THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

I have one or two Bodge. I had more but like you I don't know what happened to them.

[PanBiker]

One of my hobbies was collecting truck drivers badges, these were lovely enameled lapel emblems of the manufacturer, I used to write to Leyland, Albion, Thornycroft , Sentinel etc. and the generally replied in the affirmative, i had over 12 at one stage but like other things i cannot recall where they went ?

I used to do the same Bodge, Scammel, Seddon Diesel, Albion I can remember from the ones I had.

[Tizer]

I'm a sucker for collecting and collections. Last year I bought an album containing about 3000 old matchbox labels at a collectors' fair. A lot of interest for £25!

[Stanley]

I can remember at one time having the uncomfortable thought that my predilection for gathering up tools and machinery was nothing more than a collection but as I started to use them I lost that fear. Now, as I look around me I begin to wonder if I wasn't right all along!
During the war I had a promising start of a collection of WW2 memorabilia, the star items were a complete 25lb practice bomb and a Mills grenade. They vanished when I left home and went away farming and then into the army. The family flit and somewhere down the line they vanished together with a lot of other things.... Probably a good job.
In this context I often think of the old Romany Gypsy custom of burning the deceased's caravan and possessions as part of the funeral. I did the same thing when I divorced and left home, at one point I was down to 14 carrier bags and can attest that it gives a great deal of freedom. There is such a thing as the tyranny of possessions....

[chinatyke]

...at one point I was down to 14 carrier bags and can attest that it gives a great deal of freedom. There is such a thing as the tyranny of possessions....

15 years ago I came here with one suitcase weighing 50lbs and 13lbs in a carry-on case, and a briefcase full of music CDs and personal papers. My wife had her belongings in 2 carrier bags and her daughter had another 2. Now we've got too much "clutter" again. Stanley, remind me why I need 3 hacksaws?

[Stanley]

I know the feeling China. I can't tell you the reason, it is one of life's mysteries. Perhaps Parkinson's Law applies, 'possessions increase to fill the amount of space allotted to them'.

[chinatyke]

I know the feeling China. I can't tell you the reason, it is one of life's mysteries. Perhaps Parkinson's Law applies, 'possessions increase to fill the amount of space allotted to them'.

[Stanley]

Postmen and telegram boys on red bicycles. Young lads pedalling unbelievably heavy bikes with delivery baskets on the front, shades of 'Open All Hours'. Oh and small children staggering home from the corner shop with heavy shopping bags. I must have been carrying 5lbs of spuds and a loaf at 5 years old. All other deliveries were by horse and cart, the only thing that was mechanised was the dustbin wagon. Probably a lot of that was prolonged by the war and fuel rationing. No wonder there was no equivalent of the White Van.
We had roses in the front garden and there was almost a fight at times for horse muck dropped in the street. Today people complain about it, we just went out with the coal shovel and collected it for the garden!

[Stanley]

That last post reminded me of my childhood on Norris Avenue in Stockport. Even then two things struck me. By far the most popular colour scheme for the exterior painting of the house was Buckingham Green and Cream, it was almost universal. (in those days we painted the interior walls with gloss paint and I can remember how the condensation used to form on it and run down.)
We were not gardeners, that came later when Father had more time at Napier Road. The back garden was a pocket handkerchief and was occupied exclusively with the Anderson Shelter. The front garden was a weeded rose bed, minimum maintenance. In contrast the man next door, Arthur Thompson, was an obsessive gardener. It was always perfect. I remember particularly that every crumb of soil was small and the same size! It was the exact opposite of today's wild gardens. Looking back, I think it was some sort of compulsion to be in control.
I don't know why but another thing comes to mind about gardens. I was in Washington DC and walking round soaking the place up. What struck me was the contrast between the splendour of the memorials, reflecting pool and the White house and two blocks back from them some of the poorest housing I have ever see where most gardens had either a wrecked car or rubbish in them. Guess what, the inhabitants were mostly coloured...

[Stanley]

It seems to me that most of my posts on this thread regret the passing of things. Today I want to highlight something that hasn't changed. Good shops succeed because they have good cheerful and helpful staff. Yesterday in Ilkley brought this home to me as we aided the local economy. It was a social experience and we had a hoot as we shopped until we dropped. As long as this continues, local shops will beat online any day!

