Thursday, 24 February 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2886
27th February 2022
First Picture: Sunlight Soap
Second Picture: Washing Line
Third Picture: Clothes Horse
Forth Picture: Wash board
Random Thoughts on Washing Day.
Now to test the memory who remembers their mother or grandmother grating a block of yellowish green Sunlight Soap into the wating hot water so she could do the washing|? Also, the use of Reckitts Blue to keep the washing bright and white. Mind you Recketts Blue or Blue Bag had a secondary use, when dabbed on a bee or wasp sting it took away the sting.
The big drawback on washing days was that, especially on boiling days, was that the whole of the kitchen, despite the back door and the window being opened and much of the ground floor was, for hours, wreathed in wet steam! Also one of the major pieces of equipment that was put to use at this time was the washing board, that’s if it not been ‘borrowed’ for use in a skiffle group,
Once washed, rinsed, mangled and wrung it was time to try and dry the washing. We were lucky we had two washing lines, one high one attached to the top of the house and a normal one below it. On a good, windy drying day the back garden resembled a sailing ship in full sail as the various items flapped and swayed in the breeze.
Rainy days were, of course, a nightmare as mother had to try and distribute the washing in front of or coal fire before father came home from work and we settled down in front of the living room fire for the evening. This is where the old wooden clothes horse came into its own. We always knew that on a wet washing day we would never be allowed to use the clothes horse as a tent for us to play in.
Once the washing was done and dried it was time to iron it. I remember my grandmother having a fearsome green mottled gas iron which was plugged into a special terminal by the gas stove. This iron always seemed spit and splutter and appeared to me to be a very dangerous fire breathing article. Mind you she also had a gas fridge and I could never work out how that really worked. However, I still think that the most dangerous method of ironing was undertaken by my mother and millions of other women when they plugged the electric iron into the ceiling light in the kitchen something that is unheard of today. The one thing I have forgotten was the use of a flat iron heated up on the kitchen gas ring to the required temperature. I still have one of my grandmothers’ flat irons, I use it as a door stop, I also have my grandfather’s cobblers last which I use for the same purpose!
These were the days when Monday was washing day for a good 75% of the population, today with automatic washing and drying machines that has seemed to go by the board and nowadays washing day is any day of the week.
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Thursday, 17 February 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2884
20h February 2022
First Picture: Goodbye Woolworths
Second Picture: Comet Closing Down Sale
Third Picture: Dusty Springfield at Radio Rentals
Forth Picture: FHW advert
High Street stores that have disappeared
We all remember Woolworths going but here are a few more.
Dixons. The electrical chain, founded in Southend, Essex, in 1937, closed in 2006. Many of its High Street branches were rebranded Currys. digital. Dixons remained as an online brand, but later this also came under Currys.
But the Dixons name lives on through the Dixons Carphone brand and Dixons Travel, which operates at several UK airports.The Dixons name came when founder Charles Kalms flicked through a telephone directory, looking for inspiration.
C&A. One would have thought that this store was a permanent fixture in all High Streets. The stores announced its withdrawal from the UK in 2000, with the loss of 4,800 jobs. Its 109 shops had come under increasing competition from other mid-market clothing retailers, such as Gap and Next, the company said. The last UK stores, in Hounslow, west London, and Bradford, closed in May 2001. Founded in the 1920s by the Dutch brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, C&A, at least in the UK, was accused of failing to move with fashion and recorded several losses in the late 1990s.
Radio Rentals. Even with the help of Dusty Springfield at the Ideal Home Exhibition, Olympia the brand eventually failed when folk strted to buy TV sets and not rent them. Set up in a back street in Brighton in the 1930s, Radio Rentals catered for a growing demand for radios. The rental model continued through the introduction of television and, later, video cassette recorders - about to take off in 1976. During the late 1970s a newspaper advert for a long-play video recorder mocked a national obsession with the ITV soap opera Crossroads, known for its wobbly sets and criticised for the standard of its acting, stating: "It can take 16 episodes of Crossroads (if you can)."
Radio Rentals gradually became amalgamated into the TV and domestic appliance rental firm BoxClever. The Radio Rentals brand continues in Australia.
Freeman, Hardy and Willis another high steet name now gone. The shoe manufacturer, with beginnings in Leicester in the 1870s, became a familiar presences in hundreds of High Streets. A series of adverts in the 1950s referred to it as "our happy family shoe shop". Freeman, Hardy and Willis) became part of the British Shoe Corporation and ceased trading in the mid-1990s.
Comet. Founded in 1933 as a business charging radio batteries, Comet opened its first store in Hull in 1968, expanding rapidly after that.
There were 236 stores when it went into administration in November 2012, reduced to 49 by the time the final closures happened a month later. Comet ran up losses of £95m in the year to April 2012.
Dewhurst The chain of butchers shops, founded on Merseyside in the late 19th Century, had 1,400 outlets by 1997 but went into administration in 2006.
