THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

I seem to remember reading about that somewhere. I know they took over at least one pier. Anything that was redundant during the war was fair game for the military and government. I read two books about it, I can only remember the title of one, 'The Secret War'. I see another with the same title has been published recently.

[Tizer]

Birnbeck Pier, Weston-super-Mare. Wikipedia says: The pier was taken over by the Admiralty in 1941 as an outpost of the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD). It was commissioned as HMS Birnbeck and was used for secret weapons development and storage with testing. The "bouncing bomb" was tested at the Brean Down Fort on the opposite side of Weston Bay.

Later...I remember having written about his before on OG... viewtopic.php?f=44&t=653&p=113338&hilit ... ck#p113338

[Stanley]

The war brought many strange objects.... The cylindrical concrete objects in this image at County Brook Mill had a different use during the war. They were kept at strategic points on the road and could be rolled onto the road easily to make a road block.

[Stanley]

It struck me yesterday that people today are used to residential streets lined with parked cars, especially at weekends. People of my generation can remember when the same streets were empty apart from delivery vehicles. Car ownership was so rare. Today I wonder how the emergency services get down these streets.



One of the main shopping streets in Stockport in 1949, not a car in sight. This was not unusual.

[Tripps]

Never heard of Walker and Homfrays , but seems they were a Salford brewery and merged with Willsons in 1949.
Interesting to see the UCP - here described as a 'Supper Bar'.

[Stanley]

Ahhh, the delights of United Cattle Products.... (I used to think 'Steak and eel pie' had eels in it....)

[plaques]

A bit of nostalgia that I bumped into while surfing the net as one does. An article in the Burnley Express newspaper 24 Feb 1984. Arthur Redsell and his comments about when Rolls Royce went under, financially that is. Arthur was writing in the book 'The Magic of a Name' of 4 Feb 1971 the time when it all happened. Now a touch over 50 years later its another tense time for Barlick.

.

Athur Redsell.jpg

.The blow which sent the area reeling with such force that many – politicians, leaders of local industry, the man in the street – feared it spelt the end, not just for Barnoldswick where the Roll’s factory lay, but for many miles around. The day Rolls-Royce went bankrupt. The effects of that shattering announcement were fired home immediately.
No job in local engineering was safe.
As it was said at the time, it was without doubt the worst news for Pendle and North East Lancashire since the day Prime Minister Chamberlain announced that “Britain is at war with Germany".
"The reason why it hit everyone so hard was because people thought the RB211 could not go wrong, and it did," says former "Rolls-Royce worker Mr Arthur Ridsell, who was Quality Manager at Bankfield at the time, “The price of success in the aero-engine industry is very expensive and it got too expensive for Rolls”. In plain facts, the cost of developing the RB211 – an engine which in the end became a world-beater – became too much.
February 4th 1971 is engraved on the hearts of all who lived throughout the area.

[Stanley]

I remember it well Ken and the way the whole town was affected. I was driving in Scotland a lot at the time on the cattle wagon and it was big news up there as well. Rolls had a big factory just outside of Glasgow. People were asking me for news as though I had an inside track to what was going on.
I think things are much worse than anyone is admitting at the moment.

[Stanley]

One thing we never see these days is what we used to call 'The School Bobby'. This was the Attendance Officer and he used to roam the town questioning any children he found abroad during school hours and if necessary returning them to the school.

[Whyperion]

The property consortium that now owns the building since the bookies came out won't sell the building. They would rather sit on it as part of their 600+ building portfolio. It's in quite a state inside. Bosom Friends made a realistic offer for the property but they are having none of it.

Isnt there some kind of legislation that councils can use to force a vacant property (its tricky and costly- I assume the owners are actually waiting to be allowed to change to residential. - whats the view of the now Tory Majority on loss of community assets or businesses from town centres ?)

[Stanley]

The Nook, at the end of King Street on the bend that becomes Jepp Hill. Apart from being a very old corner of Barlick that has been demolished and qualifying as Flatley Dryer on those terms, it was the home of a tinsmith who did general repairs for the public. Later there was a better known tinsmith's shop on Church Street. Arthur Entwistle's father bought a tinman's 'ginny' from the old man thinking to get Arthur into the trade but it never happened.
Tinners used to be essential but the advent of plastic destroyed the trade, all their essential wares could be made from plastic.

[Stanley]

The Nook, at the end of King Street on the bend that becomes Jepp Hill. Apart from being a very old corner of Barlick that has been demolished (1979) and qualifying as Flatley Dryer on those terms, it was the home of a tinsmith who did general repairs for the public. Later there was a better known tinsmith's shop on Church Street. Arthur Entwistle's father bought a tinman's 'ginny' from the old man thinking to get Arthur into the trade but it never happened.
Tinners used to be essential but the advent of plastic destroyed the trade, all their essential wares could be made from plastic.

