Things you don’t see outside any more

[D6130]

(While on the subject, that nicotine-stained brown colour on pub walls and ceilings.)

You can buy nicotine-coloured paint to preserve that authentic 'olde-worlde' feel when a pub is refurbished!

 

[Gloster]

The first signal box I worked had a chemical toilet in a small room adjacent to the battery-room, which was built onto one side of the box. The other end of the battery-room stopped about a foot short of the end of the wall and in the angle was a drain for the down pipes off the roof. Two old slates has been wedged in against the brickwork by the drain to protect it. Around the whole assembly were two pieces of corrugated iron that were each fixed to the brickwork at one end and to bits of pipe jammed into the ground at the other. There was a gap between the two ends attached to the bits of pipe and the corrugated iron only started about 18” above ground-level, although it did reach above head height. There was a slight zig-zag when passing between the bits of corrugated iron which allowed minimal decency to be maintained. This was the signalman’s urinal.

There were occasions when passengers would have seen the signalman hastening out from behind the corrugated iron and scooting round to the box steps, which were at the other end of the box. And all the while doing up his flies. This all seemed quite normal at the end of the 1970s.

 

[swt_passenger]

You can buy nicotine-coloured paint to preserve that authentic 'olde-worlde' feel when a pub is refurbished!

Also used on XC voyagers when new of course…

 

[nw1]

A 5 month late response I know but I spotted some on a motorway last night for the first time in years, for a mile or so on the Coventry end of the M69, though less than half of them were working.

Interesting motorways have kept them when obscure cul-de-sacs in small villages have not...

 

[Jimini]

Interesting motorways have kept them when obscure cul-de-sacs in small villages have not...

To be fair the M69 and M45 make you feel like you're still in the 1980s anyway -- like time stood still!

 

[gg1]

Interesting motorways have kept them when obscure cul-de-sacs in small villages have not...

Given that the majority weren't working at all, I'm guessing they're a very low priority and will more likely be removed entirely at some point rather than being replaced with LEDs. Residential roads by contrast are far higher priority.

 

[ABB125]

To be fair the M69 and M45 make you feel like you're still in the 1980s anyway -- like time stood still!

And the M50 - it and the M45 (with the exception of bridge refurbishments, (presumably) resurfacing, and a new junction being built on the latter) are essentially the same as the day they were built. Over 60 years ago! Some of the oldest stretches in the country... (and in both cases, the traffic levels are probably similar to that at opening (and probably rather less now than then in the case of the M45!))

The M69 is newer though, I can't think off the top of my head but probably late 70s?

 

[nw1]

Given that the majority weren't working at all, I'm guessing they're a very low priority and will more likely be removed entirely at some point rather than being replaced with LEDs. Residential roads by contrast are far higher priority.

It's interesting that LEDs are by no means the norm for replacements everywhere. For example much of southern England (Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex and Dorset) seem to have replaced most of their sodium lights with a fluorescent tube design reminiscent of BR station lights (particularly Southern Region) in the 1980s.

What I do think is a shame is that they've tended not to keep the old lamp posts - they could have replaced the actual light while retaining the post. Result is that a lot of nice classic iron lamp posts from years ago have completely disappeared in south Hampshire. Don't see why they couldn't replace the sodium light with, say, an LED light, and keep the old post (as they always used to - the sodium lights themselves were far from the originals) as they were often very characterful.

 

[Gloster]

What I do think is a shame is that they've tended not to keep the old lamp posts - they could have replaced the actual light while retaining the post. Result is that a lot of nice classic iron lamp posts from years ago have completely disappeared in south Hampshire. Don't see why they couldn't replace the sodium light with, say, an LED light, and keep the old post (as they always used to - the sodium lights themselves were far from the originals) as they were often very characterful.

When they replaced all the lights in my road about five years ago, I was told that the reason was that although the standard was usually in acceptable condition, the junction box (or whatever it is called) at the bottom of the standard often wasn’t. As soon as you started disturbing it to fit the new cabling, you were likely to have difficulties, so complete replacement was better than continuing problems. And all due to little Fido’s bladder. (I think the chap was telling the truth, but he might have been winding me up.)

