What was the job of your grandmother?

My maternal grandmother (Edith) worked in a Lancashire cotton mill. She was, apparently,very vocal about working conditions. She didn't work after she married. She did remain very vocal.

My paternal grandmother (Jane) was the daughter of a hotelier. She was sent to France to train as a pastry chef. She and her husband also had a hotel for which she was the chef. She was very sophisticated, drove sports cars, wore furs and had the most gorgeous jewellery.

She and my maternal grandmother were chalk and cheese.

My maternal grandmother was a “Spencer Corsetiere”, she had a plaque by her front door, I used to think it was,ade her very grand!
My paternal grandmother was a teacher but stopped working to raise a family, this was very much the norm in Ireland in the 1920/30’s.

My paternal grandmother died before I was born.
My maternal grandmother was a dressmaker, but died when I was 6 so I don’t really remember her.

Norah

My grandmothers didn't work outside their homes. They raised large numbers of babies doing everything that that entails.

My mum did as my grandmothers, as did I.

What about before they and you were married? Did they work then or stay at home to look after their parents?

Whitewavemark2

My maternal grandmother worked in an up market store in Plymouth until her marriage after which she worked at home - unpaid of course.

My paternal grandmother never worked as far as I can see. Remained a housewife all her life.

Was that Dingles?
DH had an aunt who worked there, then at a Gentlemen's Outfitters across the road.
I bought my wedding dress in Pophams.

My maternal grandmother was in service to a titled family. I've no idea what my paternal grandmother did before she married but her mother was a gloveresss - a leather glove maker. It was a cottage industry in the Woodstock area of Oxfordshire in the 1800s.

My grandmothers didn't work outside their homes. They raised large numbers of babies doing everything that that entails.

My mum did as my grandmothers, as did I.

My maternal darling little grannie Lizzie was born in 1874. She went to penny school half time where she learned to read and write and do sums on a slate. She left at 11 to help her mother look after the family as her father my g.grandfather, went sailing off to the new world on clipper ships for a year at a time. A new baby arrived each time he returned so she didn’t actually start work until she was 14 when she went to a local pottery factory earning about 7/- a week. She met my grandad in 1896, he was an apprentice bricklayer and very handsome. They married in 1898 when she became pregnant and went on to have 9 children which we know for certain, may be more. Sadly she only reared five, her babies died of diphtheria or convulsions. My mother was born in 19O3 and helped look after the younger children. Grannie did midwifery and laying out of the dead for years, washing and ironing for the gentry and died in 1948. I adored her, she used snuff and I went to the shop for 6 penny worth and she loved a drop of Gin. I have a niece and g.granddaughter both named Elizabeth after her and we call the little one Lizzie just like her 💖

Neither of my grandmothers worked. My paternal grandmother , at just seventeen was sent down the road to help a cousin left with four children when his wife died of ‘ exhaustion. Her cousin got her pregnant, they married, had four more children and then he died. She had a very hard life…bless her.
My maternal grandmother always felt she was a cut above the rest but worked a few hours in her father’s book shop. Until she was made pregnant by a visiting North Wales miner. !

My maternal grandmother went into domestic service at 14,she was in the kitchen and seemed to have enjoyed it. Paternal grandmother was a farmers daughter who married a farmer and became a farmers wife. She was detailed as a “poultry worker” in the 1911 census but when she died we found a certificate for a cheesemaking course she took at what became Reading University.

My paternal grandmother died 5 years before I was born. There was an industrial sewing machine in my maternal grandma's spare bed room which was said to have belonged to her and I was told she had been a court dressmaker in Windsor!... My sister visited her address in Windsor and discovered it was opposite the Castle!.... My maternal grandma delivered babies and laid out the dead. She also paid for granda's skipper's ticket by working as a rent collector! The sewing machine went to a male cousin's wife on my grandma's side despite there being 2 granddaughters on my grandmother's side........

My paternal grandmother worked in a cotton mill. In her spare time she was a volunteer nurse with the St.John`s organisation.
I have no idea what my maternal grandmother did, it was never mentioned.

My maternal Grandma was born in 1890. My Grandad died when my Mum was a very young baby. She was the youngest of 6.
He died from complications after fighting in WW1.
Grandma brought up 6 children on her own and took in washing to make ends meet. My Mum’s sister died of Polio leaving 4 young children. Their dad needed help so Grandma more or less brought them up too.
Grandma was a lovely caring woman , very religious. She died when I was 6.

