THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

And I suspect far better hygiene standards on the farm. Even the best milk didn't last three days then, now five days is normal. With modern milking systems the milk is never exposed to the air as it is piped straight through the filters and cooler to the bulk tank.

[Stanley]

This Leyland clock used to stand on the east side of the road just north of the Jungle Café on Shap. It was brought down into Kendal when it became redundant and is in the grounds of the museum.
Today every driver has a phone that gives him the time and ties him to the gaffer! There was a time when the drivers were free of any supervision or interference. Some of us think that was better. Now that really is Flatley Dryer territory.

[Stanley]

Those were the days. Definitely Flatley Dryer territory these days.

[Stanley]

In 1900 when this pic was taken, hay making (By hand) was the most important time of the early summer in Craven, we were dairy and grass farming country, Nowadays, apart from some hay still made for horses, the grass harvest is mechanical and as silage. I don't know how much is made relative to 1900 but there are certainly less people employed in it, so Hay-making itself is now Flatley Dryer country.

[Tizer]

I like this woodcut image by Georg Bauer, known by his pen name Georgius Agricola. It shows the old medieval method of tin streaming where heavy pebbles rich in cassiterite (tin ore) were separated out from the bed of stream. They would first collect the pebbles lying in the bed. Once these were exhausted they'd start digging into the stream bed or into the sides of the stream (as shown by one man in the pic) and collected the heavy bits of tin ore that didn't wash away in the stream as quickly. Cassiterite pebbles were also harvested from beaches where they'd been carried down by streams from the cliffs and hills. They are still collected from the beaches near St Agnes in Cornwall by the small Blue Hills family business, crushed on tin stamps and the ore separated, smelted and the tin then made into various ornaments etc for sale. There's more about Georgius Agricola here: LINK

[Stanley]

His woodcuts have long been favourites of mine Peter. He was doing what I have often tried to do, record industrial processes both ancient and modern. His drawings convey much more than photographs could.
In the same mould is Bewick with his illustrations, though he was more political.



Have you ever looked at Hair and his 'Views of the collieries. (LINK) I think they would interest you as well.

[Stanley]

Lister Well Lane after the flood of 1932. Hopefully this is Flatley Dryer country as the lane is far better paved now.

[Stanley]

I wanted an image of San Izal toilet paper and tripped over this. It's obviously a joke but the sub title was "How I survived San Izal toilet paper." I often thought that these single layer, hard shiny loo papers like San Izal were designed to put people off going in the firm's time. Hopefully this attitude is Flatley Dryer country now.

[Stanley]

Vaccinations are such a big subject these days. I think back to the hundreds I must have had during my life. Modern Medics are incredulous when I tell them that in the army hundreds were injected using the same syringe and needle. Rumour had it that needles were sharpened before sterilising after a session.
Hypodermic syringes were heavy glass and chrome plated metal and definitely not intended to be disposable. That's Flatley Dryer country now.

[Tizer]

During my career I carried out thousands of injections and got no complaints. I didn't even bother sterilising the syringe or changing the needle. But I have to admit I was injecting through a silicone septum into a gas chromatograph, not a human being.

[Stanley]

Do they still use the glass ampoules that had to be broken off at the neck? I once found a tin-full of them filled with Morphine and gave them to Ian Brown my doctor, he collected antique medical things.

[Tizer]

No, most stuff in labs is plastic now unless you're working with lipids and organic solvents which can get contaminated from the plasticisers or affect the plastic.

[Stanley]

Am I right in that there used to be little glass cutters in the pack so you could nick the neck of the ampoule to make it easier to break?

[Tizer]

I wouldn't know, I was always injecting solutions I'd made up myself from flasks or test tubes.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

I did this pic of a rag and bone man using a two wheeled cart in Salford in 1976.



In 1979, again in Manchester, I got this pic of a rag and bone man using a handcart.
I suspect that both these methods have now entered Flatly Dryer country and been replaced by the ubiquitous White van and a licence to operate as a scrap man.



Not quite the romance I think. I still remember the street cry when I was a lad, "Any rag bone". (And the horses left valuable fertilizer in the street for the roses. My mother sent me out with the coal shovel to collect it.)

[Stanley]

See THIS Wiki article on capital punishment. It seems strange and definitely Flatley Dryer country that I can remember hangings, the name of the executioner and the victims. See THIS for the story of one of the last hangmen, Albert Pierrepoint.

[plaques]

Some years ago I watched a film called 'Pierrepoint' I wish I hadn't watched it. I can still remember every detail . Barbaric is the only word for it.

[Tripps]

I've got his autobiography - not looked at it for a long time - and lived not too far from his pub " Help the Poor Struggler", in Hollinwood, but I never knew his first job was at the Marlborough Mill in Failsworth.

Fewer than six degrees of separation there.

[Stanley]

And so many cases of miscarriages of justice.... No going back to put a hanging right! You're right Ken, mediaeval.

[Stanley]

I saw a report the other day that there is only one police constable looking after Barlick Earby and Foulridge. Is this correct? If so I think we can put a physical police presence on our streets firmly in Flatley Dryer country.

[Stanley]

I looked at the notice on our police station... The nearest 'front office' is in Nelson.



A bit different in 1916 and this was only the Specials! (Look at the polished shoes!)

[PanBiker]

It's an improvement it used to say Preston! I have looked at that picture of the specials many a time and can't place where it was taken if indeed it was in Barlick?

[Stanley]

Same here Ian but it's a Barlick photographer so it must be here.



Is that a bungalow in the background? It reminds me of the one Ted Lawson lived in at the back of Castle View.

[PanBiker]

Yes, I noticed that the photographer was from Barlick.

It's a bit like the busy photo taken from the top of Newtown with the butcher and a whole bunch of folk looking at something up Market Street. Makes you wonder what they were looking at.

This one:



Such a lot of information in old photo's.