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Thread: Old Footscrapers

  1. #1
    DaisyChains
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    Default Old Footscrapers

    This may seem like a strange thread, but foot scrapers (I don't know if they have a more technical term!) are rapidly disappearing.

    I walk along Hope Street daily and have seen quite a few.
    These are some I took a while ago, I think they are on the block just after Blackburne Place.
    (Will find out on Monday!)




  2. #2
    Senior Member Mark R's Avatar
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    There was one on a house close to mine many years ago but I think they got rid of it. They would always paint it a gaudy orange colour
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  3. #3
    DaisyChains
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark R View Post
    There was one on a house close to mine many years ago but I think they got rid of it. They would always paint it a gaudy orange colour
    Hehe

    I think alot of old terraced streets still have them.

  4. #4
    Senior Member marky's Avatar
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    I'm sure I've seen a Liverbird one in Canning Street.

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    excellent thread once again, i'll have a look out.
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  6. #6

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    The need for footscrapers illustrates just how dirty the streets were in the 18/19c, when they were badly drained, muddy and covered in horse droppings. I don't know about Liverpool but poor children in London were able to make a few pennies by sweeping a path for people wanting to cross, using a brush made from twigs or rags and being rewarded with a coin. The phrase
    "sweeps" then referred to people from the lowest end of the social scale.

  7. #7
    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Check out these Liverpool children from the past: CLICK HERE
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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by birdseye View Post
    The need for footscrapers illustrates just how dirty the streets were in the 18/19c, when they were badly drained, muddy and covered in horse droppings. I don't know about Liverpool but poor children in London were able to make a few pennies by sweeping a path for people wanting to cross, using a brush made from twigs or rags and being rewarded with a coin. The phrase
    "sweeps" then referred to people from the lowest end of the social scale.
    Don't forget "chimney sweeps" as well.

    They did have men who regularly came around to collect the "night soil" as they called it, i.e., the horse droppings, which I imagine was then used as fertilizer. Good for the roses, you know. As well as agriculturally.

    I believe the footscrapers though would have been found more on the affluent streets such as Hope Street, Rodney Street, Mount Pleasant, Abercrombie Square, and Upper Parliament Street, rather than the working class areas.

    Will look forward to seeing any more pics of footscrapers and other such remnants of the past.

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  9. #9
    DaisyChains
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    Hope Street.

  10. #10
    DaisyChains
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    Lark Lane Police Station


  11. #11
    tattooed gt-grandma quincyg's Avatar
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    old Bank of England, Castle St
    Proud Scouser, with a dabbling of Welsh and Irish.

    bore yourself silly at my Flickr page...anorak central!

  12. #12
    Senior Member Waterways's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge View Post
    I believe the footscrapers though would have been found more on the affluent streets such as Hope Street, Rodney Street, Mount Pleasant, Abercrombie Square, and Upper Parliament Street, rather than the working class areas.
    Every house had one. Even I remember that.
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    Senior Member taffy's Avatar
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    Default Speke Hall bootscraper

    Spotted this one in the courtyard at Speke Hall. They obviously went in for a better class of scraper

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  14. #14
    tattooed gt-grandma quincyg's Avatar
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    took this in Abercrombey Sq when I was looking for a Victorian post box few wks back.
    Proud Scouser, with a dabbling of Welsh and Irish.

    bore yourself silly at my Flickr page...anorak central!

  15. #15
    Local Historian Cadfael's Avatar
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    Had a lovely walk around the graveyard at All Saints Childwall at the weekend. A tad strange for me since I know the place like the back of my hand, but I wanted to pay respects to me dad.

    Never seen it before in all the time I've played around there but a door scraper to the original entrance of the church at the back (this is the original 14th century part) so sod knows how old this scraper is!


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