Knocker-Up

Before the days of alarm clocks, workers - especially those in areas where there were Mills - were often woken by a rap on the window from the knocker-up.

The knocker-up often worked for particular Mills, to make sure employees turned up on time. They would get up at early dawn and patrol the streets carrying a 14ft pole, that they would use to tap on a bedroom window.

A knocker-up would make up to 50 calls on a round, and was paid around a penny a visit, when there were 240 pennies in a pound. He would normally finish at about 6am, then go home for breakfast before heading to his own day job.