He had some sort of removal and haulage business, probably just a horse and cart and a strong back, but he may also have used larger passenger carts to transport people arond the area. He could have transported animals to market for the farmers in the area, was it a market town? There may have been regular work provided by the Parish Council that he had the contract for. What was his occupation on the other returns and his marriage / death cert?
Thanks for that Dot, he was an agricultural labourer in the 1871 in the village where he lived so it all does make sense 10 years later it is good he seemed to have got out the fields and got his own job..
he died 4 years later in 1885 and on his death certificate he was a publican! a little bit of a leap there
No ptobably not so much of a leap at all, he probably was a Publican and was running the carting business from the pub premises as he had to have somewhere to park up his cart and stable his horses and store any merchandise he was transporting , he probably kept a few milk cows at the pub and generally did alot of small scale trading in the area. Very common.
The Quarter sessions records that contain his application and granting of a license to be a publican will be with the Licensing Justices records at your local County Record Office in case you do not know which pub he had,