Its traditional model faced increasing competition the supermarkets started packaging meat in plastic containers
.
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Thursday, 10 February 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2882
13th February 2022
BIGGLES
First Picture: Biggles Book
Second Picture: Sopworth Camel
Third Picture: Biggles the flying ace
Forth Picture: Capt. Johns
I have to admit that as a youngster I could never
get on with the Biggles stories James Bigglesworth, nicknamed "Biggles", is a
fictional , adventurer and hero of the Biggles series of adventure books by W.
E. Johns (1893–1968). Biggles made his first appearance in the story The White
Fokker, published in the first issue of Popular Flying magazine and again as
part of the first collection of Biggles stories, The Camels Are Coming (both
1932). Johns continued to write "Biggles books" until his death in 1968. The
series eventually included nearly a hundred volumes. Biggles first appears as
a teenaged "scout" (fighter) pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1. He
joined the RFC in 1916 at the age of 17, having conveniently "lost" his birth
certificate. Biggles represents a British hero, combining professionalism with
a gentlemanly air. Under the stress he develops from a hysterical youth prone
to practical jokes to a calm, confident, competent leader. He is occasionally
given "special" missions by the Colonel Raymond who is involved with the
intelligence side of operations. Biggles is accompanied by his cousin Algernon
('Algy') Lacey and his mechanic Flight Sergeant Smyth, who accompany Biggles
on his adventures after the war. Added to the team in 1935 is the teenager
Ginger Hebblethwaite. W. E. Johns was himself a WW1 pilot, although his own
career did not parallel that of Biggles He was commissioned as a second
lieutenant in September 1917, seconded to the Royal Flying Corps and posted
for flight training: he served as a flying instructor until August 1918, when
he transferred to the Western Front. On 16 September 1918 his De Havilland DH4
was shot down on a bombing raid. His observer, Lieutenant Amey, was killed but
he survived to be taken as a POW. He remained with the RAF until 1927: his
final rank was Flying Officer rather than the "Capt." that formed part of his
pen name. The bulk of the Biggles books are set after the First World War.
Biggles has an unusually lengthy career, flying a number of aircraft from
Sopwith Camels, Hurricanes and Spitfires in WW2 right up to the Hunter jet
fighter. The books were popular and were eventually translated into Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Flemish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.[1] According to stories in The Boy
Biggles and Biggles Goes to School, James Bigglesworth was born in India in
May 1899, the son of an administrator in the Indian Civil Service and his wife
(née Lacey - hence his relation to the Hon. Algernon Montgomery Lacey - his
flying companion, cousin and friend in a large proportion of his adventures).
James was the younger of two sons, Charles being the elder by five years. The
young James had little contact with European culture and commenced a lifelong
affection for India, befriending the local Indian boys, exploring the
countryside and learning to speak fluent Hindi. He retained a lifetime gift
for languages and as an adult spoke French and German fluently, with a "fair
command" of various other languages. He spent holidays in England, under the
custody of an eccentric uncle and inventor who lived in rural Norfolk. Biggles
then attended Malton Hall School in Hertbury. His first encounter with an
aircraft was with a Blériot that landed on the school cricket ground.
Characters Algernon Montgomery Lacey The Honourable Algernon Montgomery Lacey
or "Algy" is a cousin who is posted to Biggles' flight in 266 Squadron by the
influence of his aunt and eventually Algy adopts the role of Biggles' second
in command. Ginger Hebblethwaite Ginger (his first name is never revealed)
first appears in The Black Peril (1935) as a teenage runaway found hiding in a
railway shed. Ginger left his father, a mineworker in Smettleworth, after an
argument about Ginger's determination to become a pilot. When he first meets
Biggles, he tells him he is on his way to London to join the RAF. Biggles
immediately calls him Ginger because of his red hair.. He becomes one of the
regular team and is often Biggles's chosen companion. He is a talented
mechanic and his speech is peppered with youthful American slang learned from
the cinema. Female characters In the Biggles stories, female characters appear
infrequently. Despite brief affairs, Biggles and his chums remain steadfastly
single. The settings of the Biggles books are spread over more than 50 years;
this produces a number of credibility difficulties, especially for older
readers. Though Biggles and his friends age in the books, they do so much more
slowly than is historically credible. For instance, who by now should be well
into their forties, is still a relatively junior squadron officer flying
Spitfires during the Battle of Britain. In the stories set after the end of
the Second World War, Biggles and Algy, in particular, are, by the rules of
arithmetic, passing into their fifties and early sixties, while retaining
levels of activity and lifestyle more typical of people at least thirty years
younger. Since the Biggles books were first published, attitudes to race and
ethnicity have changed. During the 1960s and 1970s a perception of Biggles as
unacceptably racially prejudiced, especially considered as children's
literature, drove Biggles from many public and school libraries. Capt. Johns
himself said he was "completely non-political and non-racial" in his books.
