Search results

That was a game we played at grammar school. You will find quite a few references to children's games here. Nominally that topic is about 19th century games but quite a few made it to more modern times.

Street play: In the late 1950s there was little road traffic on the suburban streets and very few vehicles parked on the street overnight. Particulary in the summer months the streets became a playground in the evening. Further down the road was a large Irish family, the Malloys I think. When...

Collectible toy series: As a boy there were many toys that we eagerly bought the catalogues for. Having made our selection and saved up our pennies we could head to the local newsagent or toy shop knowing that 'No. 58' would most likely be there on the shelf just waiting to be bought! Now if...

Why do wood pigeons always finish on the wrong note?

I can't believe that any EPNS ware increases in value by being tarnished. However the key part of EPNS is the 'P', 'plated'. It is the oxide of silver that is being cleaned off, eventually there will be no silver at all. Whatever pleases the owner at the end of the day!

Reading the article from 2009, isn't it sad the way newspapers go out of their way to upset relatives just to make a story? Comments get taken out of context and no doubt mis-represented and the reporter most likely made up the statement of outrage, e.g. "Were you extremely upset (when I told...

Perhaps the fashion that we have moved away from is the white glass with floral patterns? Clear glass Pyrex is still being made, (and used!).

Birmingham Co-Op supplied both types of milk. Those of my friends who had sterilised were in Co-Op supplied families, the 'pasterurised people' had milk from other companies so I always associated sterilised with the Co-Op. going by what I could see on their milk floats sterilised was their best...

It is truly remarkable how quiet their companion air compressors are now. Hydraulic power made a big change in the machines doing construction work. Something not seen now, but common from Victorian days, are excavators with scissor-action jibs. It probably started with the JCB 'diggers' and...

I think we had some resistance boxes at school that were in dark wooden boxes. our Wheatstone bridge there was in the form of a 'Post Office box' which used brass plugs to switch in the resistors and couple of 'Morse' keys to switch on the power. At work the resistance boxes were in pale green...

We called it a 'slip stick' at university but I think that was an 'in-group' thing, just as hole punches or staplers got called 'grompers' from the sound that they made! There was a fine balance to be had with a slide rule, you wanted it to slide easily but also to stay put once you had it set...

Reminds me of the story of the man who was showing off his new Rolls-Royce car to a friend. In a tray by the gear lever were a couple of golf tees. The friend asked the proud new car owner what they were, to which he answered, "They are for resting my balls on when driving off." "Blimee...

I don't think we ever used slide rules at school, only log tables. What we called Pure Maths didn't even require that an answer be evaluated, that was a mechanical 'given'. Did we even need to give a numerical answer for Applied Maths?

Slide rules required one to keep track of magnitudes so at least one had a sense of what was a valid answer before the calculation was done. Calculations involving 'pi' needed caution as multiplying or dividing gave the same sort of result! Do children use calculators now or do they just choose...

At least log tables got used. My cohort at university were all told to go out and buy imperial 'steam tables', knowing full well that the next year the faculty was going to go 'metric'. The only opportunity to use my tables was in a thermodynamics lab based around the steam generator used in...

But was one a 'Co-Op' family and the other not? That seemed to be the decider in Birmingham. Our non-Co-Op dairy, Slater's, only supplied pasteurised milk.

Often giving a choice of milk, milk or milk with their product selection buttons! Thanks for reminding me about Joseph Harris, Dry Cleaners, another of those chains like MacFisheries, Dewhurst's etc. that were part of the Birmingham scene.

"Railway overpass between the Otton (sic) [Olton] suburb and Birmingham of the four track line of the Great Western Railway over the Warwick Road. Five iron trapezoidal lattice girders, upper chords connected by cross bracing. total width: 46.3m. total length 53.3m. height 6.1m. Floor steel...

Faugh a Balla - 'Clear the way! Well who would want to get in the way of that beast!

warwickshirerailways.com and disused-stations.org.uk have quite a few photos of the traverser.