What was the job of your grandmother?

luluaugust

My paternal grandmother died before I was born and didn’t work before marriage
My maternal grandmother was a trained singer of light opera changing venues weekly. My mum said she had a glorious voice. After marriage all that stopped and she had three children. Her husband died aged 40 and she then started dressmaking to keep the family out of the workhouse.

If things were going wrong my grandmother would fling her apron up.over her face and say Oh, we'll all.end up.in.the workhouse. She also said when tired that she could sleep on a clothesline. I found out later this used actually to.happen in crowded slums where there was not enough room on the floor to lie down. People used to drape themselves on a line. She herself had a good job in a gin company admin but had to.give.it up when she married.

One of my grandmothers was a primary school teacher. She went to a teacher training college for 2 years and started teaching. She would have been 20. She stopped working when she married my grandfather age 25. My other grandmother married straight after finishing school and never worked outside the home.

Never knew maternal or paternal grandmother. One died long before I was born the other when I was 3. One born 1860, the other 1865.

My maternal grandmother had her own shop (sweets, bread etc,) and the shop had a small cafe attached. She had someone to run these and concentrated more on running the home, cooking, cleaning etc). She was a brilliant crafter, making her own clothes, leather handbags and gloves. She cooked a lot and bottled a lot of fruit from her large garden and orchard. She had no help with these.
My grandfather was a bus driver and totally devoted to my Nana. She helped him work out routes for the Mystery tours the company he worked for ran.
In the war, she would take in evacuees, and, at any time, any other waifs and strays she came across. She actually had a POW stay when he and his soldier minder got caught in deep snow. The prisoner had escaped, been caught in Ireland, and they were both on their way back to the prison. She made them both beds on the lounge floor and happily went to bed. In the morning the snow had cleared enough for them to leave, and she fed them before letting them go. It turned out that the prisoner had murdered a neighbour! My Nana had no fear and thought the best of everybody. It didn’t cross her mind to worry that she had put a murderer up and fed him! An amazing woman, for sure, and generous to a fault. She would give you anything you needed if she could.

Piano Teacher.

My maternal grandmother was a teacher in the village primary school she had attended. I'm not sure, but I think she went straight from being a pupil to being a teacher.
When my paternal grandmother was widowed, she trained as a midwife.

My maternal grandmother did domestic work locally (cleaning and childcare) after raising 7 children of her own. Also had lodgers at one stage. Took in washing when the kids were younger.

My maternal grandmother came from a very wealthy family and never worked. She married a bank manager and had a comfortable life with a couple of live in staff. However my grandfather was sacked for insider trading, and only looking back my sister and I realised that he probably went to prison although we can find no records. He disappeared for some time allegedly “looking for work” and they were housed by the council in a cottage with no electricity.

Not surprisingly she was the most awful cook although she did her best and helped a lot of people in the village.

She died of lung cancer at 58, and I’m sad to say that I have no happy memories of either of them.

I think there is an interesting class issue around women and work. There is an idea that previous generations of women were star-at-home housewives. But working class women were much more likely to be working.

My maternal grandmother had 12 or 13 children. All but two survived so once she married she spent all of her time being pregnant, breastfeeding and washing, cooking cleaning etc. I never met her as both her and my grandfather were killed in the Coventry blitz. I have no knowledge of my paternal grandparents. Both my parents were forced to leave school at 14 to work. My dad was considered to be "university material " but could not go. My mother went into "service" and then worked in a munitions factory as war approached. After the war they bought a guesthouse with her brother and his wife on the coast and built up a good business. My mother was amazing and my dad did the mothering for me. I lost him when I was 9 and my
Mum when I was 18.

My Grandmother who married a Swedish seaman lived in Sweden and had servants, but she came on holiday to England in August 1939 with my mum and her siblings then was stuck here for the duration. My Nan still didn't go to work but my mum and her older siblings went to work in various jobs. My English Grandmother worked in a rubber factory, making condoms.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1882 and left school at 13 and went into service with a farmer and his family. In 1901 she went to work for the family of another farmer who lived nearby, and when at Michaelmas 1902 the farmer took on the tenancy of a larger farm twenty miles away she came with them as their housekeeper, Here she met my grandfather and they married in 1909. During WW1 she was in the Women's Land Army - women in the WW1 land army usually lived in their own homes and worked locally. She was also caretaker of the village school from 1910 until it closed in 1947.

I never knew either of my Grandmothers as my parents emigrated to the UK in the 50s, Maternal grandmother died before I was born, I would have thought she probably worked on local farms as did my own mother. I did meet my paternal grandmother once when we went back for a visit but I was only 4/5 at the time so don't really have any recollection apart from a women with grey hair and a stern face. She had 15 babies, although not all survived.

My maternal grandmother grew up in a Cotswold village and went into service at the age of fourteen. I think she started working in the kitchens but worked her way up to being a “head house parlour maid” in a grand house. She used to tell us stories about meeting important people including Queen Mary. The servants didn’t like the Queen and her entourage very much (Shades of Downton Abbey) and when the cook was asked by the Queen for her Victoria Sponge recipe, she deliberately missed out the vital ingredients that made it special!
She married the grocer’s delivery boy when she was about twenty four, had three children and never worked again. Well running a busy household was a full time job in those days.

