Textile reflections

Mallod

One of the first jobs my husband had after leaving school in the mid 1960's, was working alongside two of his uncles for a company in Crayford which made wood sheet veneer products.

The veneer panels were fitted in most important liners, including the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth and also in the boardrooms of the major banks and prestigious companies in London.

They made household items too and the advertisement at the top - from the Ideal Home magazine dated December 1958 - shows some of their product lines.

Staff were able to buy these products at a discount and we still have some ourselves - above colour photo - although generally we bought them as gifts.

A Mystery....

Here - and where I grew up was, in WW2, part of the notorious and frightening 'bomb alley' - not only did the fighter planes cause devastation and fear, but far too many of the V1 flying bombs (doodlebugs) and V2 Rockets were directed here also.

Now... this may seem very fanciful - and I have absolutely no explanation at all but, in the early 1980's we (myself, husband & son) were shopping in the centre of a nearby town. I can't even recall what time of the year it was but do remember that it was a bright sunny day.

Suddenly there was a terrible noise in the sky and we - and everyone else- looked up to see what it was...

If it was a mass hallucination it was certainly clear and loud! for what we saw was what appeared to be a noisy silver rocket shaped object (not as high as a large aircraft as we could see it clearly) which was visible between the high buildings and then passed out of view and sound - roughly going in the direction of London (NOT Concorde!)

It was so very strange that we wondered whether it was some experimental aircraft on its way to a London air display.

On checking later, no one we knew personally had seen it - just the large number of people in the shopping centre around us.

We were so intrigued that we listened to all news reports, bought National and Local papers - and there wasn't one single mention of the event!

This was before the Internet; so no checking could have been done that way and we simply forgot about it.

Some years later we went to the Imperial War Museum in London and in the middle of the floor was a V2 Rocket - and it looked eerily familiar! If you click HERE you can take a virtual tour of the atrium and see what we saw. (The one on display is green -'ours' was silver)

I told you I had no explanation...

Lest we forget...

...and still the wars go on and on... fuelled either by, greed, illusions of superiority or misguided religious fervour...

Bagaholic?

They say that when you have to start storing bags inside bags, then you have a problem - Oh dear.....

These aren't even all of my bags, but they are the ones I like most and use most. I photographed them after I had to get them out to look for something I'd lost... and then decided to put my 'addiction' on record!

First I had to get bags out of bags ; out of bags! Inside them I found packets of tissues, appointment cards, coins, spare inhalers, sweet wrappers - but NOT what I was looking for...

Really it's only been the last 20 years since I have indulged my bag attraction (and believe me, if I hadn't given loads away over the years I would have even less space). Interestingly, prior to that I think I only owned one or two bags at a time - and they would last years.

In fact, when I left school and started work I didn't even own a bag and had to borrow one from a friend.

Perhaps that's where it all started really... liking things; wanting them, but sensibly making do with what I had. However, getting older and realising that 'time' wasn't infinite, I began to treat myself.

Do I regret it? - No! - but I do wish I had more storage space!

Victorian Fire Guard

This fire surround/guard was recently given to us by a relative. Since their last house move they no longer owned a coal fire and it had been languishing in their shed.

We loved it on sight and J, on finding it came apart, started its renovation - cleaning the brass and metal painting the black mesh which would have originally been japanned.

The guard had been given to our relatives by their next door neighbour in the mid 1970's. He was then nearing retirement and it had originally belonged to his grandmother. This seems to take it back to either the early or mid part of the Victorian period.

With an open coal fire, a tightly meshed spark guard is still required - but we believe that it probably originally guarded around a black, coal fired kitchen range (even all the houses in our Edwardian terrace originally had one of these too)

They were used both for heat and for cooking and got very hot, so something was necessary to put distance between the heat and childish inquisitive fingers. I daresay a few items of clothing were balanced over its sides too!

I wonder what trials and tribulations, joys and happiness, that it has been a silent witness to over the last 150 years?

Crayford Kent - procession, mid 1950's

Looking through some old photos of my home town I wonder whether this procession was a Remembrance day parade? I'm not certain, but I believe it possibly was.

The lady in the white hat and gold chain in the bottom left hand corner is my husband's grandmother who was the Mayor at that time (she was a prominent Councillor for many years who worked hard to try and improve the conditions for the working classes)