THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Tizer]

The flood defence work on our local A road is still in progress, it's in the second 3-month closure period for works although they now tell us it will take 4 months due to unexpected developments. The road was merely a drove road centuries ago and crosses the moor which is mainly peat. The locals told them they'd have trouble but they didn't listen. Nowadays the road has to be able to take Tesco juggernauts and the like.

[Stanley]

And all due to 'economies' in the past gained by cutting back on essential ongoing maintenance of the drains and flood defences. A classic case of not carrying out proper detailed cost/benefit analysis before making a decision. Short term political thinking at its worse. And of course it's still happening now in the present austerity drive.

[Stanley]

I see that the problem of heavy vehicles on inadequate country roads is in the news this morning. (LINK)
In days gone by the maximum axle loading was 9tons. The regulations are far more complicated now but the bottom line is that some axles can be loaded to ten and a half tons. This does not of course take into account the effects of camber, they assume a level road. So, on a steep camber with high loads it will be quite possible for the load on a particular wheel to get to over 15tons. Country roads were never constructed for these weights and then of course you have the problem of potholes and soft verges... No wonder the roads are breaking up!

[Tizer]

I'm glad the LGA are raising the issue. When we finally got the county council to send their man down to see what's going on in our village he fell back on the claim that there is nothing that they or the police can do about the heavy lorries coming into the lanes. They can pass as many laws as they like but if they're not enforced then it won't work. We never see police here. They're an extinct species as far as we're concerned.

[Stanley]

The railway companies couldn't ban vehicles either but what they did do was put notices on their bridges that they would not carry weights above the 'normal traffic of the district' and any damage caused by abnormal loading was the responsibility of the vehicle owner. Something similar, enforced, might eventually give owners pause for thought.
As for police becoming an extinct species, you ain't seen nothing yet. Lancashire alone is losing £100million annually.

[Tizer]

Some old photos that I copied on my camera at the Dairy Crest exhibit site at the military museum at Davidstow, Cornwall a couple of weeks ago. The museum is on the old airfield alongside the present Dairy Crest factory.




The modern equivalent...


The Dairy Crest factory...

[Stanley]

Kit wagons with decks.... We didn't have fixed decks, we decked straight on top of the other kits and roped them. Being near the dairy we found it quicker to adjust the size of the rounds as the seasons progressed and avoid decking which was hard work. They must have had longer rounds..... They look like 12 gallon galvanised kits as well. Each one weighed 168lbs.

[Stanley]

Stanley's wagon waiting to tip 84 12 gallon kits at Marton in the 1960s.

[Stanley]

One of the many things that has totally changed during my lifetime is employment. I remember seeing a picture in Lancaster of Gillow's (Fine furniture) long serving employees, over 26 years to qualify. There were hundreds of them. I'm not totally convinced that this was a good thing but it is something that has almost totally vanished today. Indeed, many workers are not even on a permanent contract. I have a theory that this insecurity is at the root of a lot of the ills of society. But then, I might just be an Old Fart.

[Stanley]

It's probably a product of old age but I want to have a chauffeur drive me round the district to look at some old scenes to see how they have changed.....

[Stanley]

In my youth I used to hear it said of some old people "He/She is in his/her second childhood". So much nicer than our modern descriptions of deterioration in old age......

[Stanley]

We had a far more relaxed attitude to 'dirt' in the old days. None of this killing 99.9% of known germs all the time. Not that we didn't keep clean, we did but we weren't worrying about germs all the time. Funny, but we had less allergies......

[Stanley]

I don't know what triggered it but last night I remembered my first bike. It was 1945 and a secondhand Royal Enfield with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed gear turned up out of the blue.... Bog standard sit up and beg and soooooo heavy! But I loved it and started riding all over the place. By about 1949 (I'd be 13 then) the frame had cracked behind the headstock and repairs failed so my dad bought me a Raleigh Clubman from Bradbury's, the local bike shop a quarter of a mile away at the shops. I got to know Sid, the old fag smoking reprobate who ran the place and he must have taken a shine to me because before long I was helping him do repairs in the shed at the back. He knew his stuff and taught me lots, I could soon lace up a wheel and true it. Gradually I modified the Raleigh which had a good frame and soon had it upgraded to a very presentable racing bike with Italian hubs, one of the first dérailleur gear sets in the country, racing tyres etc. Three of my mates at school had similar bikes which were not common then and we were soon doing hundreds of miles a week. We were fit kiddies and the effects have lasted all through my life....
Sid also told me tales of the days when he was chauffeuring criminals about in Manchester before the war and kept me in fags. I ran his bets for him to the local illegal bookmakers in West Didsbury and generally started to learn about life. I look back on him and Bradbury's and my biking days with much affection. That phase lasted until I was called up in 1954. A very important part of my life.

