£1.05)
1 shilling = 5 pence |
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HERRING |
A smallish, silver-coloured
fish. Every year a vast shoal of herring swam
around the coast of Britain. The herring shoal
was followed by a fleet of fishing boats.
The boats came ashore at certain towns to
gutt and pack the fish in barrels of salt,
and then sell it. |
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LIGHTER |
A lighter is like
a barge but it has no sails or engine. It
looks like a long floating skip. It has a
big open hold for carrying cargo. In 1901,
lighters went up and down the river with the
tides. Today, they are towed by tug-boats.
They carry goods between ships and the shore.
They also carry goods from one place to another
up and down the river. |
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MILLWALL DOCKS |
Another name for
this part of London is the Isle of Dogs. The
five large docks here are called Millwall
Docks (outer and inner) and West India Docks
(north, middle and main). There are also two
smaller docks, called Blackwall Basin and
Poplar Dock. You can still see these docks
today, along the route of the DLR trains between
Island Gardens and Canary Wharf. |
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MOORED
|
A boat is moored
when it is tied in a fixed place, so that
it doesn't move.
|
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MOORINGS |
A place where
boats are tied up or anchored so that they
do not move. |
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PENNY |
In 1901 there
were 240 pennies in a pound. A penny could
be divided in half (a ha'penny — ½d)
and into quarters (a farthing — ¼d).
12 pence made a shilling. This system lasted
until 1971, when old pennies were replaced
by new pennies with 100 pennies in a pound.
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PORTER |
A dark brown beer,
with a rich bitter flavour. In 1901 you could
take a jug to the pub and have it filled with
beer to take home. |
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QUAY |
You say this
word ‘kee’.
A quay is a platform at the waterside. It
is there to help ships load and unload cargo.
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QUEEN |
Victoria was born
on 24 May 1819. She was 18 when she became
Queen in 1837. Victoria died in January 1901,
aged 81.
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RIVET |
A rivet is
like a like a large metal bolt, but it has
no thread. It was heated red-hot and put
through holes in iron plates to hold them
together. One end had the head. The other
end was beaten flat. When it cooled, it
pulled the plates tightly together. You
can see rivets on old railway bridges and
railway stations.
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SEWING
MACHINE |
W. J. Harris &
Co., sewing machine and perambulator makers,
had a shop at 66 London Street.
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SHILLING
|
In 1901, a pound
was divided into 20 shillings. There were
12 pennies in each shilling. The way to write
one shilling was 1s, or 1/-. This was changed
in 1971 to a decimal system, with 100 pennies
in a pound. Shillings (then worth 5p) disappeared.
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SIEMENS
BROTHERS & COMPANY LIMITED |
Wilhelm von Siemens
(from 1883 Sir William Siemens) was one of
five brothers. In 1858, with his brother Werner,
he set up a factory on the site where the
Thames Barrier building is now. The factory
made cables for the undersea telegraph links
between Britain, Europe, North America and
the other continents. Before the telegraph,
it took over a week to send a message from
London to New York — the time it took
for a ship to cross the Atlantic and deliver
the message. The electric telegraph let people
send messages thousands of miles around the
world in a few minutes.
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SKIFF |
A skiff is a small
open wooden boat for carrying people. It may
be rowed with two oars, one on each side of
the boat, or it can be sculled with one oar
over the back of the boat.
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SMOG |
Coal smoke
from homes and factories made the air dirty.
Wet weather made the air damp. When dry
air mixed with damp air, the air became
cloudy and heavy. It became yellow smog.
People breathed in a lot of dirt, which
made them cough. Sometimes the smog weas
so thick, people could not see through it.
The fog was always worse on the river. Lightermen
said that when it was smoggy, they could
find still their way on the river because
they knew all the smells which came from
warehouses along their route.
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STEAM-DRIVEN |
From about
1810 steam power was used to drive boats.
To use steam power, water is heated until
it boils and turns to steam. The steam powers
the piston which then turns the ship's paddles
or propeller. Early steamships sometimes
caught fire or blew up.
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STERN
|
The back of a
boat.
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SWEEPS |
Sweeps are long
heavy oars, used to direct and drive a boat.
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TELEGRAM |
A message sent
by telegraph. Telegraph is sending electric
signals along a copper wire inside a cable.
The message is sent letter by letter. Each
letter of the alphabet is sent as a pattern
of long and short signals. The signal is controlled
by a magnetic needle. The system was invented
in the 1830s by Samuel Morse, an American
painter, art teacher and designer.
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THAMES WATERMEN
AND LIGHTERMEN |
A waterman's trade
is to carry people by boat. Until the 19th
century, the easiest way to get around London
was by boat. A waterman's skiff was like a
taxi. You could hire one, and the waterman
rowed you to the river stairs closest to where
you wanted to go. You could travel along the
Thames in one of the new steam-driven ferries.
New docks were built, so more and more big
ships used the river. The river got very busy.
It was risky for people to travel in small
rowing boats. All these things meant that
the watermen's work changed: instead of rowing
passengers in skiffs, they took lighters full
of cargo up and down the river. This is the
trade of a lighterman.
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TIDE |
The tide is the
daily rise and fall of sea level. Like all
rivers, the Thames flows down to the sea.
But when the tide rises in the sea, the sea
water floods up the river Thames. On the Thames
in London, the tide rises and falls roughly
every 12 hours 25 minutes. So every day, the
two high tides are about half-an-hour later
than they were the day before. At Greenwich,
the Thames can rise or fall by 16 feet with
the tide.
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TRAM |
A bus which runs
on rails in the road. Trams pulled by horses
ran in London from the 1860s. In 1901, some
tram routes were being changed to run on electricity.
The tram routes in Greenwich became electric
in 1906.
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TUNNEL |
The foot tunnel
between Greenwich pier (on the south side
of the Thames) and Island Gardens (on the
north side) was opened in 1902. It is still
in use today.
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WHARF |
A wharf is a level
area of shore by deep water where ships stop.
At the wharf, goods are loaded and unloaded
onto the ships. |
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WINCH |
A winch is a machine
for pulling or lifting heavy things. You wind
or unwind a rope or chain, to raise or lower
something. In 1901, some winches were worked
by hand, by turning a handle. Others were
worked by steam engines.
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ZINC BATH |
In 1901, most
people did not have bathrooms. No-one had
a washing machine. For washing, people would
heat water on the stove.
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