Traces of the Past: Thursday’s Special

In response to Paula’s Thursday’s Special.

victorian soda syphons and medicine bottle

A broken down 1961 BSA 650cc Motorcycle The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process. At its peak, BSA was the largest motorcycle producer in the world.

Victorian Mining village with the coal shaft, England

Minera Lead Mines Wrexham, Wales UK The first written record of the lead miners of Minera dates from 1296. The mine became a success story in the 18th century. Between 1761 and 1781, the city companies as owners of the mineral rights received nearly 13,000 in royalties. The mine flourished again after 1849. The Minera Mining Company invested in a new pumping engine in 1857. A year later they installed a new winding engine to raise the lead ore and to work the mechanical ore crusher. Soon after the company built new ore bins, dressing floors for sorting the lead from the waste and the ore house for drying, weighing and sampling the lead ready for sale. All this equipment enabled miners to mine ore from the deepest veins in Minera, up to 400 metres below the surface. In 1884 a new dressing floor was opened at Roy’s Shaft with all the latest machinery. The Meadow Shaft site became a dumping ground. Gradually the dressing floors were buried. Only the actual Meadow Shaft remained in use and it closed in 1914.

A cable railway also known as an incline or inclined plane is a steeply graded railway that uses a cable or rope wound about a cable winch system similar to a ski lift mechanism powered by a stationary engine to haul trains on adversely steep grades. The Tank incline, a variation of the gravity balance incline was the “tank” incline found at several quarries in north Wales, These were worked by gravity, but instead of the wagons running on their own wheels, permanently attached angled wagons were used that had a horizontal platform on which the cargo-carrying wagons rode. Despite their name, these inclines were not a form of water balance incline

The impressive three-storeyed Pont y Pandy mill, also known as Ynysypandy and Nant y Pandy slate processing works, which served the Gorseddau Quarry about 2 miles away, was built in 1856-7 by Evan Jones of Garndolbenmaen The slate mill was sited here due to lack of a suitable water supply at the quarry, a water wheel being used to operate the machinery. Pont y Pandy is an extraordinary building and looks more like a monastery than an industrial unit.

victorian station lamp and old sign

The red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar. Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, the traditional British red telephone box can still be seen in many places throughout the UK, and in current or former British colonies around the world. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot. From 1926 onwards, the fascias of the kiosks were emblazoned with a prominent crown, representing the British government. The red phone box is often seen as a British cultural icon throughout the world. Although production of the traditional boxes ended with the advent of the KX series in 1985, many still stand in Britain. The paint colour used is known as currant red and is defined by a British Standard, BS 381C-539

The Smallest House in Great Britain, also known as the Quay House, is a tourist attraction on the quay in Conwy, Wales. The house, which has a floor area of 3.05 metre by 1.8 metre (10 feet by 6 feet) and a height of 3.1 metre (10 feet 2 inches) to the eaves, was used as a residence from the 16th century until 1900; as its name indicates, it is reputed to be Britain’s smallest house. The house was lived in until 1900, when the owner was a 6 ft 3 inch (1.9 metres) fisherman. The rooms were too small for him to stand up in fully and he was eventually forced to move out when the council declared the house unfit for human habitation.

Servants quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the late 19th/early 20th century they were a common feature in many large houses. Sometimes they are an integral part of a smaller house – in the basements and attics, especially in a town house, while in larger houses they are often a purpose-built adjacent wing or block. In architectural descriptions and guide books of stately homes the servants’ quarters are frequently overlooked, yet they form an important piece of social history, often as interesting as the principal part of the house itself.

triptych and painting style of The worlds first Iron Bridge built over the river Severn in 1779. Built to a design by architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and cast at the Coalbrookdale ironworks of Abraham Darby III The site was designated ‘World Heritage’ by UNESCO in 1986, in recognition of its major role in the birth of the industrial revolution in the early 18th century. Ironbridge, Shropshire, England.

Pawnbroker’s Shop built in the 1840s. Pawnshops prospered in areas where the wages were low and unstable. It was not uncommon for a family to have linen or clothes that they would pawn as a bridging loan until next payday. The struggling family could pawn their goods on a Monday and could buy them back the following Friday or Saturday. The items pawned were taken as security for a loan, the value of the item was based on what the pawnbroker thought he would get if he sold the item on. In return the customer would receive the loan a ticket. To redeem their pledge the customer had to pay the loan back in full plus any charges this included the valuation of their items and the cost of the ticket. Victorian hardware & ironmongers store England

Spitfire Mk. IX, serial no. EN398, JE-J Personal aircraft of W/Cdr Johnnie Johnson, commanding officer of the Kenley Wing Summer 1943 The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries before, during and after the Second World War. Introduced in 1938

 

Thank you very much for looking, I always appreciate your visit

Special thank you to Paula for creating the Thursday Special