THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Big Kev]

Did you see that TV programme about the man and his family who have restored a derelict old `living wagon' to a glorious new condition? It showed them putting a new iron tyre on one of the wheels, heating it up in a wood fire in the yard, quickly hammering onto the wheel rim and dousing it in copious water. A good bit of history being replayed! The inside of the wagon is now incredible - beautiful furnishings, lots of extras and even a sunken jacuzzi bath under the floor!

Was that George Clarke's Amazing Spaces on Channel 4?

[Tizer]

I've forwarded that question to my televisual entertainment executive and her answer is `Yes!'

[Big Kev]

I watched that, it looked very good when finished.

[Stanley]

There are some very good videos out there on wheelwrighting and associated trades. Look for Engel's Coach works on Youtube for a workshop specialising in that work.
We have evidence of the trade of wheelwrighting and cart building in Barlick in the 15th century by way of entries on the Bolton Priory Accounts. Hey Farm where I used to live was a wheelwright's shop for many years and the family was named Crook. The Ouzledale water mill started life as a saw mill and maker of wheelbarrows and carts, that would include wheelwrighting. I have records of farmers making carts in winter when it was to cold to farm. I have an idea that Maurice once told me that his dad made one, he learned the trade off his uncle at Salterforth.

[Tizer]

Our previous house in the Somerset Levels had once been a wheelwright's home and workshop. We slept in his workshop!

[Stanley]

It was an essential trade in those days Peter. There was still a heavy wagon wheel mounted in the roof beams in the room over my workshop at Hey Farm. I think it was used to give momentum to his treadle lathe and possibly allow someone to do the powering of the lathe for him. I hope they kept it as a feature when they made that end of the house back over to domestic use again.
When you think of it most small tradesmen like that ran their business out of the same building that was home, a bit like 'living over the shop'. I think it got to the stage where that phrase was damning to any social climber. If you lived over the shop you didn't qualify for acceptance in higher circles. Flatley Dryer country now with working from home!

[Tripps]

If you lived over the shop you didn't qualify for acceptance in higher circles

From my strange memory, that immediately reminds me of the Manchester saying -

'His father made the family money living over his shop in Cheetham Hill, and he lost it living over his means in Wilmslow'

[Stanley]

Never heard that one David but I recognise the truth in it.
Why did Tib Street in Manchester leap into my mind as I read your post? It used to be Pet Shop heaven. That's F;atley Dryer now it has been gentrified.

[Wendyf]

I'm not sure if old cars qualify for Flatley Dryer or Forgotten Corner topics but here are my first 2 cars. I inherited the Imp from mother then brother in 1970 and the the Fiat 500 was mine from 1972 to 74ish when it was squished in a minor shunt (for the other vehicles) at traffic lights in Chester.

149329484_3035917679778009_4873752381898841155_o.jpg

148856591_3035871039782673_5332330376527125380_o.jpg

Please excuse my expressive face. Both photos taken on visits to my parents house. How lucky I was .

[PostmanPete]

The Hillman Imp looks exactly like my very first car - a 1965 C Reg in Bermuda Blue. I skidded head on into a brick wall on a slippery roundabout in Preston with it in 1973 and did absolutely no damage to the engine...! It cost me about a fiver to straighten out the front bumper though.

[Wendyf]

Mine was a C reg too.

[Stanley]

Of course they qualify!



This is the first car I remember us owning as a family, a Vauxhall 14, pre-war, I think 1937. Father bought it towards the end of the war. I think he was fed up of using the works car. If I remember rightly the number was DRF 954.

[Big Kev]

I'm not sure if old cars qualify for Flatley Dryer or Forgotten Corner topics but here are my first 2 cars. I inherited the Imp from mother then brother in 1970 and the the Fiat 500 was mine from 1972 to 74ish when it was squished in a minor shunt (for the other vehicles) at traffic lights in Chester.

149329484_3035917679778009_4873752381898841155_o.jpg
148856591_3035871039782673_5332330376527125380_o.jpg

Please excuse my expressive face. Both photos taken on visits to my parents house. How lucky I was .

