THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

There has always been an underclass of people looking for the easy way out. I remember the 'spivs' of the war years and immediately afterwards. The nearest thing to today's internet scammers and the lunatic fringe of finance. Meanwhile the poor but honest soldier on carrying the burden, keeping society going and scanning the horizon for signs of the arrival of the Seventh Cavalry. The last time I saw this was in 1945 and now I watch the forces of regression clawing back the hard won advances we won. Can you wonder that I get depressed and cynical?

[Stanley]

I don't know why but THIS bloke came to mind this morning. I can remember Cyril Lord being all over advertising in the 1960s and in the end in my memory it was 'up like a rocket, down like the stick' but he made money while it lasted. This was the era of the Flatley Dryer, entrepreneurs were exploiting the fact that post war austerity was receding. We saw the rise of DIY and I often wonder how many power tools were bought and never used! I still have a Black and Decker 1/4" drill I bought around then and it has never let me down, superseded now by a modern efficient cordless De Walt wonder drill. The advances in rare earth magnet technology and modern batteries have transformed the field.

[Stanley]

One of the things that has changed completely in my lifetime is the quality and sourcing of hand tools. I can remember the time when 90% were made in the UK and these were all old-established firms making very high quality spanners etc. The only exceptions were some from the USA and some from the continent. Nowadays this has totally changed, many of the old brands now manufacture abroad in low wage economies and places like Taiwan and China export vast quantities of tools. In the early days these were uniformly inferior but today the quality is improving and whilst still not to the standard of the best specialist tools still made in places like Switzerland and Europe, they are mainly acceptable. We haven't looked after our home industries and in so many ways this was shortsighted.

[Stanley]

I still have the first spanner I ever bought, a 4" Bahco adjustable made in Sweden. My dad took one look at it and said "Nut buggerer", he was right of course but it was my pride and joy and is still as good as when I bought it over 70 years ago. If my memory serves me right, it cost 3/6 (17.5p) I've just had a look, £23 on Amazon.......

[PanBiker]

When I was 16 on my first day at work, which was actually enrolling at Burnley College for my City & Guilds course. I walked up into town at dinnertime and went to the tool shop at the bottom of Standish Street. I bought a pair of orange handled CK side-cutters and a pair of spring loaded Bib wire strippers. I carried those in my overall pocket for the next 20 years when TV Engineering. The spring bust on the Bib's and the adjustable cut depth dropped off but I still used them using a curled finger to control the cut when stripping larger cables. I always used to use my pocket knife as muck as the strippers as it cold be quicker. Not much use for them when I moved into IT and network installation but I still have them.

The CK side-cutters stayed with me until about 2003, still useful for cutting coaxial and CAT5. They had been friends for 33 years by then. I left them somewhere in the suspended ceilings at St Theodore's in Burnley where I worked prior to the BSF project moved me on. The school was bulldozed and replaced by Blessed Trinity RC College. My side-cutters were either noticed by a contractor and pocketed during reworking, gone to recycling or in the foundations. I have various pairs of side-cutters but none of them feel the same in use as my original CK's

[Stanley]

I always favoured Elliott Lucas Elect made in Cannock Ian. Toga was a good reliable brand as well.



I bought this Elora German socket set in 1956 when I came out of the army. That's 62 years ago and they are still in use today in the shed. I think even then they cost over £30, you can probably buy them cheaper now but will they be the same quality steel? I've just had a look on the web and roughly the same set is £575! At that price they should be good!
Britool were good and they made some specialised stuff that took a bit of finding. I took a fancy once to a couple of 12" pry bars and it took six months wait for delivery but they are still in good order and no breakages even after terrible abuse being used as a drift to line rivet holes up in boilers! They also made incredibly expensive thin walled sockets essential for work on Caterpillar equipment but I managed to avoid them!
After the war quite a lot of ex US army equipment came on the market. There were two brands I remember and I bought their spanners whenever I saw them, 'Blue Point' and 'Diamond Caulk Horseshoe', they were very slim and superb quality.

[Bodger]

I had the same set Stanley, paid for it weekly through the firm who allowed you to purchase tools via a interest free payment plan, another good make for slim / thin wall sockets, Facom . i think French ?

[Stanley]

The name rings a bell Bodge.... I was very lucky because when I started what later became the shed collection I instinctively knew that quality was all. I have been interrupted, my personal shopper is here!