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Friday, 4 February 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2880
6th February 2022
Mr Cube
First Picture: Mr Cube
Second Picture: Sugar Packet with Mr C
Third Picture: Golden Syrup
Forth Picture: Mr C with weights
Mr Cube', an animated cartoon character born in July 1949 during rationing and nationalisation proposals. Mr Cube became sugar's brand image, the company logo of Tate & Lyle and a symbol of political embarrassment and electoral setback for the Labour government in the February 1950 General Election.
The company's campaign strategist recalls how `they were strongly advised to have a cartoon character who, if he caught the public's imagination, could say the most outrageous things and get away with it, and who could act as a buffer between the public and Tate & Lyle'. Brandishing his sword of free enterprise and protected by his T&L shield, Mr Cube would `say sensible or outrageous things' allowing Tates to `concentrate on attacking the Socialist policy in a more dignified manner'.
A brand-image was not just a mascot'; it actively shapd`corporate consciousness' of Tate & Lyle in 1949-50 and was heightened by Labour's nationalisation threats. Tate & Lyle were aware of American advertising and public relations methods and Mr Cube spearheaded the campaignon more than two million sugar packages, on 100,000 ration book holders distributed free to housewives by Tate & Lyle, and on all Tate & Lyle delivery trucks.
The two main sources of `raw sugar' are tropical sugar-cane and temperate sugar-beet, alternative sources of supply which had produced `wars' between rival companies in the nineteenth century. After the two families of Tate and Lyle had merged in 1921, cane dominated their refining processes. The new company's nineteenth-century founding fathers, Henry Tate and Abraham Lyle, responded to competition from heavily subsidised Continental producers of sugar beet by `product differentiating' into cubes and syrup.
The threat to Tates in 1949 did not come out of the blue. Two pre-Second World War books had flagged up many of the general arguments that would be directed against the company.
In 1936 the government amalgamated eighteen sugar-beet factories into the British Sugar Corporation (BSC), forcing Tate & Lyle to divest itself of its sugar beet interests and change into an imperial sugar company with supplies secured from acquisition of sugar cane plantations in Jamaica and Trinidad. This provoked the impressive Mr Cube campaign. It even had its own Mr Cube dance tunes and poker dice game and from the end of July 1949, the comic hero, found his way on to millions of sugar packets. Mr Cube's catchy slogans featured `Take the S out of State', urged Mr Cube; `state control will make a hole in your pocket and my packet'. The simplest and most effective message was `Tate not State!'
Shopkeepers passed on millions of leaflets, and `over-the-counter chit-chat informed harassed housewives that all the inconveniences of rationing and shortages stemmed from Labour Government bungling'. A sugar-sponsored film, called `All in Favour', was shown throughout the country in factories, workshops, men's clubs and women's institutes. Richard Dimbleby visited the refineries at Thames and Plaistow `with an open mind and an open mike' to search out the views of Tates' workers. A feature at the Schoolboy's Exhibition at the Horticultural Hall in January 1950 was `dialing Mr Cube and questioning him about sugar'. He figured prominently at the Ideal Home Exhibition as `the first mechanical man who has been made to speak correctly'. A six-foot Mr Cube was constructed and company president Lord Lyle, known to journalists as Lord Cubevisited. With a crowd of schoolboys around him, `he picked up the receiver and asked Mr Cube what he thought about nationalisation'. The answer from a very animated sugar lump was `the same as you do'!
The King's speech after the 1950 election made no reference to Tates, and in 1951 Labour's new manifesto made no mention of the sugar refining industry. The strongest weapon in the campaign to reduce the Labour majority had turned out to be Mr Cube'.
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Thursday, 27 January 2022
Forth Picture: BRM Racing Car
Norman Graham Hill OBE (15th February 1929 – 29th November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in 1962 and 1968 as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite not passing his driving test until 1953 when he was already 24 years of age, and only entering the world of motorsports a year later, Graham Hill would go on to become one of the greatest drivers of his generation. He is most celebrated for being the only driver ever to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport, an achievement which he defined as winning the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. Graham Hill is still the only driver to have ever won the Triple Crown, winning at Monaco in such frequency in the 1960s (5x; 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969) that he became known as "Mr. Monaco". He crashed at the 1969 United States Grand Prix and was seriously injured, breaking both his legs and ending his season. Although he would recover and continue to race until 1975, his career would never again reach the same heights, and the Monaco Grand Prix victory earlier in 1969 would be his last victory in Formula One.
Upon leaving the Brabham racing team he set up his own team in 1973, operating under the name Embassy Hill. He continued to race, however after failing to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix he retired from driving in order to concentrate on the day-to-day operations of the team. Tragically that same year he and five other members of the Embassy Hill team were killed when the aeroplane he was piloting from France crashed in fog at night on Arkley golf course while attempting to land at Elstree Airfield in north London.
With his son Damon they were the first father and son pair to win Formula One World Championships Damon's son, Josh, also raced his way through the ranks until he retired from Formula Three in 2013 at the age of 22.
