Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is this Alfred Braddock sitter an Edwardian New River walksman or turncock?
What are those items he's hefting on his shoulder? Could NRC be New River Company? I'm wondering if he was an Edwardian New River walksman or turncock. Here's a photo of a 1950s walksman.
Turncocks were in charge of turning services on and off by directing water from the mains into service pipes. In case of fire, they were responsible for directing the water towards the area where it was needed.
Walksmen patrolled a section of the river to keep our trespassers, repair the banks where necessary, and to cut the grass on the walks which on the riverbanks.
Whatever his job, you wouldn't have messed with the guy in the photo above!
There is a Walksman's Gate in Myddleton house Gardens. The notice on the gate says the walksmen were "armed with cudgels and it is known that E. A. Bowles (the well-known owner of the house) kept a walksman's cudgel by his bedside in case of intruders". I wonder if one of the items the chap on the photo is holding is his cudgel?
More about Braddock here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken Stevens on
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Looking at the image on page 127 of
https://construccion.uv.cl/docs/textos/coleccion03/TEXTO.06.TheHist...
I reckon you're right about New River Company, the shouldered implement(s) being primarily for turning valves though no doubt useful if required in a secondary enforcement role!
I did wonder momentarily about New Regent College, Hackney, but there is a considerable disconnection of eras ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Nick Higham on
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Hi Ken. Good spot. I think he’s a turncock too (see my reply toHugh…)
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Image: Drawing by H. W. Petherick. Aunt Louisa’s Welcome Gift;
London Characters (1885?), p. 3 as published in Leslie Tomory,
The History of the London Water Industry 1580–1820
Johns Hopkins University Pres, 2017
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I think the image is more likely to show a turncock than a walksman. The latter (as featured in your earlier post) were unique to the New River; the former were employed by all the London water companies, wore uniforms, and before the era of constant supply went round turning on the water for each street on “water day” two or three times a week. They carried large “keys” weighing up to 30lb to turn the cocks, as in the picture on page 127 of Tomory’s book, posted by Ken Stevens. The difficulty is dating the image. The New River Co disappeared in 1904 when all the London companies were subsumed into the Metropolitan Water Board; and some years before that constant supply has been introduced pretty well everywhere, dispensing with the need for turncocks. But there were some odd corners still on intermittent supply in 1900 — and indeed Great Amwell, in the New River district, was one of the very last places to get constant supply (in 1911): ironic, since it is the site of one of the two original springs which fed the New River…
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Yes, it may will be a turncock. Both walksmen and turncocks wore uniforms, but, apart from the Pethwick drawing, I was unable to find any images better than caricatures of turncocks and nothing for walksmen, other than the 1959 photo here on HoL.
I thought initially that turncocks had gone from London by the third quarter of the nineteenth century, as per Philip Temple's Survey of London:
Growing demand for water, poor supply and, above all, rising concerns about impurity, led to the Metropolis Water Acts of 1852 and 1871. These required filtration through sand, covered reservoirs and the provision of a constant or on-demand supply rather than what had hitherto been an intermittent supply, controlled by water-company turncocks.
But, in other research I'd also come across an Arthur Searle living in Park Road, Crouch End. He was recorded as a turncock as late as 1901. There were clearly still New River cocks to be turned at the start of the twentieth century.
Both that confirmation, and of all things, a Happy Families playing card are tipping the balance for me towards Braddock's sitter being a turncock. Mr Water's tools do look very similar to those being hefted by Braddock's sitter. Strangely, they're more identifiable in this picture than those shown in the Pethwick drawing.
With regards to the dating of the photo, it's probably from within a ten year time window. As you'll see from my Braddock history, Braddock arrived at Alexandra Park Road in 1890, when his son Victor was 16. Victor died in 1901. For some of this period, certainly by 1901, Victor was working in his father's business, hence the Alfred Braddock & Son name. Braddock may have carried on using the name after 1901; we don't know. His listings in Kelly's, up until 1911 when he moved on from Alexandra Road, suggest not.
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Here's a Hornsey Turncock possibility I've just stumbled across in Kelly's Middx 1890. So, could we be looking at George in the photo?
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Could well be, Hugh. I can't imagine that there would have been that many turncocks per mile of New River, so one living locally, working locally and getting photographed locally has a distinct sort of possibility about it
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Permalink Reply by Roy aka Smiffy on
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Many years ago (the late 60’s) the magnificent and grand New River Head building in Roseberry Avenue had an open day.
On display were many documents and maps. There were several uniform items, a cap and tunic, buttons and badges. Most impressive was the brass short barrelled flintlock carbine. The muzzle was engraved (as far as I can remember) ‘New River Company’ also on display was a short cutlass, many types of turnkeys, valves, along with pieces of wooden (elm?) trunk pipes.
I wonder where all these artefacts are now.
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Interesting, Roy. I imagine (and hope) that they will have been kept somewhere: perhaps the Museum of London?
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I hope you don't mind the late reply regarding the photo by Alfred Braddock. I worked for Thames Water for many years and can confirm that he was a Turncock. Up until about 25 years ago there were turncocks and inspectors. (I was an inspector and then became a foreman for the turncocks in central London). The two roles were joined and they are now called Network Service Technicians (NST's)
In the picture he has a “key and bar” and possible a “spoon bar” over his shoulder so would therefore be a Turncock rather than a river walksman.
The key and bar is still in use today and looks identical to the one pictured. The key fits on to valves in the road. The bar goes through the key top allow leverage to shut or open the valve. The spoon bar is used to clean out the valve box to allow access to the spindle of the valve.
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside) on
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I remember them well, our garden backed onto the river in Winchmore Hill. Apart from the uniformed men there were also 'flat-capped' workmen that walked the banks, I gather that they did the maintenance, one took some baby rabbits off us when ours had a litter. We referred to them as the 'new river men'.
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