THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Tizer]

In the 1950s, when we were let out to play, we kids made a bee line for the mill near our home. There was waste ground in front of the mill and they burnt waste cotton etc on a permanently burning fire. We would carry off bits of burning material and light our own fires from it elsewhere on the waste ground.

[Stanley]

Things like that were irresistible weren't they! No fence hindered us if there was something interesting on the other side. The scrap pile at Cheshire Sterilised Milk yielded large steel roller bearings which we smashed by throwing them at the wall, the disused clay pit next to Hans Renolds factory at Didsbury was a wonderful adventure playground and on reflection, incredibly dangerous. Railway lines and deep rivers were part of our scenario. It makes you wonder how we survived (and we were getting bombed nightly as well in 1940....) but we did and I am convinced it was all valuable education, we grew up to be tough, resourceful little buggers and that served us well in later life.... By the way, none of this crap about counselling in case we were traumatised by our experiences, we were just left to get on with it and grow up.

[Tizer]

The quarry behind the our brickworks was a great adventure playground - if you avoided capture! And the older quarries nearby that had filled with water were tempting too, but dangerous. Tom Crook's Delph in Blackburn was a favourite, claimed to be bottomless by people like my grandma (and it was very deep). Kids had drowned in it and men had committed suicide there when their business or marriage failed.

I've just searched on the web to see if there is any mention of Tom Crook's Delph but I only found one in a forum where the man talked about fishing there for perch. But I did see this comment in that forum: "It seems the secret to making a good potato pie is to put as little meat in as possible."

[Stanley]

When I was Arkwright 'Open All Hours' at Sough in the 1950s we had a customer who lived in Barlick and worked at Bristol Tractors who was a bit eccentric. His preferred dinner was what he called a 'Ten to One', a meat and potato pie. He reckoned the odds were ten to one there was no meat in it. He had a cycle with a Power Pak on the back, a small petrol engine that drove the back wheel via a ribbed steel roller. See THIS for a very full description of the unit. The funny thing was that his mates had noted that he only used the engine when coming to work from Barlick, downhill almost all of the way. Going home at night he pedalled the bike. I asked him once why he did this and he said it used more petroil mixture if he used it on the way home.... Weird but you couldn't fault his logic!
Later... funny how the memory works. The circuits connected as Jack and I were walking round Barlick I remembered that the man's name was Billy Banks and the rumour was that he had once been 'very clever' but had suffered a 'brainstorm'. I never knew any more than this about him.

[Tizer]

There was a man who frequented my dad's local pub in the 1950s who had some kind of mental problem that made him unable to get employment but he was a wizard with clocks and watches. Everybody would take them to him for repair and he never needed to pay for his beer and crisps!

I had a dream about bicycles recently. I'd invented one that had pedals but also operated on the same principle of the wind-up radio. You could pedal while going downhill as well as uphill to even out the load. Or if you lived on a hill you could put it up on its stand before setting out, pedal for a while to charge it, then set out and it wouldn't need so much work to get up the hill. Funny what your brain does during the night!

[Stanley]

Sounds like a good idea! I still remember how I puzzled over the fact that when I got my first bike with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear it took me a while to work out why it was harder to pedal in top gear than in the lower ones. Laughable now but it was new technology to me.

[Stanley]

Thinking back to the old bikes... Most had a freewheel and single gear, if they were a sports bike they had a fixed gear as this was the National Cyclists Union ruling for competition. Lights were originally acetylene but were soon improved and converted to battery powered, the front one having a big twin cell battery. You could get a small dynamo that clipped on the front fork and drove by friction off the tyre wall and we favoured these as they were light and you didn't have to buy batteries. You switched the lights on by pushing the dynamo over on its mount until it was touching the tyre. Lucas brought in the Dyno-hub which was usually in the front wheel but some were incorporated with a Sturmey Archer gear hub and these were the most modern for ordinary bikes. The funny thing is that I can never remember there being a shortage of batteries even in the worst days of the war. I think this was because of the black-out. We forget today how dark a moonless night could be and cycle lamps and hand held 'flashlamps' were essential.
Then there was the back pedalling brake.... More popular in America but many found their way over here. You 'back-pedalled' to operate the bronze shoes working on the hub. They were savage and I never had one.

[Stanley]

I mentioned the NCU yesterday. Cycling was a very popular pastime in the 19th century.


Three cyclists in Barlick late in the century.

