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Having chased a rugby ball all afternoon, watched while two 28 buses raced past the school, stood in the next 28 that had failed to miss the rush then been pushed to the back of the 58 queue by the stampede of Singer workers who claimed to 'have been working hard all day', your picture brings...

I am surprised how indistinct the head lamps are in #489 and #494. My memory of more moden versions was that their bodies were big and white so that they could be easily seen as headcodes in the daytime. Our ancestors must have either had very good vision or a lot of luck when one considers the...

See here for diagram.

Looks like some generic cosmetic bought and sold by a back-street marketing company. The wrappers were probably put on by the company directors in their kitchen.

I expect that the physical documents are held in the Canal River Trust archive. You probably have to be an established researcher to be allowed access. A polite email to the trust archivist might persuade them to scan/transcribe the record for you or answer sensible questions. (Its not unusual...

Didn't always keep to the rules? Correspondence relating to unregistered boats on the Birmingham Canal Navigations belonging to William Swingler Coal Merchant, Heath Street Canal Coal Wharf, Concerning boats "Fox", "Lion" and "No 27", with company reply February 1932-November 1933

It's not uncommon for a trade to use different terms than those used by its customers, i.e. the trade employs 'roundsmen' and the public sees 'milkmen'. (Flight Assistants v Air Hostesses?). Working for the 'Christmas Post' I discovered then that postmen had 'walks', they certainly weren't...

UK dial had '6' as 'MN' only to avoid confusion between 'O' and '0'.

Someone else who worked to put in the telephone service here. The Birmingham Telephone Area wasn't restricted to just Birmingham, factors like 'community of interest' and the associated telephone traffic determine boundaries, not local authorities!

Index No. M.R. 29 Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial Part XXXII (U.K.) Whoops! Getting careless in my old age.

Index No. M.R. 29 Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial Part XXXII (U.K.)

I have an IBM 'Golfball' typewriter in the loft. I made up an interface cable, bought a box for the interface and started to populate a driver board. The original 'ball' only had uppercase letters but I managed to buy a mixed case ball. By then the enthusiasm had waned and the LX-80 9 pin dot...

Before the electronic computer there were some amazingly complicated mechanical devices. Once the big electronic computer got established there was a need for high-speed printing and the mechanical experts took up the challenge in a big way, noise was a secondary consideration. I never heard a...

Comptometer Operator was a job that could be done from home. My schoolfriend's mother had such a machine, complete with fabric cover, in the corner of the living room. That must have been around 1958-59. I don't know if it was hers or if it belonged to her employer or perhaps an agency? In the...

Somewhat sad that all the fancy building details at the roof line and around the windows have been defaced by neglect, upvc windows , meter boxes and a cheap shop front. Those Victorian buildings must have looked quite smart when new. It is quite worthwhile taking a trip out of town on the...

Judging by the fall of the land and clear views of the internal roads surely it has to be Thornhill Road entrance? The pillars have probably all been completely taken down and the special stonework recovered and put into new builds.

692 is a Smallbrook exchange number, I would have thought that was post-1969, certainly not a number that had a pre-All Figure Number equivalent. A question best asked on the Birmingham Telephones thread!

A Longsite, Manchester image. The lintels are similar to those in the original photo but the chimneys are quite different.

If you can get rid of any anti-virus software installed it might run even faster! I am convinced that all PCs run faster when new and that Bill Gates and his pals bog them down as time goes by. (A few years ago I had a problem with my Win 10 laptop and I rushed out and bought a desktop Win 10...

The Mill Pool on Lode Lane isn't normally accessible as it is on private land now belonging to the 1st Solihull Scout Group. Lyndon House with its fish ponds across the road from Aldi, Sheldon might have been there in your day but now long gone. The adjacent brook, before it was put into a...