Castle Aching

[TheQ]

On the North Norfolk coast we're surrounded by Gastro-Pubs all making more from selling food than drink. Without that, and the tourists who keep the places going, we would be surrounded by ex-pubs. My village is down to two pubs now – and no streetlights.

I'd agree with that, I can see the north Norfolk coast from this site of a former pub, and the one i refer to is just a mile inland..

[Hroth]

When we lived in Coleford, on Mendip, the last bus from Bath arrived at about 9.55pm. The street lights went out at 10pm. So halfway between the bus stop and the vicarage, one was suddenly plunged into darkness, usually as one passed Gertie Hancock's slaughter house. She was the butcher. Her sister, Flo, kept the accounts - using the compulsory but otherwise unused fridge to keep the ledgers in.

It'd be a good idea to pay your bills on time then.....

[Bill_J]

There was a pub on the road at the eastern end of Duxford aerodrome in the mid sixties. The landlady must have been in her eighties at the time. I had a little job for some months, I would cut across the airfield and through the hedge to check the fuel level and start the generator so there was electricity for the evening opening hours. She paid me 5 bob a week. When she felt like talking, she had some stories to tell about the war years.

 

Douglas Bader, apparently, could put away a lot of beer of an evening.

[St Enodoc]

There was a pub on the road at the eastern end of Duxford aerodrome in the mid sixties. The landlady must have been in her eighties at the time. I had a little job for some months, I would cut across the airfield and through the hedge to check the fuel level and start the generator so there was electricity for the evening opening hours. She paid me 5 bob a week. When she felt like talking, she had some stories to tell about the war years.

 

Douglas Bader, apparently, could put away a lot of beer of an evening.

Hollow legs...

 

Hat, coat, etc.

[Donw]

Lots of rural areas only received an electric supply during the 50s. Before that they lived as generations had before.  When Ken Payne moved into his cottage there was no electric supply when they were finally connected some years later he missed the gentle his of the Tilley lamps. There used to be businesses offering a recharging service for accumulators (aka batteries) these were needed for the wireless. True you could use a crystal set which only use the power of the received signal but my Mother said it was hard trying to all cluster round a tiny speaker and amplification required some electric power. There is still a remnant of this service in old caravan sites which still offer a battery charging service.

 

Don 

[TheQ]

Water is the same, a house I lived in in the early 1980s in Norfolk had only got mains water 10 years before. This house has in the well, the remains of fittings for an electric water pump, so water arrived here first.

You can see the track of the sewer pipes in the road as the surface has never been resurfaced since. Not that this house is on mains sewerage, it's much cheaper to pay for the honey wagon to turn up.

[Nearholmer]

All those accumulators were why Hornby made 6V D.C. versions of some of their 0 locos in the twenties and thirties, it was one step up from clockwork.

[RedGemAlchemist]

All those accumulators were why Hornby made 6V D.C. versions of some of their 0 locos in the twenties and thirties, it was one step up from clockwork.

I'd love modern OO versions of some of the old O freelance ones. Some of them look great. Edited May 17, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[Northroader]

As a kid in the 1940s, Sunday mornings I would regularly go with dad to visit his brother half a mile walk away. He lived with his wife in a squatters cottage, a primitive house on its own set away in the middle of old pitmounds with just a footpath nearby. The toilet was an outside privy, god knows where the sewage went. Water was fetched by my aunt from a pump 200 yards away (my uncle was incapacitated by a WW1 disability) there was a coal fire which had an iron range with a little crane to hang a kettle and an oven built in. Lighting was by paraffin lamp, the paraffin came in a can with a screw top, filled from a big tank at the back of the grocers near us. They did have a radio, this was powered by an accumulator, once a week it went to the cinema a mile away to swap for a charged one, this being done in a shed at the back of the cinema, where there rows of accumulators all clipped to leads. Dad had one of the self improvement books we’ve been on about, as back in the 20s his sideline was making radio aerials, which looked like a Christmas tree bashed out of cable.

The old cottage has gone now, but they recreated a similar one at Blists Hill Museum, and when I saw it, it did bring back a load of memories.http://wendywallace.co.uk/2012/07/squatters-cottage/

[St Enodoc]

Water is the same, a house I lived in in the early 1980s in Norfolk had only got mains water 10 years before. This house has in the well, the remains of fittings for an electric water pump, so water arrived here first.

