THE FLATLEY DRYER

[PanBiker]

The school blotting paper came in multicoloured quarto reams and we had to cut them into smaller squares. There were pink, blue, white and green sheets from memory. The ink was mixed up from powder in an enamel jug and then distributed by the monitor round all the wells. We got a new nib every Monday morning and it was supposed to last all week. It was a bit like an Oliver moment if you had to ask for another one if it had ended up crossed.

[Tripps]

I remember 'Biros' as they were always named. Of course the nuns considered that they were the work of the devil, and no child was allowed to use them.

Laszlo Biro

Actually they weren't too good at first, and the ink seemed to gather on the ball and make splodges. Still better than the dippers I'd say.

I'd say the Bic Cristal pen is an all time design classic.

[Cathy]

Thinking about it, maybe I remember using a nib and blotting paper from when I used to do Calligraphy. That sounds better and is probably right.

[Stanley]

That's better Cathy!
I used to really enjoy my fountain pens in the days when I was writing by hand. Keyboards knocked that on the head and also the quality of my writing. It's terrible these days.

[Tizer]

Did you see the news about the school in Blackpool that has started taking the kids out on old-fashioned nature walks? The teachers were shocked at how little the kids knew about the world around them. They got an even bigger shock when they took them along the prom and some (who live in Blackpool) pointed at the sea and said `What's that Miss?'. They live in Blackpool but had never seen the sea!

[Big Kev]

Coates Lane Primary School in Barlick do these walks fairly regularly, when Paulette worked there she roped me in to help with crowd control a couple of times. It's fascinating the amount of information 5 and 6 year olds retain, the 'reports' they produced made great reading.

[Stanley]

We didn't have nature walks but they took us out to farms to help with the potato harvest and we used to go picking hedgerow fruit, I remember rose hips being very important. (That was when we found that the seeds inside the yellow ones were the best itching powder in the world if you dropped them down someone's back!)

[Stanley]

I was at Hope Memorial School from 1940 to after the end of the war.



The school on Huntsman's Brow in about 1960 when it was no longer a school but a light engineering shop. It was built originally as a C of E school connected to St Martin's in Heaton Norris about half a mile away. It was a typical Board School design from the late 19th century. One large room dividable by moving partitions, open fires as well as a coke fired heating system and an apse at one end which served as a stage/platform. Outside were the toilets and a tarmac playground.
In this pic you have the original farmed land in the foreground, the steam driven mills and the council houses to the left. It's all gone now buried under an interchange on the motorway!



This aerial picture was taken in 1948. On the extreme right is a chimney in a field, this was where I did my picture from. You can just about pick out the school on Huntsman's Brow. You can clearly see how it was embedded in Industrial Stockport.

[Stanley]

Today's candidate for the Flatley Dryer is National Service. When you got the brown envelope containing the news that Brenda wanted your body for two years it was a shocking disaster, the end of your life as you knew it.
They took you in, chucked you into a machine that reduced you to a pulp and then they forced you into a mould designed by them. Some were broken by this, some went on to enjoy their service and benefit by it. I was one of the latter.
They tell me that it couldn't happen now. If they took in young lads and subjected them to what we experienced too many would go over the wall and the rest would go on social media to complain to the world. I can't help feeling we have lost something.

[plaques]

An image shared on a Facebook age. All kinds of Flatley Drier stuff.
Tillotson's Burnley. Long gone as a transport place.
With a JET petrol station
Registration letters ..CW (Burnley)
Never seen a trailer with that sort of rear wheel spread. But I'm not an expert on these things.

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Tillotsons.1.jpg

[Stanley]

If you look carefully Ken that's Tillotson's trade plate, the outfit would get registered in its home town, Is that Blakely on the door? The reason it's at Ossie's is because they have built the cab. AEC cabs then were either Ossie's or Park Royal. We had one of each at Marton and I had the Park Royal which was a better cab than Ossie's.
The axle you noticed is a Four in Line made by the British Trailer Company of Phoenix Works, Richmond Road, Trafford Park, Manchester. They ceased trading in 1971.
The trailer was actually two units with two wheels mounted on a common axle. Because of a quirk in the law they counted as two axles and you qualified for the maximum weight which was 24 tons then on four axles. The complete unit was allowed 11 tons, the rear axle of the tractor 9 tons and I think the steering axle was 6 tons. The anomaly was removed in the 1968 Transport Act.

[Stanley]

Another configuration that has bitten the dust is the 'Chinese Six', double steer and a single back axle. Here's a chassis on test. Not sure of the make.
I never understood why these were seen as a good thing, unless it was because they save two wheels and tyres! The last time I saw a manufacturer use this configuration was the Bedford VAL bus.



