The Butcher the Baker and the Candlestick Maker

Exterior of W & R Fletcher Ltd, butchers shop 39a High Street, Stratford upon Avon. 1900s (W & R Fletcher were an Australian Company with cold stores,depots & shops in Great Britain.They were taken over by Union Cold Storage Co around 1910 eventually being badged as Dewhurst the Master Butcher.)

IMAGE LOCATION: (Warwickshire County Record Office)

Reference: PH, 352/172/336, img: 2660

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Two bakers from Alcester Co-op with a display of Christmas cakes. 1921

IMAGE LOCATION: (Warwickshire County Record Office)

Reference: PH, 259/604, img: 6940

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An unknown man making candles in Rugby during the power cuts of 1972. Photograph supplied by kind permission of the Rugby Advertiser.

IMAGE LOCATION: (Rugby Library)

Reference: RUG, T. 665. 1. 14., img: 6366

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This old nursery rhyme came to mind when I was busy indexing the Quarter Session Minutes for 1824. At the Easter sessions in Warwick Court House, several men were in prison for debt and had been declared bankrupt. Having listed their assets and notified all their debtors, they claimed benefit of the relevant Act of Parliament and were then discharged.¹

The Butcher

Joseph Tebbits was a butcher from Birmingham.

The Baker

Timothy Wilson was a shopkeeper, baker and brewer from Birmingham: baking and brewing were sometimes combined as they both used yeast.

The Candlestick maker

Charles Patrick was a candlestick-maker from Birmingham.

What does the nursery rhyme mean?

The version I remember was illustrated with three tradesmen in a half barrel, which doesn’t make a lot of sense: it goes:

Rub-adub-dub. Three men in a tub. And who do you think they were? The butcher, the baker,  the candlestick-maker. They all sailed out to sea. ‘Twas enough to make a man stare.

However apparently this is a bowdlerised version. The original was about a peep show at the fair where three women sat in a bath tub; men could pay to see them and this rhyme suggests that local tradesmen were not above such entertainment.

The original version goes:

Hey! Rubadub. Ho! Rub-a-dub. Three maids in a tub. And who do you think were there? The butcher, the baker,  the candlestick-maker. And all of them gone to the fair. 

¹ Quarter Session Minutes for 1824; Warwickshire County Record Office reference QS 39/14 pp. 315-6.