Old Photographs of British Life; and My Grandfather - a Trawler-man.

 .

Gas lamplighter in Petworth, West Sussex, 1931.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This photograph reminded me that there were still some gas operated street lights in the Bristol of my childhood - say early fifties.

There were a few in my area of Bristol and yes, I remember the lamplighter.  He rode a bicycle; carrying the lamplighters pole and a ladder.

The pole had a hook at the top end.  The lamp was turned on in the evenings, and off in the mornings by means of a levered and balanced on/off device, each side with a metal circle at the end, through which the pole's hook was inserted.

The ladder?  This was to use if the lamps's mantle  (made of fabric which had been infused with luminescent chemicals ) had broken and needed to be replaced.

The lamps being lighted helped me to make sense of a hymn we often sang in the morning assembly at school. (see below)  It was a council school  (in American terms a public school).  

We started each day with an act of Christian worship.  That didn't do much harm to our young souls, but it probably also did not do much good!

Here is the hymn.  In my young mind it was all about my maternal grandfather who had been a trawler-man, fishing in the North Sea off Lowestoft in Suffolk.   "The Great War" (1914-1918) put an end to that.

1. When lamps are lighted in the town,

The boats sail out to sea;

The fishers watch when night comes down,

They work for you and me.

2.

When little children go to rest,

Before they sleep, they pray

That God will bless the fishermen

And bring them back at day.

3.

The boats come in at early dawn,

When children wake in bed;

Upon the beach the boats are drawn,

And all the nets are spread.

4.

God hath watched o'er the fishermen

Far on the deep dark sea,

And brought them safely home again,

Where they are glad to be.