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!)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/...09-07_1634.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/...09-07_1633.jpg

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 :eek:

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Originally Posted by Mark R

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 :eek:

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Hehe

I think alot of old terraced streets still have them.

I'm sure I've seen a Liverbird one in Canning Street.

excellent thread once again, i'll have a look out.

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.

Check out these Liverpool children from the past: CLICK HERE

Quote:

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Originally Posted by birdseye

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.

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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. :PDT_Aliboronz_11: 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.

Chris

Hope Street.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/...02-08_0758.jpg

Lark Lane Police Station

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/...4022008406.jpg

old Bank of England, Castle St
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e2...icture1949.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge

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.

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Every house had one. Even I remember that. :)

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

took this in Abercrombey Sq when I was looking for a Victorian post box few wks back.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e2...icture1650.jpg

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!

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...Photo-0021.jpg