78 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

  1. Hi tris. Am I first again this week?
    Pic 6 – Green Goddess fire engine, brought out of mothballs when the fire brigade went on strike in the 1970s.
    Pic 11 – Peter Sellars as Inspector Clouseau.
    Pic 19 – Barbara Cartland.
    Pic 23 – The Avengers.

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          2. tris, I am sure that this has comr up before but what was The Avengers called in French?
            In German, it was Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone. I think it was something similar in French but I can’t find it . . .

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            1. Ahhh… You’re right. I had fogotten that.

              It was “Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir”.

              Bowler hat and leather boots.

              I think they used to show episodes in English classes, because Steed and Peel had the kind of accent everyone spoke.

              God help anyone who got an English pen pal from Newcastle, the East End, Norfolk, Somerset or Manchester.

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              1. Not to mention Birmingham.
                Yeah , leather boots. The German means “With brolly, charm, and bowler hat”. Not exactly a catchy title but it is still widely known among people old enough to remember it.
                By the way, Diana Rigg was undoubtedy very talented, but she could not play the tuba.

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  2. Pic 3 – A Russian Zenit SLR. My first SLR was a Zenit – not this model. They were cheap, a bit clunky but not bad cameras. Pic 4 – Nat King Cole. Pic 8 – A dark satanic mill – Paisley? Dundee? almost anywhere. Pic 10 – The (execrable) Freddie & the Dreamers. Pic 17 – Children’s hospital ward – iron lungs suggest the polio years of the 1950s. Pic 22 – RMS Queen Mary – my mum was at the launch!

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    1. Andi’s dark satanic mill is the Barrowfield Works, a huge complex of cotton mills which stood in Carstairs Street, Dalmarnock, a stone’s throw from the Clyde in the east end of Glasgow. From the car outside, I’d guess at the late 1920s, near the end of the tenure of the Glasgow Cotton Spinning Company. This huge mill was built in the 1880s and still stands, unlike its slightly later and equally large companion which lay behind it and a corner of which can just be seen peeking out behind the tall chimney they shared – also now gone. This was the biggest of Glasgow’s cotton mills, and was built to high standards for its time, fireproof construction, high ceilings and lots of tall wide windows, so maybe not so dark – although still pretty satanic, I’ll bet.

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      1. My original thought was that pic 8 was the Anchor Mill in Paisley, but having read your account which seems pretty confident and authoritative and looked again at the photo, I think my initial impression is wrong.

        I know well the large red brick building between Carstairs St and Swanston St in Dalmarnock which is now used for various smaller work units. I know this as the former Turkey Red Dye Company. The building stone work as I know it now is not as ‘adorned’ as that in the photo, but, it is likely that in the intervening years alterations will have been made.

        In that part of Dalmarnock several streets had cotton industry related names.

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        1. It must have been a huge employer in the area. I note that it’s a relatively small population, and that, at that time people didn’t live far from where they worked.

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        2. Hi, Alasdair. Yeah, that’s the same place. The Glasgow Cotton Spinning Company was a consortium put together in the 1880s to combat the advantages of German technical monopolies on newer artificial dyes by banding together small companies in imitation of the “Oldham Limiteds” – maybe why the architect for the Dalmarnock mills was an Oldham practitioner, Joseph Stott.

          Two of the companies in the consortium were Turkey Red dyers in the Vale of Leven, and production at Dalmarnock included Turkey Red dyed yarns. The fame of the process (and there’s a fascinating tale to tell about that*), and the fact that the early chemical work on the Scottish variant of the Turkey Red dyestuff was carried out at another site in Dalmarnock in the late 18th century, meant that the whole consortium was often referred to in that way locally.

          As to the building these days, yes you’re right it has been beaten about a bit, but it is still there, and it was Listed in the early 2000s, so might be able to hang on a bit longer, like the Anchor Mill and Mile End Mill in Paisley. There are very few of these great big monuments to a lost industry left in Scotland, so it would be nice if we could keep the few we have. Finding viable uses is the big issue…

          * Light-fast Turkey Red dyes were very popular (and therefore profitable) before synthetic dyes were developed, and the secrets of the process were “acquired” from the Ottoman Turks by means of what we’d now call industrial espionage by the French, who then had the same thing happen to them… so that the Vale of Leven became the main centre of Turkey Red production in the nineteenth century.