My paternal grandmother died in childbirth, I never knew her or knew much about her. My Dad was evacuated to Suffolk as a small cold and never went back as both his parents died young. He never really knew them.

My maternal grandmother was in service at the big house in the village and my grandfather was the gardener. She then was a full time mum to her 3 children and as she lived around the corner helped to care for me my sister and brother. She did mum’s housework washing and ironing and childminded us as my mum went back to work as a PA to the Managing Director of a big cardboard box factory locally when we were quite small still.

My maternal Grandmother was a miners wife in South Wales after my Grandfather was terribly injured in a mining accident they used the compensation money to buy a cafe in London so she helped run it but in later years she had a job making tiny glass animals in a shop they were beautiful. I don't think my paternal Grandmother worked.

One grandmother was an orphan by the time she left school, was apprenticed to a mantle maker (an Edwardian 'overcoat'). She was married with a baby before WWI, and had another after WWI
Other gran worked in an office, probably doing book-keeping. Her sister never had children (worked in the fashion industry but I don't know what her job was). To the best of my knowledge, all started at 14, and all stopped work when they married.

My nan was a seamstress ....she lived in Leeds where there were lots of small clothing factories ....she made all my clothes as a young child even coats! I'm 60 now...she was born in 1900

My maternal grandmother had five children, the last two were twins, one of which was my mum. Sadly her twin died at six months. My grandmother never worked, she died at 65 when I was nine. My paternal grandmother had three children and never worked, she came to my wedding in 1968, and had a long life, she lived until she was 93.

Sadly I know nothing at all about my paternal grandmother, but my mum’s mum started work in 1917 as a ‘tweeny’, a sort of dogsbody maid, to a very wealthy family who had some sort of connection to Marks&Spencers. She was thirteen and lived in as her work started at 5am when she had to light the kitchen range and set the fires.

She remained in thrall to the family for her whole life, returning to clean for them after her retirement from her job as a cook in a factory in the late 1960s. They paid her a pittance, but expected her to do all sorts of extra things for the money. I think she had some version of Stockholm syndrome and eventually my grandad put a stop to her working there.

My maternal granbdmother, was a child born into poverty as her father died before she was born. Her mother worked as a furrier's labourer to support her family of 5 children, although the older 2 boys, 12 & 14 were able to work and contribute to family finances.

My grandmother worked as a machinist in a clothing factory, when she was well enough, she suffered from severe asthma.

After her marriage, she sometimes assisted her husband in his work as a private detective. It was the early years of the 20th century and most private detective work involved divorce cases and she would sometimes accompany him so that he could watch people more easily under the cover of being a husband and wife.

After his death during WW1, she supplemented her very small soldier's pension by working from home as a dressmaker. Late on she also took in occasional lodgers, usually young Irish immigrants recommended by her parish priest.

My mother always wanted to work, but being married to an army officer, with its constant moves, made it difficult. When in Hong Kong she started teaching EFL in a Chinese school and through out the time we lived in Hong Kong, Singapore and later, Kuala Lumpur she worked as a teacher, and for a short while she worked in primary schools in the UK as a supply teacher. When untrained teachers were phased out she went to work for an insurance company.

My paternal grandmother was a shop assistant until she got married. After that she was rather too busy bearing and bringing up 11 children to work outside the home.

My grandmother was a photographic colourist, working throughout her life, including during WW2. She was also a national bowls champion.

My maternal Gran was in service at the age of 13. After that she became a nanny to the children of a photographer. After she married my Grandfather they ran a smallholding and grew flowers and strawberries amongst other things which they sent to northern markets.

Cadenza, Dundee? The well known place for jute, jam and journalism.

My grandmother worked in a jute factory before she married while my great grandmother worked in the fields when her husband was sick and when she was widowed.

bomb girl then a secretary for a large company very rare thing40s -65
her family was well off and she was the blacksheep
in her private school they called her tommy common name for tomboys

I didn't know my paternal grandmother although I have had the same health issue that she apparently had.

My maternal Grandmother worked in a munitions factory during WW1. When she married she looked after a chicken farm whilst my Grandfather went to work overseeing a large female workforce in the clothing industry. He very much supported them when they went on strike and was very popular.

When she was widowed she sold up, never went back out to work as grandchildren were coming along and she looked after 5 grandchildren so her daughters could go out to work. A kind, wise, wonderful woman.