THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

In the 1970s these were quite common but are now (As far as I know) Flatley Dryer country. The willy warmer.
But of course none of you will have experience of such a shocking article!

[Stanley]

Skipton Gala 1978. Galas seem to be Flatley Dryer country today..... Fifty years ago every town had one.

[Stanley]

Flatley Dryer country in so many ways......

[Stanley]

Force Mill Bridge in 1979, an idyllic scene in the Lake District but in the 19th century this was an industrial scene as the mill was a bobbin manufacturing centre serving the Lancashire cotton industry. In 1979 I had the best job in the world, finding these sites in the Lake District and documenting them for the DOE. Both the original purpose of the mill and that job are Flatley Dryer country now.....

[Stanley]

This picture illustrates a Flatley Dryer moment at the end of WW2. We may see scenes like this again as the effects of war and climate change make some foods scarce. Hard to believe this I know but we may have seen the glory days of food availability. Only time will tell but the first tell tale signs are already with us.

[Stanley]

Bob Fort working for Brown and Pickles on the repair of Queen Street mill engine in 1979. The job was to replace the piston rings which had broken due to lack of lubrication. The cylinder was badly scored and ideally should have been rebored but the expected life of the mill wasn't long then. This sort of work is, of course, Flatley Dryer country today.

[Stanley]

These worn stone steps down into the original level of the yard at the corner of Lamb Hill down into Walmsgate always intrigue me. How many years of clog irons does it take to wear the steps that much?
However that isn't the Flatley Dryer element. That is the fact that in days gone by, a mason would have turned the individual steps over so that the worn surface was at the bottom, thus giving them a new lease of life. No chance of that happening today!

[MickBrett]

I remember that the last few stone steps leading down to the cellar of my house in Trawden had been turned over just as you said, Stanley

[Stanley]

It was the standard repair Mick and when the steps were installed originally the masons made sure the bottom face was a good fair surface.

[Stanley]

If ever there was Flatley Dryer country it's 1984 when this was still the Council Offices. Remember paying your rates there?

[Cathy]

Love the steps.
Must have been quite noisy back in the early days. Weaving machines, horse and carts, rag and bone men, town criers, church bells, policemen’s whistles, waker-uppers and clogs on cobbles and steps - especially in ‘peak hour’.
Did I miss any?

[Stanley]

The railway if you were close to it?

[Big Kev]

These worn stone steps down into the original level of the yard at the corner of Lamb Hill down into Walmsgate always intrigue me. How many years of clog irons does it take to wear the steps that much?
However that isn't the Flatley Dryer element. That is the fact that in days gone by, a mason would have turned the individual steps over so that the worn surface was at the bottom, thus giving them a new lease of life. No chance of that happening today!

I used the original back door step, complete with the wear and tear, when I built the kitchen extension at Park Street. It added character

[Stanley]

I agree, as long as the wear hadn't reached the point where it was a hazard, but no fear of that in this case, you are too sensible. When I got the second-hand domestic flags to pave the yard at Hey Farm in the 1960s there was one that had been a hearth stone and you could clearly see the outline of the front of the cast iron grate. I asked the flagger to lay it with that side to the top. It's just to the right of the front door. As you say, it adds character

[Stanley]

Angus posted this image in 2013. Not a common sight in the town. The Flag crackers. on the Town Square to Celebrate Saint Georges day.

[Tripps]

I was in the town on that day, and visited His Highness. I have a couple of photos somewhere of the Flag Crackers. They seem to have surrendered to the Wokes, and no longer black their faces. I'm surprised the word Crackers hasn't been removed as it could easily be found offensive to those who wanted to be offended. In fact perhaps they have folded since a quick glance shows the website is not updated. That's a shame.

In contrast to the Britannia Coconut Dancers who have not resiled.

[Stanley]

There used to be an organisation in Hebden Bridge for Henpecked Husbands.... I wonder if they have survived?
Well done the Nutters!

[Stanley]

One of the first shops in Water Street Earby was just on the right here. It was 'Young' Tooley's barber's shop. He was noted as the biggest liar in Earby and there are many stories about him. Here's what Fred Inman told me about him and Jackie Waterworth, another noted liar!.


I brought up the subject of Tooley’s barber shop in Water Street Earby during a conversation with Fred Inman and asked him about Young Tooley. I remembered that when I first went to live at Sough someone told me that if you went into Earby and asked who was the biggest liar in the town you would be told it was either Jacky Waterworth or Young Tooley. Fred laughed at this and said it was true, they both had reputations for ‘romancing’. He added that Young Tooley may have told lies but they were entertaining lies.

I was told once that somebody took an exceptionally big mushroom into the barber’s shop. It was like a dinner plate and he showed it to him. “There you are Tooley! I bet tha’s never seen one like that before.” Tooley said “I had one bigger than that t’other week. I was walking down Thornton Bottoms when I found it. My biggest job were getting the sheep from underneath it before I picked it!”

“Young Tooley reckoned he was with the Ghurkhas during the war and he says they had these knives, these Kukris and he says they throw ‘em you know and they can hit anything. One day he was going through the jungle with a Ghurkha and he says there were this here Japanese bloke stood there. The Ghurkha pulls this Kukri back, he fetches it back to throw it. Tooley says, no, let me throw it, so he did. The Japanese bloke never moved and the Gurkha says you've missed him. Tooley said, I nodded to him and his head dropped off.”