The reason for this was that high speed motorway running was becoming common and some companies wanted insurance against a front wheel blowout. Bedford was the only one I think. Come to think that might be why the HGV manufacturers went for them.

[chinatyke]

Chinese sixes were said to prevent overloading of the front axles when loads were offloaded from the rear. Imagine a load of full steel drums and they get offloaded one row at a time from the rear at multiple drops. After the first (usually) eight drums were taken off it increased the weight on the front axles to such a point that the axle could be above its limit. Redistributing the remaining drums would have solved this problem, but who wants to move a few tons of drums? They were popular with breweries because of this. There was a firm in Clitheroe who specialised in adding another axle, sorry, can't remember the name. That was their selling pitch.

Later: Primrose Third Axle Company and they are still going.

[Tizer]

Last night while not being able to get to sleep I ended up thinking about the duffle coat I wore for some years going to and from school in winter. Also the duffle bag which we used to carry our sports kit. I found this web page about duffle coats: LINK but when I googled duffle bag all I got was what I'd probably call a holdall, a large leather bag with two handle straps of a type you see often being used now to carry sports kit or holiday clothes. The duffle bag I remember was totally different: it was canvas, sack-like, top opening and with a draw cord to close it and you slung it over your shoulder. It was a copy of the type seamen used when they went ashore.

[PanBiker]

The duffle bag I remember was totally different: it was canvas, sack-like, top opening and with a draw cord to close it and you slung it over your shoulder. It was a copy of the type seamen used when they went ashore.

Correct Peter, I had one as well. Often they had a waterproof lining for your wet and mucky sports kit. My kit was wet a lot of the time as the sadist we had in the first two years of secondary school always started every sports period with a 3 mile cross country run even if you were supposed to be in the gym. By the time you got back you were too mucky or wet through to go in the gym or not enough time to do your timetabled sports activity. He always sent us on the CC run when it was chucking it down. We got a proper sports teacher half way through the second year who introduced circuit training in the gym, football and cricket teams, inter house play off's. He reintroduced the use of the bottom athletics field at the school through summer as well. They don't use it now.

[Cathy]

A2C2FE11-D416-41D4-9C74-DA5FC7A4D0BF.png

I love my red Duffle Coat with it’s hood and red lining

[Stanley]

Thanks China, that all sounds good to me but no problems with loads on Bedford buses....
Cathy, I want a hanger like that!
Ex-Naval duffle coats were one of the favourite buys when the government started selling off war surplus.

[Stanley]

A century ago we were more easily pleased than now. A trip in a horse charabanc like this from Nelson to the Moorcock Inn for beer and afternoon tea was the height of our desires. Sally Carter used to work for Mother Hanson at the Moor Cock in the days when they made their own ale and she told me that many times they took over £100 in a day which was an enormous sum of money then.

[Stanley]

Faster communication has always been one of mankind's aims. From the Inca Runners to high speed broadband.



From the 17th century to the mid 19th the main route was by post riders and mail coaches. It wasn't until the railways that things changed, letters could be moved more quickly and the railways encouraged the development of the telegraph.

[Stanley]

The carriage of goods and some passengers was done by huge horse drawn wagons. The broad wheels were mandate for these vehicles to stop them cutting the roads up.

[Tripps]

Wow !
I'm guessing that's the eight horse power model.

[Wendyf]

1 shilling to get through the toll bar at Howshaw if those wheels are 9 inches wide, 6 pence if they are 16 inches. If it's before Michaelmas 1774 then there is no toll to pay on 16 inch wheeled vehicles.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS for a potted history of Pickfords. Look for 'Traffic and Transport' by Gerald Turnbull, an economic history of Pickfords. (LINK to a copy on Bookfinder for £7)



One of the firms Pickfords took over was Edward Box the Manchester heavy haulier. Their manager was a man called Eddy Clark and he was a friend of the family for many years. Here they are transporting an LCM to the Manchester Ship Canal at Salford in 1943 as part of the preparations for D Day..

[Stanley]

A landing craft minor (lcM) built at General Gas on 'sea trials on the Manchester Ship Canal on it's way to Birkenhead where it was handed over to the authorities, in this case, the Navy. My father is steering. I had one trip but not this one. The Naval officer conducting the assessment can be seen behind the wheelhouse. His Name was Charles K Warren and if tou look him up you'll find that after the war he took Holy Orders and eventually finished up as Suffragan Bishop of Tasmania.
In case you were wondering, when the outfit left GGA the bunting was taken off and the wheelhouse dismounted to reduce the height of the load.

[Stanley]

Making air raid shelter signs at General Gas Appliances in 1940. Thankfully now definitely Flatley Dryer country!