THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

It works because it is the best evidence that an enterprise is kosher. Assessing these matters is the most worrying thing for a source of funding when they are making decisions. They are not equipped to do full due diligence on every request for funding and always feel more comfortable if they are part of a concert party. Remember that their function is to give the money away and the faster they can do it the sooner they can relax, that's why you stand more chance if you can get one high profile funder on board. I raised millions at Ellenroad using these principles and it worked!

[Stanley]

Thinking about big heritage projects. A few years ago Robert Aram and I had a conversation about the two major projects we had been associated with, Robert T Masson Mill and myself at Ellenroad. Both of them requiring multi million pound funding. We agreed that even then (and it's much worse now) if we were offered the chance to do the same again we would reject it because the support and funding climate had altered completely. At Ellenroad I had the benefit of labour from the Manpower Services Commission and Council help, both of them long gone. However we agreed that by far the worst deterioration in conditions was the mushrooming of Health and Safety and the vastly increased documentation required for every aspect of the projects. In this respect we have seen a devastating reduction in the incentives and resources needed. One small example, in the latter stages of the conversion of Masson the whole project rested on alterations demanded by the Department of Transport to railings outside the mill. Daft as it looks Robert had to dig his heels in and threaten to stop the whole project before common sense prevailed.
Times have certainly changed and now we see a complete reversal in that we are facing the closure of museums only made possible by government support.

[Tizer]

We wouldn't want to run our own business now for similar reasons. When we did, it was selling books and journals worldwide and was getting increasingly difficult due to more regulations and other interventions. It would be far too frustrating and time consuming now. A small local business would be more acceptable but still more complicated than in the past.

[Stanley]

I can remember a time when all the talk was about the 'paperless office' and a bonfire of controls that complicated doing business. At the same time the head of Lancashire Polytechnic showed me round his new buildings. It included one big room that was to be dedicated to computer print outs. One of the areas where there has been the heaviest rate of attrition due to job reductions has been in the middling white collar clerical staff and it continues unabated. This has led to the dismal record of large state and financial institutions in any area that demands interaction with staff. The substitute has been more and more complicated on-line forms seeking information, often the same requests for each occasion despite the fact that it has already been given. At the same time we have the new phenomenon of the flood of automatically generated 'customer service information' every time you do something dead simple like reporting a street lamp being out or a broken manhole in the road..... I can remember the time when you rang a bloke at the council and he made a note of it for action... Far too simple now!

[Stanley]

One thing that hasn't changed, indeed it might have got worse over the years, is rodent infestation. The rats in particular are always with us but just because they are below ground we tend to forget them. One of the reasons why many people think we have more these days is the fast food industry, food being dropped or actively thrown down in the streets. I noticed Jack taking an interest in the open drain in my backyard which connects directly to the foul sewer. A good sign that they are about! It only had a light plastic cover and at one time I was puzzled because it was often displaced until I realised the rats were lifting it and running in the back yard. A heavy stone on top of it cured that! We are never more than ten yards from a thriving family of rats.....

[Stanley]

At one time you could ring the council, ask for the mouse-man and get a free visit from the 'Rodent Operative'. Last time I did it was about three years ago to bait for the rats in the back street sewer. I'll bet that won't be easy now as council services are cut.....

[Stanley]

In olden days.... I can never remember food waste being dropped in the street. Less fast food and less to eat so we had more respect for food.... What would happen now if we re-imposed rationing?

[Stanley]

I was thinking as I walked round a very quiet town at 06:00 on a Saturday morning how much things have changed. In the days when almost everyone worked for at least part of Saturday, there would have been lots of people about on the streets hurrying to work. There would have been milk chaps delivering and in the main towns, Posties delivering the early post. All that's gone now, I suspect that everyone is still in bed! I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not. I suppose I'm just old-fashioned but there was a lot to be said for getting going early in the morning. I'm showing my age.....

[Stanley]

On my 80th birthday I look back and marvel at two things. First that I have survived this long and second, the advances I have seen in my lifetime. Age doesn't necessarily make you more wise but it gives you the benefit of experience!

[chinatyke]

On my 80th birthday I look back and marvel at two things. First that I have survived this long and second, the advances I have seen in my lifetime. Age doesn't necessarily make you more wise but it gives you the benefit of experience!