With improvements in manufacture and reliable tyres there was soon a move to competition and the NCU was formed in 1883 to regulate the growing sport and fight for cyclists rights. There was a parallel organisation called the Cyclists Touring Club formed before the NCU and still going strong. They catered for the ordinary non competitive cyclist and were very popular. Some specialist clubs like the Clarion were formed with different aims, the Clarion was formed to distribute the Labour Paper of the same name when W H Smith refused to distribute it.
By the end of WW2 great advances had been made in cycle design, particularly in France and Italy. After the end of the war these improved products reached the British market and the younger generation of cyclists took to the new dérailleur gears enthusiastically, they were fed up with the single fixed gear which was all the NCU would allow and a new organisation called the British League of Racing Cyclists was formed who ran massed start races on public roads and allowed the new improved equipment. (Eventually they merged with the NCU)
I remember the League well as their freedom to use gears fitted in with our preferences. My mates and I never actually joined and didn't compete but we supported the league and I can remember that as we passed groups of NCU cyclists who were easily recognisable because they had to pedal like hell even when going downhill we used to shout !Up the League" as we freewheeled past them! They were good days and particularly in Derbyshire there were road races almost every weekend in summer. Anywhere where there were hill was League Country!

[Stanley]

A very common sight on the streets in areas where houses predominated was chalk marks on the pavements. These were put there by pamphleteers and door to door sales people to signify that the street had been visited. 'Secret signs' were often the meat of occasional journalists who wrote reams about the (largely mythical) code of signs left by tramps. Made of twigs and stones they supposedly gave information to their mates as to which house was a good touch and other information. Articles like this regularly appeared in magazines and newspapers.

[Stanley]

I miss the old trams.... There used to be a direct service from Hazel Grove on the southern boundary of Stockport all the way to Manchester Piccadilly. The best massage in the world....

[Stanley]

We hear a lot of horror stories these days about our NHS hospitals even though they are so good and have an over 99% success rate in standards of treatment. I have a direct comparison. In 1947 while stood in assembly at Stockport Grammar School I sneezed and the shock put my back out. I collapsed to the floor and was taken to the old Stockport Infirmary. With hindsight, this was the start of the back problems which were to plague me for most of my life.
The thing I still remember about the incident was the terrible standard of care I got, I got the impression that they thought I was shamming. The infirmary was the old 19th century model of a workhouse type building and I can still remember being left in a bare room dressed only in my singlet for what seemed like hours. I was given no treatment and in the end my mother arrived and took me home on the tram and bus. I often think that this is one of the reasons why I appreciate the standards we enjoy today, I saw the tip of the pre-NHS iceberg....

[Stanley]

When I was at school the map of the world on the wall was covered with red, the 'Empire on which the sun never sets' We were taught to sing the National Anthem and told we were the 'subjects' of the queen. Heroism in battle and blind allegiance to the concept of the 'British Nation' was de rigeur.
Funny thing is that as I grew older and got experience of the real world I rejected all these concepts. When I was interviewed for the Millennium Project and was asked whether I was a 'patriot' I asked who I should patriot for? I have English, Scottish, Danish, German and Neapolitan ancestry, there is even an Australian Aborigine in there somewhere. So it's public.... it was published in Phil Smith's book 'The Century Speaks'.
The trigger for this of course is the idea that singing the National Anthem is an essential marker for a worthy person. Judged on that basis I freely admit to being unworthy....

[Stanley]

Reading Liz's post about her mother sitting down with her family aged 95 I was struck by how important it is to kids to be able to see the continuity in the family in such concrete terms. I firmly believe that this is the most useful function we Crumblies can fulfil.



That's why this pic of me on my grandmother's knee in 1936 with my mother and great-grandmother Shaw is so important to me. There are seven generations of the family that I have direct connections with in 2015 (four on the pic and three more as I write). That's pretty impressive when you think about it.... That's why I think it is so sad when I see examples of family members who have completely lost touch with each other. I've even seen sons cut off by their fathers. Such a loss.

[Stanley]

A weekday teatime at Hey Farm in 1977. This looks incredibly formal now and I'm not sure how typical a family we were but this was an everyday event. We all sat round the table together and everyone ate the same thing. I get the impression that this is not common today but don't know whether this is in fact right. Does anyone still keep to this custom?

[Stanley]

I know it's a hang over from war time rationing but I hate hearing a mother asking a child what they want for their next meal....
I was struck by something I heard on 'From Our Own Correspondent' yesterday on R4. A French GP recommended that the correspondent's son should be fed small amounts of Roquefort cheese regularly. Thinking that this was because of the therapeutic qualities of the mould in the cheese he asked why. The GP replied "To get him acquainted with the taste".
That reminds me that the flavour I remember best from the war years was fried bacon and cheese. I've never managed to make it just like my mother's!

[Stanley]

Reading Ian's post about his son's house search took me back to the days when our expectations weren't as high as they are now. In 1885 when the Bracewell empire collapsed workers flooded out of the town and the Craven Herald reported that "grass was growing on the streets". This mass exodus was made possible by good rail links with neighbouring towns and the fact that there was a surplus of houses available to rent with an established network of letting agents eager to cater for incomers. It was easy for the man of the houser to jump on the train, find a job and rent a house near to his work on the same day. The family had few possessions, they were poor, and so it was easy to do a flit to the new location. (Many of these were 'moonlight flits', leaving the rent arrears as well as the house!) This was how the population managed to move so quickly and conversely was why, when employment improved because of the new weaving sheds and the efforts of local people like the Calf Hall Shed Company who quickly took over the empty mills and brought them back into production. They were so successful that a house building boom started in 1890 and also the building of the Model Lodging Houses to accommodate itinerant weavers.
All this was made easier by the fact that people had far lower expectations and household appointments were much more simple. A flit to a new house and the responsibilities of taking on a large investment have slowed down such easy mobility of labour. I am glad I don't have to face it!

