Cooper Collection

It is a well known tradition among coopers that when an apprentice cooper completes his training he goes through the ritual of being rolled in a barrel

Westgate, Guisborough High Street, North Yorkshire. 15th December 1977

An employee of the Knockando Whisky Distillery checks the casks in the bonded warehouse. The whisky is left a minimum of three years but usually between 8 and 25 years in wooden barrels to mature

Barrels being tested in the bonded warehouse at the Knockando Whisky Distillery, Moray, in the Strathspey whisky producing area of Scotland. January 1972

Using tools that have not changed for generations, Mr Harold George makes his inspection of each barrel before it can be passes as ft for re-filling

Workman rolling a barrel of ale at Ansells Brewery, September 1957

Too much Company: He wanted to be alone. but apprentice Willie Morgan, of 52
Too much Company: He wanted to be alone.but apprentice Willie Morgan, of 52, Porterfield Road, Renfrew, had to undergo the traditional frolic when he became a journeyman cooper in Glasgow, Scotland

Roll out the barrel. A coopers apprentice is rolled out in a smoking barrel as part of his passing out ceremony on completion of his apprenticeship. December 1967 P005007

One of the ornamental tubs made by coopers Sinclair & Sons which due to the dwindling whisky trade are now diversifying into other barrel based products

Cooper Mr. Paddy McGeever has become a North brewerys last practitioner of the dying trade

Coopers Paddy McGeever (left) and Jacky Webster (right) and fitter bobby Adamson celebrate the completion of their dolly tub which will go on show in a County Durham mining museum

Ancient tools are used in an ancient but dying craft by Mr. Bill Dobson, aged 62, as he brings all the skill of his 47 years experience to bear on a wooden barrel at a firm of coopers on Newcastle

Mr. John parker, a cooper for 30 years, at work on a rum cask bound for one of Her Majestys ships

Coppers pushing a finished barrel made by an apprentice to mark the end of his five year apprenticeship at the Lion Brewery at West Hartlepool

The ancient art of making barrels is demonstrated at The Close, Newcastle, where coopers are pictured with 56 gallon whisky hogsheads in the shadow of the High Level Bridge

Clive Hollis who is the cooper at Theakstone Brewery at Masham

These barrels at Tanners Bank Dene, in 1937, are an overflow of herring from North Shields fish Quay. The catches from 152 drifters are so heavy that they cannot

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