THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Some big American cars survived the war. General Gas Appliances at Audenshaw where my dad was works manager had a big Pontiac and sometimes it was our family car. I remember that the battery was enormous, it was in the boot, was cased in wood and was the same length as the boot was wide. (I suppose I should say 'trunk' as it was an American car.)

[Stanley]

The Universal Carrier, more commonly known as 'The Bren Gun Carrier'. Still in use in the late 1950s we had them in Berlin. They were a fun vehicle to drive both on roads and cross country. Powered by a Ford V8 engine with a four speed gearbox they were easy to drive, fast and very manoeuvrable. They were discarded in the end as old fashioned and under armoured but they were, in their time, a very useful vehicle.

[Stanley]

Top pic is my last wagon in 1972. John Lancaster took my job when I left to go to Bancroft. He didn't last long but the idea of the wagon and trailer evidently bit him because by 1975 he had his own outfit on the road and ran it for a few years. At that time due to the way various regulations, both road transport and livestock combined, the wagon and trailer was suddenly the obvious outfit and everyone started to put them on the road.
In 1972 I was an object of interest and even the police pulled me over in Scotland to have a look at the outfit. For a time I had the biggest wagon in Barlick until John Joined the gang three years later but by that time I was running the engine at Bancroft, a smart move as it turned out to be. The days of the great cattle flows from Scotland were over and we shall never see them again.

[Tripps]

I came across this last night. I recorded it on disc a long time ago, but of course it's now on youtube.
Valuable piece of social history I'd say - from many poins of view.

Some gems - " I keep a list of clients that have died - stories get exaggerated in a hairdressers "

Not hard to see where Victoria Wood got her inspiration from.
Spot Les Dawson too, at around 34 mins. Wonderful. . .

[Stanley]

I shall save that for later David..... Running behind schedule this morning due to Tinternet being down for half an hour.....

[Stanley]

I was in good time this morning David and watched it. What a gem, a hidden world. And yes I saw Les Dawson or perhaps in view of her age Norman Evans. (LINK)







The first two images are definitely Flatley Dryer country but the third one shows that the concept of the old fashioned charabanc is alive and well.
Sally Carter who lived at Peel House on Old Gisburn Track used to work for Mother Hanson when she kept the Moorcock Inn. They brewed their own beer in those days and the really busy days were when there was a general holiday and the charabanc operators in Nelson used to run trips up to the Moorcock. Sally said that they often ran out of beer and she said that even in those days with very low prices they could take £100 in a day. That was serious money then.
Later of course after WW2 there was another surge of popularity. The trips to the lights and the coaching pubs like the Coronation at Horton Road Ends and the Commercial in Gisburn were gold mines. I'm not sure where the trade stands now. Certainly locked down because of the pandemic.

[Stanley]

I was looking at the pic of the Maudslay chara in Nelson and noticed the three old biddies on the back seat in full Victorian Sunday go-to-church attire. I hope they had plenty of hat pins in!
It made me think about the older generation wearing long dresses down to the ground as daily wear. They were fairly common when I was a lad.



My grandma Challenger and Great grandma Shaw both wore long skirts, mother's were about mid shin level. The war changed all that of course and the last woman I knew who wore a long dress regularly as daily wear was old Mrs Hanson at Moorcock Farm. And I know her underskirts were as long.... I saw them when she tore one up to bandage my carbuncle! There's some full blown Flatley Dryer for you!

[Stanley]

One of the great mysteries about women in Flatley Dryer days was corsets and their effects. We weren't exposed to the wasp waited Edwardian beauties, our experience were of rather larger women wearing corsets that were reinforced with spring steel and names like 'Pul Front' (LINK), Spirella and Silhouette.
It was almost an article of faith that the female body, no matter how slim or perfect, had to be 'supported'. This was still the case in the 1960s and I well remember one of the few arguments I ever had with Vera when she bought a corset. I told her it was up to her but if she started to wear it she would lose the tone in her stomach muscles and would be condemned to wear it for life. She took notice and many years later told me that whilst she was annoyed at the time I had been quite right.
I note that today the focus of corsets is entirely different!

[Tripps]

The Spirella Building is nor far away from here in Letchworth. Why do I always think of Carry On films at this juncture? Free eye tests and bicycle repairs - what more could a happy worker ask for?

[Tizer]

`Tone Works textile plant in Wellington to be restored' LINK

The urban explorers have been there in the past: UrbanExplorer

Fox were known for their British Army puttee. I took this photo at their Cold Harbour Mill some years ago. Click for a bigger photo...

00035.jpg

[Whyperion]

Looking at the AEC truck, it has two badges on the front . Is that one for the Chassis/Cab (though cabs sometimes made elsewhere and dropped in at the factory but the makers of those rarely got an external credit), and one for the Engine - AEC Buses could come with other engines , did the same happen with their trucks too ?

[Stanley]

That cab was the standard Leyland Ergomatic cab and they owned AEC at that time. No other engines fitted to my knowledge.



This was the standard AEC cab in the early 1960's. We had two of these at the dairy at the time, this one was Park Royal cab and better than Danny Pateman's which was made by Oswald Tillotson at Burnley. Both made to the same design and specification but different standards. I don't think AEC made any of their own cabs at the time. In 1962 Leyland bought ACV which owned AEC and from then on all AEC wagons had the standard Leyland 'Ergomatic' cab. This is the one on John Lancaster's wagon and was the same on my Leyland Comet.
It was one of the first cabs made with driver comfort in mind and was probably the best cab I ever worked with. It was also a tilt cab, it could be unlocked and tilted forwards to give good access to the engine and gearbox.

