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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Pic number 3: Patons — a name inextricably linked to Alloa.
Back in the day, we used to have a textile industry.
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Ah, yes. I expect that was another industry that Mrs Thatcher didn’t care for and wanted to see replaced by a bank or insurance company.
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I see a pattern here.
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🙂 Oh yes.
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Paton’s and Baldwin’s used to have a men’s hockey team, against which I played both as schoolboy and in later life. Remember the games fondly as being exceedingly robust and anything but the non – contact sport which hockey was supposed to be – shoulder challenges etc included – but also very good natured.
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Boys must be boys 🙂
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…a great yarn.
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Ouch, Jake.
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Pic number 5: Humphrey Bogart.
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Indeed, DonDon
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Pic number 20: I’ll take a wild guess: is it Union Street & Argyle Street, Glasgow?
Mibbe in the late 1920s?
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Well done, DonDon.
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No 2. Looks like an old Vertical or Jig Borer ‘manned’ by a woman from back when engineering was ‘men’s work’ so possibly WW1. No 7. The most compact Horizontal Milling Machine I’ve ever seen from back in the day before Vertical Mills ousted them and continue to enjoy stunning popularity to this very day. Again being operated by a woman who by the look of her clothing it’s WW2 this time.
By the time I worked in factories in the mid 70s, most of the machine operating was being carried out by women and it was boring, repetitive, tedious work. Men did the initial setting up so at that time retained the more interesting, higher status jobs. They were classed as semi skilled and weren’t time served tradesmen as such but within their specialism many could give your average engineer a run for their money and would eagerly do so at every opportunity. It wasn’t until around 1978 that I met my first female engineering apprentice and although not unique, she was considered highly unusual at the time. Thankfully we’ve moved on a bit since then.
No 13. Medium sized centre lathe machining shell casings WW1 again I think. No 14. The Nazi who Abdicated and Mrs Simpson.
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. . . the EX-Mrs Simpson. She had “abdicated” as well, I think.
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American women are trouble for the royals. A young prince recently ran off with one and is somewhere in California now.
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LOL, DonDon.
I suppose as she was divorced she was indeed the ex-Mrs Simpson.
The couldn’t get married until he was no longer king. I think they were married in France. They went on pretending they were royal.
Usually, when you give up your job you lose what goes with it. But no, he who had been His Majesty, King Edward VIII, had to become His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor. It is said that the Queen (Queen Mother) advised that Mrs Simpson (then the Duchess of Windsor), not be allowed the style Royal Highness, or the “Princess” title. She was to be referred to as Her Grace, The Duchess of Windsor.
Thye bothered them not one bit and the Duke, in his new life, in France then in the Bahamas, insisted that she be accorded all the courtesies befitting a princess.
What I don’t understand is why HE was allowed to keep any tite or style.
It goes with the job.
The same should go for Andrew and Harry. The style “royal highness” was removed from Diana and Sarah.
Why is Andrew and why are Harry and Megan, still accorded these styles and titles?
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I have decided that I have at least as much right, in these days of enlightened gender equality, to the title of royal princess as Mrs. Harry de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, having at least as much royal blood in my veins as she does.
Or does one have to be bonked by a prince for that to happen? That might be more of a challenge at this stage in my life, but perhaps a suitable inducement could be offered…
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“…but perhaps a suitable inducement could be offered…”
A Hot American from Pizza Express? No sweat.
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Excellent idea, Conan! It’s been absolutely ages since I had a hot American.
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🙂 🙂
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It’s interesting how, although still there in the background, jobs that were once gender specific have opened up.
Of course, wars helped that on its way.
I like your description of No 14. Yet another proud example of Great British Values.
But, when they give up the responsibilities that go with the life of unlimited wealth and privilege, it seems that they don’t give up the wealth and privilege.
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Michael Miles of Open the Box or Take the Money fame.
Then Ian Dury and the Blockheads whose drummer, they had several, lives near here.
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I can only imagine how ghastly that tv show was.
Ian Dury was altogether a better prospect.
🙂
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Don’t know anything about Rudge motorbikes (no 15), but looking at the car behind the bike, it’s somewhere in Spain.
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I’m sure that Conan will enlighten us.
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It’s a works racer, I think; the petrol tank’s definitely non-standard – also, because it’s longer, the saddle’s been shunted back (look at the angle on the springs). Radial exhaust valves and parallel inlets (mine has parallel both, being a Special). I’d say early 1930s; there was a mid-30s facelift.
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Cheers, Derek. 🙂
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The name Rudge is familiar but as a pedal-bike not a motor-bike. Back in the mid-50s my mother had one and until now I don’t think I’ve come across the brand again.
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I’ve not heard of them but…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudge-Whitworth
Some good pics.
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Pic no. 9 is the Sinderins in Dundee. Here’s how it looks today: https://is.gd/313biN.
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Indeed, indeed. It hasn’t changed much.
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8 and 20 are Dundee, Sinderins and Nethergate (?) respectively. Sinderins, I have read, derives from “sunderance”, the junction where Perth Rd meets Hawkhill when coming in from west (but may be a folk etymology.) What would become City Square on right of 8 ?
