SOME of the weird and wonderful job titles of yesteryear have been recalled by a Bradford photographer.
Ian Beesley has shared his collection of images of people carrying out jobs from a bygone age, from sites including mills, across the Bradford district from the 1970s and 80s.
How many of the following jobs, which were carried out in decades gone by do you recognise by their title alone? They are: carders, casters combers, fettlers, doffers, liggers, tatlers, fitters, burlers, menders, sorters, weavers, spinners, porers, corers, patternmakers, stampers, mulespinners, winders, dyers, bleachers, scourers, warpers, plate layers, roadrunners, capsteamers, tip stretchers, hood turners, fitters, balers, packers and quenchers.
Beesley starts off his regular photographic talks on the images shown here by listing out the job titles, many of which people born within the last 30 years, since many of the district's heavy industries have died out.
The images include bobbin liggers at Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury, a bobbin doffer at Brackendale Mills in Idle and burlers and menders at Drummond Mill in Manningham.
Beesley also includes a photographer of himself on his last day working as a roadrunner at Esholt Sewage Works in 1974 before going to Bradford Art College.
He said: "When we lost heavy industry, we lost its language, like its job titles such as fettlers and combers. Everyone used to know what they were.
"People from a young generation haven't got a clue what these jobs are.
"I had a few of these job titles etched into a piece of steel for an exhibition of my work that started off in Bradford, but came to Manchester.
"Most of these jobs have gone now. A lot of these job titles don't get reused into our language. We are in danger of losing these job titles from our language.
"Your job titles forms part of the identity of the working person.
"I do a lot of talks, and I start off by listing a few of the older job titles, just to see how many of them people recognise. It almost reads like a poem.
"It's absolutely fascinating and sad to see them go out of common usage.
"The job title you have, forms part of the identity of what your working life is.
"I worked as a roadrunner at Esholt Sewage Works in the 1970s and I ended up as a platelayer there too, which was fixing and laying out the train tracks."
Who is Ian Beesley?
He was born in Bradford in 1954 and after leaving school in 1972 worked in a mill, a foundry before going to work at Esholt Sewage works, where he was part of the railway gang.
Encouraged by his workmates to go to college and find a career, he took up photography and eventually was accepted to study at Bradford Art College, after which he went to Bournemouth & Poole College of Art.
On graduating he was awarded a Kodak Scholarship for Social Documentation and started to document the demise of industry particularly in Bradford and West Yorkshire.
His work is held in the collections of Bradford City Art galleries and museums, the National Media Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Photographic Society, the V & A London, the National Coal Mining Museum for England and The Smithsonian Museum Washington USA. He has published 40 books.
In 2012 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and in 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bradford for his outstanding contribution to the art and culture and the social and economic development of the city of Bradford.
He is currently artist in residence for the Bradford Institute for Health Research, Gallery Oldham and Yorkshire Water.
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