FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Workers leaving the mill. I wrote this about workers many years ago:-
The management and the politicians can argue as they will but without the workers who put up with appalling conditions by today’s standards there wouldn’t have been an industry or an economy. In the end, all the money came from what I once called The Lost Legions of the Industrial Revolution; people who went into work every day and did incredibly skilled jobs for very little reward. We have memorials for the war dead and occasionally some for specific disasters but what we really need is something that recognises sheer dogged hard work over many lifetimes.
A forgotten corner nowadays.....

[Stanley]

Eighty years ago the standard way to convey an urgent short message was by sending a telegram. They could be dictated on the phone or to a clerk in the Post Office. They were sent via the copper wire telegraph system and at the point of delivery were carried by a 'Telegraph Boy' see here with his bicycle. This was how many started work for the Post Office which in those days included the telephone and telegraph systems as well.
I can't find a date for when telegrams became defunct. Today email has totally displaced them. One thing worth noting is that during both World Wars the telegram was the way the War Office conveyed news of the death, injury or capture of a serviceman or woman. As such the delivery of the small brown envelope was regarded universally as bad news.
All this is a forgotten corner today.

[Big Kev]

According to Wikipedia (not a guaranteed accurate source)
British Telecom announced on 19 October 1981 that the telegram would be discontinued, and it was finally taken out of service on 30 September 1982 after 139 years in the United Kingdom.
I still have one, from 1981, congratulating me and P on our wedding.

[Stanley]

Nice to get a response Kev. Thank you!

[Tizer]

Another forgotten corner, although we may see them again in the future. The outside of the ID card issued for my cousin Alan in 1949...

[PanBiker]

It's about time we had a modern equivalent. I cant understand the "Big Brother" resistance to this. Don't folk realise that the majority are permanently tracked to within a few feet of their current location all the time and are probably on CCTV hundreds of times as well. Drive or walk, makes no difference, even Google know where you have been if you carry a modern mobile phone.

[Stanley]

I totally agree Ian. A proper identity card could be used to make so many tasks secure.... All it needs is some joined up thinking..... But when was Joe Public last capable of that!

[PanBiker]

If it was smart it could carry basic medical info as well for emergencies such as allergies and blood group.

[Tizer]

I agree. Years ago I was against them but the world has changed a lot since then and now I'd welcome the introduction of ID cards or similar. My one concern is do I trust any of our politicians to go about it in the right way and do I believe any commercial or government organisation in Britain has the ability to do it and make it secure?

[Tripps]

My big lad was involved in this project- I vaguely remember.

The possibility of a card last reared its head in 2006 when the government of the day passed the Identity Cards Act, citing the need to combat illegal immigration, welfare fraud, identity fraud and to tackle terrorism.
The proposed cards would have held 50 categories of identifiers including fingerprints, a facial scan, and past places of residence. It would have linked to the UK’s National Insurance number (the British social security number), and permit travel to the European Union. And it would all be stored on a National Identity Register.
However, there was widespread concern about the scheme from privacy experts, human rights lawyers, activists, security professionals and IT experts. It was scrapped in 2010 and the register was destroyed. “Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state.” said Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at the time in May 2010.

We're not really an ID card society (in peace time) I'd say. No "papieren bitte schon" for us.

[Stanley]

Funny how we survived having a card during the war.... Perhaps it succeeded because it was so simple?
Like Ian, I think about driving licenses, bus passes, passports, credit and debit cards and our massive network of surveillance cameras and facial recognition software.....



The bottom of Manchester Road behind Hey Farm barn in 1965. Wild's Garage still there and the cottages at the end of Park Road....
It all changed.....

[Stanley]

Peter Tatham, steeplejack, on Ellenroad stack in 1986. Peter never ever let me down, with men like this helping Ellenroad couldn't possibly fail!

[Stanley]

It's 1981 and one of David Moore's perks for accepting the responsibility of managing Gawthorpe Hall in partnership with the National Trust was that he could use it as a private fie3fdom. One of his favourite activities was to give friends a tour and a regular part of this was a climb up on to the leads on top of the hall.
This was one such tour and the part that interests me is the fact that David was so carried away with his role as tour guide he had completely missed the fact that Stan Barker and his friend were suffering from vertigo and that's why they are sitting down with their backs to the wall!

[Stanley]

The shire boundary marker stone behind the bungalow at Standing Stone Gate on Whitemoor. This is of course the origin of the name but I fear is a forgotten corner today.
It's anybody's guess how old this marker is but I would say it's possibly well over a thousand years since the junction of these boundary lines was agreed on.

[Stanley]

The 1853 OS map of Standing Stone Gate shows the boundary line and the location of the marker on the sharp change in direction. The bungalow didn't exist then and the reservoir had only recently been built in 1840 which changed the road layout on the corner to that shown on the map.

[Stanley]

Oldham chimneys in 1979. I wonder how many still stand 45 years later?

[Steeplejerk]

Think there's less than 10 in the whole of Oldham now.

[Stanley]

That's roughly what I thought Tom...... They came down faster than they went up!

[Stanley]

The Lily injector works at Rochdale in 2000 not long before it closed. Dick Bonser ran this small foundry with a couple of men and it was the dirtiest and most untidy place you could find but they did wonderful work and really big companies like Jaguar came to Dick when they needed very specialised castings. It closed in about 2005 and the last big castings they did were the flywheel shaft bearings for the engine at Masson Mill.

[Stanley]

Terry Gissing and Dick Bonser outside the Lilley Injector works foundry in 2003 when we went there to pick up the castings for the Jubilee engine. How could I fail with men like this behind me? All gone now, the foundry is shut down and Terry has been struck down with a condition that paralyses him. Dick died in 2017. It looks as though I am the last man left standing..... Not the most cheerful of thoughts but that's what it is.....

[Big Kev]

This popped up on a Facebook group, the prices are definitely a forgotten corner

FB_IMG_1703354137877.jpg

[Stanley]

The crankshaft I chopped out of the solid for the big compound engine I made 16 years ago..... Probably the best bit of turning I ever did....



Here's the engine it went into....
No chance of it happening again. It's a forgotten corner! The engine is still in the kitchen on the worktop. Too big for me to lift so it will have to stay there!

[Stanley]

Kev, I lost the reply to your Wimpy pic. I thought they were long gone but I see from Google that they still have 64 restaurants in the UK.

[Stanley]

Xmas dinner at Hey Farm in 1977. Days long gone but we all agree they were good.

[Tizer]

There's a lot of forgotten stuff in this film which Mrs Tiz found...
`1949: Christmas Day WORKERS Keep Britain Moving' [BBC Newsreel | World of Work | BBC Archive]
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