THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

The poor are always with us. I can remember kids running round in the back street behind the main shopping street in Stockport dressed only in a vest. Things gradually got better but my fear is that they are now deteriorating under austerity and many of them are hidden. How many families have enough to heat their house and buy enough food? We haven't heard anything about food banks lately, they have gone off the news schedule because they are embedded in society now. Who would have thought it?See THIS for an accusation from the Trussell Trust that they are being threatened by the government for 'scaremongering'.

[Stanley]

I was watching TV programme on the popular theme of cooking exotic foods. In my head I contrasted it with the position during the war when most foods were rationed and many price-controlled. It's no wonder that I favour simple cooking, we never knew anything else then! However, it's quite probable that my good health now, seventy years on, is a direct consequence of the diet we were forced into. There is a lot of truth in the description I once heard of this period, that we are the 'Last healthy generation'. Funny isn't it how what looked like a nutritional disaster could turn out so well, largely due to the fact that the Ministry of Food put scientists in control of the supply of food, men like Jack Drummond. Look him up and search for the book he published in 1939, 'The Englishman's Food'. See THIS for more on him.

[Stanley]

I can still hear my teacher, Mrs Ackroyd, making us chant "Peas beans and lentils are flesh-forming foods". Were only five years old...... They caught 'em young in those days!

[Tizer]

A brilliant set of old photos here, from the Bank of England's vaults but covering a range of subjects: LINK

Forgive me if you've already seen this in your local newspapers but Mrst Tiz brought it to my attention:
`A hoard of historic finds has been discovered during an archaeological dig in Blackburn' St Peter’s Burial Ground, Blackburn

[plaques]

Tizer's reference to time capsules in the old church. Ref.The excavations uncovered the ceremonial corner stone at the base of the foundations, in which a small time capsule was found. The time capsule contained a single example of each of the sixteen coins in circulation at the time of construction, and may be one of the only examples in the UK recovered from a church of this period.
All this reminds me of a similar time capsule placed in the foundation stone of the Mechanics Building in Burnley. Recorded with much pomp in 1855 with bands and loads of bigwigs a foundation stone and time capsule were laid. The odd thing about this is that nobody recorded exactly where it was, I suppose at the time it was obvious. Roger Frost, the local historian is adamant that it is under the door pillar stones on the side of the building. Unfortunately, after repairs and other improvements there is no outward sign of this. To add to the confusion the foundation stone on the adjacent Town Hall is at the back of the building at street level, ie: its lowest point. If the same logic was applied to the Mechanics then this would also have been in a similar position at the back but now it would have been built over by a much later extension. As they say. Only time will tell.

[Stanley]

Nice link Tiz. The bullion vault was empty during WW2 so a good place for a canteen! Montague Norman is well worth looking up, a very strange character.....

[PanBiker]

The current thinking and the main thrust for enhancing the motorway network is the upgrading to "smart motorways". I have been thinking about this as in many cases as well as the overhead traffic management cameras and displays the upgrade involves commitment of the hard shoulder as an extra live lane. If this is the case, what happens when you have an emergency such as a blowout or other breakdown situation? Where do you go with no refuge lane, do you just stop in whichever lane you are in and hope for the best?

[PanBiker]

I have just found this from the RAC.

All you need to know about Smart Motorways

Apparently you are supposed to try to get onto the verge if there is no barrier? Or stop in a live lane with your hazards on. Try to leave the vehicle via the left door if it is safe to do so and reach a refuge area. If you cant do that, the advice is to keep your seat belt on and dial 999.

I think I will be sticking strictly to the A's when we have got nearer to finalisation of this screw up.

[Tizer]

Me too, Ian. I received a leaflet recently in connection with my car insurance and it had a couple of pages showing all the new electronic M-way signs, including the ones for telling you whether or not to use the hard shoulder and also the same as you write above. It'll only need one driver to get it wrong and go racing down the hard shoulder at the wrong time and there'll be big trouble.

It reminds me of the guy on the radio the other day who was talking about the action taken to prevent our banks collapsing. He likened the system to an air bag that works perfectly well all the time except when the car is in an accident.

[PanBiker]

It beggars belief really, the cameras surely cannot cover every yard of the motorway so no chance of an instant closure of a lane. What's this about getting your car onto the verge? I have yet to see any section of motorway that does not have a continuous barrier between the hard shoulder and the verge. As to potentially sitting in lane 3 (or 4 maybe) with your hazards on, that would be like playing Russian Roulette, not really a case of if you got hit but when, sooner rather than later I would think. One way of providing sensational news items and thinning out the population I suppose.

[plaques]

While the Colne to Burnley section of the M65 is underway and down to two lanes you get free breakdown recovery. But just to add to the excitement they have removed the overhead lights. So if you breakdown in pitch darkness through a total electrical failure its curtains for you in more ways than one. But the good news they will collect the bits for free.

[Stanley]

I've told you before, I saw the glory days when you could get on the M1 at night and drive along with nothing in sight for a mile in front or behind. The only excitement was when you were passed by an AC Cobra on test doing something well north of 150mph, it was legal, no speed limit. On the 'A' roads on a moonlit night it was easier on your eyes to turn the glow worm headlights off and let your eyes get used to the dark, daft as it sounds you could see better....

[Stanley]

Can't help going back to driving in the old days. Traffic was never a problem in the 50s and 60s especially if you were running a night trunk. It was a pleasure and you could set a timetable and keep to it. When I look at the modern traffic conditions I'm glad I don't have to be out there in it. Not a lot of pleasure these days!

