wagonman

Yes, the GWR had its own gas works which also supplied the GWR 'village'. Don't forget that Swindon was still using gas for much of its street lighting – the original reason for building gas works as domestic consumers came later. The switch from lighting to cooking/heating came later still. How many customers were private and how many commercial is difficult to quantify at this remove. Not entirely convinced of the usefulness either.

The Gas Co didn't keep those sort of records. 1 Consumer = 1 Bill payer.

Here is a bit of number-crunching I did for the Swindon United Gas Co: "A few statistics may be of interest: in 1908 the Swindon United Gas Co carbonised 10,286 tons of coal, and used 165,000 gallons of oil and 1,300 tons of coke. From that they produced 126,447,000 cu.ft. of coal gas and 50,962,000 cu.ft. of water gas. Their 8,718 consumers used 140,630,500 cu.ft of gas and the 741 public lamps 905,500 cu.ft. There were some fifty miles of gas main. On average a ton of coal would produce about 10,000 cu.ft of coal gas. Water gas was produced by passing steam over very hot coal or coke and was a way of boosting the hydrogen content of ‘town’ gas. It was also used in the commercial production of ammonia. Swindon United added up to 28% water gas to their supply."

The Mendip limestone was particularly hard and non-friable – hence its popularity for roadstone and railway ballast uses. "Granite", however, it was not, though Wainwright's quarry at Moons Hill works a basaltic intrusion, the Andesite produced being very hard. Richard

Yesterday it reached 37° here on the north Norfolk coast – it got progressively hotter as you moved west as a colleague with an appointment in King's Lynn found out. I've experienced higher temperatures but only inside a sauna.

I'm not sure we can assume the non-local-merchant's wagons only made a single appearance. If there was a local user with a regular order from a particular source it is possible for the same wagon to have made multiple trips, particularly if it was operated by one of the smaller factors. This probably doesn't account for all of your missing 50, but it starts to nibble around the edges.

Bread and circuses – or more accurately Empire, Royalty, the Flag, and hatred of foreigners – has been the Tory ploy to keep the proles on-side since at least the time of the 3rd Reform Act. Alas, it seems it still works, though now it's Brexit, 'illegal' migrants, and 'benefit scroungers'.

Someone once observed that if a thousand economists were laid end to end, they wouldn't reach ... a conclusion.

Do you actually know what Momentum's agenda is? The 2017 Manifesto seemed pretty popular. The position now is such that anyone daring to say anything as self-evidently sensible as "progressive income tax is fair, that you only get the social services you pay for, and that one single loophole-exploiting billionaire costs this country more than all of the 'benefit scroungers' put together?" is likely to be dismissed as a rabid Leftie. I very much doubt you will hear anything like that from the Labour Party; Greens, perhaps. See below on Overton Window... :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Apart from the music... The upside of the '70s was the relative lack of inequality; towards the end of the decade the Gini coefficient for the UK reached its lowest value ever – and has been rising steadily ever since. Now we live in what is touted as the 5th richest country, though it's probably more like 7th by now thanks to Brexit, yet we have 14.5 million (22%) officially classed as in poverty (source: JRF). This is not an accident.

In case you hadn't noticed, Labour is already a party of the Centre Right having ruthlessly stamped on any remaining hint of democratic Socialism. Effectively, it is the left wing of the Tory Party. If you want evidence, the recent order to abstain in the vote on feeding hungry children, and the announcement that he will do nothing to remove the private sector from the NHS should give you a clue. And that's just the last few days. Every time Rachel Reeves opens her mouth you can hear Thatcher applauding from her grave. This country is crying out for meaningful change but Starmer & Co won't give it to them. Please adjust your Overton Window...

That's one bit of the '70s I managed to miss!

I too have met La Truss. Vapid is the word that springs most readily to mind.

Having lived through both, I'd much rather be back in the '70s than the '50s.

Surely you've heard of her before – if only as the worst, most supine Attorney General in history.

Apropos nothing very much – progress perhaps – while researching Devon coal merchants I came across a local press report into a meeting of the Primrose League shortly after the start of Lord Salisbury's government in 1895 where the delegates were rejoicing to think there would be no more time wasted on debating the abolition of the House of Lords. What goes around...

As one who had the misfortune to live through the 1950s (which lasted until the mid-60s) I can assure you it was every bit as dismal, nasty as you would expect. So nasty that no one in their right mind would want to return.

I agree – the Leave vote was in essence a mandate to leave the 21st Century. The campaign played shamelessly to the nostalgia and racism of the uneducated, elderly white working class which duly delivered the result the vulture capitalists wanted. As Andy said, if you invert the categories in the poll so that Multiculturalism becomes racism (or some slightly more acceptable euphemism), feminism becomes misogyny, and so on you would find a very different result. Basically these are not very nice people!

It's hard to escape the feeling that any Johnson replacement (a D1ldo in other words) will be just as nasty and incompetent, but lack the 'charm' and the skill at dressing up.

The thing about Corbyn was that he reached out to voters – the educated young in particular – who are turned off by the 'politics as usual' crowd. It was they who propelled him to the best result Labour had had in the 21st century. Of course the Establishment and its hangers-on, which includes much of the PLP, like to rewrite history so Corbyn has to be denigrated as a no-hoper, a crank etc. If at the next election Labour manage to defeat the Tories – and it is by no means certain they will – it'll be because more Tory voters stayed at home in despair than Labour ones. "Vote for Us, we're slightly less crap than the other lot" is not going to stir the passions of voters, young or old.

I think that is self-evidently true – and the same can be said for the health system where our rulers are usually able to opt out and are therefore happy to see the public provision wither on the vine. Universality of provision is an important principle if we are to maintain decent public services. Alas neither of our main parties seem in the least bit interested in principles...

You need to remove the redundant V hanger from this side. The brake shaft inner support was a single 'post' just inboard of the brakes. Sorry, terrible description – look for a photo!

This should be available by the middle of the month so start saving your pennies...

It's at the printers apparently...

From memory Kodak was one, and Crystalate billiard balls was another I think. The wagons were owned and operated by Wallace Spiers & Co.