Before taking up motor racing, Graham Hill spent several years actively involved in rowing. Initially, he rowed at Southsea Rowing Club, while stationed in Portsmouth with the Royal Navy and at Auriol Rowing Club in Hammersmith. He met his future wife Bette at a Boxing Day party at Auriol and, while courting her, he also coached her clubmates at Stuart Ladies' Rowing Club on the River Lea.
In 1952 he joined London Rowing Club, then as now one of the largest and most successful clubs in Great Britain. From 1952 to 1954, he rowed in twenty finals with London, usually as stroke of the crew, eight of which resulted in wins. He also stroked the London eight in the highly prestigious Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, losing a semi-final to Union Sportif Metropolitaine des Transports, France by a length.
Through his racing career he continued to support rowing and London. In 1968 when the club began a financial appeal to modernise its clubhouse, Hill launched proceedings by driving an old Morris Oxford, which had been obtained for £5, head-on into a boundary wall. He made three runs to reduce the wall to rubble, and the car was subsequently sold for £15.
Graham Hill died on 29th November 1975 at the controls of his Piper PA-23 Aztec twin-engine light aircraft when it crashed near Arkley.
The subsequent investigation revealed that the aircraft, originally registered in the US as N6645Y, had been removed from the FAA register and at the time of the accident was "unregistered and stateless", despite still displaying its original markings. Furthermore, Graham Hill's American FAA pilot certification had expired, as had his instrument rating. His UK IMC rating, which would have permitted him to fly in the weather conditions that prevailed at the time, was also out of date and invalid. He was effectively uninsured. The investigation into the crash was ultimately inconclusive, but pilot error was deemed the most likely explanation.
His funeral was held at St Albans Abbey, and he is buried at St Botolph's graveyard, Shenleybury. The church has since been deconsecrated so the tomb now sits in a private garden.
After his death, Silverstone village named a road, Graham Hill, after him and there is a "Graham Hill Road" on The Shires estate in nearby Towcester. Graham Hill Bend at Brands Hatch is also named in his honour. A blue plaque commemorates t 32 Parkside, in Mill Hill, London NW7. In Bourne, Lincolnshire, where his former team BRM is based, a road called Graham Hill Way is named in his honour. Also a nursery school in Lusevera, Italy, was named in his honour.
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>
Wednesday, 19 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2876
21st January 2022
First Picture: Captain Pugwash
Second Picture Cut Throat Jake
Third Picture: The Crew
Forth Picture: Jim the Cabin Boy
Captain Pugwash
By special request from a reader in New Zealand a look at Captain Pugwash
Captain Horatio Pugwash made his debut in a comic-strip format in the first issue of The Eagle in 1950, then appeared regularly as a strip in Radio Times and was created by John Ryan. In 1957 the BBC commissioned a series of short cartoon films produced by Gordon Murray. Between 1957 and 1966, John Ryan produced a total of 58 five-minute-long episodes for the BBC, made in black-and-white. Between 1974 and 1975, a further 30 were made in a new series made in colour. He used a real-time technique of animation in which cardboard cutouts of the characters were laid on painted backgrounds and moved with levers. The characters' voices were provided by Peter Hawkins. The last series of Pugwash shorts by John Ryan was produced in 1975.
A number of spin-off books were written by John Ryan, who in the 1980s drew three new Pugwash comic-strip storybooks: The Secret of the San Fiasco, The Battle of Bunkum Bay and The Quest for the Golden Handshake.
A related book by John Ryan was Admiral Fatso Fitzpugwash, in which it is revealed that Pugwash had a medieval ancestor who was First Sea Lord, but who was terrified of water.
Captain Pugwash was also sold to various overseas TV stations, including Australia's ABC Television. There the show was screened during weekday afternoons in the 1970s and 1980s. The rights to Captain Pugwash were purchased by The Britt Allcroft Company, which since 1997 has issued a number of digital and part computer-animated cartoon films based on the Pugwash character, set on the island of "Montebuffo", "somewhere in the Spanish Main".
In 2005, a black and white episode of Captain Pugwash was repeated on BBC4 as part of the Animation Nation season. A DVD containing "All 30 heroic high sea adventures" from the second-generation colour 1974–75 series (156 minutes running time) was given away with the Sunday Times on 20 January 2008. The 1974-5 series was made available for streaming on BritBox in the United Kingdom in July 2021. Although the accompanying text claims the series is "digitally remastered", little or no restoration work seems to have been applied to the film prints.
Characters
Captain Pugwash
The pompous but likeable captain of the Black Pig. Although he boasts of being the "bravest buccaneer", he is actually quite cowardly and stupid. His greed often gets him into trouble. Nevertheless, he usually wins the day – either with the help of Tom the Cabin Boy or by sheer luck. Despite being a pirate, he is rarely seen committing any acts of piracy.
