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Dredging finds at Cannock


noddyboater

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4 hours ago, Athy said:

   But then, gas mantles were a part of everyday life for many thousands of people a few generations ago, but I don't think I've ever seen one working except in a museum.

 

Beginning with the camping boats at Foxton in the 80s all the boats I lived on or owned had gas lights, right up to the end of the (19)90s. The mantles were still sold in caravan centres, and yes, I did get the boats through the BSC. The gas light I had above the back cabin stove in Pallas was even a vintage brass one from a tat shop. All probably long since scrapped, but very useful in the days before solar panels really got going..

 

The Gas Museum in Leicester used to be worth a visit, they had an actual gas radio ...

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It would not be beyond the wit of boaters to drop some decent lumps and a few bankers overside so that they could be dredged out when running empty or with very small coals.

 

After the Wendover Arm was dredged in the 80's or early 90's you could very quickly pick a bucketfull of coal out of the towpath dredgings opposite Heygates and right along to the Tring feeder.  Old Albert Barnet claimed he would put a few sacks of coal in the water there when tied at Bulbourne with the right cargo, knowing there would not be many passing boats.

N

 

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When I did my first winter on a boat in 1994 they had just dredged some of the Ashby canal and backfilled the campshed piling with the dredgings. 

 

I spent quite a lot of time around Market Bosworth and Stoke Golding areas and collected quite a lot of coal from those dredgings. Some of the pieces were very large and needed breaking down to get into the Arctic stove. 

 

 

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12 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Was your Dad a tight wad as well as mine ??!!!  :)

When hubby and I were first dating we lived 70 miles apart and phoned each other each day during the week and visited weekends, taking it in turns for both. Hubby had parents relaxed about phone usage so his calls to me were from his home phone. Mine to him were from the phone box at the end of the road, I'd save my 10p's up diligently.

No lock on my home phone, didn't need one, my dad's wrath if it was used frivolously was enough! (And I knew he'd know because he told me so)

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15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Rotary dialling was for wusses!

 

Calling a number by tapping the cradle buttons at the correct speed and intervals to generate the pulses was much more fun.

 

Especially if there was one of those little locks to stop you using the dial!

The phones at Manchester Uni (early 80's) had a lock to prevent dialling zero - you could make internal calls but not get an outside line.... Unless you had the knack of tapping the cradle ten times at the correct cadence...

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This was near Froghall Basin. Caldon canal. Someone told me the other day they pushed their pram down to the gasworks to buy more coke in the winter of '47.

FB_IMG_1642372340346.jpg

 

 

nb Anyone know where to buy proper old tough hessian coal sacks?

 

The ones on ebay etc look only good for 2lb of potatoes.

Edited by mark99
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4 hours ago, 1st ade said:

The phones at Manchester Uni (early 80's) had a lock to prevent dialling zero - you could make internal calls but not get an outside line.... Unless you had the knack of tapping the cradle ten times at the correct cadence...

 

Dial 9, hold it, give one cradle tap then release the dial ...

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3 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Dial 9, hold it, give one cradle tap then release the dial ...

Ingenious!

Used you to press Button B each time you passed a 'phone box too? For younger readers, this was the button which you pressed to get your fourpence back if your call had failed to connect. The idea was that some people would forget to press it, so you could get four (old) pence free. Of course, I was brought up in Yorkshire where people clung to their fourpences like leeches, so it never worked for me.

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37 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Dial 9, hold it, give one cradle tap then release the dial ...

You have to be fairly quick though, any pause and the exchange thinks you've dialled 91...

 

Those old Strowger exchanges were mesmerising masterpieces of electromechanical complexity, find a video and watch the rotors whizzing round and along the columns like a ferret up a drainpipe... 😉

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5 hours ago, BEngo said:

You could try asking your local coal merchant where they get theirs.  With the ending of domestic coal deliveries they may even have some going begging.

N

 

Our merchant still does lots of domestic. I will ask him next time.