[Stanley]

Stockport 70 years ago was a heavily polluted environment. The air was full of smoke and the rivers were open sewers. It was so bad that the Luftwaffe couldn't see through the murk and never managed to hit their primary target, the enormous brick viaduct across the centre of the town.



Looking back we were used to black and green snot, if it wasn't the soot it was low levels of respiratory infection. Spitting on the street was rife and I remember the notice in the trams, 'Spitting prohibited. Penalty 40 shillings'. £2 in those days was a hefty fine!
Living in Barlick today with air like wine every morning I feel so lucky and appreciate it daily. The question is, how did we survive? Is the air pollution today different and more aggressive? This is one aspect of the past I am glad to have lost!

[Tripps]

Living in Barlick today with air like wine every morning I feel so lucky and appreciate it daily. The question is, how did we survive? Is the air pollution today different and more aggressive? This is one aspect of the past I am glad to have lost!

I think about this a lot, and can get quite boring when in company. "smog? - I'll tell you about smog" etc.

[Whyperion]

most gardens had either a wrecked car or rubbish in them.

Try some of the estates in Croydon, mostly native englishers, the WI immigrant families are the ones that get dressed up in the Sunday Finest to the local churches of their choice. Perhaps the biggest difference between the USA and the UK.

[Stanley]

You do right to think about it and comment David. Quality of air is just as important as water and too many people, including our leaders, haven't realised this. They agonise about childhood diseases, asthma, glue ear etc and do nothing.
Many years ago, before the link was built between the M6 and the M5 I used to go occasionally to Droitwich with a load of cattle, always on a Sunday. This involved skirting round Birmingham via the normal road system and the thing that struck me was how well dressed the 'immigrant' kids were compared to the indigenous variety.....
Everybody had 'Sunday Best' clothes, I don't think this applies today.

[Tripps]

Everybody had 'Sunday Best' clothes, I don't think this applies today.

Indeed it doesn't - we've gone so far that the word 'suit' has become a common term of abuse.

Come back John Collier, Montague Burton, Fifty Shilling Tailor, Hepworths, Abe Sachs , Hymie Showman - all is forgiven. . . .

[Stanley]

The go-to man for my dad was Phil Burman in Undergate in Stockport. I had completely forgotten him until you made your list David.
Until recently we had one in Barlick Dennis ?. He used to work at Bristol Tractors in the 1950s and was a favourite of my mother. ("Such a nice young man".) His shop was a small one on the end of the row in Rainhall Road that is now part of Whitworth's the chemist. (Sorry! 'Pharmacy''!)

[Stanley]

Thinking about winter footwear as we move towards the bad weather. I have a pair of Wellingtons that I wear for snow and very wet weather but they are perished and I am toying with the idea of getting a new pair of working boots I can grease up, all my old ones are worn out.
This got me to thinking about what we did 80 years ago. Rubber overshoes that you put over your ordinary shoes were popular, haven't seen them for years. On icy mornings many people wore a pair of old woollen socks over their shoes to give grip, I have seen special mini crampons occasionally but they aren't common. Dunlop used to make some rubber lace-up boots that were common until as late as the 1960s. Most people used to have to put up with worn leaky shoes and wet feet during the war when good cobbling and shoes were thin on the ground.
If you wore boots habitually the best way was to give them a good greasing, Goose Grease was ideal, I always used Neat's Foot Oil.
( I finally cracked and bought a pair of handmade working boots for £180. I know, I have a boot fetish!)

[Stanley]

The boots I ordered are so old-fashioned they are on 12 weeks delivery. Made on a sprung last like Fell Boots, that technique is very thin on the ground today.
One of the reasons why boot repairing has sunk to the state it is generally in now is the fact that most modern shoes and boots are not made to be repaired. Proper cobblers could all make a pair of boots from scratch and there was a distinction between boot, and shoe makers, also clog-makers. All different skills.
That reminds me, if anyone is good on trees have a look at the five trees outside the front of Cravenside Care home on the Green. I have an idea they are alders and if so would have been planted for use making clog soles. I'd love to know. Alder was always the favoured species for clog soles. Close grained so didn't split easily, when new it was soft and good to carve like Lime but hardened with age and above all it's waterproof. A good Alder sole lasted for years and if the leather was good and had been looked after they could be re-clogged with new soles. Some clog makers could make a pair out of old boots if they were good quality and had been looked after. Alf Whiteoak on Whitemoor, a farmer who supplemented his income by doing clogging on the side was particularly good at that.

