THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

At least they didn't suspect you of causing the accident. They breathalysed me.....
I was hit once by a silver Bentley as I was in heavy traffic coming into Skipton from Harrogate before they put the modern road in. I had plenty of witnesses, insisted on making a statement and they caught the bloke on Blubberhouses, drunk at the wheel. He was a Blackpool haulage contractor and lost his license. Served him right.....

[Stanley]

One very cold icy day in 1970 I was coming back from Lanark market at the time when the A6 was being converted to a motorway. There was a complicated temporary roundabout at the Golden Fleece just south of Carlisle and as we were negotiating it there was an army convoy travelling in the opposite direction. It was the time of the Troubles in Ireland and they were a common sight heading for the ferry at Stranraer. As I've often said, long years on the road enabled you to read traffic and I said to David Drinkall who was with me "This Land Rover is going to hit us!" Sure enough he hit my offside back wheel. We were only travelling slowly so I stopped and brought proceedings to a halt. Nobody was hurt and next thing we knew was another Land Rover hurtled up the wrong side of the road and almost ran into the front of me. A young officer, Second Lieutenant Campbell jumped out and ordered me to drive on!
I’m afraid his man management skills were minimal, this was entirely the wrong way to treat me. I got out of the cab and told him that neither I or his bent Land Rover were going anywhere until I had some witnesses and the name of his insurance company as we would be making a claim for any damage caused by his incompetent driver. The bloke behind me had seen it all and gave me his name and address, he was a commercial traveller from Aberdeen. Lt. Campbell was going a funny purple colour and was on the verge of making a complete fool of himself just as the police arrived. They weighed up the situation, had a word with my witness and ordered the officer to give me full details of who they were and all the names involved. The bobby told me that it was useless asking for the name of the insurance company as there wasn’t one, the government didn’t have insurance, they stood it themselves. I was given full details and we got our claim paid in full for a new rear wing, a tyre and one or two other odds and sods.
I have to admit I quite enjoyed winding the young officer up, too many times when in the army I had been powerless against the officer class but just for once I had one by the short and curlies!

[Stanley]

Here's another example....

If you are doing a lot of miles you occasionally become involved in a road accident. I was no exception while I was on the tankers. I was doing a late load into Kirkstall Road at Leeds and had pulled up at a red light outside the Golden Fleece pub just this side of Otley town centre. The lights turned green, I set off and a car coming the opposite way decided he could get across the road and into the pub car park before I blocked the entrance. He swung across to dive in front of me and ran straight into the front of the wagon. I had very little damage apart from a few scratches on the massive chrome bumper but it was fairly obvious his car was a write-off, all the doors had sprung open and wouldn’t shut by a mile. He was playing hell with me but I nailed a witness and rang the police. I refused to move until they came and it was an open and shut case. I was called as witness at Otley Court because he had pleaded not guilty but at the last moment he changed his plea and I didn’t have to testify. I was doing a late load to Grimsby that day and collected a fiver for witness expenses as well, good day out!

[Stanley]

I once asked an insurance representative what was the strangest claim he ever had to deal with and he told me about the woman who was cleaning her husband's new automatic Jaguar in the parking and garage space at the side of their house in a modern development. She started it to move it backwards in order to get to the front bumper to polish it. Unfortunately she pressed too hard on the accelerator and then froze. By the time the car came to rest she had written off two cars and a garage and damaged all the other cars bar one. I'll bet that led to an interesting conversation when hubby came home.....

[Tizer]

A friend of mine in the 1970s lived on a hill in a row of houses with no drives or garages, all the cars parked on the roadside. He came home after work in a panic because he'd remembered he was supposed to be ready to go out again with his wife. He jumped out of the car, rushed in through the front door and then wondered what all the strange noise was outside. Went back out to find he'd forgotten the handbrake and his car had rolled into the one in front, which had then hit the next one and so on. It was like a slow motion motorway pile up. (Mind you it didn't stop him going on to become head of one of the university colleges and recently being honoured by the Queen!)

Another problem of that type used to be women in automatic gearbox cars draping their handbag strap over the `gearstick'. Stopping the car, grabbing the bag, accidentally knocking it into drive, then wondering how they managed to hit whatever was in front if them.

[Stanley]

In the days when I learned my driving, and particularly in loaded wagons, you never trusted the handbrake. When you stopped you always engaged a low gear, reverse if you were facing downhill and crawler if you were facing uphill. On an automatic neutral was usually 'lock' and the prop shaft couldn't turn.
Some early vehicles had a handbrake which operated on the prop shaft. This practice hung on in modern Land Rovers and the Bedford TK series of wagons in the 1960s. This could lead to an interesting situation if you were on a steep slope and one rear wheel was on ice. The wheel on the ice could 'diff' round backwards while the opposite rear wheel rolled. The wagon usually stopped when the ice ran out under the wheel. I have been stood on a milk stand chucking kits onto the flat and watching the wagon slowly moving downhill. You got used to it!

