FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

I agree Ken, Bahco have always been good. The only one I saw that broke was a Clyburn but you're too young to remember them.
See THIS for an article about Clyburn. I have a big one but the jaw has been broken and then welded.
One thing that struck me when I read this is that Bahco also claimed to be the inventor of the adjustable spanner.

[plaques]

I agree Ken, Bahco have always been good. The only one I saw that broke was a Clyburn but you're too young to remember them.

Not that young. I Have three of them hung up in my garage. Ideal for the big Whitworth nuts you got on industrial pumps etc:

[Stanley]

I'm impressed! 3 Clyburns!!
Anyone who has used hand tools for years can give you a litany of forgotten corners, tool brands that are no longer available that were a guarantee of high quality. British ones included original Britool, Garrington and Bedford. American brands appeared during the war, Diamond Caulk Horseshoe and Blue Point spring to mind as .lovely quality spanners that never let you down. Sykes Pickavant made a variety of specialised tools like gear pullers and they were all excellent. Like many others, that brand can still be found but are nowhere near the same quality. Many of them made in China. The Bahco spanners I mentioned the other day used to be made in Sweden from Swedish steel, always seen as the highest quality. They are made in Spain now and somehow it's not the same.

[PanBiker]

On my very first day of work when I was 16, I was enrolling at Burnley College for my 5 year City and Guilds. At lunchtime I went down to Sutcliffe tools and bought my first bit of essential kit for an electronics engineer. A pair of CK side cutters, they had orange insulated handles. They stayed with me in my overall pocket for the next 20 years as a field and bench service engineer. I moved into computing and network deployment then and still used them for another 15 years or so. I misplaced them during the BSF move in Burnley when I went from working at Teds to the former Barden High School. I reckon I left them in the roof space somewhere at Teds which was bulldozed to build the new school that is on the site now. So either someone found them in the rubble or they are in the foundations of the new school. They were faithful friends for 35 years or so.

[Tripps]

I had a similar affection for my 81's officially known as Pliers Wiring No 81.

81's

[Stanley]

I've got them in several sizes David but we just called them Snipe Nosed pliers. I have some ex army pliers I think are wiring pliers because the have a handy groove cut in one jaw which means if you use them for twisting wires together they stay in the middle of the jaw.



Marked Lucas Elliot Elect. Cannock, England.

[Stanley]

I recently used the hill up to Croft and the Hartley attempt at swimming baths. For years I have been reminding people that the old Barlickers called this Sagin Hill because Robinson, Landlord of the Railway was also a wood merchant and had a yard up here where wood was sawn.
I had a brainstorm yesterday and convinced myself that Sagin derived form the German sagen, to saw. Wonderful. Only one problem, 'sagen' in German means 'say'. Bugger, back to the drawing board!

[Stanley]

Not only a forgotten corner but a missed opportunity. I considered 'protecting' this but before I could square it with my conscience some bugger nicked it.



I was having the same debate about this clock when the same thing happened.

[chinatyke]

That doesn't look like a safe method of work! Where is your hard hat, scaffolding, permit to work ....

[Stanley]

Funny how I survived.....

[PanBiker]

Self assessed risk. Not allowed by the H&S police nowadays. In my last employment in school, I was barred from using a step stool because I hadn't been on a ladder training course.

[Stanley]

Many years ago the responsibility for factory safety in Barlick was switched from Leeds to Manchester. They sent a young inspector down and he was horrified when he saw the looms, the open belts and in particular me in the engine house feeling the temperature of the crank pin bearing while the engine was running. He said something about consulting the management and went away. A few days after his boss came back with him, looked round and said he was delighted to have a steam driven plant on his books and could he bring his young inspectors to see what one looked like. He pointed out to to the young lad that there were no accidents on the books since the 1920s and we'd be closing soon anyway so what was the point in making difficulties for us?
I'll bet that sort of attitude is thin on the ground now if not a forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

Wakes traffic at the station around 1900. This pic is appropriate today as yesterday would have been the start of what used to be the Wakes. This was the succession of holidays that spread through the textile districts of the NW like a rash every year. (Note the loaded goods wagons of the train on the left waiting to go off down the line.)
I once saw a report of a party of civil servants from London who had been sent 'North' to investigate how bad reports of textile closures were. They arrived in Oldham and found the town deserted and all the shops shut. They sent an emergency report back to HQ reporting on the closures before they realised they had arrived during the Wakes. Everybody was on holiday. This was unheard of in other parts of the country.

[Stanley]

An even earlier pic of the station. Also almost certainly Wakes traffic and pre-1900? I note that this was taken before the wooden building was added at this end of the range of buildings on the platform. Compare with the earlier picture.