Master Mate
A dopey character, who has a tendency to mispronounce common words. He has a teddy bear in his bunk and is quite mild-mannered. It is not entirely clear why he is the mate, as he does not appear to have any authority over the rest of the crew. He was present in the first ever Pugwash story, in which he was depicted as being constantly sleepy
Barnabas
The most aggressive of the pirates, but in reality just as harmless. He is quite rebellious and grumpy, and is perhaps marginally more intelligent than Willy, the Mate or the Captain. He was not present in the 1997 series.
Willy
A simple sailor from Wigan. He appears to be the youngest crew member (apart from Tom). He is gentle and is against using violence. He does, however, have the occasional brainwave and has been the crew's saviour "Just you wait till we get back to Wigan – we won't half have a 'tail' to tell!"
Tom the Cabin Boy
It might be argued that without Tom, Pugwash would have been sunk long ago. He is the most intelligent and resourceful member of the crew, the only one who can cook and the only one who can actually sail a ship. Although Pugwash would never admit it, Tom's ability to think up schemes is probably the only thing that prevents him from being a total failure as a pirate. The rest of the crew also found they were unable to operate without Tom, after he left with the captain when the crew mutinied. Tom is an expert concertina player.
Cut-Throat Jake
Captain Pugwash's fearsome arch-enemy, captain of the Flying Dustman . When he is not scheming to bring about Pugwash's downfall, he is a rather more competent pirate than his enemy, and always seems to have plenty of treasure. He speaks with a West Country accent, and is easily recognisable by his eye patch and enormous black beard.
Pugwashisms
Captain Pugwash is renowned for his exclamations, owing something to the style of Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin:
• "Dolloping doubloons/dolphins!"
• "Coddling catfish!"
• "Lolloping landlubbers!"
• "Suffering seagulls!"
• "Staggering stalactites!"
• "Nautical nitwits!"
• "Plundering porpoises!"
• "Kipper me capstans!"
• "Tottering turtles!"
• "Dithering dogfish!"
• "Scuttling cuttlefish!"
• "Stuttering starfish!"
• "Blistering barnacles!"
• "Shuddering sharks!"
Cut-Throat Jake has occasionally been known to utter the similar exclamation, "Scupper me skull-and-crossbones!"
Theme
The signature tune was the "Trumpet Hornpipe", a folk dance that dates to at least the early nineteenth century. The original black and white episodes of Captain Pugwash used a solo rendition by accordionist Tom Edmondson, who had learned the tune from watching Jimmy Shand's band in Northumberland as a teenager. Edmondson's version was recorded in the front room of his home in Harbottle, Northumberland, on 12 July 1954. The recording was made by folklorist Peter Kennedy as part of the BBC's 'Folk Music and Dialect Recording Scheme and Edmondson was paid £1.50 (30s) for his efforts.
For the colour Captain Pugwash episodes, a new recording of the "Trumpet Hornpipe" was commissioned from Johnny Pearson in 1973. This version utilised accordion, bass and acoustic guitar, and the finished piece was retitled "Shipshape" .
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Thursday, 13 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2874
14th January 2022
First Picture: Model Trebor Van
Second Picture Refreshers
Third Picture: Gift tin from Trebor
Forth Picture: Trebor Extra Strong Mints
Trebor Refreshers
Here is a name from the Tuck Shop Trebor Refreshers. The company had quite a history as you will see.
Trebor was founded on 4th January 1907 in south west Essex by W.B. Woodcock, Thomas Henry King, Robert Robertson, and Sydney Herbert Marks from Leytonstone and was located on Katherine Road in Forest Gate, London E7. The name Trebor, which is “Robert” spelled backwards, was registered as a trademark four days after the end of World War I. On 18th April 1944, the factory in Katherine Road was hit by a German bomb. But the company went on to buy Moffat toffee in 1959, and Jamesons Chocolates in 1960.
By the end of the 1960s, the company was exporting to over fifty countries; 20% of its output from its three factories was exported. The largest export market was the United States. Up to 1966, it had doubled its exports in four years. In the 1967 Birthday Honours, the Chairman John Marks (son of the founder, and who died in December 1980) was appointed a CBE for the company's exports; he was president from 1956 to 1959 of the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance.
y the end of the 1960s, it was the fourth largest confectionery manufacturing group in the United Kingdom; its main competitors were Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery and Cadbury. Early advertising for the Trebor Mints brand used the famous jingle "Trebor mints are a minty bit stronger".
In January 1969, it bought the confectionery interests of Clarnico. In 1970, John Graham Marks, the grandson of the company's founder, became chairman of the company, and owned the company with his brother Ian; the company was family run and also had a Christian paternalistic ethos. In 1981, the company discontinued night shifts, as it believed that night shifts were possibly damaging to family life.
In December 1985, it bought Maynards for £7.5m. In the middle of the 1980s, the company was the British market leader in branded mints and boiled sweets.
On Thursday 14th September 1989, Cadbury Schweppes bought the company for £147m. The company was run as a subsidiary company of Cadbury. At the time, the company employed around 3,000.