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Who owns Grove Colliery Basin now

This pit was a William Harrison colliery that was developed as the private railway pushed westward. There were earlier mines on the East/Brownhills Side and the latest development was the narrow gauge rope worked tramway to Wyrley No 3 pit.

 

What is now left is another question. The locomotive shed was for the branch industrial railway to the Norton Branch.

The Arthur Watts Collection (Ellesmere Port) has various images of Grove Colliery Basin in 1958 and 1959

This image of May 1958 shows the colliery and basin with the railway waggons in the siding. Internal use railway waggons in those days were painted black and had the white cross on the wooden bodies. These waggons were often old a made by a variety of makers including public railway companies.

 

 

 

grove9.jpg

 

Some of the colliery buildings can be seen in other views.

 

 

grove3.jpg

Edited by Heartland
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2 hours ago, IanD said:

You have to be fairly quick though, any pause and the exchange thinks you've dialled 91...

 

Those old Strowger exchanges were mesmerising masterpieces of electromechanical complexity, find a video and watch the rotors whizzing round and along the columns like a ferret up a drainpipe... 😉

Bit noisy as well, we had a private exchange when I worked at Birdseye just like lots of other companies did

 

Edited by ditchcrawler
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10 minutes ago, Heartland said:

Who owns Grove Colliery Basin now <snip>

I believe the Little Wyrley Estate owns most of the land, and the basins and moorings, though I was told that some parts of the colliery site is in council hands. The large "office" block by the gate was recently the subject of a planning application when the council put it up for sale, planning was refused and I subsequently heard that the Little Wyrley Estate now also owned that part of the site.

 

springy

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1 hour ago, mark99 said:

 

Our merchant still does lots of domestic. I will ask him next time.

 

Open sacks of 50kg are still delivered, but they are of a nylon like material with sewn in handles, much like GPO bags are now but much stronger. Don't think you will find hessain sacks around any more.

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19 hours ago, IanD said:

You have to be fairly quick though, any pause and the exchange thinks you've dialled 91...

 

Those old Strowger exchanges were mesmerising masterpieces of electromechanical complexity, find a video and watch the rotors whizzing round and along the columns like a ferret up a drainpipe... 😉

 

 

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17 hours ago, springy said:

I believe the Little Wyrley Estate owns most of the land, and the basins and moorings, though I was told that some parts of the colliery site is in council hands. The large "office" block by the gate was recently the subject of a planning application when the council put it up for sale, planning was refused and I subsequently heard that the Little Wyrley Estate now also owned that part of the site.

 

springy

 

This is my understanding too, and as Dave says, Dennis Cooper runs the moorings.

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On 20/01/2022 at 16:49, TheBiscuits said:

 

Rotary dialling was for wusses!

 

Calling a number by tapping the cradle buttons at the correct speed and intervals to generate the pulses was much more fun.

 

Especially if there was one of those little locks to stop you using the dial!

You could dial 0,1,9 but the rest had to be tapped.

:)

23 hours ago, Athy said:

Ingenious!

Used you to press Button B each time you passed a 'phone box too? For younger readers, this was the button which you pressed to get your fourpence back if your call had failed to connect. The idea was that some people would forget to press it, so you could get four (old) pence free. Of course, I was brought up in Yorkshire where people clung to their fourpences like leeches, so it never worked for me.

I used to get about one pay out a month.

 

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When BT went to phone cards it was not unusual for people to forget to take their card from the payment/connection slot. Several times I found cards with up to £10 left on them, and on one memorable occasion - £50!

 

Still got a bunch of Mercury cards in a drawer, the picture ones were quite collectable.

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On 21/01/2022 at 07:59, 1st ade said:

The phones at Manchester Uni (early 80's) had a lock to prevent dialling zero - you could make internal calls but not get an outside line.... Unless you had the knack of tapping the cradle ten times at the correct cadence...

 

10 pulses per second.

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