[Cathy]

Good pics, but strange how the earliest one is in colour, and the later one in black and white.

[Wendyf]

It will be a black and white photo that has been coloured Cathy, or 'colourised' as they say now.

[Stanley]

Wendy is right Cathy. It was often done to make post cards for sale more attractive.

[Cathy]

Mmm that did cross my mind.
Loved seeing the babies and toddlers dressed in all white.
Definitely some very smart dressers there.

[Stanley]

The Wakes was definitely not a time for working clothes Cathy. They had been saving all year and nothing was spared.
One thing that isn't shown on either of the pictures is the luggage. In those days a common option when booking a week at a boarding house was to opt for 'Bed and cruet'. If you did this you took your food with you and all the boarding house did was provide the room and hot water. This was a cheaper option and was quite popular.
During rationing you took your ration book. I remember that we were in lodgings at Rhyl during the war and the landlady used our precious sugar ration to make blancmange. Problem was she burned it but still served it and we all had to eat it. I can still remember the taste. And yes, believe me, it is possible to burn it!
(You'll find plenty in the LTP about holidays in boarding houses.)

[Stanley]

Today's forgotten corner concerns the ladies. In the days of dry macadam roads and long skirts wet weather was a pain for the ladies as their skirts dragged in the dust. This was a statement of relative worth and the poorer women had slightly shorter skirts. A very common accessory was 'a guard'. This was a light chain with a clip on that could be used to lift the hem up off the ground.
What brought this to mind was the picture of the Wakes Week crowds as there was always a man selling 'hat guards' which were clips on light chain for catching hats before they blew away on the strong sea breezes. He went on the train with the holiday makers and sold his guards all week at Blackpool.

[Sue]

On my very first day of work when I was 16, I was enrolling at Burnley College for my 5 year City and Guilds. At lunchtime I went down to Sutcliffe tools and bought my first bit of essential kit for an electronics engineer. A pair of CK side cutters, they had orange insulated handles. They stayed with me in my overall pocket for the next 20 years as a field and bench service engineer. I moved into computing and network deployment then and still used them for another 15 years or so. I misplaced them during the BSF move in Burnley when I went from working at Teds to the former Barden High School. I reckon I left them in the roof space somewhere at Teds which was bulldozed to build the new school that is on the site now. So either someone found them in the rubble or they are in the foundations of the new school. They were faithful friends for 35 years or so.

Just reading this reminds me of my 6 inch plastic ruler. I bought it on the day of my first O level exam in June 1966. I used it for A level exams, all my University exams, and even post grad qualifications . I call it my lucky ruler. I still have it, but it has no markings on it now it is just a rough bit of clearish plastic.

[Stanley]

The whole of my childhood possessions is a forgotten corner as they all vanished when I went in the army and the family flitted from Stockport to Sough. I remember all of them and could sill write a list of the interesting things I had and still miss. Perhaps the most memorable (and possibly valuable today) was two books, 'Dixon Kemp's Yacht and boat sailing' and a year's Boy's Own from about 1925, Bound in an enormous red book. I can still remember some of the stories.

[Sue]

The whole of my childhood possessions is a forgotten corner as they all vanished when I went in the army and the family flitted from Stockport to Sough. I remember all of them and could sill write a list of the interesting things I had and still miss. Perhaps the most memorable (and possibly valuable today) was two books, 'Dixon Kemp's Yacht and boat sailing' and a year's Boy's Own from about 1925, Bound in an enormous red book. I can still remember some of the stories.

A lot of mine too Stanley. Mum and Dad moved to Burnley the day after I went to University in Salford. I only had what went with me to uni, Mum and Dad left all my other possessions for the little girl moving into our house. I was very upset at the time. The plastic ruler ( and my hockey stick) however went with me to university . I looked for it yesterday and could not find it. I wonder if I threw it away when we cleared the study in December to decorate

[Stanley]

Oh dear Sue! Never mind, you have the memory. They can't take that away from you...

[Stanley]

We are told that the library index of cards is dead. The computer has made it obsolete. Apart from the fact that an old bank of index drawers does not need electricity and cannot be hacked for ransom, there are many more advantages.
The great advantage is that serendipity and chance can have full rein. It's quite amazing how many interesting trails open up simply by a chance glimpse of a totally unrelated card. This doesn't happen on a computer screen, the system is far too efficient to allow error and chance to creep in. More efficient? Perhaps, but in the course of pursuing it we have lost something. (And if the electricity goes off the computer is a useless door stop....)
Definitely a forgotten corner.