Fred and I agreed that it didn’t matter whether the stories were true or not, they were funny and entertaining. I can remember once visiting some friends who had three young lads and they always wanted me to tell them stories about things I had done and one day their mother pointed out to them that the reason I was a good story-teller was because I had been born before the days of television. I think there might be some truth in this, when I was a lad we spent time telling each other stories, many of them were downright lies but it was entertaining and passed many a happy hour.

I asked Fred about a story I had heard about Jacky Waterworth and a boxing match at the White Lion in Earby and here’s what he said: “Well It were Sammy Cragg and Jacky what were fighting. Sammy were a bit of a character, he’d been taken prisoner twice in t’war you know and escaped and that sort of thing and he were a bit of a boxer. Well, I'm saying a bit of a boxer, he’d be as good as owt there were in Earby. They arranged this fight 'cause Jacky fancied his self as a boxer, so they had it set out up in the top room at the pub, nobody ever went in the top room in them days. Eventually it gets out there’s going to be this boxing match. They had all the floor chalked, it were only oilcloth on the floor and they had it chalked like a ring and they were all the way round. And what did they call the fella? [Fred was trying to remember Stuart McPherson who did all the boxing commentaries on the wireless] There were a fella there wi’ a microphone and nowt attached to it, just the microphone. Anyway he were a real good commentator and he's sending this to the BBC - Jacky thought it were on BBC. And when they went into the corner you know for break, they daubed lipstick on Jacky’s gloves and then when they went in Sammy let him hit him, you know, all red on his face you know. And they were shouting “Give ower Jacky! Tha’s going to kill him!

Jacky's preening his self and he give him another and Cragg ‘ud go on the floor for about seven you know and this fella’s commentating just to perfection. And Jackie went into his corner again “Tha’rt doing well Jacky, keep it up, there’s nobody ever knocked him out afore.” “I’ll knock him out, I’ll knock him out!” All lipstick again tha knows and he's covered in blood is Sammy and Jacky’s knocking him down two or three times, just managing to get up in time you know. And then when he’s in his corner, Jacky's sat there, doesn’t ail a thing you know and they’re wafting Sammy and massaging him and rubbing him and giving him smelling salts. Then when they thought he’d had enough like Sammy just give Jacky a belt, about first time he’d hit him you know, he didn't hit him too hard but he'd had enough had Jacky when he did. [Fred nearly chokes laughing] So he stopped the fight then did the referee. And he got his photo taken did Jacky. [The picture was in the pub for a long time afterwards, Jackie in shorts far too big for him.] And then they arranged a return match and I think the police must have got to know sommat about it and he daren’t let ‘em have another do daren’t Sam Taylor, he were the landlord. You know it were, what would you call it? An exhibition or sommat and he weren’t licensed, so it didn’t come off again. But Jackie thought he were doing well and it were a real good show you know, if you'd have given a bob entrance money which were a fair good do then you'd have said I’ve getten a good bob's worth.”

Later I remembered the sequel to the great Waterworth v. Cragg fight at the White Lion. It appears that Jacky was convinced he was a champion and for weeks afterwards anyone in the know would reckon to be frightened of him if they met on the street, they would cross the road or hide in shop doorways. This was alright until Jacky met a bloke one day who didn’t know about his fearsome and entirely undeserved reputation. Jacky tried to face him down and ended up getting a severe beating. He modified his behaviour after this salutary incident.
Are characters like this Flatley Dryer country?

[Tripps]

Fred and I agreed that it didn’t matter whether the stories were true or not, they were funny and entertaining.

Kipling understood that -

The men of my own stock
They may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wonted to,
They are used to the lies I tell.
And we do not need interpreters
When we go to buy and sell.

Are characters like this Flatley Dryer country?

Not while Ronnie Pickering is still in circulation.

[MickBrett]

Jackie Waterworth, now there's a name from the past.
I remember going fishing with him in Foulridge Res

[Stanley]

He worked at West Marton Dairy for a while and Ted Lancaster said that if you asked him how many bottles they'd filled he always said the same thing... "Hundred Thousands!"

[MickBrett]

Nice enough bloke but he definitely "didn't have all his chairs at home"

[Stanley]

I sometimes think that simple direct humour like this is Flatley Dryer country.

[Stanley]

There was a time when a set of flat irons that could be heated at the open fire was the height of modernity for a housewife. The handles got hot also so you always needed a thick cloth to hold them and a heavy rough cloth on a flat surface to clean and polish the bottom before you used them. The temperature control was to spit on the base and judge the heat from the way it bounced off! All Flatley Dryer country now.

[Stanley]

When I was a lad a regular feature used to be tea with either Grandma Challenger or Great Aunt Mary Pemberton. Both had two things in common, buttered white bread soldiers with tinned fruit for afters and the fact that both of them kept the butter in a saucer in the hearth in font of the open fire and because they scraped the butter off the bread they transferred crumbs back to the butter and almost finished up with more that they had when they started.
Such simple treats are Flatley Dryer country now for most but may return later this year as economic circumstances start to worsen. This has happened already for many. The clock may start to turn backwards.



Grandma Challenger in about 1925.