My paternal grandmother worked as a manager of a munitions factory during World War One. She later married a retired Major who was a landowner. However he lost his most of his money in the crash of 29 and they lost their big house and moved to a London mansion flat in Westminster. As far as I knew she didn’t work.

my maternal grandmother moved from durham to cheshire and worked in service and then shop work until she married at 23, had 3 children and looked after my granddad who had been gassed in the war which left him with a weak chest. To make ends meet she worked cleaning for other people and her last job before she had to retire from work due to an injury was as a school cook. When my granddad died( i was 6 months), my nan had to rely on her widows pension and housekeeping money from her son and daughter who lived at home and my parents who lived with them until i was 7. I never knew what my paternal gran did, she died when i was 4, my granddad had been a miner and she raised 6 children

My maternal grandmother was the local midwife. My paternal grandmother (and her five sisters) did not work as they were from a wealthy family.

MrsMatt

I know my paternal Grandmother worked for Marks & Spencer in her younger years but after that we don't know. She had a bit of a checkered history. My Maternal Grandmother was a seamstress. I know she worked in a factory when she was younger, making lingerie and frilly nighties. She made all of the families Bridal Gowns and Bridesmaids dresses. I can remember her making my little cousins page boy outfit in white satin with an apricot coloured neck tie. He was only about 3 years old and he was very disappointed when he realised that carrying/holding the brides train did not mean he carried a toy train 😂. My wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses were the last ones she made, in 1982. I have all of her sewing machine attachments but unfortunately they do not fit my machine. I must have inherited her sewing gene as I do make a lot of my own clothes. At the moment I am just finishing 100 metres of bunting, all different fabrics and many individually hand painted and decorated with leaves, flowers and a bit of sparkle. The next thing the veil for my future Daughter in laws wedding to my son in September this year.

I love the sound of the bunting! Just the sort of thing I would have liked to have done.
Is it for the VE celebrations? Can we have photos?

My maternal grandmother was 12 when she was sent by train on her own from her country home into service as a scullery maid. When she married she stopped working as it wasn't acceptable for a married woman to work. Due to the shortage of men after the first world war, she married a man 30 years older than herself but it seemed to be a happy one. My paternal grandmother went into service as a kitchen maid after leaving school at 12, rising to cook before leaving to get married at 23. She also never had an official job as it wasn't appropriate for a married woman. She married a man of her own age who was injured in the same war and always had ill health.

My paternal grandmother was born in 1905. She was a housekeeper for a doctor from 16 or 17 but gave birth to my father at 20 and was allowed to keep him which was unusual in those days . Dad was brought up by his grandparents while his mum carried on working . At the end of WW2 grandma married and had a second son in 1945 . She didn’t work after that and died at 68 years old.
My maternal grandmother was born in 1905 , married at 19 and had 6 children , 2 of which died as babies . She had worked as long as I knew her . She was usually working in catering jobs as she was a good cook but normally part time as my grandad was old fashioned and liked his tea on the table when he got home from work .
Grandma died in 1989 and was nearly 90. I loved all my grandparents and I was 36 when the last one died . I’m a great grandmother myself now .

My maternal grandmother had 6 children, one died in infancy. She lived in a 2 up 2 down house and outside toilet. My grandfather fought and survived the Somme. She helped the sick and laid out the deceased in their homes, like a health care assistant today, I guess. Their home was tiny. She was a hard worker and devout attendant at church, which is possibly how she was given work, by the church.

My maternal grandmother had 10 children 2 died in infancy, in a 2 up 2 down, took in washing, worked in a glass factory and kept hens, so sold eggs. I didn't appreciate the hardship of her life until recently. A saint!
I am proud of my heritage and being decendants of these hard working women.

First was my paternal grandmother*

My Maternal Grandmother was a domestic servant, until her marriage in the 1930’s. She died of cancer in 1966.
My Paternal Grandmother worked in a machine shop with presses for sheet metal and stainless steel. Had a break to raise a family, and returned to work after WWII, until she too had a cancer diagnosis in 1966.
(Both died within a few weeks of one another)

During the war she worked for a company called Comptons , they made uniforms for the soldiers / air force .
After , in a bakery .

What a fascinating thread, I’ve so enjoyed reading about these wonderful women.
My grandfather left my maternal grandmother with 3 young children in the 1920s, before there was any state aid. She lived in poverty in Islington, which always makes me smile whenever I travel through there. You have to be very wealthy to live there now. She took in washing from some of the richer neighbours, my mother remembers having to collect it and then deliver back the freshly laundered linen. I didn’t know my paternal grandmother- she refused to accept my mother as she didn’t come from the same class, so we hardly ever saw her - such a shame, she missed out on all her grandchildren.

My paternal grandma was a matron in a workhouse and her husband was the supervisor. My maternal gran was in service with the local vicars family until she married. My grandfather injured his back in an accident on the farm where he worked and was promptly dismissed. Despite the fact he could barely read and write he engaged a lawyer to fight for him and the farmer gave him a house and monetary compensation before the case was heard. They spent the money on a fryer and opened a popular fish and chip shop where they both worked.