Hello Rob 128.Yes remember John Shorthouse very well spoke with him on the phone last year. also his sister Betty.Remember John Poynter well also Iv got a pic of him somwhere in Station Road Football Team lived in Station Road and went to school with John at Birchfields Road. bobby B
Wasnt A Bad Cup Of Tea ,If I Remember Correctlly They Was The First To Offer Customers A Six Pence Orange Coloured Stamp On The Side Of The Packet
And You Collected Them Up To The Value Of Five Bob ,,[ two half crowns]
Take Then On The Card To The Shop And Claim Your Five Bob ,
My Old Lady Done It Regular Came In Handy When She Had No Money , Ah .
That Was Every Day Of The Week ,
Hi there, I thought you might like to know that I worked at Barber's Teas for almost 3 years. I was booted out aged 19 as "redundant" after Twinings of London bought the company. The main boss was a Mr Stanley (as we called him) with a less senior partner called My Waugh. He was the only "taster" at the company. I was there aged 16 to 19 and initially as a person who opened the tea chests and poured the tea leaves into one of 2 hoppers. There were usually 5 or 6 of us plus the foreman, "Eric" who smoked like a chimney. Two West Indians (one called Justin...great bloke) and two brothers, Fred and Edward Brown and myself. A change of employees were appointed at various times during my "stay"and at one point, I had become the foreman sorting out the blends for the princely sum of 2/6 per hour working 52 & half hours a week. Eventually I was moved downstairs to the large mixing drum where the tea leaves had been cut and rolled. After mixing, I filled and stacked the tea chests for later pouring into hoppers on that floor which was then packed into 1/4lb or 1/2lb packets. Larger bags of 5 or 6lbs were packed on the "drum floor".Barber's Teas was located on the corner of Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street @ 5 storeys high. During breaks a few of us used to go up to the flat, railed-off roof and watch the demolition and re-building of Birmingham Centre. Somewhere in my possession, I have a photo of me "holding" a letter on the Barber's Teas sign, on the roof of the company. Trivia: The teabags we use today are "royalty" compared to the ones we had in the late 1950's....which we called "Sachets"...and tasted bloody awful! Similar to dunking paper into a cup because thats what they tasted like! When mixing a blend of tea for tea sachets with a very fine "cut", the extraction fan (which was near the drum) was switched off because without the tea dust going into the "mix", there would be no real colour to the tea once it was steeped. NB. the dust added to the "acceptable" colour. More Trivia: I believe Barbers were the first company to start supplying concentrated, liquid tea in 1 gallon, plastic containers (similar to bottled, liquid, Camp Coffee , WITHOUT THE LEAVES! During the last months I was there, I was sent to Mr Waugh's office to help in making the concentrated liquid tea..... The leaves were steeped for 2 &3/4minutes on a timer (to avoid causing too much tanning) liquid was filtered out of a large urn and used leaves were placed in a cotton sheet to be fly-pressed to gain extra strong liquid. the 1 gallon containers were then placed in a very large fridge for cooling and later delivery by one of the salesmen to selected restaurants and cafés in Birmingham Centre.. To this day I have no knowledge as to whether other tea companies attempted this. Maybe the above will answer your queryYes, there was an advert hoarding there until a year or so back. What happened to Barber's tea, anyway? And 'Little Miss Barber'?
My pleasure.Hi there, I thought you might like to know that I worked at Barber's Teas for almost 3 years. I was booted out aged 19 as "redundant" after Twinings of London bought the company. The main boss was a Mr Stanley (as we called him) with a less senior partner called My Waugh. He was the only "taster" at the company. I was there aged 16 to 19 and initially as a person who opened the tea chests and poured the tea leaves into one of 2 hoppers. There were usually 5 or 6 of us plus the foreman, "Eric" who smoked like a chimney. Two West Indians (one called Justin...great bloke) and two brothers, Fred and Edward Brown and myself. A change of employees were appointed at various times during my "stay"and at one point, I had become the foreman sorting out the blends for the princely sum of 2/6 per hour working 52 & half hours a week. Eventually I was moved downstairs to the large mixing drum where the tea leaves had been cut and rolled. After mixing, I filled and stacked the tea chests for later pouring into hoppers on that floor which was then packed into 1/4lb or 1/2lb packets. Larger bags of 5 or 6lbs were packed on the "drum floor".Barber's Teas was located on the corner of Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street @ 5 storeys high. During breaks a few of us used to go up to the flat, railed-off roof and watch the demolition and re-building of Birmingham Centre. Somewhere in my possession, I have a photo of me "holding" a letter on the Barber's Teas sign, on the roof of the company. Trivia: The teabags we use today are "royalty" compared to the ones we had in the late 1950's....which we called "Sachets"...and tasted bloody awful! Similar to dunking paper into a cup because thats what they tasted like! When mixing a blend of tea for tea sachets with a very fine "cut", the extraction fan (which was near the drum) was switched off because without the tea dust going into the "mix", there would be no real colour to the tea once it was steeped. NB. the dust added to the "acceptable" colour. More Trivia: I believe Barbers were the first company to start supplying concentrated, liquid tea in 1 gallon, plastic containers (similar to bottled, liquid, Camp Coffee , WITHOUT THE LEAVES! During the last months I was there, I was sent to Mr Waugh's office to help in making the concentrated liquid tea..... The leaves were steeped for 2 &3/4minutes on a timer (to avoid causing too much tanning) liquid was filtered out of a large urn and used leaves were placed in a cotton sheet to be fly-pressed to gain extra strong liquid. the 1 gallon containers were then placed in a very large fridge for cooling and later delivery by one of the salesmen to selected restaurants and cafés in Birmingham Centre.. To this day I have no knowledge as to whether other tea companies attempted this. Maybe the above will answer your query