[Stanley]

By the way, when I was in the army and my parents moved to Yorkshire, among other things, my beloved bike vanished.... I know decisions had to be made but I never quite forgave them. (And then there was my Ostrich egg)

[Tizer]

My Mum couldn't stand having a lot of what we now call `stuff' around the house and she was always giving away or throwing away things. Also my Dad would take things to work and swap or sell them to get something else - he was at the Philips factory which had 100s of workers and therefore always a lot on offer. I remember seeing throughout my childhood a cast brass model of a Blenheim bomber on their dressing table which were common in the war years. I'd have loved to have that but Mum got rid of it. She also gave away family photos to other people who were in the photo. In her favour though, she did keep (and we now have) a great collection of early 1900s postcards that a friend gave her.

[Stanley]

Problem is that if you keep something long enough there is a use for it.... Especially if you are a mender like me! Mind you, I don't extend this philosophy to white goods or modern technology. Too expensive to repair usually so it gets the old heave ho.
Good example yesterday, a fluorescent tube in the shed refused to light. Into the treasure chest and my collection of discarded starters. Two minutes later light working again.....

[Bodger]

"I don't extend this philosophy to white goods or modern technology. Too expensive to repair usually so it gets the old heave ho."

I dont heave ho until ive stripped all available bolts, screws & nuts etc, , the neighbours know where to call if they are a screw short

[Stanley]

I used to do that but they sit there so long without a use arising, particularly since everything is metric now.
In the days when I was frequenting scrap yards that was a different matter. You'd be amazed what I have rescued from that source and all useful stuff. That's where most of my milling cutters came from for instance.
One thing I have noticed over the years, if your interests are a bit oddball you find bargains because other people aren't chasing them. Second-hand bookshops used to be a good example.

[Tizer]

My boss in the 1980s had the maxim "The clever thing is to do what the other people aren't doing".

[Stanley]

Exactly, the man was right.... I've always said that if you have a specialism esoteric enough you will eventually be a world authority.....

[Stanley]

Things change over the years and we have two choices, accept change or go our own way. I have a personal dilemma at the moment as the Barlick and Earby times has become the Nelson News. They've kept the title but there is hardly any Barlick news in it. They have buried my column in the property pages and I begin to wonder why I bother..... I may have to make a decision shortly.....

[Stanley]

My dilemma got worse yesterday when I was stopped by a lady in the street who said how much she enjoyed yesterday's article. It seems to me that the days of good local papers is over and it is to be regretted. Inevitable I suppose but still sad.....

[Tizer]

Two photos I took of framed pictures on the wall of the cottage we stayed in on our latest holiday in Cornwall. The first shows the Port Isaac lifeboat being hauled through the streets in the early 1900s. The second gives a full explanation. Port Isaac is where they film the Doc Martin TV series.

[Stanley]

They must have measured up carefully before they tried it! Or perhaps it wasn't the first time if it was a recovery.

I had a good sleep last night, I always sleep well but some nights heavier than others I think because it takes me longer to waken up. I can remember when I was about 40 years old I noticed that it was taking me longer to waken up and get up to speed. I wondered at the time if this was something to do with getting older. In my prime I woke firing on all cylinders! Another 40 years on and I can report that that was exactly what it was. It takes me half an hour to get up to speed properly now.....

[Stanley]

My weight is still dropping very slowly so I must have my diet about right despite my occasional guilt trips. I am about one and a half stones lighter that I was say three months ago and the effects are quite striking, I am doing better all round and am looking forward to my next blood tests on the Diabetes programme at the local surgery. If there is any justice there should be an improvement in blood sugar levels.
My point is that it is always good to watch your weight and general health but as you get older it becomes more critical and you have better parameters to monitor yourself against. If your knees hurt they are perhaps carrying too much weight. If your back hurts it may be due to weight distribution putting greater strain on it. If your bloods are bad it may be due to internal body fat. My point here is that when we are young there is enough capacity in your body to mask these symptoms but they are still present. So the sensible thing to do is to get yourself equipped with knowledge and put it into practice while you are young. Time spent studying nutrition and sensible living is never wasted.