From 1st March 1990, the company was known as Trebor Bassett, a division of Cadbury. Production would eventually move to North Sheffield, off the A61.
The company was headquartered in what was south-west Essex, in Woodford, Greater London. It initially had a factory at Forest Gate called the Trebor Works from 1935 between Upton Park tube station and East Ham tube station in what is now the London Borough of Newham, north of the former ground of West Ham United F.C. and west of Plashet.
Its main headquarters were at Clayhall, next to the southern terminus (Junction 4 or Woodford Interchange) of the M11 on the Southend Road Industrial Estate on the A1400 (former A406 or North Circular Road).
In 1939, a factory on a five-acre site was opened on Brimington Road in Chesterfield, on the site of a former brewery next to Chesterfield railway station; the factory in Chesterfield closed in 2005. The Trebor Bassett national distribution centre was off the A6175 in Holmewood, North East Derbyshire, off the M1 Heath Interchange; this is now the NDC of Tangerine Confectionery.
In 1978, a £15m factory was opened in Colchester, which eventually closed in March 2000.
Current manufacture site is on Beulah Road in Sheffield
Awards[edit]
In April 1966, Trebor won the Queen's Award to Industry.[7]
• We all remember Refreshers, launched in 1935
• And the Extra Strong Mints, known as Extra Strong Peppermints when launched in 1937
• SoftMints, peppermint or spearmint flavours
• SoftFruits, orange, lemon and strawberry flavours
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Thursday, 6 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2872
7th January 2022
First Picture:
Wimpey Bar
2nd Picture: Drinking from the tap
3rd Picture: Den building
Growing Up
STEVE WRITES
I grew up in Portsmouth and I walked to school and back with friends of all colours. There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you walked or rode your bike rain snow or sunshine.
Our dinner time at home was always at 5pm. Eating out at a restaurant NEVER EVER happened. It just wasn’t a thing that we did.
Fast food was a Wimpy hamburger, if you could find a Wimpy Bar and having a bottle of Coca-Cola was a real treat.
You took your school clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your play clothes. We had to do our homework before being allowed outside to play. We always ate dinner at the table never on our laps.
Our rotary dial phone sat on our ‘phone table’ in the sitting room and had a cord attached, so there was no such things as private conversations, mobile phones didn’t exist
TVs didn’t have remotes, we had to actually get up to change the channel - and there were only a few to choose from! 3 actually
We played Cops and Robbers, It, Red Light-Green Light, Stick in the mud, french skipping, Hide & Seek, Tag, Football, 40/40 British bulldog and rode bikes with cards in the spokes and tassels hanging from the handlebars.
Girls could spend hours playing Sindy, house and dress up. Boys played Football on the street.
Staying in the house was a PUNISHMENT and the only thing we knew about "bored" was --- "You better find something to do before I find it for you!"
We ate what mum made for dinner or we ate nothing at all and if we didn’t eat our vegetables we had them waiting cold for us the next meal. Everyone was welcome and no one left our house hungry,
We had no microwave.
There was no bottled water we drank straight from the tap or from the garden hose outside.
We watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, and rode our bikes for hours, ran around and went on our roller skates that attached to our shoes.
We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. We played till dark...sunset was our time to go home
If someone had a fight, that's what it was and we were friends again a week later, if not SOONER.
We watched our MOUTHS around our elders because ALL of our aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, AND our parents' best friends were all extensions of our PARENTS and you didn't want them telling your PARENTS if you misbehaved! Or they would give you something to cry about.
These were the good ol' days. So many kids today will never know how it feels to be a REAL KID. I loved my childhood
Building dens was a favourite pastime. The tricky bit, after finding a suitable venue for the den, was hunting around our parents sheds, garages, gardens and the local neighbourhood for items to build a den. Corrugated iron for the roof was the favourite, an old carpet for the floor, someone’s old arm chair to sit in and jam jars to put candles in to provide lighting. Some old bricks to build a fireplace and a metal grid to put our frying pan on to cook our sausages in. These were the days of adventure!
Good Times ❤️
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Friday, 31 December 2021
Thursday, 30 December 2021
WEB PAGE NO. 2870
31st December 2021
First Picture: Corona Lorry
Second Picture Corona Advert
Third Picture: Corona Fizzical
Forth Picture: Advertising sign
What do you know of the history of Corona?
Corona was a brand of carbonated soft drink produced by Thomas & Evans Ltd in South Wales, and distributed across the United Kingdom. The firm was created by grocers William Thomas and William Evans when they saw a market for soft drinks caused by the growing influence of the temperance movement. The company's first factory was based in Porth, Rhondda, eventually expanding to 87 depots and factories throughout Britain. Corona was sold to the Beecham Group in 1958 and subsequently to Britvic, but stopped trading as a brand in the late 1990s.
William Thomas was born in 1851 in Mathry, Pembrokeshire in West Wales. He came from a family of farmers, and at the age of fourteen he left home to take up an apprenticeship as a butcher in Newport. In 1874 he married Rowena Rowlands and they moved to the village of Aberbeeg where he set up a butcher's shop, living above the shop. The business was a success and soon a warehouse was added and the shop enlarged.
