Firelighter was just that - an occupation within the Railways or any other industry that had boilers The Firelighter lit up and brought into steam a loco or a boiler . Around Newcastle when coal pits only worked week days the railways knocked out the fires on afternoon shift Fridays and firelighters relit them again afternoon shift on Sundays. This also gave the Boilermakers time to work on boilers out of steam At Broadmeadow and Port Waratah Locomotive Depots there was a firelighter on every shift 7 days a week to light fires in Locomotives that came back into service from boiler washout or ex repairs. In the case of Broadmeadow depot there were two firelighters per shift with a total of ten on the roster at any one time Port Waratah only had one man per shift and a total of six on the roster Civic Rail workshops also had a firelighter roster of four and they only had one steam crane loco to light but had to light all the blacksmiths forges each morning For the Blacksmiths shop they had a three man roster Cardiff Workshops also had a roster of four This is just the Railways but I would assume that the heavy industries also had the same arrangements Regards John Shirley & John Smith Maitland Area Lower Hunter Valley NSW Australia -----Original Message----- From: H Dickinson [mailto:hjaydee@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 2:49 PM To: AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HV] MEREWETHER / OCCUPATION Hi Karen, I've just located a Title Deed number for this address and will have a look at the Title Deed during the week and let you know who owned the property in 1921. Regards Helen > > Also, while I'm asking - > > does anyone know what the following occupation means = > > FIRELIGHTER > > this was in 1926 in WALLSEND > > Thanks in advance! > > Karen Bamforth. > karentherese@ozemail.com.au > > > ==== AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley Mailing List ==== If you change email > addresses, you should unsub from all mailing lists then later > resubscribe with your new email address > > ==== AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley Mailing List ==== Be creative about subject headers . These are your advertisement