Weird professions

[Terri]

1939 - husband and wife:
Husband is a plough share "fletler". Anyone know what a fletler is?

Wife is a "fitter canvas anklets" ????? What on earth ............?

I know some of the transcriptions on 1939 are hilariously inaccurate, but this does not appear to be the case here.

Bert and Emma Last

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=tna%2fr39%2f6600%2f6600f%2f013&parentid=tna%2fr39%2f6600%2f6600f%2f013%2f22

[kiterunner]

Could it be a misspelling of fettler?

[Terri]

Fettler ................ Definitely could be that. :)

[Olde Crone]

Canvas anklets for horses maybe?

I bet no one else has a samartive beguine bleaner working away in their tree!

OC

[kiterunner]

If you google canvas anklets, quite a lot of matches come up relating to German WW2 army uniforms, but maybe they were also used by the British army?

[Terri]

Canvas anklets for horses maybe?

I bet no one else has a samartive beguine bleaner working away in their tree!

OC

Omg that is a brilliant one! I've had some classics too. No idea who did the transcribing, but many are as clear as day on the page. I must be correcting something on every other view on 1939, if not more.

I've no idea about the canvas anklets. The only reference I can find is that they were used by German Army in World War II. ............... Oooh dear .......!:eek:;(

[Merry]

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30100924

[Terri]

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30100924

Thanks Merry! Brilliant. I would have thought they would have been fairly standard, size-wise. Not sure about "fitting" them.

The jobs people did - fettling plough shares and fitting anklets ...... :)

[Uncle John]

With horse ploughing being almost universal, even by WWII, a properly fettled ploughshare would be essential to produce good furrows and minimise the effort needed to pull the plough, especially if the land was a bit stony. Tractors were in their infancy and fuel was hard to come by.

[Durham Lady]

Canvas anklets are what the British army would call gaiters. My OH still has a couple of pairs from his uniform, one pair made from canvas with buckles on the sides and one pair from a woolen type material that wrapped around the ankles and boots like a bandage. He also had waterproof over gaiters that went up to the knee.

[Merry]

one pair from a woolen type material that wrapped around the ankles and boots like a bandage

Are they what I know as puttees?

[Durham Lady]

Yes, usually called putties but are gaiters. I think putties came from India, where they were known as Patties or something similar.

[anne fraser]

I remember working with fetlers when I worked in engineering before my marriage. It was a highly skilled job.

[Uncle John]

"Fettlers bring express relief". Or was that Setlers?!!