Category Archives: History

Music from Anfield

This is probably my best ever purchase. Made in the UK in 1967 and still works as intended. Which isn’t exactly great.

Interestingly, The original owner’s name and address is still in the manual. Courtesy of Google, this was where they lived.

And this is where they bought the record player (although the music shop is long gone).

White paint

While half watching something on Netflix, I noticed an issue of historical accuracy. In a Western documentary -drama, Ulysses S. Grant’s office was very white. As in white gloss paint.

There’s a problem in that, while the year was stated as 1866, (bright) white paint wasn’t invented until the 20th Century; specifically 1921.

If someone’s going to do something, they should do it properly.

News Chronicle

A dozen or more years ago, I found an old enamel sign, buried in the garden. It’d had a hard life and parts had rusted away. But it’s still a cool thing and would have originally been fixed to the front wall of the house, in the days of its life as a shop.

For a while, the sign was hung at the top of the stairs, but redecoration resulted in its retirement to a dusty corner.

However, As of today, it now sits proudly in the bathroom.

The sign originally advertised a daily newspaper, News Chronicle. This went bust in the 1930s, so the sign’s most likely from the early 1900s. Beamish museum has a more complete version.

I’d imagine that it was relegated to the garden in the early 60s, when the shop moved from its long time newsagent role to one of general dealer.

Christchurch

My second in command and I enjoyed a short train trip to Christchurch today.

We found a nice bar.

We also found a rather nice vegan cafe, Good Intentions.

Where we had some great chilli.

Then there was the Saxon Bar. Now, that was a cool place.

Today wasn’t just about beer though. There was history.

And flowers.

And, somehow, we managed to bump into someone (Brian) from our local. Synchronicity.

Floorboards (part I)

This afternoon, I removed some floorboards. Apparently, our boiler has an incorrect width gas pipe, which is unfortunately buried in concrete.

So, the new boiler requires a larger pipe and the easiest way to fit one is to follow a path from the front of the house, upstairs and through bedrooms, before returning through the kitchen ceiling at the back of the house.

In a bad situation, there’s often a positive. It was interesting to see that joists had been connected with pegged mortise and tenon joints.

Authentic spectacles

I’m quite knowledgeable about vintage spectacles. I mean, I’ve been wearing them for a number of years.

This evening, I watched a few minutes of a Western. It was one of those films that you know is going to be terrible after just a few minutes.

Anyway, being a Western, it was set in the 1800s. Which means that glasses didn’t have nosepads. Or plastic temple tip covers.

Frankenpole

Due to a minor oversight, I had a double-booking last night. So attempted both.

Frankenstein, a Gothic Tale, a surprisingly good play, was in the fitting setting of the Great Hall, in the castle keep.

The play was pretty slow to begin with and I was really beginning to think I’d made a huge mistake, particularly since I’d persuaded my second in command and youngest daughter to come along.

But things had picked up before the intermission and, thankfully, the second half was great.

Straight after, we jumped in a cab to Gateshead Fell cricket club, to meet up with some mates at the beer festival.

Where we caught most of Ed Tudor-Pole’s set.

Then there were nightcaps in our local.

A pleasant evening.

Marley’s ghost

We also visited Kingston today. Where we went to the Bob Marley museum.

There’s just the one picture, because cameras weren’t allowed inside. But it was worth going. Essentially, it’s a Georgian house, largely as it was intended, apart from the 70s recording studio.

The shot room was a little strange, though. Best look it up.

I did learn something new about the bloke. He was a vegan. Which makes him cool. Forget the music, he was a vegan.