THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

A much-loved cotton waistcoat has failed at the back of the neck. It's on my list of things to do! Can't remember when I last bought any clothes!

[Stanley]

Thinking about fuel and energy shortages, anyone remember the power cuts and going down to the gasworks with a small trolley to get a bag of coke for the fire?

[EileenDavid]

I remember the electricity cuts in the 70's. My friend worked there doing the schedules for the power cuts. Didn't plan it well the venue for her 21st was cut off for 2 hours but the club went on to batteries. Eileen

[Stanley]

I used to feel quite smug during the random cuts. I was running Bancroft then and we had our own alternator. Bancroft lights shining brightly while the rest of the town was in darkness. We could have kept running during the 3 day week as well because we had 300 tons of coal on stock but we had to stop the same as anyone else.

[Stanley]

When I go in the shed to play with my lathes I just press a switch and all the work is taken out of it. Thinking about the old treadle driven lathes and my mother working on her old Singer sewing machine I realised that one of the biggest changes I have seen in seventy years is the advent of the small electric motor in the home. They are much more efficient now and can be made in small sizes. There are two separate motors in my new auto lens for Mrs Nikon. One of the great advances of recent years has been the development of super efficient permanent magnets which are needed for the tiny motors. It can be quite surprising to try to count the number of small electrical devices we use every day that depend on these small motors and their efficient magnets, I can't think of a single thing in our pre-war house in Stockport that had a motor in it.

[Stanley]

Make do and mend and the ability to make small objects to prolong the active life of household objects come into its own yet again as I make a couple of little items for Kev which will solve a problem he had. We forget the number of households that had a cobbler's last under the stairs for running repairs in the days when we were poor. Admitted that the Shed is on a slightly larger scale but the principle holds. When they tell you 'they don't make the spares any more' you just laugh and get on with it!

[Stanley]

I know I'm an Old Fart but one thing that strikes me these days is the woeful quality of most people's footwear and I wonder what sort of state their feet will be in sixty years. Of course it may be me that's wrong but I was always taught that the better your footwear, the better your feet. I don't own any trainers, this is my everyday footwear, a pair of brogues I bought over 40 years ago, I think they cost £14, a lot of money then and of course over the years they have cost me more money in good repairs (How lucky we are to have Birro's cobblers on Newtown!) but they are still good boots, comfortable and waterproof. My feet are in good nick so who's right, cheap trainers or old-fashioned footwear? All I know is that I shall stick to my old boots, I have plenty to last me out!
These are Regent shoes and I just looked them up on the tinternetwebthingy. They're still made and today a pair will set you back £170. Not a bad investment.....

[Bodger]

cheap trainers or old-fashioned footwear?

Stanley, would you be surprised that you can pay £200/250 for trainers if you want to be in the fashion.
I recall going to a plastics exhibition 30/40 years ago, black plimsolls had died out, trainers were in, there was a trainer moulding machine on display producing them, you gave the operator your foot size, and 20mins later you had a free pair , the machine was a 20 station machine, ie, there was a pair coming off every minute. im sure technology has moved on, so using the £200 per pair a good living can be made even on an old machine.

[Stanley]

Can't you just imagine the old cobblers in Northampton turning in their graves!

[Stanley]

It's years since I saw a shopping basket. I remember them every time I hear about possible charges for plastic bags. In the old days women didn't need them, they gathered the hem of their pinny up into a bag and carried the shopping from the corner shop in that. The last time I saw this done was at Bancroft Shed when Colin used to come down into the engine house for toilet rolls, he gathered his brat up into a bag to carry them back into the warehouse.



A clothlooker at Bancroft using a fent as a brat, a make-shift apron.

[Pluggy]

cheap trainers or old-fashioned footwear?

Stanley, would you be surprised that you can pay £200/250 for trainers if you want to be in the fashion.
I recall going to a plastics exhibition 30/40 years ago, black plimsolls had died out, trainers were in, there was a trainer moulding machine on display producing them, you gave the operator your foot size, and 20mins later you had a free pair , the machine was a 20 station machine, ie, there was a pair coming off every minute. im sure technology has moved on, so using the £200 per pair a good living can be made even on an old machine.

To command those kind of prices, they have to be a designer shoe by Nike or Adidas and manufactured in a Filipino sweat shop by a 12 year old......

