THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

My brother Leslie is a pretty good scholar on the Great War and he tells me that one good thing that came out of war experience was a quantum leap in survival after trauma surgery like severe wounds and amputations. This carried over into general surgery in Civvy Street and saved many lives.
We had a similar experience after WW2 as antibiotics came into general use. Research and development had been stimulated by the war effort. Yet we never seem to learn the lesson that investment in R&D pays hand over fist. It takes the imperative of conflict to force government investment......

[Stanley]

One big change has been the changes in shopping habits, encouraged at first by the advent of the fridge and later in the late 1950s by what we called then, self service. Time was when perishable foods had to be bought daily and milk deliveries were twice a day in hot or thundery weather. The most that anyone could do was use a meat safe with a wet cloth over it to reduce the temperature slightly by evaporation.
There was very little pre-packaging, most foods were weighed out from bulk while the customer waited and this meant there were plenty of jobs for counter assistants. I think the first pre-packs we saw were 3lb bags of flour. For some reason I never did fathom, sugar was always weighed out in coarse blue paper bags. Biscuits were always in bulk in tin boxes and weighing them out made a layer of broken biscuits in the bottom which were always sold cheaper.
The trigger for pre-packing was self service, customers had to simply pick up a package of biscuits or sugar. For a while weighing from bulk meant that the price per lb was cheaper and this worked in favour of the smaller retailers who survived into the 1960s.
Nowadays the 'weekly shop' is common, the small retailers have been driven out and 'popping to the corner shop' is a thing of the past. This may be progress but one thing that strikes me is that if you look at the pattern of investment in the mills and manufacturers in the glory days of Barlick, quite a lot of the investment was provided by these small retailers who kept their profits in the town and reinvested them. Today, much of the profit from retailers in the town who are national businesses flies away and is not seen again.

[Stanley]

Another factor in investment in the growth of Barlick is that the fact that people were earning wages and saving but there were no banks or safe places to store money, because people weren't under pressure from advertising they accumulated cash. A lot of this was deposited with the Manufacturers as loans to the business, often at the same mill where a family worked. They also bought shares which was easy because we had a stockbroker in the town in the building now occupied by the accountants in Station Road. This cause problems in later years, there is evidence in the LTP that the dividends for these single shares cost more to post than the dividend. Also, when the Calf Hall Shed Company ceased trading and liquidated, many small share holdings were orphaned, there was no current information about where to send the money. I know That Malcolm Sterratt on Church Street held these and attempted to find the owners. I wonder what the outcome of that was.
Incidentally, in even earlier days we have evidence that some people stored money for safety with a local entrepreneur like the clothiers who often had strong rooms in their homes. This was the start of the banking system.

[Stanley]

Can you remember the days when it was common for collectors to come round weekly? I'm thinking of the 'Man from the Pru' collecting your insurance, The Provident man if you had been using their services to buy on the drip system, the rent collector and if you were really in trouble, 'the repo men', (Bailiffs). I think the only remnant of this army today is the bailiffs.
Then there were the 'Scotchmen' who would measure you for a suit and deliver it to the door, you paid in easy instalments and he collected the money as well. Actually, in the latter days, they weren't Scotsmen, more likely from the Heavy Woollen District round Bradford and Halifax but in the early days I have been told they came from Aberdeen, hence the name.

[PanBiker]

Back in the mid 50's I can remember the two immaculately dressed Sikh gentlemen who used to come round with Betterware goods. Their suitcases looked like Aladdin's Cave to a little lad. I remember that if they failed on the sales pitch that day they gave away small tester tins of wax furniture polish along with a short form catalogue that they collected, (and hopefully an order) on a return visit a few days later.

[chinatyke]

I wonder if it was the same two who I remember visiting us in Colne? I'd guess it was.

[Stanley]

And the Gypsy ladies with a basket selling scraps of lace and clothes pegs made from Hazel rods reinforced by a strip of metal cut from a food tin. You could get a lucky sprig of leather as well. The Sikhs that called at our door all sold general haberdashery. Onion sellers on bikes....