1920’s ?
Actually, less certain about 8 since road layout not quite right middle distance.
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You mean no. 9, Cairnallochy, and it is the Sinderins. The difference in the middle distance is that the wee building at the gusset of Hawkhill and the Nethergate / Perth Road that is shown in the old picture was torn down. I don’t recall ever seeing it, but I wasn’t in Dundee very much for the first 20 years of my life (up to 1975).
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Not only that, it was no 20 I was less sure of.
The time lag between viewing pic and drafting comments challenges my short term memory. If it didn’t happen at least 40 years ago, find it increasingly hard to remember.
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LOL @Cairnallochy
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Sinderins is right. Interesting about Sunderance, which of course means splitting asunder. There are 5 roads there… so it makes sense.
No 20, though, is Argyll Street and Union St in Glasgow. 1920s!
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Apologies – didn’t see the caption on 20 when browsing on phone this morning.
Need to have some excuse !
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At least Munguin doesn’t put you on short commons when you make a harmless little mistake, Cairnallochy … unlike some of us here!
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If you can sneak out for half an hour or so, Tris, I expect I could run to a couple of ginger nuts and a cup of tea.
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Well, that’s kind, Ed, but I popped down o the grounds and the birds and mice shared a bit of their support, so I’m OK.
I’ll get some porridge tomorrow morning for sure.
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I can see why you thought 20 was the bottom of Reform Street. It looks a lot like it.
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Pic 19 – Cilla Black
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A music tribute.
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Yes. Apparently, for all her bonhomie and working class charm, an utter horror of a woman off stage.
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8 – They were good biscuits.
17 -Video of Take Your Pick from 1955. If you got through one minute without saying Yes or No you earned 5 shillings.
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Dear heavens… that was awful LOL
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One morning when I came in to work at Ferranti a co worker asked me had I heard that Michael Miles had died?
I suspect (now) that he expected me to say either yes or no, whereupon he would have gone ‘BONG’ and congratulated himself on being clever.
However, to his disappointment and chagrin, my response was; ‘ In that case I’m taking the money’.
‘Eh! What? ‘ he responded.
‘Well’ I said. ‘I am certainly not going to open the box.’
Quite surprised myself with that, I am usually thinking such responses some time afterwards when too late for best effect.
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LOL Brilliant, John!
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Seeing all those women working on those machines reminds me of the Gracie Field’s song.
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Ha ha ha … Lovely.
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It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a machine shop. Interesting fact: the lathe I learned to turn on was manufactured in Germany before WWI, and made its way to Scotland as reparations.
Classic Rudge TT 350, beautiful.
Classic Gracie Fields… err.
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The production milling machines I worked on in the 70s were manufactured in 1909 and they wondered why British industry was going down the tubes even pre-Thatcher. Crippling lack of investment was a major factor.
Can you imagine how dangerous it must have been for these woman wearing dresses while operating these machines? I bet there were quite a few caught and dragged into the whirly bits to meet a grisly fate.
We don’t need that ridiculous health and safety. Not us, oh no.
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Oh no indeed, Greig! As proud Brits we must take it on the chin, and if some of us are killed or have various limbs ripped off, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. After all, anybody who is anybody has to be as super-rich as possible – sorry, no, shutting down the economy will kill more people than the coronavirus and all that elfansafety nonsense!
There is no such thing as society! Down with libtard snowflakes!
Have I got that right? I’m not doing too well on my Open University Thatcherism Foundation Course.
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I’m sure you will graduate magna cum laude, Ed. 🙂
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Just as well we don’t need it, because I suspect that very soon we won’t have it.
Yes, it must have been incredibly dangerous for women having to be properly attired, to do that kind of work.
I think Britain’s big problems have always revolved around (a) class and (b) this incessant desire to be “important” in the world.
No wonder I hate the place.
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My granny lost 3 1/2 fingers from her right hand while working in a munitions factory during WW1. Mind you her remaining thumb and 1/2 little finger had a grip like pliers.
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LOL. I bet she could still clip your ear!
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#18 is a postcard showing the Wawona Tunnel Tree in Mariposa Grove, a stand of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park. The tunnel was cut through in 1881, and the tree fell in February 1969 during a winter snow storm. The giant sequoia is estimated to have been 2,300 years old.
Wawona Tree – Nineteenth Century:
1918:
1962:
2012:
“California Tunnel Tree”: Remaining cut-through tree at Mariposa Grove.
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Poor tree.
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Tunneling through a few of the big trees weakened them some, but it was done in the late 1800’s as a way to attract tourists, in order to promote and finance what would become the National Park Service in 1916. Especially popular when motorcars started coming to the remote national park sites in the early 20th century. Not done today of course, but the old tunneled sequoias served their purpose of attracting tourists.
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On the royal front.
Must have been pretty unusual to have a Renault Dauphin coming through.
The small blue car,rear wheel drive and engine.
There seems to have been plenty of room to have the road bend around it.
I also worked a machine in the 60’s that bore a brass that said it had been overhauled in 1912.
There were still rows of milling machines driven by the overhead pulley system.
