Guestbook

I am descended from coal miners of Wigan, and as I look at your photos of them at rest, I marvel at the hardships they would have endured. Our modern complaints pale in comparison.

My mother's family are Whitakers. She said that her family could be traced to the DOOMS DAY BOOK. She has papers showing a family tree. So, this is a neat website to see. To beat it all.... My father's side of the family is French......how ironic.

Agree with the previous correspondants, It has brought back so many happy memories for me as well, I probably wouldn't REALLY want to go back to those days, but life did seem so much simpler and more innocent then...

Thank you so much for creating this site. It has brought back so many memories of my childhood and times.

Thank you.

Just got on to this Web Page. I've got a number of things that may be of interest.
Here is one of them.
This is just an interesting thing that an English friend, Gary Mondon told me recently.
1958 in Great Yarmouth East Anglia England he was14.
He was riding his bike over the bridge over the River Yare.
The Police car pulled up beside him which was a black Vauxhall Velox. (Speed Cops)
The 'copper' wound down his window and said "Hey Sonny, we've clocked you
at 32 MPH in a 30MPH zone". It was dusk at the time so he also asked "where are your lights?"
So young Gary said to the 'copper', 'Next to my Liver" "Right sonney pull over" And he fined Gary 2 Pound 10 shillings for "Speeding" and 2 pound 10 shillings for being "Lippy". It was printed in 'Yarmouth Mercury" as the first "Speeding fine for a push-bike in England" at the time. Gary's dad gave him a good telling off because he had to pay the fine at the Great Yarmouth Townhall, which was then paid back to his dad through his paper round money.

Sincerely Les Woollcott(Gary and I now live in Tasmania, Australia. Been here for years.

What a nostalgic trip I have had and will continue to have on this brilliant site.
People who do not tune in to these pages are missing out on age that could be lost, but will not because of these pages. Brilliant!!!

Can I just say, this is one the best sites I have ever come across for old British ads of yesteryears. Well done and keep up the good work.

I was at Shears Green Primary School in Kent (southern UK) from 1979. Our school was a normal local primary school with just over 400 children from 7 to 11½ years old. PE and country dancing lessons were always mixed but we were only allowed to wear one item of clothing, thin cotton shorts for the boys and knickers for the girls, we ALL had to do the lessons barefoot and topless (even the girls!) although girls who had started to 'develop' could request permission to wear a t-shirt. However the school was MOST famous (infamous?) for it's dinnertime nude swimming lessons in the schools indoor pool, this went on from the late 1960's to the mid 1980's and was girls nude swimming on mondays, boys on fridays and MIXED on wednesdays, I seem to remember there was mixed nude swimming on saturday mornings as well. Normal swimming lessons were done in swimwear, these nude sessions were voluntary and you needed your parents to sign a permission slip, but astonishingly a very large number of kids took part, I always went to the boys nude swimming and MOST of the boys and girls in my class also went on wednesdays to the mixed nude sessions when the pool was crowded with naked 7 to 11 year olds! This would NEVER be allowed today, and frankly sound pretty unbelievable, but it DID happen and we didn't think anything of it and even more amazing was that most parents were quite happy to give us written permission to run around naked at school with other boys and girls! see these facebook or Friends Reunited links. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2232710443/ http://www.friendsreunited.com/shears-green-county-junior-school/Discuss/9b5c582f-4f9b-40f0-9be8-8695265ccc0c
Further to the above, I have found another facebook site dedicated to Shears Green Junior School, again there are many, many memories of the mixed nude swimming that many of us from 7 to 11½ took part in, most people comment (looking back as adults) that it was rather dodgy and a little bit 'strange' but I think this is looking at it from the perspective of 2013, at the time all of us who took part every week thoroughly enjoyed it. From memory I think we only needed our parents permission for the 'mixed' nude swimming on Wednesdays and Saturdays and judging by the numbers that used to take part, most parents were surprisingly unconcerned about the idea of naked boys and girls playing together at school! I'm pretty sure we didn't need our parents permission to swim nude when it was the 'just boys' or 'just girls' swimming lessons, and while it was never compulsory, everyone was strongly encouraged to take part in nude swimming. https://www.facebook.com/groups/445297598902917/
Shears Green Junior School in Kent is still going strong and STILL has the same indoor swimming pool! (I saw the photo, how many memories it brings back!) They have a very nice website for the school these days, however boys and girls doing swimming lessons completely naked and everyone doing PE and country dancing 'topless' with none of us (including the girls) allowed to wear anything except a single very thin pair of shorts, is unfortunately very much a thing of the past having died out in the late 1980's or the early 90's when Mr Hale retired as Headteacher! Bit sad really!

Photos are great!

i have got arobertsons minc one token canadian moutie still on the jar can you help

Only a matter of time before I got here.....going to have a good look around.....has anyone ever told you Brian how amazing you are.....stop blushing now!!
Cheers, Lizzie :)

Thanks for publishing the John Elkan advertisement - I now know a little more about the original retailer of my silver watch.The watch is hallmarked 1935 & the dial is signed John Elkan so is concurrent with the ad.

Amazing to see the original advert for clipper stair carpet holders.

Just bought a set off ebay to put some character into my home.

Anyone know a site that shows exactly how to fit these? Still trying to figure whether the two points on the back plate are driven into the tread or not!

Great site!!

Thank you for this record. The Butler musical instrument business was started by my 3x great grandfather George James Butler in Dublin. He made his way to England between 1832 and 1834 where he later set up shop in Covent Garden then Haymarket. The business continued through his son and then grandson, with the last known record for the business in Haymarket being a 1913 telephone directory listing.

Super great romp through fashion history! Love to see more menswear. Great resource!

absolutely absorbing and fascinating collection of heritage pages thank you

Has anyone herd of a bumper for putting on Ronuk floor polish for wooden floors in country houses or large houses as trying to obtain one for a childrens home reunion and the ex boys keep talking about the bumper which was a metal ball on a wooden handle and used in conjunction with a square brush and was approx 12 x 12 with a hole through the centre where the metal ball was placed.

Enjoyed the Nostalgic pictures in particular those of Lambeth. Liked to see more from the Elephant & Castle Area in the 1940's & 50's Even the 60's

Liked the site, so much to see and remember. Posted the link on my blog http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-bit-of-nostalgia.html
Good afternoon from Beech Road
Andrew

This picture is very nostalgic for me. I was in secondary school from 1948 to 1955. At that time the rule for P.E. was very thin white shorts and NOTHING else. Thus we boys (it was a boys only school) were effectively naked. Most of us loved it. If shorts were forgotten the rule was: three firm whacks on the seat or do P.E. naked. Most offenders opted for naked although if a boy continally "forgot", a stiff letter was sent to his parents.