Britain's lost Downtons

[Christel]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxml

This I am sure is a good coffee table book.

Shame about the loss of our heritage.

[dromia]

My father, born 1903, used to say "The good old days? there was f**k all good about them!"

[Chuck]

Ah yes, the good old days

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2AcJSkUw6M

[dromia]

Aye it was that cold when I was a bairn that the flames in fire would freeze solid.

You had to snap a piece off and thaw it out 'tween your hands to get a bit heat.

We used to get a cwt bag of coal to last us the year, we would take turns running round the living room with it on our backs to keep warm.

Aye them were the days, the good old days.

[Chuck]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: My old grandad would sook a peppermint and breath on us to keep us warm..

[dromia]

:lol: :lol:

[Chuck]

Sorry christel, we just can't help it.
:lol: :lol:
I got promotion when I worked as a kid. I got to clean chimneys when the fire was out!

[Christel]

The pair of you

[Christel]

Did anyone spot the "ghost" people in the second picture of the Cassiobury estate? People standing by the water.

I do wonder what happened during the photo processing?

[Geordie bloke]

When the chimneys got blocked with soot, my dad climbed on the roof with me and tied a rope around my waist.
He dropped the rope down the chimney which my mother grabbed at the bottom.
They then used me as a pull through to remove the soot.
When finished they told me to go to the local reservoir and have a swim to remove the muck, so they must have cared.
Unfortunately the local reservoir was ten miles away and as it was dark and I was covered in soot it was difficult especially as I had to cross the M6 motorway. But I was dry by the time I got home about 11pm. I was 7 at the time.
As for food. Well we loved licking coal clean and as a treat we could gnaw on bones stolen from the bins behind the abbatoir. Luxury!
For breakfast, my brother Tom and I took turns to eat the 'sleep' that accumulated in our eyes overnight. A little chewy but very nourishing!
For our evening family get together, my parents thrashed us repeatedly with barbed wire to try to obtain a pretty pattern on our backsides and sat us down on blotting paper as a form of Rorshach testing.
All of the above made me the man I am today!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I still see the screaming face of my brother contorted in agony from time to time, but the medication works thank god.
Sweet dreams!