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          1. Thanks for the additional information and for the confirmation of my partial knowledge.

            Anent industrial espionage I heard that the company in Dalmarnock bought the dye formula from a chemist at the French company who had stolen it.

            Given your knowledge of the history, perhaps you can confirm two stories about the company. Firstly that all of the neckerchiefs worn by ‘cowboys’ in film (like John Wayne) and in real life, were made at Dalmarnock. Secondly, that the company was a major supplier of saris to India, partly as a result of the British Raj suppressing local manufacture.

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            2. Ha! Both true, I believe – up to a point. The top quality products from Dalmarnock were indeed exported in vast quantities to North America in the late nineteenth century, but like all “luxury” items, cheap knock-offs were also sold. The cowboys whose neckerchiefs faded to a sad madder, or brownish pink in a couple of years were the ones who had been ripped off.
              I don’t know the full details of the Indian connection, but certainly there certainly were restrictive practices enforced by the colonial authorities (at the request of “domestic” business interests in the UK) in this and other industries which certainly skewed the market in India.

              Monsiour Papillon, the French chemist in question, was invited to travel to Scotland by George Mackintosh, a Glasgow dyer and owner of the Cudbear Works in the city. Cudbear was an early industrial dye made from Scottish lichens andwhich produced rare (but not permanent) red and purple colours. The visit was supposed to be to let M. Papillon assess cudbear – one chemist to another, but somehow the secret Turkey Red process leaked out of France around the same time. How odd. How the French got the secret process from the Turks was a little more hair-raising, i believe… 😉

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    2. No 8 is Dalmarnock… A cotton mill in Carstairs Street.

      All the rest are bang on, Andi.

      You must have a great camera these days… the photographs you share with us.

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  3. No 5 The wonderful Birks Cinema in Aberfeldy, named after local landmarks, the Birks (birches).Have some small recollection of a projected revival.

    No 9 Not sure of provenance of the 4-4-0 – there were a lot of ex Caley Pickersgill locos but this one looks a bit ancient and reduced to humble goods duties. . Will rack brains for inspiration plus any old photos to hand.

    No 10 Freddie McGarrity, famous for being only 5’3″ so cdnt be called up to the army, as sung in the Barron Knights spoof “Call Up The Groups”. Epitomises an era when pop groups still dressed like their Dads.

    No 15 James Dean – film Giant ?

    No 19 Barbara Cartland, triumph of cosmetics over nature.

    No 23 Avengers included Gareth ?Hunt and John Steed – is that a young Joanna Lumley in between ?

    Had fun this morning.

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    3. Ahhhh… I’m glad you had fun. That’s what this is all about.

      https://birkscinema.co.uk/the-trust/our-story/a-major-renovation-project/

      Aberfeldy cinema, it is. I fancy a trip up there for a walk in the Birks. I’ve never been.

      The 3P 4-4-0 is in Carstairs …late 40s.

      I don’t know which James Dean film It was but it could be Giant.

      https://www.vintag.es/2020/09/james-dean-giant-1955.html

      Yep. Cartland. I love this take on her:

      And you’re right about Johanna Lumley

      🙂

      Well done

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  4. 23 is The New Avengers. I preferred The Avengers to this remake series.

    20 Cowgate, Dundee.

    21 Queues at the number 8 stance at the Shore Terrace bus stances, Dundee for a trip to Broughty Ferry.

    24 A breeding ground for bacteria and germs.

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  5. Didn’t clock that the Zenit item was part of the AOY 🙃.
    Have read somewhere that the Industar 50mm lens was quite remarkable in some of its qualities (but don’t quite recall why) . Later models had the 58 mm Helios. Apart from weight, the other limitation of the Zenith was the slightly restricive range of shutter speeds offered – 1/30 to 1//500. But the screw mount enabled use of a vast range of lenses.

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  6. Hi, Tris.

    Kudos for the sneaky connections this week, too! I didn’t notice the brand of whiskey being advertised in No. 7 until after I’d commented on the mill building in No. 8 – which is in Carstairs Street, Glasgow.

    Nice one!

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  7. No. 1 – The Internet and Social Media of it’s day – but away from the prying ears of the State.

    Puts the war against “drink” and pubs by the usual suspects in a sinister light perhaps?

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    1. A few weeks ago (I think in the Laugh section) we had some women gathered round an open tenement window and the quip was that this was a 1950s version of windows!