[Whyperion]

Given that TV has given us, Masterchef, The Pottery Throwdown, The Sewing Bee one, Bake-Off and the apprentice (huh!), maybe its time for Cobbler/Paternoster the professionals to be televised - those lads and ladies from the Repair Shop would be in with a shout.

[Stanley]

You might wonder how this pic qualifies for this topic. The man is Luke Lister and the date is 1977. He ran the last working blacksmith's shop in Stockport, only 100 yards from the town centre on Didsbury Road near the tram-shed. Next door but one was Joe Hibbert's the barbers. They were old properties backing on the river, now long gone of course. A bit of Old Stockport that had survived, you could imagine the same juxtaposition in a medieval village.

[Stanley]

I suppose this topic is a chronicle of change, not only in what we buy but how we live and how our environment has changed. There was never a more pressing need because the pace of change is increasing and the next ten years are going to be extremely interesting.
I can't predict what will happen next, all I know is that we must remember the past, chronicle the present and keep a record. In 50 years pics of 'modern' Barlick will be just as striking as something like this.



One thing that strikes me is that over the last few years we have had to go back towards the way we governed ourselves around 1900 when we had an autonomous Council. As local government funding shrinks and the Count Council neglects us we have been forced to take over more responsibility for ourselves. This includes the wonderful work of volunteers. There will be more of this in future and I sometimes wonder what we could do with a source of income like a local sales tax, a system that works well in the States. It may well be that the concentration of services in larger units, like the reliance now on Blackburn Hospital, might change. After all, at one time we had our own hospital at Banks Hill and a movement to have another later on which never came to anything. It could be an interesting ride!

[Stanley]

I still have hospitals on my mind. Years ago I read Ivan Illich's 'Tools for Conviviality' (still worth reading!) He made the comment that the conviviality of a hospital is in direct inverse proportion to the size of its car park. That bears thinking about as district hospitals get larger and larger and smaller ones close down. Can you remember the concept of 'The Cottage Hospital', a term I haven't heard for years. Clitheroe used to have one on Chatburn Road and I note that a new community hospital has been built there. We had Banks Hill and I always liked Skipton hospital which again I note is still open, a bit of a miracle! (LINK)
I understand the need for the need for regional centres for specialities like cancer and cases like Ian's but if these old local hospitals had been kept open I think that the cost per bed would have compared well with the new ones burdened with massive PPI liabilities.
That brings me round to the matter of a local tax. I remember 30 years ago when I first went to Northfield in Minnesota I saw that they had a local hospital funded by a sales tax and the proceeds from the community off-licence which did well because it was the only one allowed in the town and was run by the local city fathers. Northfield is roughly the same size as Barnoldswick and it seemed to me that we could do the same thing here if we really put our minds to it.
We are already seeing the revolution in energy generation from solar panels and the effect on overall need as opposed to white elephants like Hinkley Point. Perhaps Schumacher was right and Small is still Beautiful. Another book from from 1973 that we would do well to read again and apply it to hospitals as well.

[Bodger]

Many years ago i had an operation for piles, sorry can't spell haemorroids, in Ashton u Lyne , after the op. i was sent to Woods Hospital Glossop , this was a recuperation hospital and was run with the minimum of staff and had a great atmosphere re patient & carers, as you say Stanley a good use of cottage hospitals.

[PanBiker]

We have a problem in Barlick as for quite while now there has been a call for a modern medical centre more fit for purpose than the collection of Philip Street houses that the local doctors are heavily invested in. That in many cases is the problem. Our Butts Clinic would make a perfect site for a three or four storey development much like Yarnspinners in Nelson. Short term rehab and follow on care after hospital could also be provided in such a build. or provide that in the Park Road venue. How it could be funded is another matter. We keep having house building thrust upon us which attracts more and more residents with no change to the medical infrastructure other than to shove some of the nursing tasks into the Rainhall Centre.

[Stanley]

Quite right Ian, one of the many areas that is 'done on the cheap' these days is local health care. That is the root of the problem. Instead of high speed railway lines and white elephants like Hinkley Point we should be putting money into people. Taking into account the massive changes we shall see in the next 20 years in employment, road traffic and incomes, we should be aiming for a 'walking distance' system. Our present structure is based on the fact that everyone has a car. This is not true now and will become worse as we bite the problem of ever increasing car ownership and use. I think that the solution will be to price the poorest off the road and that will mean transport difficulties all round. We need more walking!