What is a "Carlick"?

[wardyfam]

Does anyone know what a Carlick is please.
I have tried Googling it, but it just comes up with peoples surnames and companies.

I have found an article in the Newspaper Archives relating to my great grandfather in Chedburgh Suffolk where it says he was taken to court regards "The Education Act" for neglecting to send his son to school. It states that the wife attended and it records that she said the boy had been to work "carlick pulling", as she thought she would be glad of the money. (lol)
My great grandfather was fined 5shillings including costs. So it seems sending a 9 year old to work to pull the said carlick, instead of educating him wasn't as rewarding as they thought.

Any help would be gratefully received as it's intriguing me...cheers me dears.

Copyright image removed

[keyboard86]

Hi first thoughts would be Garlic?

Keyboard86

[wardyfam]

Hi and thanks for your reply.
I was wondering if it could have been garlic too, and thought perhaps the reporter wasn't very good at spelling. My first thought was he was pulling a small cart or something of the sort, but I must say it sounded a bit cruel to send a 9 year old off to pull a cart. There again they did pretty odd things in those days....bad enough sending him off to earn money as it was, but it was hard in those days so I doubt if it was out of the norm to send your children out to earn some extra cash to put food on the table. :/

By the way...William Cockle was the father of the man in my avatar who was my grandfather.

[Wiggy]

Google says garlic  - so reckon you are correct Keyboard86 - but it was spelt 'carlick'

"occupational name for a seller of Garlic"

 - so presumably the boy was pulling the garlic out of the ground?

Wiggy   

[Rena]

I found an old book online and it looks like the boy might have been picking a variety of the mustard family:-


BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE - 1891

"Contribution to an Essex dialect diction "

Carlick (carlock) : charlock {Sinapis arvensis).

--------

Websters Dictionary:  CHARLOCK: an Old World mustard (Brassica kaber syn. Sinapis arvensis) that is a common weed in grain fields —called also wild mustard .

[GrahamSimons]

Carlick isn't listed in the OED. I deduce that it's definitely dialect, as in the previous posts.

[Suffolk Mawther]

The person who would know about Suffolk dialect is Robert Malster, author of

The Mardler's Companion
A dictionary of East Anglian dialect -
Robert Malster
Malthouse Press 1999 GBP 10.50
ISBN 0 9522355 7 9

I will PM Bob's email address.

The School Log Books for the little parish of Chedburgh will be at the Bury St Edmunds branch of the Suffolk Record Office.

Many school log books note children absent at certain times of the year, for stone picking, weed pulling and of course at harvest time and after to help with gleaning.

Pat ...

[Skoosh]

Possibly this stuff came up as a weed in cornfields and needed "rogueing", a bit like wild oats.

Skoosh.

[JenB]

Possibly this stuff came up as a weed in cornfields and needed "rogueing", a bit like wild oats.

I'm sure Skoosh is right.

Charlock was also known as karlock and I suspect this is what was being referred to.

Formerly the most troublesome annual weed of arable land, 
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=28