You can see the track of the sewer pipes in the road as the surface has never been resurfaced since. Not that this house is on mains sewerage, it's much cheaper to pay for the honey wagon to turn up.

When I lived near Leeds in the 80s there were houses in the next village that still had earth closets.

 

(Cue: Ee, they were lucky...).

[Annie]

Discussion of such things brings back memories.  When I lived on an off-shore island I lived in a one roomed 'bach' with a cast iron wood stove for heat and cooking and no electricity.  There was a 'privy' outside and water was collected off the roof when it rained and stored in a large galvanised steel water tank on a tank stand.  And I must say that I was completely happy.  The views of the surrounding landscape were of course reasonably spectacular and it was all wonderfully quiet and peaceful.

Later on I had a small wind powered generator based on a Sturmey-Archer dyno-hub which charged a large car battery for 12 volt lighting.  It had a box of tricks made by someone clever that turned the output of the dyno-hub into 12 volts and after using kerosene lamps it seemed quite spectacularly modern.  For such a lifestyle it did help that I was young and fit though as there was a lot of fetching and carrying, - and cutting and splitting wood for the stove for the week would occupy me for half a day of my weekend.

There was power supplied to the island by an undersea cable at that stage, but the cost of getting it connected up to my bach was astronomical so I didn't bother.  When the weather was bad and stormy power could get knocked out on the island for up to three days at a time though and when I'd go into work there would be long faces from everyone who were on the 'mains' and I'd be told, - 'And you can shut up too,' - because they all knew the power being 'off' didn't worry me in the slightest.

[RedGemAlchemist]

I've never lived in a house that hasn't had mains water and modern toilets. Then again I was born in the early 90s.
My primary school at Rockland however still had outdoor toilets until I was about Year 3. And my current house doesn't have mains sewage simply because of how isolated it is.

Edited May 18, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[Hroth]

Cozy suburban domesticity, thats the ticket!

 

All I can add is that my parents got gas central heating installed in the early 60s, just after the horrid winter of 62-63.  The boiler was taller than I was, and my mother would put bread dough on top of it to rise.  My brother and I would race blobs of plasticene down the radiator pipe in our room.....

 

However, the toilets at our primary school were outdoors, across the playground.  Not fun when the rain was pelting down!

 

 

My maternal grandmother had a doorbell powered by a Leclanché cell that lived in the cupboard under the stairs......

Edited May 18, 2018 by Hroth

[Guy Rixon]

At my place in Devon, the loos for the row of five cottages were communal, in an outbuilding across the road. The houses are on a very restricted site between the road and a mill leat, so all gardens and outdoor facilities were on a separate, facing plot. The cottages got modern plumbing in a 1970's rebuild, somewhat before my family owned one.

 

My neighbour owns the privy building; it's now a lean-to again his garage and is used as a store, the latrine pits having been filled in. If I could buy it and refit it it might make a railway room.

[TheQ]

SWMBO remembers the tin bath routine, when her Dad was a steel worker in Sheffield.

 

I know where the privies were for the pub that was on this house's site, there were three, in a line along the fence, just up hill of the  two wells... one of which took In rainwater

 The brick foundations are still there for the privies.

 

Our primary school loos were also across the playground the sitters were part roofed but the standing was not, , this is it after the school was abandoned, and long after they roofed the loos.. ( there was no markings on the walls then, but there was a white line down the middle of the playground, boys on the left and girls on the right. and a teacher stood at the other end.

you can see the re plastering of the walls as the old wall sloped down towards the back where the sitters were.

 

The connection, railways, is the site was given By Mr C. Awdry, along with £6,000 towards the construction of the School. The Awdry family owned the Advowson of the church next Door, ( you can just see the church yard where two of my grandparents and many of the family repose) yes it's that Awdry family... The School however is not in Norfolk But Wiltshire.