There's a very nice looking Mark 2 Cortina next to the garage in the Hillman Imp pic, is it a 1600E?
I have had quite a few Cortinas, they were a disposable item then and probably worth a fortune now.

[Wendyf]

Yes it was 1600E with flashy metallic green paint, my Dad enjoyed his cars.

[Big Kev]

Yes it was 1600E with flashy metallic green paint, my Dad enjoyed his cars.

Lovely

[Stanley]

In 1939 my mother considered herself lucky in that she had a vacuum cleaner, a Hoover Senior. Not long after that father had a problem at General Gas who were by then on war production. One of their contracts was to make flare casings for the Royal Navy and they were having a problem with contamination inside them. The problem was soon solved, father commandeered mother's vacuum cleaner and took it to GGA where it served well on the flare casing line. She didn't get a new vacuum cleaner until well after the war.

[Cathy]

The cheek!
Why didn’t the company buy their own vacuum cleaner?

[Stanley]

There weren't any to buy Cathy, the war had started and it was so difficult to get hold of anything.
Mind you, I'll agree, father was pushing his luck. Remember though, those were different times, we were expecting to be invaded and overrun by the Nazis any day!

[Cathy]

I could ‘go on’ Stanley, but there is no point.
Everything belongs to it’s time.

[plaques]

As a kid I remember a service man coming round once a year to check the wiring insulation. The wiring was then rubber coated. Came with litte tips like 'never wind the cable on the same way round'. It must have been part of the deal because Dad wouldn't pay for anything like that.

[Stanley]

You've reminded me Ken that we had the Hoover Man call occasionally when I was a lad. New belts and brushes and that sort of thing. The old rubber flex cable was far better than modern plastic ones but not as long lasting. Do you remember the chalk and cotton thread in the core? I still have a very old 1/2" drill that has rubber flex cord and it will stay like that until the cable shows signs of deterioration.

[PanBiker]

Do you remember the chalk and cotton thread in the core? I still have a very old 1/2" drill that has rubber flex cord and it will stay like that until the cable shows signs of deterioration.

All fine and dandy but I bet it wouldn't pass a current PAT safety test.

[Stanley]

Nor would it electrocute me. I tried it not long since....



Thanks to the Craven Herald site for this pic of Fred Manby's ironmongers in Skipton. We had John Elmer in Barlick but there were some things that only Manby's could do. When I was at Hey farm I had a .410 shotgun and Manby's was the nearest place I could get Eley Kynoch Cartridges. (LINK)
They also did a good trade in traps, mouse, rat and mole long after they were unobtainable almost everywhere else. If you wanted a scythe or a hay rake they still had them. They didn't make the transition to our modern world and are long gone.

[PanBiker]

Nor would it electrocute me. I tried it not long since....

Until the insulation breaks down, electricity is much faster than you!

I think you have missed the point or is it just another of those Elf and Safety issues that should be ignored?

Fact is, if it was PAT tested it would be condemned on safety grounds. Probably with a recommendation to replace the lead, I bet it's not double insulated.

[Stanley]

So touching, your concern for me.....
Everything old Sid taught me at Bradbury's cycle shop on Heaton Moor when I helped him is now Flatley dryer country. Not many people lace their own wheels up or true them. A regular job used to be taking chains off bikes, washing them in a paraffin bath and then frying them in tallow in an enormous cast iron frying pan. It was the best way of cleaning and lubricating them and it made a lot of difference to how long they lasted. Most chains spend their short lives wallowing in a bath of oil and road grit!
Many of the 'sit up and beg' bikes had chain guards to keep clothes off the oily chains but also had an oil bath in the sump, they did a good job of looking after the chains as well as the skirts and trouser bottoms.



Here's a classic chain guard on a Raleigh ladies bike. However, this is a bit strange because someone has fitted Michelin sports tyres on narrow rims and fitted new cable brakes to match. An odd combination with a sit up and beg frame and a Sturmey Archer hub gear.... Must have been a sporty older lady!