[Stanley]

I had a bit of a furtle yesterday when I was brought back home after my Aldi adventure. I found this advert in a copy of Car Mechanics dated 1961. My set of Elora sockets is larger than these so it looks as though the price five years earlier would be about £12. Bit of a bargain!
Back to the spanners.... Someone once asked me why I had so many spanners. I told them it was because I was actually a Pack Rat and not a genuine fitter. Actually the reason is that as anyone knows who had dabbled in vehicle maintenance, the aim of the draughtsmen and designers was always primarily to make it as hard as possible for the fitter to get a spanner on the head of a bolt or nut! Slim jaws and slightly different head angles could make all the difference and I think we have all bent spanners or cut them down in extremis! There were of course the specials, Ring spanners with a gap in them for union nuts on pipes, special spanners for brake bleeding nipples and angled ring spanners for tappet adjustment, as time went on you gathered them all in.
Britool had a good range, Williams Superslim were always favourites and the German brands were usually very high quality. Funnily enough, the only spanner that I had which broke on me was a Britool heavy ring spanner specially made for tightening the U bolt nuts on wagon road springs which couldn't be too tight! It was a heavy single ended ring with a long handle and you could give it some welly. I was tightening a spring in Ferrand's garage at Skipton one day when it broke at the neck between the ring and the handle. I hit my head on the edge of the chassis behind and was out for half an hour. Nobody did anything, they just left me there to come to. Years later I found I had a complete clean fracture across my occipital ridge. I carried on working with a headache and Doc Morrison later told me when it was discovered that it was a bloody miracle because every time I nodded my head the break was opening and closing! There is a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots!

[Stanley]

Long long ago when odometers were called mileometers and that was the only 'computer' on the vehicle the power units were dead simple and anyone could understand them. That's how the owners could do their own servicing and repairs. Wagons were the same. We thought nothing of doing a decoke in the yard at the end of the day or replacing a core plug. Tuning a carburettor was a skill that you acquired and I could set one up better than any 'tuning centre' in a modern garage. I forget what they called them but they became all the rage at one time before computers took control and constantly varied settings to suit driving conditions. I know that they are wonderful and produce better fuel figures but the more complications you introduce and the more chance there is of a roadside failure that can't be fixed with a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and a roll of insulting tape. I remember well straightening the push rods of a Leyland 410 diesel engine in the rain on a flat stone in the Jungle car park on Shap......
Progress? I often wonder.

[Stanley]

I only ever once had an engine 'blow up' on me. That phrase is often used but seldom accurate but in this case was perfect. I was hammering away at the Golden Fleece on the new motorway. There was an incline there and with a full load of 16 heavy cattle you took a run at it. Half way up there was a very nasty noise and a complete cessation of power. I coasted into the slip road for the salt depot and once safely off the road had a look at the rabbit.
It isn't very often that you see such a mess. A con rod had broken and come through the side of the block breaking the camshaft at the same time. This meant complete seizure of course and that had broken the crankshaft, part of which was hanging out of what was left of the sump. Definitely a 'blow up'!
I wasn't surprised because I knew I had a poorly engine. It had just been in Gilbraith's at Accrington for a new cylinder head and we found afterwards that when they reconditioned the new head they had skimmed it but not recessed the valves far enough. The nasty noise I had been hearing was at least one piston hitting a valve which isn't a good thing. I had advised against the cheap and cheerful repair and advised Richard to put a short reconditioned engine in but they took the cheapest route. Some bloody saving that was!
No cell phones in those days so what to do? I had a look at the cattle who were all standing quiet and went and sat on the side of the motorway hoping something would turn up. After a while I saw a cattle wagon from Penrith who I knew would be carrying sheep from Carlisle to Penrith so I waved him down. Those were the days when drivers helped each other! I was right about the sheep and he agreed to come back, transfer my cattle and take them and me down home. Shortly afterwards I saw Richard coming down the road in his brand new BMW, first trip out in it. I flagged him down told him what had happened and asked him to wait up for me and tomorrow call Gilbraith's and get them to send a wrecker to recover my wagon. Job done and I got in the cab, had the last of my flask and a butty and waited. It was going to be a bit of an adventure from then on.........