Edited May 18, 2018 by TheQ

[Donw]

The first house we bought was in Ironbridge near to Blists Hill. As bought there was electricity but cooking had been done on a Iron range (no doubt from the Coalbrookdale foundry. Water was a standpipe although there was a well which had been covered over. No sink or drainage the earth closet was down the garden which was across the communal front path to the houses. We put in a septic tank bathroom and kitchen

The second house was on the Wenlock Edge no drains a private water supply and electricity The earth closets were down the garden across the shared driveway along the back of the houses. A regular sight was our neighbour Alf returning from the earth closet still tucking his shirt into his trousers. We installed a septic tank, bathrooom and kitchen. The roof was falling in and we rebuilt that as well as new floors 

The third was a pre-fab which had electric , water and a septic tank but also dry rot and had to be completely re-built ( a new one built round the outside and the old taken down within.) The septic tank proved to be solid and we dug it out

 

The majority of the places we have bought have had major work carried out. All three of the above were purchased in the 1970s  so for a steam age railway not unusual

 

Don

[DonB]

 

Our primary school loos were also across the playground the sitters were part roofed but the standing was not, , this is it after the school was abandoned, and long after they roofed the loos.. ( there was no markings on the walls then, but there was a white line down the middle of the playground, boys on the left and girls on the right. and a teacher stood at the other end.

820854_a28fa0841.jpg

you can see the re plastering of the walls as the old wall sloped down towards the back where the sitters were.

 

 

I worked at Foundry where there was a toilet block in the yard, comprising an ex air-raid shelter with a couple of windows inserted in the walls and looking rather like TheQ's  picture. 820854_a28fa0841.jpg

A male only facility, it boasted a long sloping  trough, with running water, passing the whole length of the building, with a series of modesty partitions (no doors!) and a broad plank to sit on, smoothed and shaped by countless posteriors.

A favourite ploy, if you were brave enough, was to enter at the highest point of the trough and float a crumpled, ignited(!), sheet of newspaper down the trough to howls of protest and threats of retribution, using a suitable Anglo-Saxon vocabulary.

Fortunately the "facility" was no longer in use when I joined the company, being bricked-up in 1963 when the water supply froze! Unfortunately my department needed the site for a 4 tonne Propane tank, so I got the job of demolishing the structure, it's 9 inch thick reinforced concrete roof  was a "bit of a problem"!

[Edwardian]

Quick update!

 

While I was out yesterday, the two Sharp Stewart tenders arrived.  I picture the bodies below.

 

These are from Knuckles of this Parish, aka Sparkshot Custom Creations.  He has lots of other nice stuff!

 

They are in FUD.  They are really superb. I am particularly struck by the fineness of the rivet detail and the flaring.

 

I will struggle to make locomotive bodies to go with them with sufficient detail and finesse!

 

The two protrusions on top in the centre are the buffer guides, BTW.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Edwardian

[RedGemAlchemist]

Quick update!

 

While I was out yesterday, the two Sharp Stewart tenders arrived.  I picture the bodies below.

 

These are from Knuckles of this Parish, aka Sparkshot Custom Creations.  he has lots of other nice stuff!

 

They are in FUD.  They are really superb. I am particularly stuck by the fineness of the rivet detail and the flaring.

 

I will struggle to make locomotive bodies to go with them with sufficient detail and finesse!

 

The two protrusions on top in the centre are the buffer guides, BTW.tad

Those are some BEAUTIFUL looking tenders. You must be so proud.

[Guy Rixon]

Quick update!

 

While I was out yesterday, the two Sharp Stewart tenders arrived.  I picture the bodies below.

 

These are from Knuckles of this Parish, aka Sparkshot Custom Creations.  he has lots of other nice stuff!

 

They are in FUD.  They are really superb. I am particularly stuck by the fineness of the rivet detail and the flaring.

 

I will struggle to make locomotive bodies to go with them with sufficient detail and finesse!

 

The two protrusions on top in the centre are the buffer guides, BTW.tad

 

Excellent. The sides look commendably smooth. Knuckles must have found the right spell to get Shapeways to do things right.

 

What are the arrangements for axle bearings?

[Edwardian]

Excellent. The sides look commendably smooth. Knuckles must have found the right spell to get Shapeways to do things right.

 

What are the arrangements for axle bearings?

 

Thanks Guy.