[Stanley]

Can anyone remember the bad old days of 'party lines' when you got a telephone installed? Two or more houses shared one common telephone line and there could be some interesting crossed lines at times!

[Stanley]

Fifty years ago we had a very simple solution to the problem of worn out treads on motor tyres, particularly on the large tyres used on wagons. We re-cut the grooves with a tool that had a heated blade. This solved the problem instantly and as long as you didn't expose the carcass it was perfectly legal. I don't doubt that you would get into trouble today if you took this route! Before the 1968 Transport Act we used to use tyres until the canvas showed, they were all textile cross ply tyres then, this was before steel belted radials were brought in by Michelin. Jack Harrison always said that when the canvas showed they were just coming into profit!
We were very suspicious of the new radial tyres when they first appeared because to our eyes they looked under- inflated because of the bulge in the sidewall.

[Stanley]

One thing we had to learn with the advent of radial tyres was that the tracking values, the amount of toe-in on the steering axle, was different. We soon learned that on most vehicles they ran better and wore more evenly if set parallel or very close to that. One peculiar effect you got on heavy wagons was 'threepenny bit' syndrome. The front tyres wore on the outside edge in ledges. Once you had got the track right by trial and error you left it alone! I remember once being at Gilbraith's garage at Accrington and the fitters checked the track with their brand new Dunlop Optical Gauge and informed me the track was a mile out. I told them they were wrong and got Jack Ruddy the foremen in on the argument. They were adamant so in the end I said right, if you track the rear axle and it reads parallel the gauge must be right. They did this and got a big toe-in reading. The track stayed as it was and the optical gauge went back to the supplier......
Funny how people will ignore reality and trust a dial!

[chinatyke]

Funny how people will ignore reality and trust a dial!

The modern equivalent is "trust the computer, it can't be wrong"...

[Stanley]

Dead right P! Newton told a story about being called out to an engine that had lost its vacuum in Nelson. When he got there the engine was running normally but sure enough, the vacuum gauge read zero. He went in the cellar and found that the pipe connecting the gauge to the base of the air pump had cracked off....
We once had a problem with a boiler I had commissioned. The inspector wanted the safety valve adjusting because it was allowing the boiler to go above working pressure before blowing off. I took the gauge off, cleaned it and zeroed the needle. Problem solved, the safety valve passed with flying colours.

[Tizer]

I remember a technical consultant telling me about how often he found temperature and pressure dials on machinery in the process industries (food, chemical, plastics etc) showed the `correct' reading even when the machines were not in use. The needle would have become stuck in the `correct' position.

[Stanley]

Part of the regular annual test on a boiler is supposed to be an occasional check of the pressure gage against a certified standard test gauge... In all my time round boilers I never saw it done by the surveyor. I used to check them regularly against a Budenberg test gauge. I still have it.....

[Stanley]

Elsewhere on the site we have been noting the trouble at Barrowford where the headmistress at the Primary School applied her own relaxed standards of teaching and has hit trouble. I know nothing about the circumstances and so am not qualified to judge. It's worth noting that one very successful system, the Steiner Schools, follows similar lines but with extremely high standards of teaching.
My own experience in Primary School at Hope Memorial in Stockport, a church school coming under the aegis of the local church, St Martin's Heaton Norris, was Victorian! Strict rules, use of the cane for punishment and concentration on the 3Rs. For the last two years there were only two of us in the class due to the war so we were given personal tuition by the Headmistress, Miss Hogg. So my experience wasn't typical but in retrospect extremely lucky! I left at 9 years old and at my next school where I was taught until the 11plus I was so far ahead of the others I did nothing but learn poetry! Looking back I was very badly served there, a regular task was to go to the tobacconist's for Mr Bowers' tobacco each day! He was the headmaster and a very fierce man. My luck held and at the 11plus exam I just scraped into the local Grammar School after a cancellation. Things could have been very different.
So, my education was a lottery. I wonder whether things are any different today....?

[Stanley]

Thinking back on the subject of 'teachers I have known', the people who did the best job for me were the ones who demanded quiet discipline and respect which was rewarded in kind by attention and care. They were confident and had complete control of themselves and it rubbed off. The worse were the ones who allowed their emotions to rule them, they were usually inconsistent in their approach and of uncertain temper. You never knew where you were with them. One of my daughters once told me that I was a strict father and they were all a bit in awe of me, but she also said that she was secure because she always knew exactly where the boundaries were. I must have got it somewhere near right, they are all still talking to me! Kids don't like sliding scales of values......