-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
Your oldest domestic tool
- Thread starter The Baron
- Start date
G G Jean
Brummy Wench.
Betty Liz why not come into the snug and make up the numbers [off topic] but my other half does any chores about the house apart from COOK. I still have kitchen thingies that my dogg chewed the handles to bits and I have not the heart to get rid so have kept them in a bag. She was only a pup mind. Jean.
Graham
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Bernard that's a good point and if you read this excerpt from a piece I wrote for internet some years ago I'm sure you will find an answer to your question.
What could be more typically Belgian than ‘frieten’ (French fried potatoes)? I can remember an article in an English cycling magazine some time ago where they ‘tried’ to sketch a picture of life in Belgium and had Alan Peiper initiating British cyclists into the occult art of making ‘world famous’ Belgian French fries. Well I can tell you he didn’t have a clue!
History would have us believe that the Belgians invented chips so it is only normal that they have a reputation to uphold. The story goes back to the year 1680 when the poor inhabitants of Namur, and other towns in the area, used to fry whole small fish that they had caught in the nearby river Meuse, this to supplement their meals. But when the river was frozen over, or in times of flooding when it was too dangerous to go fishing, they would cut potatoes into fish shapes or cut them lengthwise and fry them as an accompaniment to their meals. By the year 1900 frieten were a staple diet of the Belgians, but were still almost unknown to their Dutch neighbours. It is said that the first Dutch ‘frietkot’ appeared in 1905 at the Bergen op Zoom fair ground and then travelled all over the country so spreading the fame of the ‘friet’, or ‘patat’ as it is known in the Netherlands.
The English name for friet, French fries, is said to have originated from the allied British & America soldiers of the First World War who tasted Belgian ‘frieten’ for the first time. Because in those days the official language of the Belgian military was French, the allied soldiers called these ‘pommes de terre frites’ French fries. Probably originating from the French verb ‘frire’ meaning deep-fried and it’s conjugation in the past participle ‘frites’ and used with the plural feminine substantive as in ‘pommes de terre frites’ (deep-fried potatoes). But there is evidence from American cook books that the term ‘French fried potatoes’ was in use long before the First World War. In 1860 the first ‘chips’ were fried in England at Tommyfield Market in Oldham, and the first town in Scotland to succumb to this temptation was Dundee.
Graham.
Were Black and Deker based in Long Acre?
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
yes by the school. we used to mooch in the scrap bins when we was kids, some good swag in there to experiment with
paul stacey
master brummie
I still have one of these B&D drills with attachments and box's, together with an original AA, plastic replacement wind screen, and turn of the 20th C, of various sizes, bricklayers wooden levels, and plumb lines.??
izzy eckerslike
master brummie
We have a 100 year old broom, so far it's had 5 new heads and two new handles
jmadone
master brummie
Courtesy of Trigger in Only Fools & HorsesWe have a 100 year old broom, so far it's had 5 new heads and two new handles
I do have a garden hoe given to me by my grandfather in the 50s and I still use it regularly for weeding etc. weather permitting.
Only just come across this thread today. Timely perhaps because I am just sending off a box of old 'goodies' to a nine year old lad, I read about in Peoples Friend a few weeks ago. He has started a little Museum in his Gran's shed. It really inspired me and as he was interested in things relating to the war I have sent him an oil lamp we used to use when we went down the shelter during the war. Also included a small ball pane hammer that I first used 87 years ago at the age of three when my parents went to a funeral and gave me some 1/2 inch nails to knock into the ends of the leg of a stool. Also include a slide rule used when I went to Handsworth Tech in 1945/46. Also included several other things bought when a kid including a John Bull printing set
Crashtestdougie
Brummie babby
Not domestic but I still regularly use some of my Dad's old tools from his time as a machine tool fitter at Lucas Aerospace and before that at The Nuffield - micrometers/spanners/circlip pliers and internal/external calipers etc when working on my Lambretta.What is the longest serving domestic tool you use around the home?
fridge, tv, lawnmower or what.
We have a fridge (GEC COLDSPACE) still on good working order after 47 year, I purchased it from the old GEC MAGNET CLUB SHOP Witton back in 1962. Its now used as my extra beer store LOL
Richard Dye
master brummie
Pete, I would say those castings are well aged and ready for use
not sure about the paint cans!
Lady Penelope
master brummie
I still use my Nan's apple corer which I remember her using when I was little. Mom had it for years and now it's still really useful for making baked apples filled with raisins and brown sugar or honey. Sometimes if the apples are quite hard I have to bash it with a rolling pin to get it through.
pjmburns
master brummie
On clearing my late Dad's flat I have found my Mother's mixing bowl. I have fond memories of "helping" stir the Christmas puddings in it. So the bowl was probably acquired when my parents married in 1950. Needless to say it will not be thrown out but will come home with me. Will post a photo when I get it home.
Richard Dye
master brummie
Janice, is that one of those creamy yellow colored ones?
pjmburns
master brummie
Yes. Will collect it tomorrow - couldn't carry it on Tuesday
Richard Dye
master brummie
My wife has one of those, her mothers she loves to bake with our grandchildren. But it is SO heavy and difficult to handle with arthritis in your hands.
A couple of years she bought a set of flowery stackable plastic ones that are very easy to handle for everyone and have proven to be quite durable.
mbenne
master brummie
My Nan's old flat iron. There were two, but only have the smaller one. I can remember her heating them on a gas hob to do her ironing. No idea of its origin or how old it is but was used up until around 1967. Sadly, the manufacturer details are so rusted I cant read it. Looks something like - E Pugh & Co, the No6 I'm guessing is a size or weight and first two letters at the bottom look like MEA-----?
No longer used for ironing, far too rusty, but makes a good door stop. Any ideas on age, manufacture etc? My Grandparents married in 1930 so the date of manufacture could span either side of that date.
No longer used for ironing, far too rusty, but makes a good door stop. Any ideas on age, manufacture etc? My Grandparents married in 1930 so the date of manufacture could span either side of that date.
Last edited:
The site https://sdfhs.org/blog/washing-day/ shows a photo of an iron which looks very similar from E Pugh & Co, Hall Green Foundry, Wednesbury, though a no 3 size rather than a no 6. they appear in directories up to 1914, but are not ther ein 1924