In 1882 William Evans (born 1864), who himself came from Pembrokeshire, came to work at the shop and lived with the family for three years. The two men became business partners setting up a chain of grocery stores and a few years later they branched into the soft drinks market. Initially, Evans had not considered producing non-alcoholic beverages, but a chance meeting with an American business man and the growing temperance movement in the South Wales valleys led him to the production of carbonated drinks. Although partners, Thomas provided the money to set up the business and the money he loaned to Evans was at an interest rate of 50%.
Their first major plant was in Porth in the Rhondda Valley, the heartland of the industrial coalfield in South Wales. Named the Welsh Hills Mineral Water Factory, the building opened during the 1890s and boasted state-of-the-art bottling machinery and a process to clean the glass bottles safely, allowing for the bottles to be reused after being returned by the customer for a small deposit. The bottles originally used Hiram Codd's globe-stopper with a wire-hinged top to keep in the pressure of drinks. Initially the firm produced mineral water and ginger beer, under the brand Thomas & Evans' Welsh Hills Soft Drinks, in the hope they could gain a foothold in public houses as a non-alcoholic alternative. This was an unsuccessful venture, however, and Evans was forced to find an alternative market. He struck upon the idea of selling door-to-door using horse and wagon, and soon his venture became a success, with the company branching into other more child-friendly flavours, such as orangeade, dandelion and burdock, raspberryade and lemonade. By the turn of the century the company had over 200 salesman delivering Corona drinks by horse-drawn delivery wagon across Wales, and two massive steam-driven vehicles.
In the early 1920s Evans decided to re-brand his soft drinks and chose the name Corona. A logo was devised consisting of seven wire topped bottles fanned to represent a crown over the new name (corona is Latin for crown). The brand was extremely successful and expanded across South Wales, and at its peak the company had 82 distribution depots and five factories, at Porth, Tredegar, Pengam, Maesteg and Bridgend. Although a common and popular sight throughout Wales, the horse-drawn wagons were phased out during the early 1930s and replaced by a fleet of motor vehicles. These vehicles, recognizable by their red and gold livery and Corona logo, were serviced and repaired by the company's own engineering shop attached to the Porth factory. By 1934 the Porth depot had 74 vehicles and three years later that number had risen to 200.
In 1934 William Evans died and the role of chairman and managing director was taken over by his brother Frank, a role he would maintain until 1940. Under Frank Evans' management the company continued to grow and by the end of the decade the factories of Wales were producing 170 million bottles a year. With the outbreak of war in 1939, many of Thomas and Evans motor vehicles were commandeered by the government for war service. This, along with petrol rationing, saw a brief reintroduction of the horse and wagon delivery service. With the end of the war in 1945, the company went back into full production and reintroduced a motorized fleet. In 1950 the firm launched Tango, an enduring brand that is still in production.
In 1958 the company was bought by the Beecham Group, who kept the Corona brand. Although production continued to be centralised in South Wales, depots began to appear all over the United Kingdom. Under new management Corona reached a new audience and during the 1960s was promoted by a series of television advertisements starring British singer and comedian Dave King. With the rise of supermarkets in the late 1960s and 1970s the public's shopping habits changed and the door-to-door sales reduced. During the 1970s one of Corona's most memorable advertising campaigns used the slogan Every bubble's passed its FIZZical! In 1987 the company again changed hands, coming under the ownership of Britvic. Britvic closed the Welsh Hills plant in Porth in 1987, with production being transferred to Bolton in Lancashire.
In 2000 the old Corona factory in Porth was converted into a music recording studio named The Pop Factory. In May 2020 the factory was the venue for BBC's Life Drawing Live!
JONATHON WRITES This week's blog really resonated with Carol and I. First because Peter Sextan was her English Language and Literature teacher and she remembers he was a GOOD teacher......she got her O level.....some weren't back then. Secondly we remember having pillow cases at the bottom of the bed filled with lots of little INEXPENSIVE presents.
A box of toy plastic soldiers' a dinky toy, a ladybird book, the Eagle Annual and of course not really presents...... clothes (hmmmmm). We always had bread and butter and jelly it was cheap and filled us up. I hated trifle didn't like the soggy cake at the bottom.As you say the sheer commercialism of Christmas present giving is out of control. I watched my grandchildten opening their presents......most of which they had chosen and bought in advance.......we spent probably R 10 000 which was my annual salary when we first left Southampton on the Windsor Castle to take up a new life in South Africa.
Friday, 24 December 2021
WEB PAGE NO. 2868
24th December 2021
First Picture: Roast Turkey
Second Picture Christmas Pudding
Third Picture: Chocolate coins
Forth Picture: Christmas Trifle
MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS IN THE 1950s
I know people often say we look back through rose-coloured spectacles, but there was definitely something wonderful about Christmas in the 1950’s. Maybe it was because the preparations didn’t start months and months ahead or it wasn’t one big sales pitch but, whatever the reason, it just seemed a magical time.