I think age doesn't make you more intelligent but it surely gives you wisdom, you don't make the same silly mistakes you did when you were young and thought you could change the world single handed. Just my opinion.

[Stanley]

If that's a definition of wisdom China you are certainly right. How many times do we say to ourselves "Hang on a minute, it didn't work last time I did it that way!"

[Stanley]

In my youth everyone wore hats... Now, if you discount beanies and baseball caps they are almost never seen.....

[PanBiker]

I wear a hat quite regularly especially through winter, problem is, if you go inside anywhere there is never anywhere to hang it! days of the hat and coat stand have gone in cafe's and the like.

[Big Kev]

In my youth everyone wore hats... Now, if you discount beanies and baseball caps they are almost never seen.....

I nearly always wear a hat, I have several for different occasions ranging from a waterproof leather 'cowboy' hat for general Wet weather wear to a Fedora for going out in, this is usually accompanied by a black cashmere overcoat

[Stanley]

Ahh, one of the old school. I like my hats. Over the years I have spent too much on them, boots and Crombies but am reaping the benefits now.

[Tizer]

I'm usually in a hat when outdoors, woolly hat in the cold and sun hat in the bright sun in warmer times. There'll be a lot of skin cancer in the future due to so many people not wearing hats in summer sunshine in this country.

[Stanley]

A friend of mine in Barlick got a melanoma on his little bald head and he never wore a hat....
My tip yesterday seems to have vanished. I advised buying good clothes that don't date when you are earning. Comes in handy when you are old and poverty stricken!

[Stanley]

Thinking about hats... There was a saying when I was a lad. "If you can't fight, wear a big hat!"
At one time there was a big advertising push to sell men's hats. "If you want to get ahead, wear a hat!" I think it was the 'Attaboy' hat company. See THIS for hats in Denton. The Denton Hat Company is still going. Stockport was another centre of the hatting industry, Christie's hats are still made there I think.

[Tripps]

When I hear hats - I think Failsworth - the company which provided employment for several i my family. Very nice website; they seem to have adapted to the modern market. I tried to buy a military solar topee from ebay last year, which was made in Failsworth in the year I was born. Too expensive though.

Failsworth Hats

[Tizer]

I have one of my dad's flat caps. It's very worn but the label seems to be B. Luft.

[Stanley]

That's the firm I was thinking about David. I have a couple of hats made by them.

[Stanley]

Every picture tells a story and this one is no exception. Muriel Smith, weaver at Bancroft, cleans her shoes before leaving for home after work. She did this every night. How many people would bother to do this nowadays?

[Stanley]

A little story for you.... While I was running Bancroft there was a change in the national insurance regulations which made it uneconomical to employ old people. One lady was 78 and on the last Friday when she finished I found her in the shed looking up at the shafting as the engine stopped. I always dashed into the shed at night to catch the last movement of the shafts as that was when the 'squealers', the bearings running hot, betrayed their presence. I asked her if she was all right and she said yes but as it was her last day she thought she'd like to see the shafting stop. She'd worked in the shed for over 40 years and every evening she was ready for home and as soon as the engine started slowing down she knocked her looms off and was out of the door before it stopped completely. It was the first time in all those years she had seen it.

[Stanley]

I saw one of my dog walking lady friends yesterday and she had heard about my birthday. She told me I didn't look 80.... Nice. We agreed that apart from leading a clean life, one factor could be the fact that I am up early and walking for half an hour every morning. Thinking back to Doctor Mosley's recent programme on blood and the part oxygen content plays in your metabolism and also remembering the recent reports about air pollution I can see why the walk is perhaps a better exercise than I thought. The air quality in Barlick early in the morning must be one of the best samples in the country when the wind is in the West or North West. That got me to thinking about my youth.... We did more walking in those days but set against this was the fact that we lived in what I call a 'Black Snot' atmosphere. Everyone burning coal and pea-souper smogs that had to be seen to be believed. Makes you wonder how that balanced out!

[Tizer]

Here is the story of Swindon's rise as a railway town and it has some great old photos. Swindon
Look at the complexity of the track configuration in the third photo - it must have been taken in that period when the GWR was running both standard and broad gauge together so they had three rails instead of two. Now, the railway companies would never be allowed to lay such complicated track even in two-rail let alone three-rail!