[EileenDavid]

I have trainers, Reebok now made overseas somewhere but once made in Radcliffe. They are very comfortable and are leather. My mam used to make me wear Clarkes leather lace up shoes when I was a child no cheap shoes for me but I don't have any problems with my feet. When winkle pickers and stilletto shoes came in and my age group were wearing them I couldn't because my feet were to small, only take 3's now.

There was some plastic dressing up shoes called cinderella shoes the must haves for a child, just persuaded her that I needed them when an article appeared in the paper saying they were bad for the feet so never got any. Never allowed any of the plastic beach sandles either now known as jellies. I must admit I only ever buy leather shoes though. Eileen

[Stanley]

I suppose the major factor about anyone reared during the war was that everything had to last! That's why I don't think we ever became fashion victims. I remember my mother taking me to Lekerman's in Underbank in Stockport for a blue mackintosh raincoat. It was miles to big but I can still hear my mother saying "That's all right, he'll grow into it!" I hated that coat!

[EileenDavid]

The exact same quote was used for me with my school skirt. For me to grow into it I would have had to be 6 foot tall. In my last year at senior school I used my spending money and when my skirt went to the dry cleaners I got them to cut a foot off the bottom. The age of the mini and my school skirt with the alteration was still below my knees. Eileen

[Wendyf]

Poor you Eileen! Our school skirts could be no more than 4 inches above the knee when kneeling. There were regular sessions after assembly when suspect distances were measured. We used to have to wear a tunic thing, like a pinafore dress, until the 4th form I think, then we were allowed proper skirts. Do you remember school berets being pinned flat to the back of the head behind beehive hairdos?

[Stanley]

Remembered that the raincoat was a Burberry. Girls, in the 1940's the uniform was gym slips, black stockings and (I believe) black knickers.

[Bodger]

black knickers.

My memory is, black, navy, brown, and bottle green, some had pockets in the leg, do'nt ask me how i know !!

[PanBiker]

We obviously have an expert in our midst

[EileenDavid]

The gym slip had to be worn with a house coloured sash at the waist for the first two years. Then the school skirt which I have already told you about. Our school colour was navy blue, knickers had to match as did the blue beret which made you look like Frank Spencer, and a gabardine mack. My knickers didn't have a pocket but I know some did it was to put your hanky in when you did sport. My gaberdine mack had a secret pocket can't remember the name now. Eileen

[Nolic]

What about the poor lads at Ermysteds having to wear the old fashioned cap until aged 16 years? We tried to wear them as far back on the head as possible and failure to sport the regulation titfer usually brought a detention. This was quite an imposition to lads from Barlick and Earby as the extra hour at school on a Wednesday or Friday (or if 2 detentions in a week 2.5 hours on a Saturday morning) caused real problems with transport. Nolic

[Stanley]

Comrade, at Stockport Grammar we had to wear the black and yellow school caps. Lots of banter about wasps! In later years when I was into serious cycling and rode a bike to school I was pulled up by a master for wearing it back to front but got away with it because I told him that if I wore it the right way it blew off and was dangerous. Very early use of H&S ploy to get out of trouble!

[Stanley]

Can anyone remember the days before we had fridges and used 'meat safes'? They were a box with perforated zinc sides to allow air flow but keep the flies off. Usually kept in the cellar or in winter, outside. How things have changed......

[EileenDavid]

We had a meat safe my dad made it (he was a joiner), I remember him also fitting a concrete slab into the larder to keep other things cool. The best though was the bucket with cold water outside the back door in the shade for the milk. Difficult in a house with 7 kids the amount of milk needed. In summer the milk was passable but in winter the cream used to rise through the bottle top. Mam invented skimmed milk as she used to break them off said the dog loved them icecream lollies. Eileen

[Stanley]

We used to call them cream candlesticks Eileen. In the days before homogenised milk a retailer's milk was judged on the cream line and woe betide anyone who got to the bottle first and poured the cream on the porridge without shaking the bottle. Homogenised milk enabled the dairies to standardise milk to the minimum cream standard without the customer smelling a rat.

[Stanley]

I was thinking about the old cardboard milk bottle tops made of waxed card with a hole you could press through in the centre for a straw. We used to use them as formers for making woollen bobbles.
Another thought, before the days of cheap vacuum cleaners the Ewbank cleaners were to be found in every house. Anyone still using one? I seem to remember there was a modern version at one time, handy for picking a few crumbs up.