Long Before Smartphone Alarm Clocks, British And Irish Industrial Workers Relied On Knocker Uppers: A Legitimate Profession That Helped Working Class People Get To Work On Time
Nowadays, many modern workers are roused from sleep each morning by the loud, abrasive tone of their smartphone alarms.
However, British and Irish workers during the industrial era depended on a different method to wake them up before the sun since they lacked clocks.
As society shifted from agriculture to manufacturing due to the Industrial Revolution, workers needed a way to rise in time to make it to their shifts at the factories.
So, in the nineteenth century and for the better part of the twentieth, they relied on “knocker uppers” or “knocker ups.”
Knocker-ups were essentially human alarm clocks that used pea shooters, rods, or rattles to rap on people’s windows to wake them up. It was a legitimate profession and an important one, too.
Although alarm clocks had been invented by the mid-nineteenth century, they were not affordable for the working class. Because of knocker-ups, people were able to reach work on time to earn their livelihoods.
Knocking up was such a common occurrence that Charles Dickens even made a reference to it in his famous novel, Great Expectations. In chapter six, the main character, Pip, mentioned how Mr. Wopsle was in a very bad temper after having been knocked up.
Of course, knocker-ups were paid for their services, with each household chipping in to ensure that the knocker-ups made their rounds. Both men and women participated in this line of work, but for women, the job allowed them to have some financial independence.
One notable knocker-upper named Mary Smith became popular around the streets of London in the 1930s. She charged sixpence per week, using a pea shooter to knock up local workers.
Milos Tasic – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only
Eventually, a children’s book called Mary Smith was written about her. In it, she was depicted as a strong female character who would go around waking everyone up, from ordinary citizens to the mayor.
In 1878, a Canadian newspaper article documented the story of Mrs. Waters, another well-known knocker-upper. She worked to provide for her sickly husband and contribute to her son’s education. She would rise as early as 2:30 in the morning to rouse her clients.
The practice continued in smaller English towns as late as 1960, but by the 1970s, alarm clocks became more mainstream, putting the majority of knocker-uppers out of work.
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