THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

I was thinking about the sounds that have gone out of our lives.... I can remember clearly lying in bed and listening to the steam shunting locomotives in the nearby marshalling yard down near the viaduct. Whistles blowing, sharp exhaust beats and the rattle of the buffers and couplings when they pushed a wagon on to the end of a string of wagons. It fascinated me and sent me off to sleep. During the day it was the clopping of horses hooves (there were lots about during the war because of fuel shortages) and the rattle of the trams. My mother once took me to the Co-operative stables, a multi storey block and I remember particularly a large black shire gelding called Hitler! It was enormous to a small lad gazing up at it but it didn't frighten me.

[Tizer]

The rattle of trams makes me think of Blackpool! (As does the smell of donkey poo.)

[Stanley]

A tram climbing the hill out of Stockport town centre on its way south to Hazel Grove. I have just noticed you can see the setts through the snow....

[Stanley]

Black people were not common in those days and ethic differences stood out. I used to have a regular Saturday job going to the house of some Jewish friends to light the gas stove on Saturday morning as they were strict Orthodox. The other place we came into contact was on the doorstep as there were many itinerant small-ware pedlars who were always men and wore turbans. Other notable 'different' people were the Gypsy ladies who went from door to door selling clothes pegs made from split Hazel secured at the top by a twisted strip of tin from a tin can and a couple of small nails. They sold sprigs of lucky heather and scraps of lace as well. Then there were the tramps, quite a lot about in those days and always an object of fascination. The only evidence I ever saw of friction was a sign in a pub window in Stockport Market that said 'No Travellers'. I didn't realise what it meant for years!



Years later the sign was still there and I did this pic in the 1970s.

[Stanley]

Stockport market was very important, I think it ran on Saturday and Thursday. There was a farmer's market hall, a large indoor market with permanent stalls and lots of outside stalls on the road s round the main hall. You could get anything on the market including miracle products for cleaning pans, darning socks or curing common ills. All of them did demonstrations and it was pure street theatre! There were a lot of pot sellers form the Five Towns and they were all showmen and women, they used to bang the pots together to show how strong they were.

[Tizer]

That's a great postcard, lots of activity and information. It would be worth a tidy sum, I'll bet.

[Stanley]

I reckon about 1910 Tiz. Have you clocked Mr Beckett's Celebrated Ice Organ on the right? 'Tea parties and balls attended'. Thirty years later when I knew it very little had changed, if anything there were even more outside stalls.

[Whyperion]

Although I am near, I am not on top of, when at mums,the railway lines.

Depending on wind direction over the constant traffic noise (or rather when it diminishes) and the blue light sirens I can hear the rumble of the tube service (through the night now on Saturday and Sunday), and the peep of the air-whistle as trains move forward into the depot for those going out of service for the night. The flash of third rail southern electric and bang often occurs on icy wintery late evenings, and the general wheel noise of the local and express trains a mile away are hearable, as even the two-coach train on the Colne Line which passes about 800m from the Burnley residence are.

At mums I could have heard the speedway and the stock car races on friday and sunday nights but the stadium is now closed, and like when I lived in East London the cheers and moans of a large football crowd will one day take their place.

[Stanley]

When I lived on Heaton Moor my mate's house had a hidden advantage. The Moor was on a ridge (the clue is in the name) and his large Victorian house stood on the very edge of it. From the north facing attic window we could see the fireworks at Belle Vue on a clear Saturday night (they had a weekly display).

[Stanley]

Thinking back, I wonder how people today would get on with the Black Out that was in force during the war. Apart from all house curtains being light-proof, all the street lights were extinguished and car headlights had a metal grill on with louvres that allowed only a glimmer to be directed down at the road surface. Nowadays when it is suggested that motorway lighting is wasteful given the powerful headlights that cars have today there is a storm of protest. Our ancestors were used to this, time and time again I got accounts from the informants to the LTP of only travelling at night when there was a good moon. Many of us know about The Lunar Society in the 18th and 19th centuries, the famous debating group that included Boulton, Watt and other leading men of the day. They got the name from the fact they only met on nights when there was a full moon.

[Stanley]

Looking at the Brexit mess I reflect how well we were served by trade union negotiators getting political power. Compare and contrast with our present lot.....

[chinatyke]

A tram climbing the hill out of Stockport town centre on its way south to Hazel Grove. I have just noticed you can see the setts through the snow....

When we were in Hong Kong last week we took the opportunity of riding on the trams, electrically powered double deckers and about 110 years old and still going strong. A bit slow compared to normal HK traffic but a lovely way of spending an hour. Cost was about 22 pence per journey, pay on exit, a bargain. Wonder how many youngsters have never even seen a tram?