[Stanley]

The cab on my last wagon in 1972 always puzzled me. It was a tilt cab but was constructed entirely from Fibre Glass on a composite wood and metal sub frame. Great for resisting corrosion and easy to repair but I often wondered how it would perform in a collision. From what I have seen it tends to shatter. I did ask the question when we were buying it but nobody took me seriously. I remember on the day the salesman asked me what I thought about the cab and I told him I had seen better hen huts. I wasn't exaggerating, it was a cold cab, two small heaters. As for draughts.... I remember one day I was parked up waiting for a farmer and the wind kept blowing my matches out as I tried to light my pipe. Problem was the doors and windows were tightly closed. That is not a tale, it actually happened and demonstrated ho badly fitting the doors and windows were. Thank God I never hit anything and didn't get first hand evidence of the strength of the construction. I doubt if it would have been good.....

[Stanley]

Something that is definitely Flatley Dryer is the use of petrol engines in heavy commercial vehicles.



This Bedford 5 ton wagon had a 3.5litre petrol engine that gave 72hp on a good day! We put over 7 tons on the flat as a matter of routine and I often smile when I see modern wagons with 500hp under the bonnet and remember that a petrol engine gives far lower torque or turning effort. It makes you wonder how we managed.
Petrol engines were far quieter than diesels. The only sound was the fan and exhaust, most of the noise came from the straight cut gears in the four speed gear box. These were 'crash boxes' of course, no artificial aids like synchromesh, you had to double your clutch for every change and with the low power and overloading there was a lot of gear changing! They drank petrol of course but it was cheaper and the price was absorbed and passed on to the customer.
I started my driving career on petrol engines. My first diesel was the 92hp unit in my Bedford S type wagon in 1959.



The height of modernity at the time. I remember how noisy it seemed after the petrol engines!

[Tizer]

I notice Jaguar Land Rover are switching their diesel vehicles to petrol and their present petrol cars to electric.

[Stanley]

I can remember 60 years ago there was a big debate in the automotive press, in particular in Motor Transport (still alive and kicking! LINK) about the viability of small diesel engines in cars, at that time they were just beginning to be fitted. The conclusion was that whilst they had characteristics in their favour, on the whole they were no cheaper in the long run than petrol as the maintenance costs were higher and the units less efficient because of their small size. I don't think that ever really changed and so it doesn't surprise me that they are being abandoned. Of course the discovery that particulates and NO pollution are so dangerous has affected the equation also.

[Big Kev]

I've had diesel cars for the past 20 years and, from a personal perspective, the maintenance was less than the petrol cars I'd had previously. Regular oil and filter changes was pretty much all the engines ever needed, the addition of turbo chargers to the smaller units lifted them from their agricultural heritage. It's definitely the particulates issue that's the cause of their demise. The majority of the costs involved, maintaining diesel engines in post 2000 vehicles, are the emissions reduction kit that's bolted to them. The basic engines are still bullet proof.

[Stanley]

Yes Kev I can believe it and that has been my experience. Remember that study was 60 years ago....

[Stanley]

Not sure where this is but the pic is labelled police force 1890. That looks about right.
What struck me was that there is something in this pic that many might not know about. Have you ever noticed that the police (and other uniformed organisations) never placed the chinstrap of their helmet under the chin? This is to prevent the constables from being vulnerable to a very effective form of attack. This was, if the chinstrap was under the chin, to approach the constable from behind and pull his helmet backwards. This made a very effective strangle hold and had to be avoided. Not many people know that .

[Big Kev]

I have it as the Neath Police, South Wales in 1920s. There's a History of the Neath Borough Police PDF document I found.

[plaques]

The picture is taken outside the Old Nelson Police station Cross St. The inscription Police Offices ' has been removed but all the other ornamental details are still in place.

'

Cross St.jpg

[Big Kev]

That's interesting, it's been 'pinched' and is in this PDF doc as Neath Borough Police in 1920.

http://swplive.blob.core.windows.net/wo ... .pdf?hcb=1

[Stanley]

Oh dear! Nice one Ken, it just goes to show that all those years of collecting architectural details has not been wasted.
Flatley dryer and forgotten corners are both records of history but in my head Flatley Drier is more about artefacts that have faded into antiquity.



In the 16th century, Georgius Agricola (Latinised version of his birth name George Bauer, 1494) (LINK) recorded many aspects of medieval and earlier practises in mining amongst other subjects. He was recording his version of the Flatley Drier and his works carry interest to this day.

[Stanley]

A traditional hand cart. Up to the end of WW2 handcarts were a common sight. Many street vendors used them but they were also used by anyone else who had something to move. They were the equivalent of today's white van.
Walter Fisher told me that when he was an apprentice at Brown and Pickles a regular job was to go up to Ouzledale Foundry on Longfield Lane for castings. That was the time of More Looms and all the looms had to be slowed down. This meant fitting larger pulleys and thousands had to be made and fitted. Walt reckoned he carried every one of them down to Wellhouse Works from Ouzledale but that might have been a slight exaggeration!

[Tizer]

Did you see that TV programme about the man and his family who have restored a derelict old `living wagon' to a glorious new condition? It showed them putting a new iron tyre on one of the wheels, heating it up in a wood fire in the yard, quickly hammering onto the wheel rim and dousing it in copious water. A good bit of history being replayed! The inside of the wagon is now incredible - beautiful furnishings, lots of extras and even a sunken jacuzzi bath under the floor!