Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

I will definitely watch that. Thanks Rod.

[mulhuzz]

glad I asked. fascinating replies

[RED-DOG]

Saw this today. Found it very moving.



The Poppy.

I am not a badge of honour,
I am not a racist smear,
I am not a fashion statement,
To be worn but once a year,
I am not glorification
Of conflict or of war.
I am not a paper ornament
A token,
I am more.

I am a loving memory,
Of a father or a son,
A permanent reminder
Of each and every one.

I'm paper or enamel
I'm old or shining new,
I'm a way of saying thank you,
To every one of you.

I am a simple poppy
A Reminder to you all,
That courage faith and honour,
Will stand where heroes fall.

[Kev B]

Saw this today. Found it very moving.



The Poppy.

I am not a badge of honour,
I am not a racist smear,
I am not a fashion statement,
To be worn but once a year,
I am not glorification
Of conflict or of war.
I am not a paper ornament
A token,
I am more.

I am a loving memory,
Of a father or a son,
A permanent reminder
Of each and every one.

I'm paper or enamel
I'm old or shining new,
I'm a way of saying thank you,
To every one of you.

I am a simple poppy
A Reminder to you all,
That courage faith and honour,
Will stand where heroes fall.

Superb Tom.

[Supernova]

Most of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire towns of my youth were supported by coal production, but my home town of Sheffield was a steel town.

Firth Brown was the big name, they supplied the raw materials for hundreds of cutlers, engineering firms and fabricators.

They employed hundreds of men, and their lorries, usually Seddon-Atkinson articulated units, could be seen everywhere.

The heat produced by their furnaces was so great that in winter, you could stand outside on the street and have a warm.

I used to hawk around all the places that Firth Brown supplied trying to buy their waste metal. It came in many forms: Turnings, millings, chippings, grindings, stampings, solid off cuts and, the holy grail, billet ends.

I stumbled on a short film about Firth Browns today. I absolutely loved it and I know that some of you would enjoy it too, especially the likes of Tony, Rod, Shaz etc.


The link below should take you to the film. It's on the right of the page. (Don't forget to click the full screen icon)



http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/firth-brown-tour-works

What a great old film! The music too is so evocative of the era - we listen to some of the old radio crime dramas on R4 Extra and some of the intro music to them absolutely reeks of pipes, slippers, smoking jackets and toasting forks to me.

In one of my previous lives when I worked on an assembly line inspecting the manufacture of gas meters, the scrap man came every month to see what was in our dumpsters - we used steel, ally, copper and brass that I can remember and probably other stuff that I can't.

Thanks for sharing Tom, and for The Poppy poem too.

[RED-DOG]

Speaking of poppies, I was quite pleased with this candid shot of my dog.

Click to see full-size image.

[nirvana]

The Firth Brown film really is a good watch. Just the last few seconds reminded me how completely astonished I always am at the rate of progress in Aviation in the first half of the 20th century, quite mindblowing.

[RED-DOG]

The Firth Brown film really is a good watch. Just the last few seconds reminded me how completely astonished I always am at the rate of progress in Aviation in the first half of the 20th century, quite mindblowing.

It's incredible Glen. The first man to fly and the first man to set foot on the moon were alive at the same time.

[tonytats]

When we first started site investigation drilling for the LDDC London a Docklands Devolpment corporation
What we had was a load of 2 storey banana warehouses on heron quay , Canary Wharf , etc
Most had lead panels on the roof
Big juicy copper cables going up the walls inside
Pete Robinson aka the Barnsley bank robber for previous misdemeanours .
Soon spotted the potential he would drill to 2-3 pm then scrap tatting till late at night
Standing near a banana shed now in use as a sample store / equipment storage secure store One night there was a dull thud pete and his man were throwing the scrap lead down which helped compress it
Put a chain around a copper cable drag the cable into the shed with a landrover where it would be disc cluttered up to 5 ft lengths remove the armouring .then the lead covered outer bash the paper off voila the copper was there big thick strands of it

The goldmine was however still to be found running the length of Victoria and Albert dock in underground ducting accessed via heavy man hole lids was miles of cabling being shot fired by mowlems and removed
Pete deceided when they left at 4 pm he would take over pulling cables ,which were plentiful for a while
Imagine a landrover in low box attempting to pull these wiggly worms then driving off towing 409-800 yards of 4/5 inch thick cable
A lot of effort was used to get the copper n lead but it sure paid for a few beers 🍺
Mowlem cottoned on eventually and only shot fired the cables they could pull in a day
Pete deceided his young padowan Dennis Fry could use a hacksaw to cut cables lol
A live one nearly fried him ,vaporising the hacksaw blade across Dennisses neck  .
This happened on various bits of land all around the docklands c 1983/1984

[RED-DOG]

When we first started site investigation drilling for the LDDC London a Docklands Devolpment corporation
What we had was a load of 2 storey banana warehouses on heron quay , Canary Wharf , etc
Most had lead panels on the roof
Big juicy copper cables going up the walls inside
Pete Robinson aka the Barnsley bank robber for previous misdemeanours .
Soon spotted the potential he would drill to 2-3 pm then scrap tatting till late at night
Standing near a banana shed now in use as a sample store / equipment storage secure store One night there was a dull thud pete and his man were throwing the scrap lead down which helped compress it
Put a chain around a copper cable drag the cable into the shed with a landrover where it would be disc cluttered up to 5 ft lengths remove the armouring .then the lead covered outer bash the paper off voila the copper was there big thick strands of it

The goldmine was however still to be found running the length of Victoria and Albert dock in underground ducting accessed via heavy man hole lids was miles of cabling being shot fired by mowlems and removed
Pete deceided when they left at 4 pm he would take over pulling cables ,which were plentiful for a while
Imagine a landrover in low box attempting to pull these wiggly worms then driving off towing 409-800 yards of 4/5 inch thick cable
A lot of effort was used to get the copper n lead but it sure paid for a few beers 🍺
Mowlem cottoned on eventually and only shot fired the cables they could pull in a day
Pete deceided his young padowan Dennis Fry could use a hacksaw to cut cables lol
A live one nearly fried him ,vaporising the hacksaw blade across Dennisses neck  .
This happened on various bits of land all around the docklands c 1983/1984

Fantastic story Mr Tats. Only someone who has lived it could tell it like that. I used to strip cable with I disc-cutter in exactly the way you describe.

