I think we'd all like to have a shop like this near us

[Feltwell]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...ctures-the-shop-that-time-forgot-2202127.html

Click on the photo in the story for more pictures of the shop.

 

[Penners]

Oh, YES! How wonderful! I bet you could play the game that Moo plays in Thorns - see what you ask for that they haven't got. And you'd lose every time!

It looks a bit like the hardware version of Arkwright's. I wonder whether Nurse Gladys Emannuel shops there.

 

[Penners]

In Bungay we have a wonderful shop called The Chocolate Box. It's a proper sweetshop, with sweeties in jars, plus it sells toys, cards, fags, stationery and geegaws of all kinds.

You can't move inside the shop, but if you search long enough you'll find pretty well anything you want.

Except for Nicholson bastard files, of course.

 

[Feltwell]

There used to be a fantastic motor store in Birmingham called Fletchers. Back when I was a student, and heavily into motorbikes, it was always a great (& cheap) source of tools and oils/greases etc for fixing the bikes - all my mates used it. It was a real clutter in there - everything mixed in together, including lots of old car parts that I guess had been bought when dealers or factories closed. A new hubcap for your Hillman Minx? No problem.

It's still there - and on a recent trip through Brum I popped in. It's been completely done up now - and completely ruined. It may as well just be another Halfords, except it's got far more bits for the chavs who want to stick a £1000 body kit on their £300 rustbucket Vauxhall Corsa to "improve" it.

Sacrilege!

 

[Feltwell]

I wonder whether Nurse Gladys Emannuel shops there.

Oh no, she's far too busy flying her spotty aeroplane with her dog Pippin these days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006v94w

 

[Nigel Watts]

Blomfield's in Colchester was a bit like this - a rabbit warren of a shop selling hardware, building materials and cheap furniture right in the town centre. I bought many of my woodworking tools there. During the power cuts in the 70s their gas fitter installed a complete lighting system using mains gas.

 

[Feltwell]

Flyfisher, is Vincents in Feltwell still there? A lovely old building on the corner of Short Beck and Long Lane.

That was always a proper old-fashioned hardware shop, or at least it was when old man Vincent (Basil??) ran it. When his son took over, in the late 70's I'd say, he built a new cycle shop next to it but the old hardware store survived.

Edit - just answered my own question, courtesy of StreetView. It's now the Wallace King furniture store

 

[Flyfisher]

A good job you found the answer as I don't go to Feltwell regularly enough to have noticed.

When I was at school I had a saturday job in a family-run hardware store. It wasn't quite so archaic as the one described but it had a proper counter (and I was issued with a proper brown coat) and every customer was individually served. I was there to help with the 'saturday rush' of extra customers. The only problem was that the 'stores' were so mixed up that only the father and son knew where anything was kept. So I'd be asked for something, not know where it was, have to wait until father or son had finished with their customer, ask, be told the required item was next to something else I didn't know about, be shown where the item was, then serve my customer.

The sheer variety of customer needs was such that I was rarely asked for the same thing twice, thus the above rigmarole was fairly constant and, in hindsight, I'm not really sure why they kept me on as my presence must have been only mildly useful. But oh what joy on the rare occasion that a customer asked me for something I knew where to find. :lol:

 

[Jill]

Four Candles

 

[Penners]

I was issued with a proper brown coat

You were obviously much more highly valued than G-G-G-Granville, then. He never achieved brown coat status.

 

[Moo]

Except for Nicholson bastard files, of course.

The last (and first) time I heard those words were when our son came back from his first day as a 'Saturday Boy' at Thorns (of course!) where, for some strange reason they'd put him in the tool department.


Penners - what exactly is a bastard file?

 

[AMc]

That shop looks fab. I'm not surprised that hurricane lamps are still popular and I'm a bit puzzled that the journalist though it was odd.

Wilkersons in Acle is another treasure trove shop - they don't have ancient stock but they have an uncanny habit of having most things I need when the massive B&Q in Norwich can't always help. I usually run into a tradesman I know in there or in Carters butcher next door buying one of their "magic" sausage rolls.

 

[fjpdesigns]

My favourite Ironmongers is Lawes in Finbo's Yard, Station Rd, Bacton Suffolk.
If they havn't got it, it probably doesn't exist. It's a nice place to spend an hour or so on a wet winter's day.

 

[Penners]

If they havn't got it, it probably doesn't exist.

Likewise Partridge's in Hadleigh, Suffolk. An emporium very similar to Moo's favourite haunt in Norwich.

 

[Penners]

Penners - what exactly is a bastard file?

The teeth on a file come in varying grades of cut. I can't remember them all in detail, but starting with the finest, they increase in coarseness approximately as follows: smooth cut, second cut, bastard, medium cut and rough. Of course, you actually tend to use the in the opposite order, starting with a coarse cut to remove stock, and finishing with the smooth for a fine finish.

There may be one or two grades that I've missed, and of course there are all kinds of shapes.

 

[philpjuk100]

YOU BOY! files in order of cut and no sniggering! don`t forget the dreadnought!

 

[Moo]

smooth cut, second cut, bastard, medium cut and rough.

Many thanks for that, Penners.

I wonder why call it 'bastard', though. Why not 'third cut' or something similar?

 

[Flyfisher]

I was issued with a proper brown coat

You were obviously much more highly valued than G-G-G-Granville, then. He never achieved brown coat status.

They clearly had faith in my potential (where few others did). :lol:

 

[robgil]

smooth cut, second cut, bastard, medium cut and rough.

Many thanks for that, Penners.

I wonder why call it 'bastard', though. Why not 'third cut' or something similar?

Because the man who invented it cut himself with it while trying to think of a name for it?

 

[philpjuk100]

The oldest Bastard file was originally used for filing "Bastard Ashlar" (a rough square block of stone) the file was used to file the rough stone to a smooth square block called Ashlar, hence the term "Bastard File".



Found on "google" but not sure it`s correct! anyway why is it called "bastard ashlar"? Loughborough university has a "bastard gate" named after councilor Bastard. phil.