 

[Killingworth]

When they replaced all the lights in my road about five years ago, I was told that the reason was that although the standard was usually in acceptable condition, the junction box (or whatever it is called) at the bottom of the standard often wasn’t. As soon as you started disturbing it to fit the new cabling, you were likely to have difficulties, so complete replacement was better than continuing problems. And all due to little Fido’s bladder. (I think the chap was telling the truth, but he might have been winding me up.)

Almost every lamp standard in Sheffield was replaced under a contract signed 10 years ago. Other aspects of that contract concerning roads and pavements (street trees!) haven't gone too well but the LED lighting side seems to have been a success.

Sheffield had thousands of old cast iron lamp pots installed originally for gas lighting. Many more recent lamp standards were concrete that was cracking up and dangerous. Some even more recent steel columns seem to have been oversensitive to little Fido's bladder contributions! Replacing virtually the lot seems to have been the right thing to have done. In some areas heritage style lighting has been installed.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

We saw one with horse and cart in May when we were on the Leeds ring road travelling to Pudsey.

That might be the Bradford bloke, who's a bit of a folk hero/mobile landmark around Bradford and surrounding districts. I used to know his name (or nickname) but it escapes me for the time being.

On a related note, you don't seem to get those "eccentric characters" that everyone in the town knows about but outsiders are oblivious to any more. The Huddersfield area had at least three: Jake Mangelwurzel, Mike Madden, and Wilf Lunn (who had a minor TV career in the 1970s/80s). What happened to these people, are they just doing mad inventions on the internet nowadays?

I think the three mentioned are no longer with us, that part isn't a mystery. But they don't make them like that any more... probably since we removed all the lead from petrol!

 

[D6130]

On a related note, you don't seem to get those "eccentric characters" that everyone in the town knows about but outsiders are oblivious to any more.

There are still plenty of eccentric characters in Hebden Bridge....in fact I think that they may well be in the majority!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

There are still plenty of eccentric characters in Hebden Bridge....in fact I think that they may well be in the majority!

Do any of them marry their dogs, drive around in a hand-painted car with a bathtub on the roof (both Mangelwurzel) or invent a "bird-feeder hat" that results in them being attacked by squirrels (Madden)?

If not, they can't really hold a torch to the eccentrics of old!

 

[D6130]

If not, they can't really hold a torch to the eccentrics of old!

No....they mainly sit outside pubs, or in the park, smoking dope and wearing clothes that haven't been washed since the long hot summer of 1976!

 

[birchesgreen]

On a related note, you don't seem to get those "eccentric characters" that everyone in the town knows about but outsiders are oblivious to any more. The Huddersfield area had at least three: Jake Mangelwurzel, Mike Madden, and Wilf Lunn (who had a minor TV career in the 1970s/80s). What happened to these people, are they just doing mad inventions on the internet nowadays?

Yes we are mostly on RailUK these days.

 

[Busaholic]

Yes we are mostly on RailUK these days.

 

[AY1975]

Another thing I don't think has been mentioned is kites. It seems quite a while since I last saw one in the sky. Do many people still have them, I wonder?

The kite was a must-have toy for many 1970s, 80s and 90s kids. I grew up in the 1980s and had two kites. First of all I had one with just one string, then I managed to lose the string and therefore lose the kite when I was flying it. Then I got one with two strings, and I remember flying it on Douglas beach on the Isle of Man. We lived opposite a large park that was an ideal place to fly a kite.

In one of the first few episodes of the 1990s TV drama Peak Practice there was a fatality involving a young boy who flew a kite too close to electricity pylons in a field. There was also a public information film about that same hazard:

I expect that danger might have led a lot of parents to decide not to allow their kids to have a kite or at least not to let them fly it unsupervised. Also, I expect a lot of today's kids prefer more high-tech toys such as the mini drone (which I suppose has the same kind of appeal as the kite did to my generation when we were kids, in that you can take it to any large open space such as a park, field or beach and fly it, but you don't have to worry about the string accidentally coming into contact with overhead power cables unlike with a kite!).

