'Knocker-uppers' provided an essential service in innovative ways before alarm clocks were invented

'Knocker-upper' were a popular presence during 1930s as people were entering the era of industrialization

PUBLISHED JUN 19, 2024

Cover Image Source: A group of factory workers carrying out the final, blade-polishing stage on a batch of new razors for the British Army at a Gillette Company factory in Britain, circa 1935. (Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In the digital age when apps, AI and software are essential for day to day life and work, it's hard to imagine a world without technology. But, there was an era when even alarm clocks did not exist. People were on their own devices, in order to wake up on time. It was challenging for factory workers as arriving late to their jobs could mean a cut in wages. Hence, they took the help of knocker-uppers to get them up in time, as reported by BBC. In the 1930s it common practice for workers to be woken up by a knock on their bedroom window. These individuals sacrificed their sleep at night, to ensure that they can provide the 'timely' services. For this purpose, their nap time used to start during the day.

Image Source: Workers leave the Ford motor factory in Essex. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

There was a huge demand for these individuals and every single one of them usually had a large clientele. Paul Stafford, a 59-year-old artist who was raised above a shop in Oldham shared, "[The knocker upper] wouldn't hang around either, just three or four taps and then he'd be off. We never heard it in the back, though it used to wake my father in the front." This tapping methodology was a huge problem, since it also woke up the people around the worker's residence. "When knocking up began to be a regular trade, we used to rap or ring at the doors of our customers," Mrs Waters, a knocker-upper in the north of England told an intrigued reporter from Canada's Huron Expositor newspaper in 1878. "The public complained of being disturbed... by our loud rapping or ringing; and the knocker-up soon found out that while he knocked up one who paid him, he knocked up several on each side who did not," she added. Hence, the 'knocker-uppers' changed their technique and incorporated a stick with which they lightly knocked on the windows to get their clients up and running.

The conventional tool used for such tasks was a long fishing rod-like stick. Other methods implemented were soft hammers, rattles, and even pea shooters. Lots of literature has been written surrounding 'knocker-uppers.' The most popular one probably being Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." A popular tongue twister regarding these professionals has also earned infamy in English, "We had a knocker-up, and our knocker-up had a knocker-up, And our knocker-up's knocker-up didn't knock our knocker up; So our knocker-up didn't knock us up; 'Cos he's not up." Knocker uppers were most in demand within industrial towns but those were not the only spots where they were available. Caroline Jane Cousins - affectionately known as Granny Cousins, set up her business in Poole, with most of her clients being brewery workers. She retired in 1918, becoming the area's last knocker-upper.

Image Source: Women Make Globes (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Another popular knocker-upper was Mrs Bowers, of Greenfield Terrace in Sacriston, County Durham. She used to get to work at 1 am and attended to miners with an early morning shift. Her dog Jack, was her partner in crime as she took to the streets of her town. Beamish, the Living Museum of the North shares that she started the trade at the time of World War I. The profession continued till the 1970s, but its popularity began to die down in the 1940s due to the rise of electricity and alarm clocks.