Corporation Scavenger?

[jillynetter]

I'm wondering if this is some kind of old name for a kind of refuse collector or a reference to being a scrounger, any ideas?
It is from the 1881 census in Carlisle, Cumberland

[stanmapstone]

A scavenger is basically a sweeper-up  I should think  most likely, he could be a road sweeper crossing sweeper, or street sweeper. Considering the amount of horse dung about there would be plenty of work.
See Road Sweeper http://tinyurl.com/4enz6

Stan

[stanmapstone]

A Scavenger was also a  rubbish collector or nightsoil man, a person contracted to remove  material from privies.

From the "Dictionary of Occupational Terms"
Category 970: General Labourers, or other unskilled workers.
Scavenger; see Sweeper
Sweeper; sweeper-up; scavenger; sweeps dust, dung, waste paper, leaves, ec., from surface of road or street and pavement, into heaps at the side of road with broom.......

From the OED. Scavenger
a. A person whose employment is to clean streets, by scraping or sweeping together and removing dirt.
c. fig. in various uses: One who collects filth; one who does ‘dirty work’;


Stan

[jillynetter]

Thankyou Stan it wasn't the nicest job then.

[failsafe]

A most interesting post since I too, of course in later years became a 'scavenger'

Its a term that has many meanings depending on your time frame.

in early days descibed as 'a person who searches for and gathers discarded items from garbage bins, etc; a person who cleans the streets...' (Chambers Dictionary) in other words a rubbish collector.

There was even such a term as a 'greater dustman or master dustman' yuk!

we would now recognise that job as a 'binman; ashman or other collequal terms.

failsafe