Scrap tatting, compressing lead sheeting, low box Land Rover... Evocative stuff.

[RED-DOG]

We used to tow lead piping from underground using a lorry. If it snapped off close to the surface you got a CWT or two, if it snapped deep below you got half a ton.

[tonytats]

He was working in an old yard with a tower crane on rails which could move along a railway type track coiling the cable on a large spool as it went
That’s exactly what happened to that cable ?
It went
To the scrapyard
Blamed the locals
He was trying his luck with a bit of uncovered cable ,until some one pointed out it fed a nearby tower block and removing their electricity wasn’t advised if he valued his teeth

The locals were no angels either on the isle of dogs Near East India dock gate 8 were the LDDC offices
So they built aRED brick road to signify a devolpment zone oft mentioned on London marathon coverage
Funny really there’s one gang of men laying a brick road
Half a mile behind them is another gang digging it up to lay cables of some sort .not bothering to reinstate it with bricks removed - probably sold for patios . But reinstating it with black tarmac
Anyway Ford launched the new Sierra  and there were rows of them parked outside LDDC offices   Where , daily , police high up folk and other interested buyers were driven around the red brick road showing them off ,so there aren’t any out on the uk roads anywhere
Yet enterprising locals got in and “ nicked “ a couple
So security was tightened
Imagine that
 the first cockney delboy type in a new ford Sierra trying to flog it down the local pub that night ?
When none are out in public use
Nothing deterred the locals from villainy

[Rod Paradise]

He was working in an old yard with a tower crane on rails which could move along a railway type track coiling the cable on a large spool as it went
That’s exactly what happened to that cable ?
It went
To the scrapyard
Blamed the locals
He was trying his luck with a bit of uncovered cable ,until some one pointed out it fed a nearby tower block and removing their electricity wasn’t advised if he valued his teeth

The locals were no angels either on the isle of dogs Near East India dock gate 8 were the LDDC offices
So they built aRED brick road to signify a devolpment zone oft mentioned on London marathon coverage
Funny really there’s one gang of men laying a brick road
Half a mile behind them is another gang digging it up to lay cables of some sort .not bothering to reinstate it with bricks removed - probably sold for patios . But reinstating it with black tarmac
Anyway Ford launched the new Sierra  and there were rows of them parked outside LDDC offices   Where , daily , police high up folk and other interested buyers were driven around the red brick road showing them off ,so there aren’t any out on the uk roads anywhere
Yet enterprising locals got in and “ nicked “ a couple
So security was tightened
Imagine that
 the first cockney delboy type in a new ford Sierra trying to flog it down the local pub that night ?
When none are out in public use
Nothing deterred the locals from villainy

Love those!! Local villainy isn't just in the cities. Some of the stories round here are belters.

Living in one of 2 ex-mining communities at the edge of a mainly farming region we've been a dumping ground for problem families, and an unemployment blackspot since the 80's. As such there's a lot of working on the side and a fair bit of crime. Everybody is against robbing houses (you don't do your own) or anything affecting the elderly - which with the dumping of addicts into local social housing has led to a few being run out of town.

However there's a sneaking admiration of those who will do a bit of wealth reallocation. Everybody knows what they're up to but nobody talks to the police.

A good few years go a local was public enemy number one, he lived across the road from my girlfriend at the time. We'd arrive home and be blocked from the street as the armed police squad swept the place hunting for Gumsy. My ex had a house fire one night (while I was away working) - and Gumsy saw the flames from across the street and got her out, then got back into his hiding place because the police would be about. It didn't stop him letting the police car tyres down though....

At the time a mate and I were running a local pub quiz - all the local pubs took part, team game, buzzer rounds the lot with decent payouts. We're in the pub the Fridaybefore it & 2 off duty police and one of the 'specials' were in. Everybody is discussing the quiz, and the teams entered, when one of the police asked why they hadn't been asked to enter. My mate Wee Eck, who had spent a bit of time at Her Majesty's pleasure, nudged me and turned to him.
"You need to have brains to enter our quiz, everybody else answered the prelim quiz right."
"Go on then ask us!!"
"Who won the European Cup in 67?"
"Celtic"
"Correct, who won the Cup Winners Cup in 1972?"
"Easy, Rangers."
"Correct, final question,where's Gumsy?"
Exit 2 policemen, to roars of laughter from the whole pub.

Another time one of the pubs got a fancy new steel trough for the (outside) gent's. It was in 2 days before it went missing. A day later it was offered to a pub in the next village, who declined as "Even oor polis will work that one out". The pub ended up getting it back after paying a ransom.

Or the time another local heid-the-baw was being chased across a field after stealing cigarettes from the shop. Sergeant Tommy Rome was chasing him, Tommy was about as wide as he was tall. The local worthy stopped half way across the field, and came back telling Tommy "If you have a heart attack chasing me they'll all give me the blame for killing you, I'm better taking the rap for the cigs". Tommy took the cigs back and let him go in embarrassment.

[tikay]

Loving these stories guys.

Rod, what is a "heid-the-baw"?

[booder]

Loving these stories guys.

Rod, what is a "heid-the-baw"?

a head the ball ?