 

Well, you may have noticed that I added GER coach accessories Set C, enough for 4 coaches, to the order, plus some extra GE buffer guides!  Thanks again for 'stepping up to the plate' (whatever that means) and producing these.

 

As for the tenders, I opted for BSF for the chassis and am advised that the chassis may need a little dressing at the insertion lips for a tight working clearance but that, other than adding some 2mm straw hat bearings and a few spacing washers, the running of them is pretty simple.

 

The chassis sprue includes the tender brake shoes.  The brake rigging itself is left to be fabricated as it would be too delicate to print.

 

Now, because I had to go up to Town yesterday (on one of my periodic judicial review sprees, by which means 'Edwardian Troubles the Counsels of the Great'), I hitched a lift on the school run.  It was "Medieval Day" at Tabitha's prep school (I would have said “Mediæval”, but I daresay that's just my funny little way), which involved, literally, knights in shining armour jousting on the Senior School's rugby pitch, and a spot of light falconry! 

 

This proved the perfect excuse for all the girls to turn up in their best Disney Princess outfits, complete with tall pointy hats; you know the sort of thing.

 

Not so our Tabitha, as I think I may call her here.

 

Oh no.  Our little Wednesday Addams had thought long and hard about the most significant event of the Middle Ages, so turned up dressed as a carrier of the Bubonic Plague; good old rattus rattus, the Black Rat. 

 

In a Fairy Tale pageant, only our daughter would choose to come as a Vector of Disease.

 

Actually, you know, I'm rather proud.

[Hroth]

...

 

Now, because I had to go up to Town yesterday (on one of my periodic judicial review sprees, by which means 'Edwardian Troubles the Counsels of the Great'), I hitched a lift on the school run.  It was "Medieval Day" at Tabitha's prep school (I would have said “Mediæval”, but I daresay that's just my funny little way), which involved, literally, knights in shining armour jousting on the Senior School's rugby pitch, and a spot of light falconry! 

 

This proved the perfect excuse for all the girls to turn up in their best Disney Princess outfits, complete with tall pointy hats; you know the sort of thing.

 

Not so our Tabitha, as I think I may call her here.

 

Oh no.  Our little Wednesday Addams had thought long and hard about the most significant event of the Middle Ages, so turned up dressed as a carrier of the Bubonic Plague; good old rattus rattus, the Black Rat. 

 

In a Fairy Tale pageant, only our daughter would choose to come as a Vector of Disease.

 

Actually, you know, I'm rather proud.

 

Good work all round!

 

Hope your meeting with Mr Slant was successful, at least you survived the encounter.  I hope Miss Ts colleagues did so too.....

 

Nice tenders!

 

 

Actually I just popped in to enquire if the Parish Council had arranged a Street Party for the Young and Deserving Poor to celebrate todays Royal Nuptials?  A Bunting and Banner strewn street in Castle Aching would be a scene to Gladden the Hearts of Young and Old!

 

(What with all the flag-waving and muddy thugs, I might get some modelling done today...)

Edited May 19, 2018 by Hroth

[Guy Rixon]

Oh no.  Our little Wednesday Addams had thought long and hard about the most significant event of the Middle Ages, so turned up dressed as a carrier of the Bubonic Plague; good old rattus rattus, the Black Rat. 

 

In a Fairy Tale pageant, only our daughter would choose to come as a Vector of Disease.

 

She's not wrong about the significance. +5 insightful.

 

Of course, the number one significant event of the high middle-ages was Henry V kicking the bucket before he'd sorted out the French. But it's hard to find an acceptable costume for that. 

[RedGemAlchemist]

Those are some BEAUTIFUL looking tenders. You must be so proud.

Knuckles liked something I said.

 

 

 

 

 

Also yes, going as a black rat to a medieval event is actually pretty clever in my opinion.

Edited May 19, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[Hroth]

She's not wrong about the significance. +5 insightful.

 

Of course, the number one significant event of the high middle-ages was Henry V kicking the bucket before he'd sorted out the French. But it's hard to find an acceptable costume for that. 

Dunno...

 

On the "Princess" theme Miss T could have gone as Henrys missus, Catherine of Valois.  Or as a Welsh archer, though that might have been interpreted as a Robin Hood reference. 

 

All in all, the rat was an inspired choice!