[Stanley]

I spotted this rag and bone man in Salford in 1979. Unusually, he is pushing a hand cart instead of the usual pony and cart. The point of this pic is to ask if anyone remembers 'Street Cries'? The rag and bone men used to shout 'Rag bone' or 'any old iron' and I am told some blew trumpets to warn of their presence. This is the only one I ever heard.
The chimes of the ice cream van is the modern equivalent but they are rare these days, I can't remember when I heard the last one.
That reminds me of the mother who convinced her kids that the ice cream van chimes were to let everyone know he had run out of ice cream......

[Big Kev]

The chimes of the ice cream van is the modern equivalent but they are rare these days, I can't remember when I heard the last one.

We still have one, he was out last week

[plaques]

The rag and bone men used to shout 'Rag bone'

Usually followed by "Donkey stones ... Firewood".

[Stanley]

I still have some donkey stones.......

[Tizer]

Talking of stones...The village of Blackborough in this part of Somerset was known for making excellent whetstones (also known here as scythestones) and they were produced in large quantities. Some are still occasionally found on farmland. They are spindle shaped and carved from the local sarsen stones which are similar to the large sarsens at Stonehenge (not to be confused with the smaller bluestones). The sarsens are large blocks of extra hard stone occurring in the greensand of the Blackdown hills. They differ from ordinary sandstone in that the particles of sand (quartz) are cemented together with silica rather than lime (calcite). These local sarsens have gradually ended up at the foot of the hills. Some were encountered when the M5 was being built and one is in the garden of Taunton Castle.

[Tripps]

I still have some donkey stones......

I love this short video. . .We exfoliate with what we want.

[Stanley]

I know the ones you mean Tiz. Mine was moulded carborundum but I have seen natural stone ones, probably like those you note.
Really good mowers also used a 'strickle' which was a short stick with lots of depressions cut in it. Covered with hard fat and dipped in abrasive powder or sand it made a good hone for putting an extra fine finish on the scythe edge.
Another trick with solid back scythes was to leave them in a gutter over winter. The corroding effect of the water thinned the cutting edge down and put the equivalent of a serrated edge on the blade.

[Tizer]

If they went to so much trouble with their scythes in the old days I wonder what they did to improve their sword and dagger blades? There must have been lots of tricks.

[Stanley]

The sharper the scythe the less effort was needed to to use it. Some grasses like Moorland Bent were so tough that unless the edge was perfect they were impossible to mow. I think you could be right, weapons would be equally well honed......

[Tizer]

I use craft knives with the scored blades where you snap off a bit at intervals. When I put the discarded piece into my `sharps' jar it makes me think of the Neolithic people making small flint sharp edge tools. The bigger ones were knapped repeatedly to keep them sharp but the very small ones were the size of my discards and were `disposables'. Archaeologists find piles of the discarded small flints. On the recent TV series of programmes where they dug into landfill sites they showed an early example of disposables - ink bottles made of thin glass. Of course, Roman amphoras were sometimes re-used but at other times discarded.

[Stanley]

I sharpen my craft knife blades, they won't get rich off me! I remember giving mine to David Whipp one day when he was spreading some FYM for me in the front garden and as soon as he saw it he said "Ah! Someone else who sharpens disposable blades!".



I remembered that I had this natural stone in the shed Tiz. It goes back to at least my childhood as my dad used it. It could be one of the ones you mentioned because it is neither Carborundum or Arkansas.

[Stanley]

We seem to be on a sharpening kick. Looking back I always say it took me over thirty years to crack sharpening and edge. I could make a knife sharper from a very early age but it wasn't until I started shaving with a cut throat razor that I began to really understand the process. Then later on I got into serious woodworking and metal turning and learned even more. One main conclusion is that nothing takes an edge quite as well as top quality high carbon steel, stainless and alloy steels can't touch it. That's why cut throat razors are still made of Solingen Steel, a very high quality carbon steel.
Another thing I realised was that the old turners using foot treadle powered lathes soon got to be experts at putting an edge on tools because if they didn't the work was much harder. I also found later that in some circumstances like turning cast iron flywheels, the cutting tools were made of cast iron cast on a chill which produced a glass hard state of CI that was hard to grind but put a good finish on cast iron.
Modern edge tools for turning have moved away from the old concept of 'sharp'. They are super hard ceramic and rely on cutting by more of a shearing action which needs high speeds and lots of power. I still prefer a really keen edge on a good piece of steel but these days this is very old fashioned.
I note that today even high end kitchen knives are ceramic, mainly because they 'never need sharpening'. Needless to say, my favourite knives in the kitchen are the old fashioned carbon steel ones.......