[Tizer]

In the 1980s my boss flew to Glasgow airport to visit a professor at the university. The prof picked him up in his old car and they set out on the motorway to Glasgow. A tyre punctured while they were in the outside lane. The Prof stopped, got out and changed the tyre, right there in the fast lane of the motorway. My boss sat in the car with his eyes closed, praying. They got to their destination with no further mishaps!

[Stanley]

In the days before continuous crash barriers separating dual carriage ways I saw an elderly couple having a picnic on the central reservation after they had dualled the A74 in Scotland. I could never understand why people stopped for picnics in lay byes. There was one on the old A6 between Carlisle and Penrith that was a favourite. It was also a favourite with wagon drivers coming off the motorway with a full bladder.....
That's reminded me of the village of High Hesket on the same road. That stretch between Carlisle and Penrith was a busy road before the M6 and because it was based on an old Roman Road and was straight it was one of the fastest pieces of road in the country at might, the police never bothered us then. High Hesket was in a dip and there was a fair hill down into it and a pull out the other side so we all got a fair bit of speed up as we passed through and I often wondered whether the inhabitants had got used to the noise at night!
That's reminded me of another location. There was a big roundabout on the road between Hull and Goole at the Brough turnoff. Because of the way it was laid out it was a straight run through if you were heading towards Hull but a big curve if you were heading South. Charlie Alexander's wagons from Inverness were famous for running fish down to London faster than the railway, that's how they got the business. Their drivers had to be fearless and there are many stories about the tricks they got up to. At night, if they were travelling South they didn't bother going round the island, they drove straight through on the north bound carriageway..... I kid you not, it was a different age.....

[Tizer]

In the early years of the 1950s it was common for folk to pull onto the grass reservation for a picnic between the dual carriageways of the road from Preston to Southport. There would be a line of cars parked on it and folk drinking tea from their flasks and eating their egg butties. I know, I was one of them. After all, it was a long journey to Southport in those days and you needed a break. Now we have signs on our roads saying "Don't get tired. Take a break" but in the old days we just took breaks anyway, anywhere!

[Tripps]

I'll put it on this thread as that's where it was first mentioned.

I said I'd been looking at Lend with Care website. Well last night I took the plunge, (sober, I may add), and made a loan to one of their candidates. I chose this lady - largely because she seemed a good cause, (in fact nearly all of them do), and she needed an amount to be fully funded, that I was prepared to lend.
So she will have her loan by Christmas, and I get a warm glow.

Happy Christmas and good luck with the new pigs - Bue thi Dieu.
I may even get the money back - but I'm not counting on it.

Time for an update All looks good at the moment. I had a payment in December which was a refund of the currency fluctuation contingency amount which they add to each loan. Yesterday I got the first repayment of the loan on schedule, and as agreed. Actually the amount remains with the charity in my account. That's fine - I can re-lend or or withdraw it as I choose. I will re-lend it when it reaches a meaningful amount. All good.

[PanBiker]

Looking good then Tripps, found your avatar on the site in the lenders list. Looks like a direct action scheme that can potentially change lives. Looks better than tipping up to random global charities as it goes straight to the person with the plan that needs it.

[Tizer]

Tripps, what sort of amounts are individuals like yourself lending to a person on the site?

[Tripps]

It's entirely up to you. They just tell you how much loan the applicant is asking for, and how much has been already pledged. When the loan is filled up, there is a list of the donors, but no mention of how much each has lent. I chose someone who was within range of completion, and would get the money, perhaps as a pleasant surprise, before Christmas. Not sure why that's relevant - in a largely Buddhist country. I gave about £160 to top up the loan. The fact that it was Vietnam was a factor. We were told at the time that if the Communists won there would be a domino effect, and it would spread outwards. Well- they did, and it didn't.
Naive moi ? - probably - past caring.

[Stanley]

Ah.... But you do care David and that's obvious.

[Stanley]

I was listening to a news report this morning about the numbers of people in prison all over the world. I know that the population has risen but the number of people we lock up has exceeded what could have been expected. Why do we have to lock so many people up these days? Are we so much more unlawful?

[Tizer]

Thanks Tripps for that information about the lending site, it's always useful to hear from someone who has used a service. Often it's not clear from web sites exactly what's going on without joining in first. I like the idea of being able to drop in relatively small amounts, it's one of the good aspects of the Web. And it's nice to see people getting a lot of help from a small amount. I was in a small museum yesterday and talked to two of the people who give their time to run it and they expressed how important it was to get donations especially now that funds are being cut back. They can do a lot more with a given amount than can a big museum. Mind you, as a nation we're not very good at giving even small amounts except when it's a big headline. That reminded me of another Bill Bryson observation. When he visited Durham Cathedral one of the staff told him that the average donation worked out at 40 pence but they observe that most people make no donation.

Still on Durham Cathedral...the architect told Bryson that the 90-foot diameter circular stained glass window was built to the very limit of tolerances. Somehow those early builders knew just how far they could go...

[Stanley]

Speaking from my experience fund raising at Ellenroad.... The money that the volunteers themselves generate in entrance fees or donations is, though relatively small, the most important element in fund raising. The large charities and official sources you go to regard it as seed corn and it is a very important element in the equation. The benefactors like to see evidence of support from volunteers, the public, local bodies and small scale donations of money, goods or services from local industry. It's not the total amount but the evidence of widespread support locally that is important when you are making the case for larger amounts.

[Tizer]

That's useful to know, thanks.