Genealogy Chat

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Boards

Quick Search

Single word search

Tools

Findmypast DNA Banner

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

Puddler at Ironworks

Login to Add Reply Watch This
ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Kim from Sandhurst

Kim from Sandhurst Report 15 Sep 2003 21:45

Please, could anyone tell me what a Puddler at Ironworks was? It was the trade of the father on the the birth for William Walton 1860 in Durham. Thanks in advance Kim

Caroline

Caroline Report 15 Sep 2003 21:55

i think it may have had something to do with the melted steel i have heard of it when i was a kid as i was not to far from consett steel works

Unknown

Unknown Report 15 Sep 2003 22:07

PUDDLER [1] A person who worked clay into puddle. [2] A person who worked with puddle to make things water tight e.g. canal walls. [3] A person who worked in puddling iron. Got this from http://www(.)gendocs(.)demon(.)co(.)uk/trades Regards Margaret

Anne

Anne Report 15 Sep 2003 22:43

Quoted from my little book Puddler....Miner for precious stones or ores/wrought iron worker Anne Day

Kim from Sandhurst

Kim from Sandhurst Report 16 Sep 2003 15:01

Thanks everyone for the info, I am now really confused as he was a coalminer for years. May have changed his profesion though, I'll have to search further. Thanks again Kim

Mike. The Leicester Lad.(GC)

Mike. The Leicester Lad.(GC) Report 16 Sep 2003 15:08

Kim..... One who converts pig-Iron into wrought Iron. Or converts cast-Iron into malleble-Iron. MIKE.

Helen

Helen Report 16 Sep 2003 18:47

My Shropshire ancestors were all workers in the iron industry and I have found several puddlers. Your rellie may have been a miner but probably for iron ore rather than coal, then he just moved up the production line a bit, into the iron works.

Dauna

Dauna Report 16 Sep 2003 18:57

Puddling was a process of heating raw iron ore (pig iron) until it was more pliable and stronger (wrought iron) and could be used in building railways and bridges. Coal and coke was used in the heating process. Puddling was time consuming and was eventually replaced after 1850 when Bessemer invented a process using a pumping machine to pump oxygen to convert the pig to wrought iron. Dauna