''Barrow boy'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

expression with two meanings, occupational and social. Street traders since the 19th century (and perhaps earlier) sold seasonal goods (especially vegetables) from two-wheeled barrows. London street traders were called

costermonger A costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables in British towns. The term is derived from the words ''costard'' (a medieval variety of apple) and ''monger'' (seller), and later came to be used to describe hawkers i ...

s (from

costard Costard is a comic figure in the play '' Love's Labour's Lost'' by William Shakespeare. A country bumpkin, he is arrested in the first scene for flouting the king's proclamation that all men of the court avoid the company of women for three yea ...

, the mediaeval word for apple) and more generally barrow boys, since anything could be sold from a barrow (including clothes, crockery, etc.)

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's banks and investment brokerages were, since their foundation, privileged enclaves of wealth and high social standing. After modernisation in the 1980s they ceased to be preserves of class privilege, and

Cockneys Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...

of proven ability were employed as traders; such staff might be sneered at as "barrow boys" by traditionalist bankers or brokers. In British

mountain rescue Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. This tends to include mountains with tech ...

terminology, a barrow boy is the person who guides a

stretcher A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type (cot or litter) must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed or cart) is often ...

during a crag (steep rugged mass of rock) rescue. Conventionally there are two barrow boys, one at each end of a horizontal stretcher (though it may be vertical) which may contain a

casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

. The barrow boys may operate on fixed or moving ropes, and guide the progress of the stretcher to safer ground. In more generic terms, a Barrow boy may also refer to a boy from a place called Barrow.

References

{{Reflist Fire and rescue services of England Mountain rescue

See also

References