Alastair Simms from West Yorkshire is one of the last coopers in the UK. This age-old profession, which involves hand-crafting barrels (or, to give them their technical term, casks), has to all intents and purposes died out. The rise of automated mass production lines throughout the second half of the 20th century saw wooden casks replaced with metal barrels. Coopers, who were intrinsically linked with the brewery and pub trade, were also significantly hampered by the increasing dominance of chain pubs and big breweries which initially employed their own coopers rather than relying on local businesses.

Long gone are the days when being a cooper was not just a respected guild trade but also a lucrative business in its own right. Because it wasn’t just publicans who required wooden barrels: everybody had the need of a cooper, from housewives who needed baskets for their weekly shop to farmers who needed butter churns. A cooper was as essential to town and city life as the local grocer or master blacksmith.

The chain brewery company Theakston still uses wooden barrels for a limited number of its beers and still employs a cooper who offers a personalised service for customers who wish to buy an entire cask of Theakston’s beers on special occasions – many people argue beers brewed in wood taste better than those fermented in metal. However, using wooden casks on an industrial scale is now considered impracticable.

Casks, barrels and firkins
One of the reasons the craft of the cooper rapidly went into decline when metal barrels were introduced is that the level of precision, skill and time required to produce a wooden cask is far greater than many people imagine. Casks had to contain exactly the right amount of beer or cider, lest the customer complained of being ripped off. Traditionally a cask is the correct generic term for any container that can hold a volume of liquid – a barrel is a cask that can hold 34 gallons, a firkin can hold 9 gallons, a kilderkin can hold 18 gallons while a hogshead can hold a hefty 54 gallons.

Timber from the best trees must be cut into small slithers called staves and sanded to exactly the right angles. These staves are then ‘raised’ or arranged in order around a single hoop – a metal circle – that holds the barrel together at one end. In some cases the production of these hoops was the job of another, more junior craftsman called a hooper. After another level of shearing to ensure a smooth surface, the cask must be heated over a fire so that the staves can be bent and moved flexibly into place. More hoops called truss hoops, which go around the centre of the barrel, are then fitted or hammered into place over the staves. The inside of the cask and the top of the staves are then shaved once again. A small groove is then made in the inside of the barrel so that a lid may be slotted into place. Everything must fit exactly: there can be no holes or gaps between the staves or the cask could leak, a tall order in the days before superglue!

Becoming a cooper
Coopering is a respectable guild trade. Although the roots of the profession can be traced back a lot further, the Worshipful Company of Coopers – one of the medieval livery companies – has regulated the profession since at least the 13th century.

There are two tiers of membership: freemen and liverymen. A liveryman had more privileges than a freeman but it was expected that eventually a freeman would become a liveryman. According the Company’s website “admission to the Freedom and Livery of the Company is by Patrimony, by Servitude or by Redemption”. Patrimony applies if an applicant’s father was a cooper, servitude is an application via way of an apprenticeship and redemption is an application accompanied by a fee. A cooper who has completed an apprenticeship is known as a journeyman while a cooper who has seen his own apprentice graduate into a journeyman becomes a master cooper.

While there were many successful coopers who just made casks and baskets, the smartest coopers, and the ones who tended to ascend into the middle classes following the industrial revolution, were those who were able to combine their trade with other professions. Many coopers, already making casks for local pubs and breweries, turned to brewing their own malt as well, since they could supply both the cask and the alcohol to the client. Some coopers went further and rented and bought pubs and even breweries themselves. Others bought shops and sold their casks alongside miscellaneous goods. In the 20th century it became more common for big brewery chains to employ their own coopers, in-house.

Tracing a cooper
Trade and street directories, available at local records office and online on the University of Leicester’s Historical Directories mini-site, as well as TheGenealogist.co.uk, offer the best way to begin searching for coopers. Trade and street directories list people by occupation or by surname in alphabetical order or by the street on which they lived. Census records beginning in 1841 list occupations but remember that terms such as barrel maker where often interchangeable with that of cooper.

If a cooper lived in the same property as their workshop, then the census records could also reveal details about any apprentices or journeymen coopers that your ancestor employed. If the census coincides with the start of your ancestor’s career then this could also reveal the names of your ancestor’s own master. Many coopers and apprentices are also to be found in the 1711-1811 Board of Stamps apprenticeship registers available at TheGenealogist.co.uk.

Newspaper records might also reveal surprising clues about the nature of the business. Searching by street name rather than by your ancestor’s name might reveal adverts for the sale or lease of your ancestor’s workshop before or after they owned it. This in turn can offer clues about your ancestor’s financial situation: whether they rented or bought their workshop and for how much. Tales of disputes about shoddy work or customers failing to pay for your ancestor’s casks might also appear if your ancestor was party to a legal case that went to court.

Finally the records of the Worshipful Company of Coopers might include information about your ancestor’s membership and apprenticeship. These can be found under the reference CLC/L/CI in The Guildhall as part of the London Metropolitan Archives. However, LMA warns that the records are large and complex so utilising other sources first is highly recommended.

Extra reading

• Adele Emm, Tracing Your Trade & Craftsman Ancestors: A guide for Family Historians, Pen & Sword, 2015, ISBN: 1473823625
• The Worshipful Company of Coopers website coopers-hall.co.uk