Delivering Flour

[RobNorth]

I once worked with a chap who used to deliver flour to bakers and grocers etc. He told me that it came in 16 stone (100kg) bags which he had to lug off a lorry into the shops. I've always thought this to be excessive, but one other person has confirmed it. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? I believe the modern limit for such activities is 25kg.

[Jahulaye]

Probably before the health and safety/pc/suing softy world that we’re living in now.

Not exactly flour but the coal delivery men used to lift heavy, 10 tons a day.

Have a read of this as it’s quite interesting.

http://www.1900s.org.uk/1940s50s-coalman-work.htm

[RobNorth]

Yes, we're going back to the 1950's/1960's. I remember the coal delivery men, in fact there are still some operating. The bags of coal they carry weigh 8 stones (50kg)..

[Jahulaye]

Where did they get the strength and energy? I heard that at lunch they’d unfurl a bit of cloth with a hunk a dried bread, some cheese and that was it! Not vol a vents, caviar and quinoa like our softy workforce today, lol

[Buenchico]

The standard weight of a sack of flour was 20 stone.

See here
http://metricviews.org.uk/2013/06/forgotten-british-and-irish-units/
and here
https://tinyurl.com/y7yse38q

The diagram at the foot of page 8 here shows the current guideline manual lifting limits suggested by the Health & Safety Executive::
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf

[tonyav]

Not vol a vents, caviar and quinoa like our softy workforce today, lol

Any jobs there ? ( not that I'd eat that carp ).

[goodgoalie]

I grew up in a Glasgow tenement in the 50s/60s, and well remember the coalmen lugging big bags of coal up the tenement stairs to fill the coal bunkers on the half landings. They used to wear a very thick leather sort of 'apron' on their backs, which was covered with large metal studs. And a different company would deliver coal briquettes - I can still hear the cries of COAL BRIQUETTES, COAL BRIQUETTES!

[andres]

Not only the coalmen had to lift heavy weights. What about the dustmen. They had to heave metal bins full of ashes and household refuse. Furthermore they didn't have the bins lined up on the street like nowadays. They went into back streets and yards. They just got on with the job!

[Jackdaw33]

Remember the binmen hoisting those metal dustbins over their shoulders before emptying them in the cart.

[david small]

I did a coalmans job working for the Co-Op for three weeks before Christmas. Forty five years ago.
Two loads a day 50kg bags double loaded. After driving the lorry, finding the address,lugging the sacks, I was done in. There was a mix up with my wage,and I received no money for three weeks. Christmas was sausages, but we had a good coal fire. Hardest job I’ve ever done, I hated it.

[Hopkirk]

Thank heavens for health and safety regulations then.
Anyone doing that sort of work would almost certainly suffer for it eventually.

[Jackdaw33]

I was told over 50 years ago that if I didn't stick in at school I would end up on the bins. Today people would bite your hand off for a job like that. No dirt, no lifting, just a little bit of wheelying.

[RobNorth]

David, can you imagine doing it if the bags were twice the weight?

[Jackdaw33]

I seem to remember that coal came in cwt (hundredweight [112lb]) sacks. Our order was always 10 sacks, ie half a ton.

[david small]

Correctjackdaw33 oooh me back....

[Davemano]

It was quiet common in the country areas where 16 stone sacks of corn were carried on your back, particularly at harvest time when grain was bagged direct from the combine. Also when threshing came round and the same weight sacks were carried into the granary.