200 Artisan Skills to Make a Victorian Town Functional

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:01

Interesting post today on the Transition Culture blog, listing the artisan skills required by a Victorian town. I wonder how relevant it is to the future, and how it should be updated to survive PO.

http://transitionculture.org/2009/01/22 ... unctional/

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:07

That few?

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:16

Hmmm, there seems to be an awful lot missing from that, especialy with the amount of duplication, theres 19 textile jobs, but surely crochet, knitting and embroidery arent three specialisms, 4 is you count seamstress?
Do we really need pie makers AND bakers?
Philospher poets and writers arent exactly in demand either.

Its good as a wow look at all this, but I wouldnt call 1 of each a society.

A blacksmith, gunsmith, sword maker and knife maker, crikey who we fighting?

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:19

DominicJ wrote:Do we really need pie makers AND bakers?

In those days you made up your pie and took it down the road to the bloke (or lass) who ran the oven. Saved energy!

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:27

DominicJ wrote: but surely crochet, knitting and embroidery arent three specialisms, 4 is you count seamstress?
Do we really need pie makers AND bakers?
Philospher poets and writers arent exactly in demand either.

If you're servicing a whole town, surely it would be a full time job for a number of crochet workers, so the specialism would be needed. Same with pie makers and bakers. You'd need a lot of bakers to supply a town and they wouldn't have time to make pies too.
There's probably a modern equivalent of philosopher poets, rap artists or something?

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 22 Jan 2009, 15:29

I suppose it depends on the size of the town, if its big enough it could support a pie shop and a bread shop I suppose, good thinking.

Post by **adam2** » 22 Jan 2009, 17:01

No electrician? they did have electricity towards the end of the Victorian age.
No gas fitter either, and gas was in very general use.

It would have to be a large town to support some of the specialist trades, in a smaller town I would expect shoe making and shoe repairing to be done by the same person, who might well repair horse harness as well, since it all involves leather work.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 22 Jan 2009, 18:14

It was good to see

stained glass artists

on the list.

I have always regarded stained glass as a 'luxury' that only a civilised society with a certain 'critical mass' could support.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 22 Jan 2009, 19:03

Vortex wrote:It was good to see
stained glass artists
on the list.

I have always regarded stained glass as a 'luxury' that only a civilised society with a certain 'critical mass' could support.

I do that: http://www.colouredlight.tithefarm.biz/

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Jan 2009, 10:25

Vortex wrote:It was good to see
stained glass artists
on the list.

I have always regarded stained glass as a 'luxury' that only a civilised society with a certain 'critical mass' could support.

Spot on. People forget how little colour there would ever have been in ordinary life throughout most of history. Stained glass lasts practically forever once put in and it doesn't half cheer a place up.

People from cathedrals etc all over the country bring their windows to the York Minster team for reconditioning!

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 23 Jan 2009, 10:29

RenewableCandy wrote:Stained glass lasts practically forever once put in and it doesn't half cheer a place up.

People from cathedrals etc all over the country bring their windows to the York Minster team for reconditioning!

So, if it lasts practically forever (just a bit of downward flow, no doubt), what's the need for "reconditioning"? Surely a bit of Mr. Sheen or whatever would do the job?

Peter.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Jan 2009, 10:39

Blue Peter wrote:
RenewableCandy wrote:Stained glass lasts practically forever once put in and it doesn't half cheer a place up.

People from cathedrals etc all over the country bring their windows to the York Minster team for reconditioning!
So, if it lasts practically forever (just a bit of downward flow, no doubt), what's the need for "reconditioning"? Surely a bit of Mr. Sheen or whatever would do the job?

Peter.

Firstly it needs cleaned up fttt because of all the smoke, car exhaust etc in the air. The Lead that holds it together can crumble for the same reason. Also there are still a lot of repairs of damage that dates back to WWII.

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 23 Jan 2009, 10:48

RenewableCandy wrote:Firstly it needs cleaned up fttt

What's cleaned up fttt?

Peter.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Jan 2009, 11:42

Blue Peter wrote:
RenewableCandy wrote:Firstly it needs cleaned up fttt
What's cleaned up fttt?

fttt = from time to time.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Jan 2009, 13:26

Blue Peter wrote:So, if it lasts practically forever (just a bit of downward flow, no doubt), what's the need for "reconditioning"? Surely a bit of Mr. Sheen or whatever would do the job?

Hey hey. It's not quite so simple. The downward flow thing is an urban myth. It doesn't.
Glass dissolves in water (rather slowly but speeded up enormously if there's some CO2 or SO4 dissolved in it). In the case of medieval stained glass one should not use Mr Sheen or even distilled water! When you look at it with an electron microscope you see the ploughed field appearance that the years have wrought on the surface. The leads do get brittle and need replacing within a century or so. Curiously, medieval lead last a lot longer than modern lead as it contains a little silver and antimony which make it more durable. These day those expensive elements are refined out.

Here's a picture of God (who probably does not exist) taken in the York glass workshop. It is usually at the very top of the Great East Window but has been taken down for more than a polish with Mr Sheen.