[Stanley]

One of the striking changes in the last 70 years has been the decline of the myriad of small enterprises making high quality hand tools under the onslaught of cheap foreign imports. This got worse as globalisation and cheap foreign wages persuaded many companies to either relocate or source their product range from places like Taiwan and China in particular. This hasn't been all bad of course, over the years quality from these sources has improved beyond recognition. My El Cheapo Rong Fu mill/drill made in the Far East is a good example but I still regret the fact that so many are not made here any more. What made it worse in many cases was the fact that the well established brand names gave no indication of place of origin and it's only when you get to compare the old against the new that you realise the subtle changes that have taken place, too often reducing quality and effectiveness. I also note the skills that have been lost.
I cherish my older tools 'Made in England' and many of them will still be being used long after I have shuffled off the coil!

[Tizer]

We bought a table lamp from John Lewis a few months ago. The torpedo switch started sparking when we switched it on, and that escalated to big flashes and loud cracks so we contacted JL and asked for a replacement. The switch was one of those sealed ones that you can't simply open and repair. JL said they weren't selling that lamp now (I guess they'd had others complaining) and said they'd give us our money back so we could buy a new lamp and we should dispose of the old one. We've now got our money back and I used £1.79 from it to buy a torpedo switch which I substituted for the duff switch. I'm don't feel any guilt for taking the money - JL shouldn't sell duff (possibly dangerous) products.

[Stanley]

Quite right Tiz and I would have done the same. This reminds me of the process of seeking out tenders that I was forced to do when I was in charge of Ellenroad. The Council attitude was that the 'winner' was the cheapest one. I didn't work like that, I knew where the good blokes were and arranged with them to have a word with their mates and find me two opposing tenders at higher prices. Worked like a charm and everyone was satisfied that protocol had been followed. Exactly what the council did when they were going out looking for contractors in most cases!
In the case of JL, they issued a specification, asked for tenders and took the cheapest. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!
A little known fact for you. Littlewood's Home Shopping had very strict rules for contracts. They would not pay for extras but only the contracted price. If a problem was found it was treated as a separate contract and went out to tender and couldn't be taken by the original contractor. All perfectly sensible on the face of it but John Ingoe had a job which showed up the flaws in the system. A firm had contracted to re-tube a boiler but in the process realised that the heavier stay tubes which strengthened the construction also needed renewing. REW was asked to do the job and John pointed out to them that if the job failed he would refuse to stand behind his part of the contract because it was possible for the other firm to make a mistake affecting his work as well. Littlewood's had to accept that. Luckily the job was OK but it could have been a nasty negotiation. Contracts can be a nightmare......

[Stanley]

I know I have a tendency to don my rose-tinted glasses when I look back but there was something very stable about local control of gas, electricity and water by the council when I was a lad. I know all the arguments about scale and national organisation but we have passed through that now to the worst of all worlds, large private entities extracting profit out of supplying essential goods. It's even spreading to health and education.
Sub-contract governance to a Chinese or American multi-national next? Not as far fetched as it sounds, the modern predilection for outsourcing and divesting responsibility is moving in that direction. Useless to trumpet 'sovereignty' when the lights go off.....

[Stanley]

The best of British bacon is splendid stuff but there is some bad as well I listened to 'The Kitchen Cabinet' yesterday on R4 and they had an interesting discussion about how Danish Bacon came to pre-eminence in the war years. They also mentioned the tinned bacon we used to get imported from Canada and the States. I remember it well and of course it tasted good during rationing but I haven't seen it since.
Father's firm, GGA at Audenshaw, bought their enamelling frits from the Hommel Company in the States and Ernie Hommel used to send us care parcels during the war. I remember that the fruit cake was almost like sticky toffee pudding, so rich! He visited after the war and was a very nice man.



Father on the left with Wightman the chairman and Ernie Hommel on the right after the war.

[Tizer]

'The Kitchen Cabinet' on Radio 4 is a good programme, entertaining and educational at the same time. We'll be listening to that episode on our recorder over lunch today.