The lady operating!!!! the super clean milling machine must be from a brochure on machine tools,I have never seen one as clean after a few cuts.
The ladies could turnout the parts as well as the men they had replaced, at lower cost to the company.
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California sequoias were tunneled in the late 1800’s to attract tourists in horse drawn carriages. They worked OK for many cars into the 1940’s, but not for big cars in later years. Some of the smaller tree tunnels were converted to footpaths. They were always popular as tourist attractions, however environmentally incorrect they became as attitudes changed.
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Fair enough… different times. People didn’t know just how valuable these trees were, I guess.
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Yes, the National Park Service says : “Tunnel trees had their time and place in the early history of our national parks, … but today sequoias which are standing healthy and whole are worth far more.”
This article describes one at a California State Park that fell in a storm in 2017. It had been used as a foot path on a hiking trail.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/09/508919216/iconic-sequoia-tunnel-tree-brought-down-by-california-storm
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It’s sad to see something that had lived for so long be killed. Still, it seems it was a mere youngster by sequoia standards… 3,000 years.
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Many coast redwoods (even taller than the Giant Sequoia but not so big around) were lost to commercial logging in the nineteenth century. Large remaining stands of both redwood species are now protected. Many giant old-growth Sequoias escaped logging because their wood it brittle and has little structural strength. Therefore, not so commercially attractive for logging.
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They feel spongy to the touch. I can’t imagine them being used for construction or furniture.
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Apparently that’s what saved many of the giant Sequoias in the nineteenth century. On the other hand, I think I read that something like 90% of the commercially profitable old growth coast redwoods in California were harvested before they were protected.
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Yes, in those days they were quite open about different rates for men and women…
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Ah! the joy of repeats.. No.6 is making a (welcome?) re-appearance having last featured on May 23rd . Back then it was Croydon Daimler (Leyland) Fleetline D2629 THX629S, known to enthusiasts as “The Chocolate Box”.
!
1983 was both the 50th anniversary of London Transport & also the Croydon Corporation’s 100th anniversary of its charter. It was suggested that Croydon garage have a vehicle which represented both anniversaries so the Engineering Manager basically ‘made up’ a livery to mimic the Croydon Corporation Tramway design.
Might have looked better on a tram, it doesn’t look right on a bus.
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My most humble apologies for the repeat.
But it’s ok, Munguin says a day without food will do me good.
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😊 Number 3, the knitting patterns, they can put them on the prettiest heads and they still just look like balaclavas. Well 3 balas and an unstable looking pill box.
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Alan, I sent in the knitting pattern. I wondered if anyone would recognise one of those ‘prettiest heads.’ The girl pictured top and bottom right is Pattie Boyd, later 1960s supermodel and wife of George Harrison and then Eric Clapton. Well, she looked better in a balaclava than I ever did🤪
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I’m impressed that you knew it to be Pattie Boyd. Not much gets past you Andi.
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Well, not much that looked like Pattie Boyd, Alan 😁
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😄
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I was just wondering,
Why is that lassie wearing a Christmas Cake on her head??
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LOL. I does look like that.
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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1276512600398925824.html
Off-topic but I think you’ll enjoy this catalogue of incompetence.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbiBuCuXQAERC0t?format=jpg&name=4096×4096
In the meantime, some Herald journalist, Paul Sinclair, showed a picture of the FM wearing a tartan face mask and tweeted some disparaging remark about how she had to make a nationalist point by wearing a tartan face mask…
Unfortunately for him (investigative journalist that he is supposed to be), the masks are widely available at £10, with 20% of the money going to Shelter Scotland.
Oooops.
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Suspect, that’s a Unionist for you 🙂
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A catalogue of catastrophe at the hands of a set of incompetent 10th raters.
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Do you know where I could get a Saltire Mask or two that works?
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https://bonnietartan.com/product/face-mask-in-scottish-saltire-adult/
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And the paint job on the PM’s aircraft is, of course, not a nationalist point.
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It reminds me of “Four legs good; two legs bad” (a bit unfair to birds, I always thought).
Union flag good; Scottish flag bad.
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I have always been fascinated by Churchill’s ability to, essentially expel a member of the Royal Family. Quite what he had on them will, presumeably, be a deep and dark seceret. for a very long, long time.
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As far as I could make out the Archbishop of Canterbury would not contemplate allowing the king to marry a divorcee. It went against everything the church stood for (till death us do part). He was defender of the faith and the head of the church (what an absolute nonsense that is).
The king was equally determined that he would marry Mrs Simpson. and furthermore she was determined to marry him.
The thing she couldn’t understand was, why could he not do whatever he wanted. He was, after all, king.
Baldwin was PM, I think. But he also had to have an agreement with all the Empire PMs.
He also had an enemy in his sister in law, Elizabeth, who hated him from pushing her husband into a role he didn’t want and wasn’t trained for.
During the war, he had to be got rid of because he couldn’t live here and undermine the king, and he couldn’t live in Paris and be captured by the Germans or, in fact join with Hitler.
Remember that Churchill (and the other PMs) had the queen, and therefore the king, on side. It was the King that got rid of him to the Bahamas. Not Churchill.
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