The Leyland Comet at Hey Farm in better days.

[plaques]

Bicycles often crop up in peoples memories but with today's technology bikes are made from plastic, well carbon fibre, and gears are changed by electronic shifters, its nice to know that there are still people around who can refurbish your old machine. Walking through the Colne Market Hall I came across Sean who will take on your heirloom for you but is honest enough to say "forget it, it will be far too expensive".

P8300051.JPG

Here he is holding up a 1950's lightweight frame with beautifully detailed lugs and the thinnest steel tubing I've see for a long while.

P8300052.JPG

[Tripps]

Bicycles often crop up

in the most unusual places. Especially in Cambridge where there are now two competing companies with 'pick it up - rent it - and leave it' services. Not sure what else to call it.

On the way home I saw a bicycle left in a hedge opposite the station - that's the furthest from town that I've ever seen one of these, (over ten miles), and I wondered how long it would stay there? Having seen this bicycle type thread - I (sort of) rushed out to photograph it before it went dark. What do you know - it had gone. I do hope it came to no harm, but I doubt it.

[Stanley]

I intimated yesterday that there was more to come.... The Penrith wagon came back and lifted the cattle and the Lad and transported them to Yew Tree where Richard was waiting for me. We unloaded the cattle and there were two Attested Calves on the ducket above the cab. Richard wanted to drop them at Marton but this would have broken the regulations, Demense was our designated attested farm. The Penrith driver had to pass there and so I suggested that I followed him down there and off loaded the calves there. Richard agreed and told me to take his new car, go home after and come in the following morning. Good job, all the corners neatly tied up and off I went in a brand new car following the wagon.
We dropped the calves at about 2AM in the morning, the wagon sat off for Penrith and I motored quietly back to Barlick enjoying the luxury of a very new and expensive motor. I was in no rush. As I approached Gisburn I was confronted by a speeding car on the wrong side of the road. No time to think, instinct took over and I was used to driving heavy vehicles where this scenario had only one end, the death of the car driver. So I took avoiding action by taking to the verge where I fell into a ditch, veered into the breast wall and after somersaulting end over end finished up sliding up the road in a totally wrecked BMW. The driver stopped but as soon as he saw me get out he decamped. I found I was not as other men, finished up crawling up to the phone box at Gisburn, passing out a couple of times and eventually being taken into Burnley by ambulance.
I'll leave the story there, the police breathalysed me at the hospital and found I was sober. They later said I was only doing 40mph which was quite accurate. When they told Richard his new car was wrecked he said never mind about that how's Stanley? I was off for six weeks with a broken shoulder and collar bone.
The moral of this story is that life can be very unfair!

[Stanley]

If you get hold of an old copy of the Highway Code you'll find that one thing you needed to be conversant with which has been completely forgotten these days is hand signals while driving. There were signals for slowing down, allowing overtaking and turning left and right. These were essential in the days before winking direction indicators and the old fashioned trafficator arms that were the first aids. Another thing that comes to mind is that in those days there was only a single rear light which incorporated a brake light and the number plate illuminator. It was on the off side of the vehicle and only a 6 watt bulb.

[Wendyf]

You still had to know your hand signals when I took my driving test in 1968.

[Stanley]

Funny, I can't think of you as being old enough......

[Wendyf]

That is just the right thing to say!
I can't remember the state of indicators at that time, I learnt to drive in a Viva HA which must have had flashers (or winkers) front and rear.

[Stanley]

I know my place........

[Bodger]

"old copy of the Highway Code "
I recall my copy in the 1950s showed signals given by using a whip when driving horse drawn vehicles

[PanBiker]

I was also asked about hand signals on mine in 73, second nature of course on my motorbike test 3 years earlier. Because of my road experience and awareness on the bike, I only had six lessons to master the Ford Escort that I took my test in. Works vans were Morris 1000's and I was driving them for practice also. Like chalk and cheese between the two marques. You are right about the knowledge though, how many would know how to signal your intention to go straight forward at a crossroads.

[Stanley]

I'd forgotten that one and can't remember what it was. Educate me!

[PanBiker]

Left hand palm forwards in centre of windscreen from memory.

[Wendyf]

I don't remember that one, was it a sign to a traffic policeman?

[PanBiker]

I'm fairly sure it was to indicate intention to opposing traffic at a crossroads.