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  8. Peter Sellars pic……Hmm just thought I would mention that he was in the film Lolita with……..guess who…..YEP….James Mason…..

    I am nothing if not an opportunist in seeing ANY opportunity to mention you know who…LOL

    Have a nice day everyone on here….

    🙂

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      1. “As soon as I saw the first line, I knew what was coming”…

        LOL…

        I am , if nothing else , completely PREDICTABLE as far as highlighting a connection with you know who……I try my best to always find a LINK with he whose initials is JM….LOL

        🙂

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  9. 10. Freddie Garrity went on to feature in a terrible kids’ ITV show called Little Big Time in the early 70s.

    15. The fact that it’s a Volvo gives it away a touch. It’s in Stockholm, run by the SL (Stockholms Lokaltrafik) which is Stockholm county’s public transport body.

    16. I think they were sold as ‘Refreshers’ here, hopefully without the corn syrup. The packaging looks the same anyway.

    19. Favourite description of Cartland from Clive James: “‘Twin miracles of mascara, her eyes looked like the corpses of two small crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff.”

    23. I agree with auldmarcia. The original Avengers series was far better (and far funnier, which was part of its charm). I remember at the age of about 5 or 6 being allowed to stay up late because I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) get to sleep, and watching The Avengers on the box. The remake was OK , but as much of its time as the original was of its own. Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit, Joanna Lumley as Purdie (and half the girls in my class at school had that hairstyle as a result), and the great Patrick MacNee as John Steed. Macnee’s upbringing was an odd one; his mother came out and left her husband and young Patrick was brought up by his mother and her partner (who inherited money from the Dewar’s whisky business).

    25. A pair of Vanden Plas Princess DM4 limos, built any time between the early 50s and late 60s.

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      1. No I can’t stand her either.

        That voice grates.

        She’s a Boris Johnson fan, which should tell you all you need to know about her. The garden Bridge in London that cost so much was her idea.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Bridge

        I do, however, admire the work she did for the Gurkhas. They were treated shamelessly by the Brits, Gordon Brown of the Labour Party in this case.

        She raised the profile.

        It helps to have connections and she had a member of the Saxe Coburgs onside.

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    3. I think Freddie was always a bit of a comic. I suspect that he’d be a good kiddies entertainer.

      Ingredients. Sugar, Acid (Malic Acid), Sodium Bicarbonate, Stabiliser (E470b), Maltose Syrup, Vegetable Fats (Shea, Coconut), Maltodextrin, Natural Flavourings, Safflower Extract, Spirulina Concentrate, Colours (Curcumin, Cochineal, Paprika Extract).

      I see Patrick Macnee was expelled from Eton for selling pornography. 🙂

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  10. Is Pic 18 the soprano Maria Callas?

    NMRN – James Mason deserved an Oscar for Lolita. So did Peter Sellars. Oh, and Stanley Kubrick is my favorite film director.

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        1. Well done, Andi.

          She came up in a conversation the other day.

          She had kinda fallen out of popularity in the 60s, making way for the cooler “beat” singers… Cilla, Sandi, Dusty, Pet, Lulu, but she wanted to show that she could still do a big concert and pull the audience in.

          So she tried to get someone to sponsor a concert in the Albert Hall in London.

          Given that she hadn’t sold many records in years no one wanted to know, so she did it all herself… hired the hall arranged the publicity, presumably got the orchestra together, rehearsed and … she sold out. Not just once but twice. She also had a couple of minor hits.

          I don’t care for her voice, but she proved the critics wrong.

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        2. There’s a house on the main A525 Wrecsam – Rhuthun road in Bwlchgwyn (scarcely two miles from me) which (or so ’tis said) was bought for Squires by Moore as a wedding present. The more unkindly minded said that it was to keep her as far away as possible.

          Nant Road in Bwlchgwyn (just off the same main road) was for the last twenty years of his life the home of the great humorous (and serious) poet Les Barker, who sadly died a fortnight ago today at the age of 75 having (it’s thought) suffered a heart attack in his car in the car park of his beloved New Saints football club in Oswestry.

          A short obit (with links to some of his work): http://www.thejudge.me.uk/Not_blog/Not_blog_20230117.htm

          His version of the Shipping Forecast is a particular favourite of mine:

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    2. @ DonDon @ 12.55pm

      I agree he should have got an Oscar……and PS too…..and SK was a great director…..

