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The Hard Life of a 'Faker'

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17/01/1897

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Two Salvation Army Officers, armed with the requisite brooms and suitably rigged, ragged and disguised, practised the art of 'faking' - the name given to crossing sweeping by professionals. Relating their experiences - extended over a considerable time and a wide area - the amateur sweepers arrived at the conclusion that unless one had a really good crossing, and that, too, on a very muddy day, pence were few. If the road was fairly clean the average man in the street was apt to treat the mournful 'faker' - although he simulated the most racking cough - with scorn by crossing beside, not on, the cleanly swept path. At the same time the investigating Salvationists brought the knowledge that there are crossing sweepers who manage to make a decent living, but by also working up a connection in window cleaning, running errands, and doing odd jobs in genteel neighbourhoods. However, the poor fellow who spends his last copper in the purchase of a penny second hand broom, and sallies in search of a crossing to sweep, may well deem himself fortunate if at the end of the day he has gained enough to secure a shelter for the night and food for the morrow. (Peterborough Advertiser)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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The "Great Drowning" of Thorney Fen

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1770

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A large piece of Morton’s Leam, a proctective bank running along the River Nene south of Thorney, gave way leaving a gap 130 yards long and 36 feet deep.  Water rushed into the fen, and all the area for several miles was about six feet deep in water.  People fled for safety to the Abbey Church in Thorney, and also other buildings on the higher ground, and the whole area could not be farmed again until spring 1773.  It is recorded in Fenland Notes and Queries in 1893 by a local farmer, Samuel Egar.

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  • The North Level Internal Drainage Board
Great Flood , Morton's Leam

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