Surprising finds on Alamy?

[John Mitchell]

I found a pic of my high school dance band in Montreal. I don't recognize any of the members and no date given. However, this is how we looked back in the 60's (clean-cut and lots of hair tonic). Not exactly an exciting looking group. Those were more innocent times...😇

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by John Mitchell

[Allan Bell]

7 hours ago, Bryan said:

I've just come across this thread, and the three photos from the past all tell interesting stories. John's ship must have been incredibly lucky to have survived the two world wars and must have had many tales to tell.

 

I don't have any comparable history, but thought that I'd look up some of the factories in which I worked, one of which, the Vulcan works, was originally established to build steam locomotives for the pioneering Liverpool Manchester railway. No such luck, the only relevant Alamy photo I found was a grotty monochrome image of  the Hawthorn Leslie factory on Tyneside dating back to the 1970s - but that was taken by me. 

 

Not related to images on Alamy but I went on Google street view some time back to look at how the all the places I have worked in/at in my working life and found that ALL of them had been demolished.

 

Hope it was not my fault.

 

Allan

 

Must look up on Alamy and report back.

 

ITMA

 

Nothing to report. Nothing found. All died the death.

 

ITMAA

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Allan Bell

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Not related to images on Alamy but I went on Google street view some time back to look at how the all the places I have worked in/at in my working life and found that ALL of them had been demolished.

 

Hope it was not my fault.

 

 

 

Most of my primary school buildings are now car parks.  One is derelict.

[Mr Standfast]

My old junior school is not on Alamy. Must try harder!

 

The main part was a 15th century tithe barn.  It was heated by an old black coal stove in the corner. If you got in early enough in the morning the caretaker would let you watch as he emptied the mousetraps into the stove.

 

Stay safe!

[Bryan]

22 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Not related to images on Alamy but I went on Google street view some time back to look at how the all the places I have worked in/at in my working life and found that ALL of them had been demolished.

 

Hope it was not my fault.

 

Allan

 

 

Similar story here. Companies gone completely and most of the premises raised to the ground.  In one case the ground itself was removed to construct a marina. Medium/heavy engineering was not a good place to be in the late 1970s.  Grieves me to see that we have to shop abroad to buy most of this this stuff these days.

[sb photos]

On 30/01/2021 at 09:50, Allan Bell said:

 

Not related to images on Alamy but I went on Google street view some time back to look at how the all the places I have worked in/at in my working life and found that ALL of them had been demolished.

 

Hope it was not my fault.

 

Allan

 

Just totalled up the companies I worked for since 1966, not counting earlier evening and weekend jobs while at school. Premises I worked at 66% are no longer there, and 80% of the companies no longer exist. As expected this differs greatly from my parents. My father started work at 14 at Half Moon Works in London, then relocated in 1953 when when they moved to Aylesbury. Both sites no longer exist. I have photos of the Aylesbury site, inside and out. After redundancy he worked for Bucks CC for a few years until retirement. The Pooleys Folly tower where he worked still exists. My mother had two jobs, the London telephone exchange no longer exists but the solicitors does.

Edited January 31, 2021 by sb photos

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Similar story here. Companies gone completely and most of the premises raised to the ground.  In one case the ground itself was removed to construct a marina. Medium/heavy engineering was not a good place to be in the late 1970s.  Grieves me to see that we have to shop abroad to buy most of this this stuff these days.

 

Agree with your last statement.

 

I was in heavy engineering too. Apprentice in marine engineering on the wear manufacturing massive ships engines. Light eng for 2 years with British Ropes R&D. Back to heavy eng in Halifax (Butler M/c Tools) for two years. Actually that factory building was still standing when I last looked but not under Butler name and assorted small businesses. Then to Nottingham and small well known M/c tool co. Light eng, again about two years and got married there. Then to Bishop Auckland with another light eng Co. All these moves were for experience and advancement. Next move was to a large dairy company in their engineering department as Project engineer. This company was under the umbrella of an even bigger food manufacturing company with many well known names in the market and after a while I was also doing project engineering work for those other units. That is where my time in engineering ends. Self employment followed but not in photography.

 

Could write a book of my life story but no one would want to read it.

 

Allan

 

[Avpics]

3 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

Could write a book of my life story but no one would want to read it.

 

Allan

 

I would if it was lavishly illustrated. Having been trained by GKN Steelstock I spent the nineties and two thousands with a couple of small family steel profiling businesses watching the effects of the 'big bang' removing all the finance from industry and killing off some wonderful businesses. It's frustrating to see the lack of awareness of how unnecessary was the loss of the country's manufacturing and its impact on society.

[Mr Standfast]

So did any of you have to make these?

 

Teeth filed by hand, case hardened jaws, hand riveted, blued handles...

 

A treasure from my apprentice days at Westinghouse.

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Mr Standfast

[Harry Harrison]

56 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

Teeth filed by hand, case hardened jaws, hand riveted, blued handles...

You made them? Wow. Great pliers, parallel action, I buy therm when I see them but all mine are made by Maun Industries.

[Avpics]

I frequently drive by this set of gates locally. I copied the original lettering to reproduce a new set to be incorporated into this restored structure in the early nineties.

 

It hardly counts as a 'find' as I uploaded it myself!

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

So did any of you have to make these?

 

Teeth filed by hand, case hardened jaws, hand riveted, blued handles...

 

A treasure from my apprentice days at Westinghouse.

 

 

 

Have to be impressed by that !  I made a set of useless kit including hopeless screwdrivers, a V block, toolmakers' clamps, circular scriber etc, but I still have and use the rather nice  toolboxes !  More usefully, and very much not part of the official curriculum, one of my better achievements was a clutch puller for my crumbling A35 van.

[Mr Standfast]

Thanks.

[Allan Bell]

18 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

So did any of you have to make these?

 

Teeth filed by hand, case hardened jaws, hand riveted, blued handles...

 

A treasure from my apprentice days at Westinghouse.

 

 

Very nice. I did make some bits and pieces (tools etc)during apprenticeship but no photos and they were all worn out years ago and binned. Well by that time I could afford to buy propriety items that I needed and keep other people in work.

 

Allan