[Tizer]

Of course in Cornwall the word tinner is used for a tin miner and there are pubs called the Tinner's Arms.

[Stanley]

But Barlick isn't in Cornwall Peter...
One of the characteristics of the textile industry was the fact that they learned the advantages of concentrating on what they did best and letting others provide the rest. This was why Barlick concentrated on weaving once transport enabled spinning to be done further south in Lancashire. It also applied in other matters ranging from heald knitting, reed making and shuttle making. In this respect they operated in a very similar way to the aero industry today. Rolls Royce made extensive use of local industry.
Like tin-smithing, this way of working may be suffering from the present climate and could be a Flatley Dryer candidate.

[plaques]

June 1996.

Coun. David Whipp and town clerk Mrs Janet Bland thank Mrs Nutter and other members of the swimming club.
Local swimmers gave the West Craven Sports Campaign an £800 boost on Tuesday when they handed over a cheque for £800. The money was raised by a sponsored swim - all those taking part being given the choice of swimming 20 lengths or widths of the West Craven Pool. Organiser Mrs Ann Fozzard was delighted with the result. “We had hoped to raise about £200, so to raise all that was really good” she told us. “All those taking adult lessons gave a lot of help, as did one or two of the general public and lots of youngsters in the swimming club. It was a real community effort and I would like to thank everyone who took part or gave money”.
Sponsorship cash totalled £773, but the club generously made it up to the £800 mark. Mrs Elsie Nutter, an honorary member of the West Craven Swimming Club, presented the cheque to Coun. David Whipp. a member of the campaign team, who had taken part in the sponsored swim himself.

.

Swimming 1 Barlck.jpg

[Stanley]

Everyone looks so slim!

[Stanley]

When I was a lad the morning paper was like dawn, it never failed to arrive. In our case it was the Daily Express and on Sunday, or rather late Saturday evening because it was always on sale as the evening performance at the cinema loose, the Empire News published by Kemsley Newspapers. (LINK)
My impression today is that many who still get it do it for the sport and the racing news. Hard news comes in different ways and many small newspaper shops have bitten the dust.

[Stanley]

It would seem that old fashioned landlines and copper connections are out of date now. So also is reliable connection! Listening to the radio one is struck by the number of calls that fail. In my memory this didn't happen with physical connections. Or am I seeing the past through a rose-tinted filter?
Whatever, reliable connections are entering Flatley Dryer country.

[Big Kev]

Analogue signals always seemed to work with a bit of degredation, digital seems to be on or off there's no middle ground. That's my perception of it anyway. All the while there is a massive change to digital and fibre optic cabling there's going to be 'issues' until it all settles down and no one is physically moving stuff.

[Stanley]

There was at one time a story about the BBC having entrusted a complete digital makeover to one company and when the system proved to be unreliable the Corporation found out that the hardware they had paid for was not compatible with other systems. They sacked the contractor and persevered with the bum software. I remember John Humphrys being particularly exercised about it but then he went quiet. I have an idea he was asked to shut up.
But what do I know about it.....

[Stanley]

Today nothing could be simpler than taking a copy of a document, even a picture or a complicated diagram. It was not always the case. In the earliest days a copy was just that, a facsimile written out by a copying clerk. Before printing this was how multiple copies of texts were made. In the 19th century office copies were kept by writing letters using a 'copying ink pencil'. This had a special core in it which dissolved easily in the presence of water, if you licked the point at turned your tongue blue. We occasionally got hold of them and I remember them being popular at one time because they couldn't be erased without smearing the paper.
In the office, the letters were written in a 'letter book', which was a book with alternate printed forms and onion skin tissue paper. You wrote the letter on the form and then inserted a piece of damp paper and put the book under a letter press for the night (or a sufficient period for transfer). The ink dissolved and permeated through to the tissue and left a permanent record of the letter.



This process was superseded by carbon paper and much later photo copying. The old presses were useful for other matters and often survived but today very few know what their original purpose was.

[Stanley]

See THIS Wikipedia article on the ball point pen which is today's example of how Flatley Dryer situations arise. Prior to the widespread availability of ball point pens after WW2 You used either a dip in pen or a fountain pen. In my days at school we still had ink wells in each desk, classes had 'ink monitors' and blotting paper to soak up excess ink was essential equipment.
Today the ball point pen is ubiquitous, fountain pens are a rarity and I can't remember when I last saw blotting paper. Remember blotting pads?

[Cathy]

Hate to say it but I do remember the nibs and blotting paper... Only vaguely, you understand

[Stanley]

Hee hee. I'll believe you Cathy but I'm afraid thousands wouldn't!

[Tizer]

I remember the ink wells and associated paraphernalia - how could I forget it, getting ink everywhere, fingers always blue or black spotted.