MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

Where is this mystery place featured on an old postcard?

[plaques]

I guess my time is up. The streets were named after two young ladies. Alice & Bessie.
For Tizzer's mystery place. My guess is Birkenhead. ?

[Bruff]

There doesn’t seem to be any development on the other shore, which would appear to rule out Birkenhead. My initial thought was New Brighton, as the mouth of the Mersey estuary is very narrow, widening markedly south of Liverpool. But again, there’s no development the other side, and there seems to be a branch in the river in the distance. If it is the Mersey, then is it Eastham or Ellesmere Port? To the right the Ship Canal and the left the Mersey?

Richard Broughton

[chinatyke]

I thought New Brighton but the river looks much too small for there or Birkenhead.

Sorry, Bruff, posted at the same time.

I used to live in Wallasey so it looks familiar. Is it Seacombe, Wallasey where the Mersey ferry now docks at the entrance to Wallasey Docks, across from Birkenhead?

[Wendyf]

I think it's Fleetwood. (Isn't the interweb thingy wonderful?)

[Gloria]

image.jpg

Have a go at this.

[Bruff]

I think you're right!

(Response to Wendf, above)

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Gloria, I think it's a tinman's jenny for putting a curve on strips of tin, like a saucepan side or in a bucket handle. With different shaped rollers it could roll the edge of say a bucket.

[Gloria]

Sorry Stanley you are quite a bit off the mark there. I'll leave it until tomorrow before I give a clue.

[PanBiker]

I think it's Fleetwood. (Isn't the interweb thingy wonderful?)

I would concur "North Euston Hotel" on the corner.

[Wendyf]

We learnt about the North Euston Hotel from Steve Williams who gave a talk to the EDLHS on "Rails to the Lancashire Coast". Built in the early 1840's by Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood when it was thought that all rail travellers to Scotland would have to catch a ferry from Fleetwood to Ardrossan because a rail line over Shap was considered impossible. Unfortunately for him and his investors the Lancaster to Carlisle section of railway was begun in 1846 and open by the end of the decade. The hotel failed and in 1859 was sold to the government and became a school of musketry known as Euston Barracks.

[Stanley]

Splitting and trimming square strips of leather?

[plaques]

I'll guess at a 'Fencing rail' splitter.

[Gloria]

Spot on Stanley, well done that man. An interesting bit of kit.

[plaques]

I've always associated leather splitters as much wider bits of kit. Here's one identical to Gloria's.A shoemakers leather splitter. Very interesting.Link

[Bruff]

‘Unfortunately for him and his investors the Lancaster to Carlisle section of railway was begun in 1846 and open by the end of the decade. The hotel failed…..’

There are a few places like that. Crocker’s Folly, a Grade II-listed pub in London’s St John’s Wood, was built by said Mr Crocker as a grand hotel to serve the terminus of the Grand Central Railway he expected to be plonked right next door. Unfortunately for him, this was plonked a mile away at Marylebone and led to his ruin. The pub survived though and became a favourite watering hole for those attending Lords cricket ground (including me). It sadly closed in 2004 only to re-open in all its splendid glory late last year. [Apologies for the off-topic posting]

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Richard, never apologise for going off piste! It is one of the delights of the site.
P. Leather had to be slit from narrow strips for lots of purposes, boot laces for instance. My mate David Morre reckoned his dad was the first man in modern times to make shirts from skives.

Try this one....

[Cathy]

Is it a weight for old fashioned kitchen scales?

[Stanley]

Sorry Cathy, no.....

[David Whipp]

Stud for a boot?

[Gloria]

Is it the button thing on the bottom of a lazy Betty.

[Stanley]

Is that the same as a lazy Susan? But no, sorry. It's completely obsolete now so you perhaps need a clue. Think old, hand built, expensive vehicles.....

[PanBiker]

Radiator cap that used to hold a mascot?

[Stanley]

Sorry no, look at the size... Every time you got in the vehicle you saw these.....

[Gloria]

Knob off a window winder.