Rope Making in Peak Cavern

langcliffe

Well-known member
Another question for all you clever Peak historians...

Could this be a photograph of Bert Morrison, the last Peak Cavern rope maker? I suspect that the photograph was taken about 1949 when Morrison would have been in his mid-60s. He is wearing the same sort of gear as seen in this:

YouTube video.

https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archives/clarke/peak/Clarke%207%20Peak%20Cavern.jpg

On an easier note, this photograph is described as being "Beyond Speedwell Water". Would that be Upper Gallery?

Many thanks in advance for any answers, and also for your help on previous occasions.
 

AR

Well-known member
Possibly - just had a look at a photo Harry Parker took of Bert about 20 years later and although I couldn't say for certain, it's likely. One minor point, the surname of the ropemaker family was Marrison, not Morrison.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
I believe the Peak Cavern photo is the big bend after Mucky Duck and just before Razor Blade Aven, looking upstream, so yes, Upper Gallery. If I'm right! ;)
 

Roger W

Well-known member
Just had a look myself at the photo of Bert by H M Parker in Brian Woodall's Peak Cavern guidebook (1979) - the nose and ears are very similar.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
I agree with pwhole that the Peak photo is probably in Upper Gallery.

I asked Irene who worked at Peak until recently about the video and she confirmed the subject is Bert Marrison. She also mentioned there is another video on You Tube made about Bert when he retired.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Irene adds:

"Bert's always easy to recognise by his hands rope making does some very strange things to joints"
 

mikem

Well-known member
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/cave-ropemaker
1963 & also on YouTube. This is in BCA library list. Otherwise you get PeteK's rope work films...
 

Roger W

Well-known member
I think I see what you mean, Pitlamp...
 

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Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
A bit political but...

This sort of complaint was common amongst millions of manual workers during the industrial revolution.  Caused by highly repetitive work over long hours.  Often the workers had no choice but to continue working in excruciating pain to earn the money they needed to live.  It's what made Britain 'Great' and built the enormous wealth of the Victorian era.
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
Pitlamp said:
I agree with pwhole that the Peak photo is probably in Upper Gallery.

I asked Irene who worked at Peak until recently about the video and she confirmed the subject is Bert Marrison. She also mentioned there is another video on You Tube made about Bert when he retired.

My post was misleading 'cos the link to youtube dominated it. It was actually the subject of the photograph I was interested in:

https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archives/clarke/peak/Clarke%207%20Peak%20Cavern.jpg
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
Over two years on...

Here is a wonderful photograph of Bert Marrison found in the Simpson Archive - date mid-1930s?

 

Flotsam

Active member
A bit political but...

This sort of complaint was common amongst millions of manual workers during the industrial revolution. Caused by highly repetitive work over long hours. Often the workers had no choice but to continue working in excruciating pain to earn the money they needed to live. It's what made Britain 'Great' and built the enormous wealth of the Victorian era.
Indeed. British workers in the early industrial era were little better than slaves. Something that is forgotten by the promoters of the currently fashionable slavery woke/guilt campaign.I know some very old people from the potteries area. They reckoned the life expectancy of pottery workers was incredibly low, around 30 years.
 

shotlighter

Active member
Indeed. British workers in the early industrial era were little better than slaves. Something that is forgotten by the promoters of the currently fashionable slavery woke/guilt campaign.I know some very old people from the potteries area. They reckoned the life expectancy of pottery workers was incredibly low, around 30 years.
The dreaded "potters rot" - silicosis IIRC.
 

shotlighter

Active member
Read all about it:
Way off topic now but....If you spot a copy, "When I Was a Child" by Charles Shaw is well worth a read. He was a child pottery worker in the 1840s in Boslem and Tunstall. It was published by the Sentinel in the 1890's and as a book in 1903. I was first told about it by my Grandad who read it as a boy & often quoted it. I was pleased to find a reprint of it in1998 & it's fascinating.
How times have changed.
 
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