Re: Beckfoot Lighting and Horning


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Posted by Fergus Mason on May 01, 2012 at 15:26:52 user CaptainChaos.

In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot Lighting and Horning posted by Tom Napier on March 06, 2012 at 03:56:22:

I remembered this thread when I found something interesting while looking around online for a list of the characters' ages.

Although the D&Gs' surnames never appear in the books, it seems that in Ransome's personal notes Joe was referred to as Joe Southgate. Southgates is of course the real name of Jonatt's boatyard. This may be a coincidence, but on the other hand at least one of the D&Gs' fathers might have been a bit more of a senior (therefore better paid) employee than I'd always assumed.

In the BBC production of Coot Club one of them - Joe I think - said that it would take his father a month to earn ten pounds. I checked the average UK wage for 1932 and it was about £180 a year. Assuming Joe was talking about take-home pay, and that due to much higher inequality in wages back then the average was a good bit higher than what a typical workman got, I'd say that their fathers were reasonably well-paid, skilled tradesmen. Not middle class, but what would now be classed as C2 - qualified tradesmen, foremen and the likes.


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