[Tizer]

We're having to get used to an electronic handbrake now and an autohold function. Very strange after over 50 years of driving with conventional brakes. I keep feeling for a non-existent handbrake and I have an urge to always leave the car in gear!

[Stanley]

I was always struck by the almost universal habit on the steep hills of San Francisco, the way the locals parked with their front wheels turned into the high kerbs. My rule was never trust a handbrake...... There was one exception, 'the handbrake' on my last wagon which had three line air system and spring brakes. The brakes were permanently on held by powerful springs on each brake. It was the high air pressure that took the brake off so they were totally fail safe, the Westinghouse principle. When you parked and actuated the brake, a small lever on the steering column, every wheel on the outfit was locked solid. Best braking system ever invented....

[PanBiker]

I always turn my front wheels into the kerb when parking on hills. Reverse gear if pointing down, first gear if parked upwards on the slope. Was good practice when loading and unloading from the back of the vans when I was out on field service every day.

[Tripps]

From an East Anglian resident. What are these 'hills' that you speak of?

[Bodger]

Tripps, many years ago i lived in the West Riding, and as a cyclist i loved the hills because there was always t'other side, about 60 years ago i recall riding from the centre of England to Kings Lynn with full touring gear, a head wind off the sea, flat boring countryside with only dykes to look at, in front miles of flat road, one of the most hardest boring 120 mile ride i had

[Tizer]

From an East Anglian resident. What are these 'hills' that you speak of?

They're what you East Anglians call `mountains'.

[Stanley]

I remember how disappointed I was when I first went to Minnesota. The area to the south of Twin Cities has no proper hills, let alone mountains. I love being able to see Weets from the centre of Barlick.

[Tizer]

You wouldn't like living in the Somerset levels then! But at east we have two mountains...Glastonbury Tor and Burrow Mump.

[Stanley]

The defence of the flat-landers is always "We might not have mountains but we have a 'Big Sky'.

[PanBiker]

I'm hoping the weather will be kind enough this weekend to take all three of my grandchildren up a proper mountain this weekend. Penyghent beckons, she's only just a mountain but a damn site bigger than anything they have in Norfolk or Somerset. Brackenbottom is probably higher than owt in Norfolk.

[Tizer]

Another advantage is you can see aeroplanes better without mountains getting in the way. As I opened this thread two Hercules flew over very low. One of them had beautiful multi-colour artwork on the tail fin - I've never seen them in anything but full camouflage until today.

[Stanley]

Remember the Psalms.... 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.....'
You can take a lad out of Wycliffe Sunday School but you can't take Wycliffe out of the lad!

[Stanley]

I was born in an era where there were a lot of home deliveries, coal and milk were the main ones then but earlier in the century many more things were hawked round the houses. In Barlick and Earby the 'backstone bakers' who specialised in oatcakes, crumpets etc baked on a stone and not in the oven were common. Read Jim Pollard's transcripts in the LTP for his family's backstone bakery in Red Lion Street. They sold direct from the bakery of course if asked but had no proper shop, most of their wares were delivered door to door daily. Hackings in Barlick started with a small bakery at the bottom of Chapel Street but soon moved to these premises in Wapping. Then they built the big shop at Dam Head and for many years were one of the most successful bakers and caterers in the town.

[plaques]

I wonder what the swing door hatch on the extreme right of the picture was used for. It looks far too high for a coal delivery door.

[Tizer]

I'm just old enough to remember our coal, milk and sarsparilla being delivered by horse and cart in Blackburn. That little hatch door in the wall reminds me of when Mrs Tiz and I were searching for a house to buy in High Wycombe in the 1980s. I found one where the owner, an East European, had made various modifications for his convenience. He'd put a hatch in the house wall so the milkman could place the milk bottles out of the sun and out of sight, and so they could be retrieved from inside the house. He'd also made a hatch through which he could drop his rubbish into bins outside. I thought it was great but Mrs Tiz didn't like it!

Another thought - there seems to be a chimney stack behind that wall. Could the hatch be for access to the flue?

[Stanley]

The chimney is the flue for the bakestones and would be needed to give enough draught as it was only a single storey building. I noted the height of the door and assumed it was because they had large deliveries of coal and so allowed for a bigger heap inside. Th access wouldn't be too high if the sacks were tipped from the cart parked alongside the wall.... They would be getting though a lot of coal.

[Stanley]

I think I must have been what is described today as a 'voracious reader'. I started with the adverts on buses and soon graduated to the Beano and the Dandy and then onto the Wizard, Hotspur and the other which I always forget. The latter were all reading, no pictures and I still remember the stories. Mother got the Woman's Weekly and father Practical Engineer as well as the papers so I read them as well. I can remember being fascinated by Mrs Maryatt who was the agony aunt in the WW. Then I discovered the public library..... At one point I started to work my way through the non-fiction and the shelf nearest the librarians desk had a section on lighthouses. I am still fascinated by them today. Things are different now and I can't help thinking that the screen culture our kids inhabit today is a retrograde step. Or am I just an old dinosaur.....

[Bodger]

"The Champion" ? Rock Fist Rogan ?

[Tizer]

Wizard, Hotspur...Rover?