We also did the Star Ferry cross harbour trip, another bargain.

[Stanley]

There are the modern ones of course in cities like Manchester China and of course Blackpool never scrapped them. bit like your wardrobe, if you keep something long enough it comes back into fashion. I've just remembered the cable cars in San Francisco as well....
You're dead right about ferries. When I was in NY last the Staten Island ferry only cost 10 cents and I've always said that the cheapest sea cruise I know is a round trip ticket on Caledonian MacBrayne's Small Isles service from Mallaig, you get Skye, Eigg, Canna and Rhum in one trip!

[Stanley]

Funny thing memory. I don't know why but Manby's at Skipton came into my head this morning as I was walking round. I'm sure many of you remember the splendid ironmonger's in Skipton Main street where you could buy anything from a pick-axe to a box of carpet tacks. My main purchase there was a box of .410 long cartridges for my BSA shotgun. You couldn't buy them in Barlick and God alone knows where you would have to go now when owning a firearm of any sort is such a serious matter. One thing that struck me in the US was the way Walmart sold ammunition like toffees.

[chinatyke]

When we were in Hong Kong last week we took the opportunity of riding on the trams, electrically powered double deckers and about 110 years old and still going strong.

Sorry for the wrong information, the trams have been replaced with newer ones or re-bodied. The system is over 110 years old.
We also went up the Peak funicular tramway. Only the English would build a tramway up a mountain like this. The cable was originally driven by a steam engine. We built another similar one in Penang. The crazy English but great engineers.

[plaques]

Its now over 30 years ago we did what was called a 'Cracker Jack' holiday round the far east. 10 days in Hong Kong. The best part was riding on the open top trams sometimes doing a double full circuit from terminal to terminal. As China said you only paid when you got off. The best value 5p you could think of. Couldn't stop being 'careful' even on holiday.

[Stanley]

I know what you mean P! It's built into our psyche!

[Stanley]

The older I get the more I believe that certain traits run in families. One that is very obvious in my case is that we seem to like pictures and over the years have been very good at keeping them. When I was into family research I asked all me relations to lend me what pics they had so I could scan them and I was amazed how far back they went.



Here's a pic of my mother as a small baby in her mother's arms and with my grandfather Challenger in their back garden. I know from my mother's birth date that this was 1905. What a treasure when pics like this survive..... Thinking of the time, what good quality and how well composed. Do you think they got a professional in?

[Stanley]

Every time I look at a pic of granddad Challenger I think about the fact he was a cabinet maker, a good artist, played the organ and ran the chapel football team. An all-rounder! And then he was killed in 1918. What a waste......

[Stanley]

Every now and again you are reminded of what the view of you is by other people. One of my grand daughters reminded me of this with her Photoshopped image of granddad..... I can think of worse endorsements! Her title was 'Granddad the hobbit'.

[Tizer]

One of our friends took her family to stay overnight in a `hobbit house' on their way to Cornwall: LINK

[Stanley]

We used to have a Hobbit House in the back yard but they called them Anderson Shelters then.....

[Stanley]

When I was very young we lived on a development of modern semis built shortly before I was born in 1936. Our side of the crescent was Norris Avenue and the other side was Bankfield Avenue. There was a connecting road half way down and I think it was called Newby Road. There was a small development of shops where Norris Avenue met Didsbury Road and one of my first memories of helping my mother was being sent to 'the shops' for a loaf or 5lbs of potatoes. I remember clearly that 5lbs of spuds was a heavy load for a young lad! Bread wasn't wrapped and sliced in those days and was just popped into the shopping bag. I think we were permanently hungry in those days because I always broke a corner off the loaf and ate it on my way back and my mother never chided me for doing it, I think, being a good chapel-goer she believed that you shouldn't muzzle the ox! (This comes from The Law of Moses and is mentioned several times in the Bible. One of the most common locations quoted is 1 Timothy 5. See also 'the labourer is worthy of his hire'. Wycliffe Sunday School made a good job of making me a passable Bible scholar!)

[Tripps]

It's still there - Norris Avenue Drag the little man and go down Memory lane.

I lived in a similar style of property on the opposite side of Manchester. The houses look very familiar to me.

It was always five pounds of potatoes wasn't it? including the soil. The other standard buy was two lbs of 'carrots and turnips'. I can't remember carrots being bought alone. Don't do it now - modern white turnips don't seem to have any taste, or maybe that's me.

[Stanley]

That's right David, including the soil. In the 1960s when I was open all hours at Sough we got potatoes in 1cwt (112lbs) hessian sacks. When pricing them we always reckoned on 100lbs of spuds and 12lbs of soil to the sack.