      Tris will say ” DonDon do NOT encourage her”….LOL

      Have a wonderful day DonDon ( you are obviously very astute…..you know class and talent when you see it……as I do also….plus for me, but not I suspect for you, I also see the hubba hubba aspect connected to his beautiful face and voice……one two three…. click fingers….and I am back in the room)

      🙂

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    2. Hi DonDon ‘ The Blue Max.’ I have seen it….oh my God he looks wunderbar in it….chiselled cheek bones on show….I am going weak at the Knees now (and in the head)…..I’m becoming overcome with…emulsion ….as Hilda Baker may have said…..

      Und….re Vladimir Nabokov’s Scottish nanny….James Mason MET him….. und talking of things Scottish did you know that JM loved the bagpipes (listening not playing) and loved hearing them play ‘Scotland the Brave’ och aye the noo….see what I did there…ANOTHER chance to LINK yet something else to you know who……don’t encourage me anymore DonDon as Tris will have me banned for overuse of the name that is James Mason…..indeed it may be forbidden to mention on here….and thus only, in the future, be allowed to be referred to as “Shhh you know who” status…

      @ Tris

      “My god. Are we starting a fan club here”?

      Tris Do NOT put ideas in my head………what with me having an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Brain…..thus always PLENTY room for you know who and all things related to you know who……but I bags to be the Chairwoman of said FAN club…..as I was here first in the devotion Q for all things related to JM….I rest my case….for NOW that is…..

      🙂

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  13. Pic13 looks like yet another 1932 Ford Model B roadster.
    Where do you find them?
    This one’s well chopped – no running boards or mudguards (fenders).
    All right in a dry state, but I wouldn’t like to drive it around in the rain, especially on unmade roads…
    Wouldn’t be allowed on the street in UK without covered wheels and I suspect the same would apply in US today, but possibly the regulations were less strict in the 1930s.
    Maybe the man in the photo was the policeman who had just impounded it?
    Doesn’t look like the type to scoot around in a hot rod…

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    1. Good question… I found it in my pic library… and it must have been there for years, so no idea where it came from.

      But I thought it might be of interest to the car enthusiasts.

      LOL He doesn’t indeed look like a hot rod driver.

      Is that a police uniform anywhere?

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    1. To be fair it is reckoned to be another one of those things he never said. But given that it has happened, I thought it worth an inclusion…

      Many people have suggested similar things.

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          1. Indeed. The attribution of ‘source of xxx phrase or saying’ is usually one of:

            The Bible, Shakespeare (however spelled), or, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

            Where it is not attributed to one of that famous duo; Trad or Anon. (Or is that music/lyrics) ?

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              1. Not to forget Groucho Marx.

                He had a few zingers in his time.

                Think I’ll call it a day. Now to find that recordng of “Sailing By”.

                Gottit.

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  16. OK, enough of the trivia, down to the important stuff!
    No 15 is a Volvo B58 (no, I didn’t know, I had to look it up 😢)
    No 21 is much more interesting, if a bit difficult to make out.
    The leading bus is one of the locally Dickson-bodied Daimler COG6’s procured late 1939-early 1940. Behind it is a Northern Coachbuilders bodied Daimler CVD6, one of a batch of 20 procured in 1947. (The NC bodies were notoriously poor quality due to use of un-seasoned wood in the frames, resulting in many of them being re-bodied in the late ’50s.)
    The date – the buses are in the original lined-out livery sans adverts and with “Dundee” prominent in the side panels – would be late 1940s. Adverts on the side only began to appear in the early ’50s.
    In other news….
    Re. no 7, apparently you can still get ‘Carstairs’ whiskey. Originally it was a quality rye-based whiskey but it failed to survive prohibition and the brand was acquired by Barton Brands (huge US distiller).
    It became a cheap blend based on a mix of neutral spirit and grain whiskey (i.e. it failed to meet the requirement to be labelled as either a rye or a bourbon). Cheap rot-gut basically, or as the advert has it
    “the pleasant taste that comes through bright and clear” 😂
    Whiskey for people who don’t like whiskey.

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    1. 15.
      Swedish State Railways bus, I think.

      21.
      That’s the old bus terminus in Dundee, behind the Caird Hall. There was some sort of market there in the building under the hall.

      Carstairs Whiskey sounds just about right for a first teenage booze up.

      Followed by the first teenage nightmare vomit and hangover.

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