Glass blower turned chimney sweep

Two chaps came to sweep my chimney this morning. One had been a glass blower at Webbs. Started at 15 as a taker in (the lad who breaks the pieces off the punty and puts them in the lehr), then progressed to being a gatherer (bringing glass to those in the chair) and then became a blower. Had his own business at 21 making yard of ales, but could only make 30 in a day and found that uneconomic. So he went back to piece work at Webbs where he was in the ‘large fancy’ department – salad bowls, rose bowls and so on. The quota was 60 large bowls a day, which meant that if you came in at 4.30 a.m. you could fill your quota by 10.30 and then be off for the rest of the day. But he and his mates were on piece work and made 125 a day. The economics of it sounded as if he got paid roughly what 2 bowls would finally retail for. When he then went to college, he found a Saturday job that paid him £500 a day – that was in the 80s.