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Bbc Turn Back The Time Programme

dwilly

dwilly

master brummie
Stumbled upon this website today, its a flickr group and contains other places other than Birmingham but does include picture from around Birmingham. The idea seems to be to have a picture from the past and take a picture, or place onto a picture, from today. Look interesting and sure members on here could contribute if they wanted to.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/bbcturnbacktime/
 
dwilly nice one.

Specialty liked the Christchurch Passage one as it brought back memories of the Roson lighter service shop and taking my lighter in there and having a full service Free of charge. Couldn't happen now a days:)
 
This is my niece Gill Cockwell, who is in the programmes starting next week.
Gill (31) is a master craftswoman - she's a designer, dressmaker and corsetry specialist. She began her sewing career at the tender age of 6 and was sketching designs and fashioning garments by the time she was 10 years old. As part of her evolving portfolio, Gill has become an experienced stylist who works regularly with commercial photographers and respected hair salons on magazine photo-shoots and catwalk shows.
 
How wonderful John to have a niece like Gill so talented. I can see it runs in the family. Sewing was always my first love I had a singer just like the one on Gill's table. I went into hairdressing instead but I still ocasionally make some clothes but don't seem to have the time now. When is the programme on as this will interest me very much.
 
Hello Wendy, yes Gill is pretty good,she has her own dressmaking business in Bristol just google gillywoo.
Starts tonight for 6 weeks Gill is in next weeks programme .
 
It may be me but I loved the programme it did make me laugh. I have a gt grandfather on Dad's side who was a baker and confectioner the programme said they didn't live long. My John Jennings had a bakery in Burbury Street Lozells from 1850's untill 1890's he died aged 89.
My grandfather was a butcher with shops in Handsworth, West Brom and Yardley but sadly he died in his 60's. The programme made me laugh on how they did anything to make money.
 
I have just watched this programme, it was an eye opener in many ways in what they did to make a bit more profit. All the shopkeepers found they had to work so much harder and for longer to make a living then. JohnK I look forward to seeing Gill in next week's programme, they have just trailed that there will be a high class ladies dressmaker in I believe the Edwardian period.
 
I really enjoyed the programme. I was shocked at the things they put in the food to make it look more appealing or to bulk it out. Sawdust in bread - YUK! And all those flies on the meat hanging up outside which would still be sold when it was going off.

I am really looking forward to next weeks programme.

John, How wonderful that your niece is in it next week - don't forget to record it!:)
Polly :)
 
Polly
I agree it was a thoroughly enjoyable program. Sawdust probably wouldn't have been too bad in bread, provided it wasn't contaminated. I would have affected the texture , but wouldn't have been harmful. purified cellulose (which basically is the main thing in sawdust) has been used in recent times on occasion as a filler in low calorie food products. i have experimented with finely ground cocoa shell. It porcuded a nice brown rather heavy bread, unfortunately it also produced very strong indegestion ! It might have been that I just put too much in, but I didn't care to repeat the experiment. One adulteration which was practiced on occasion could have been used in the tins of sardines in the grocers (if the program didn't mind being sued!). It was noy unknown for liquid paraffin to be used to adulterate vegetable oils, so the sardines could have been bathed in 'that. I'm sure you know what that used to be used for. It would have really lubricated the system, though i have been told that , in the war, when cooking oils and fats were difficult to obtain, it was sometimes used by people in cakes ,
mike
 
We still put things in food today to make them more appealing or to bulk them up. We just call them different things these days and hide them behind fancy names or numbers!
 
Loved the programme I was stationed near Shepton Malet in the mid 1950s and it was a busy little town then and I'm sure all those shops would have been thriving:)
 
Mike, am I allowed to ask why you ever experimented with ground cocoa shell in bread and where did you get the shell from in the first place - it is not something I have ever seen on the supermarket shelf (is it???)
I can imagine the effect on the body that sardines in liquid paraffin would have - how awful for the people who had to eat them.

I wonder if in a 100 years time people will sit and watch a programme about us and wonder why we ate the food we eat today?
Polly :)
 
Polly
The cocoa bean has a hard shell round it which is largely removed before you grind it to make chocolate. It is really a waste material. At one time (1930s) it was sold to chemical companies who extracted theobromine from it , which they then converted to caffeine, but it was later cheaper to make the caffeine chemically. It was not sold commercially. Nowadays it is either burnt to provide energy, or spread as a mulch. You can actually buy it as a mulch at garden centres.
I used to work in R & D for Cadburys. At the time i was in Leeds , looking at cocoa flavour and wanted to look at et effect of heating cocoa shell with vartous other components. I asked for a sample to do the experiment, only wanting 100gms. However the factory sent me a large sackful. at the time I made a lot of my own bread and just thought I'd see how it acted as fibre in the bread = with the results i have described .
Mike
 
mikejee said:
Polly
The coca bean has a hard shell round it which is largely removed before you grind it to make chocolate. It is really a waste material. At one time (1930s) it was sold to chemical companies who extracted theobromine from it , which they then converted to caffeine, but it was later cheaper to make the caffeine chemically. It was not sold commercially. Nowadays it is either burnt to provide energy, or spread as a mulch. You can actually buy it as a mulch at garden centres.
I used to work in R & D for Cadburys. At the time i was in Leeds , looking at cocoa flavour and wanted to look at et effect of heating cocoa shell with vartous other components. I asked for a sample to do the experiment, only wanting 100gms. However the factory sent me a large sackful. at the time I made a lot of my own bread and just thought I'd see how it acted as fibre in the bread = with the results i have described .
Mike
Click to expand...

WARNING: Cocoa mulch can be harmful to cats and dogs! Be careful if you're spreading it in the garden.
 
Thanks for explaining Mike, you are always such a great source of information! As I have cats I will definitely avoid it as a mulch.

Polly :)
 
This is picture of an upper class confectioners from a book I bought to find out more about the bakery buisness. The book is dated 1906. I thought it was a lovely picture.:)

Bakery_1906.jpg
 
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I agree it is a lovely picture Wendy, it would be wonderful to be able to buy bread and cakes from such a wonderful shop. Over the years we have lost so many individual shops and stores to the rise of the supermarkets.
 
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