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I have seen quite a few kites in coastal areas, particularly on beaches, in recent years.

 

[AY1975]

I have seen quite a few kites in coastal areas, particularly on beaches, in recent years.

I'd say that you don't seem to see them as much in inland towns and cities or in the countryside now as you did in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, though.

 

[Gloster]

I'd say that you don't seem to see them as much in inland towns and cities or in the countryside now as you did in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, though.

I would suspect that they are more of a holiday thing nowadays, rather than an everyday entertainment. Probably in an attempt to get the little horrors off their electronic devices and out in the open holiday air. (Fat chance.)

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'd say that you don't seem to see them as much in inland towns and cities or in the countryside now as you did in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, though.

Yes, I'd agree with that aspect.

 

[adrock1976]

Unsure if BT callboxes were mentioned earlier in the thread (not so many left nowadays), but what about BT's rival back in the 1980s/early 90s Mercury?

I recall seeing a small number of Mercury callboxes in the centre of Birmingham, but it appears they (Mercury) were not around for many years afterwards.

 

[AY1975]

Unsure if BT callboxes were mentioned earlier in the thread (not so many left nowadays), but what about BT's rival back in the 1980s/early 90s Mercury?

I recall seeing a small number of Mercury callboxes in the centre of Birmingham.

And on Manchester Piccadilly station concourse, and on the platforms at London Waterloo. Mercury used to promote itself as a cheaper alternative to BT. I also seem to recall that in the early days of rail privatisation in the mid 1990s, South West Trains pocket timetables had a Mercury advert showing a woman on a station platform calling out to her husband on the train "Darling, wait! Don't forget your Mercury calling card."

There have also been a few other rival payphone operators to BT that have come and gone over the years. Some of their callboxes may still be in situ in some places, but I don't know if any of them still work.

 

[najaB]

Unsure if BT callboxes were mentioned earlier in the thread (not so many left nowadays), but what about BT's rival back in the 1980s/early 90s Mercury?

Well, Mercury no longer exists (even the parent company Cable and Wireless is long gone) so it would be very surprising to see any payphones (which are already an endangered species) with their branding. About the only thing that still remains to denote their existence is the Mercury Prize.

 

[Busaholic]

There have also been a few other rival payphone operators to BT that have come and gone over the years. Some of their callboxes may still be in situ in some places, but I don't know if any of them still work.

I never found one that worked in the first place! Worse than station vending machines for stealing your money!

 

[najaB]

There have also been a few other rival payphone operators to BT that have come and gone over the years. Some of their callboxes may still be in situ in some places, but I don't know if any of them still work.

You used to be able to get a payphone line installed (meter pulse facility for those in the know) so that you could install a private payphone. They were very common in pubs and clubs - usually charging an extortionate rate. I think BT has stopped new supply now so they'll be a dying breed these days.

 

[johnnychips]

You used to be able to get a payphone line installed (meter pulse facility for those in the know) so that you could install a private payphone. They were very common in pubs and clubs - usually charging an extortionate rate. I think BT has stopped new supply now so they'll be a dying breed these days.

That is a good spot that I’d totally forgotten about. There were many pubs and cafes that had a sign indicating there was a pay phone inside. Indeed there cannot be many pay phones left. The last one I used was at Stalling Busk in a side valley of Wensleydale, where there was no reception for mobiles.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

About the only thing that still remains to denote their existence is the Mercury Prize.

I thought that was something to do with Freddie Mercury?

 

[najaB]

I thought that was something to do with Freddie Mercury?

Nope. To quote the Wikipedia article:

The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers in 1992 as an alternative to the Brit Awards. The prize was originally sponsored by Mercury Communications, a brand owned by Cable & Wireless, from which the prize gets its name.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Oh.

Well...