We didn’t have a lot of money then. My dad worked in the Dockyard and my mom a housewife like most women in the 1950’s, but they always made Christmas extra-special. I remember we never decorated the tree until Christmas week and the room trimmings were paper chains which came in kit form which we loved making.
We never had an artificial tree , I have no idea where the real one came from but it was decorated with coloured baubles and tinsel and coloured lights.
On Christmas Eve we always left a glass of sherry and a mince pie for Father Christmas plus a carrot for Rudolf and, of course, the next morning, the contents of the glass and the mince pie had disappeared and there was a big bite out of the carrot. I didn’t have a proper Christmas sack then and
so a white pillow case or bolster case was left at the foot of the bed. I remember waking up on Christmas morning and seeing the misshapen case and knowing that Father Christmas had been. It would be filled with all sorts of goodies…
Annuals
An Enid Blyton Famous Five book
A magic colouring book and brush
A model car usually Dinky
A net of chocolate coins
Games like Snakes and Ladders and Tiddly Winks
A Cadbury’s Selection box
A tangerine
And other small things
It’s strange to think that parents today think nothing of spending hundreds of pounds on presents for their children. I often wonder if their children get as much pleasure from these expensive presents as we did from our simpler ones.
Christmas lunch was always turkey with all the trimmings…roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, carrots and homemade parsley and thyme stuffing followed by Christmas pudding and custard.
The Queen’s first Christmas message was broadcast in 1957 and, for many years afterwards, like so many other families, we would gather round the television at 3:00pm to listen to her annual message.
We were always so full after Christmas lunch that we never wanted much at teatime, maybe some sherry trifle and a slice of Christmas cake, both made by mum.
This was also the only time of year that we had dates and walnuts in the house. I have no idea why dates and the walnuts always sent my mother on a desperate hunt for the nut crackers. Tangerines also made an appearance as did boxes of Turkish Delight, Peppermint Creams and chocolate selection boxes.
I have so many happy memories of those magical 1950’s Christmases. Do you have any special memories of Christmas past?
And don’t forget on the big day we all had to wear our smart brand-new Christmas clothes at the dinner table!!!
Finally a group of 1950s kids were asked what they wanted for Christmas - their answers will amaze you. Unlike today's youngsters, children certainly didn't ask Father Christmas for smartphones or 3D printers back in 1959. Whether they'd been naughty or nice, children in the 1950s dreamed of finding very different things in their Christmas stockings to the kids of today.
And they weren't looking for a Barbie, Buzz Lightyear, or Scalextric. Dressed in shirts, pinnies, winter coats, centre-partings and bobs, the cute primary schoolchildren only wanted for simple things - especially the girls. Two little boys tell Father Christmas they want 'a bike', with two wheels and a bell, a clockwork mouse and a penny whistle.
But the girls had even humble requests. one seven year old girl, asked for an ironing board - no doubt so she can help her mum around the house. Whilst an eight-year-old just wanted to dress smartly and asked Santa for 'an underskirt'. The two other girls asked for 'a bible' and 'oh, anything'.
Carl Writes:
Pete Sexton Funeral
I attended the funeral service for Pete Sexton on Monday at The Elms which was extremely well attended. While it was said that there were those present who were former pupils of Manor Court and Springfield schools an attendance they must have been after my time as I didn’t recognise a single face, mind you we were all masked of course however I was probably among the few of our age there.
I did have a nice chat with Peters wife Linda ( nee Anson ) who I hadn’t seen since school days. She was shocked and delighted I think that a former pupil of her time was actually there.
It was a really nice service, glowing tributes from the lady who led the service and some lovely memories mentioned by their two daughters Michelle and Marie.
I was speaking on the phone with Chris Farmer on the Sunday evening and he said that his sister Jenny had let him know of Pete’s passing. Pete was their Sunday school teacher when they were much younger and long before Manor Court days.
We were reflecting on the fact that when Pete Sexton together with Chris Cudlip joined the teaching staff at the school that they only seemed to be a few years older than us 5th and 6th formers at the time. Clearly not the case as Pete was nine years older than me. I hadn’t realised how close he and Ray Dopson had become. They were both very kind towards me along with George Pledger when I was having, shall we say, problems with Reg Davies. All a long time ago now but what happy days, almost a shame in some respects that we had to grow up and become responsible for ourselves. It was a brilliant school which I took full advantage of.
All the very best,
Carl.
Ps., please feel free to impart any of the above in your next missive to the faithful. It seems that he continued there in his retirement and unknown to me a life long supporter of Pompey and would you believe there is a picture of him in the player’s tunnel.
Thank you for attending Carl, I was determined to attend despite my treatment but dislocating my should three days beforeput paid to that. Thanks again and ay lest Linda knew what our generation thought of Pete.
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Peter
Thursday, 16 December 2021
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