Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[dangie]

I used to work on a project between the UK and Australia. Not only were the dates totally different, but they were 'springing forward' around the time we were 'falling back', which meant that the time difference increased by two hours

I spent quite a bit of time in Australia back in the 1980's. I actually thought they were about 10 years behind

 

[AndyPJG]

And the "man from the Pru" who called to collect insurance premiums.
And, of course, encylopedia salesmen

..and the (football) Pools collector collecting the money and forms on Friday evening (that's when all the matches kicked off 3pm Sat afternoon!)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

..and the (football) Pools collector collecting the money and forms on Friday evening (that's when all the matches kicked off 3pm Sat afternoon!)

Didn't a handful of clubs have 3.15 p.m. KOs on Saturdays?

 

[GordonT]

Two frequently consumed if not universally enjoyed desserts which rarely surface nowadays - bread and butter pudding and sago (aka frog spawn).

 

[Harpo]

How does that compare with the SI unit - the Olympic swimming pool?

….or the London bus.

 

[AM9]

... and sago (aka frog spawn).

Plus Semolina and Tapioca.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Two frequently consumed if not universally enjoyed desserts which rarely surface nowadays - bread and butter pudding

Making a small resurgence - this week I saw it in colourful packaging in our local Waitrose.

 

[Bradford PA]

Didn't a handful of clubs have 3.15 p.m. KOs on Saturdays?

Yes. A number of them tried this from time to time. My uncle told me that at Stoke City people would hang around for the other final scores to be announced over the tannoy or displayed on the "Half-time" scoreboard. More useful in the days before teletext and the internet although the evening sports papers, then available in most towns, would also be very quick off the mark.

 

[Cross City]

Two frequently consumed if not universally enjoyed desserts which rarely surface nowadays - bread and butter pudding and sago (aka frog spawn).

Back when I was a head chef before I quit the industry B&B pudding was the second most popular dessert on the menu at the last place I worked. Sold a couple of hundred portions a week, all home made, was delicious.

 

[AM9]

Back when I was a head chef before I quit the industry B&B pudding was the second most popular dessert on the menu at the last place I worked. Sold a couple of hundred portions a week, all home made, was delicious.

Maybe not a achronistic as might be imagined, it's still available (at a price) in some supermarkets: see here (link to two Waitrose B&B Pudding products.)

 

[PeterC]

Back when I was a head chef before I quit the industry B&B pudding was the second most popular dessert on the menu at the last place I worked. Sold a couple of hundred portions a week, all home made, was delicious.

I ordered it when saw it on a restaurant menu last winter. SWMBO normally makes bread pudding as it can keep while you need to be making more than 2 portions for B&B to be worthwhile.

 

[Welly]

Two frequently consumed if not universally enjoyed desserts which rarely surface nowadays - bread and butter pudding and sago (aka frog spawn).

I had B&B pudding in my local gastro-pub two months ago. It was served with custard!

 

[dangie]

…. It was served with custard!

As all dessert pies & crumbles & puddings & sponges etc etc should be….
None of that cream or ice cream toppings for me

 

[The exile]

Still remember the coal sack deliveries we had (1960's), on what I always thought at the time was a flat bed lorry, but learnt later were Bedford TK drop-sides! Still had one of those concrete coal bunkers until the early 90's when it had to make way for other things.

Still had those until we moved house in 1988. Coal bunker was in the back garden and it all had to come through the house. Very bad bit of Victorian design that was!

 

[johnnychips]

I was thinking about how shopping patterns had changed, inspired by several posts on this thread, and remembered the village I grew up in - Mottram-in-Longdendale - with a population of about 1000 on the edge of Manchester in the 1960s. There were:
Small grocers/sweet shops
-Mr Burton
-Mrs Peel
-Auntie Beattie (properly Beatrice Shaw)
-Mr Beresford
Mr Flint the greengrocer
Joan Hulme the hairdresser
Greenwood’s bakery
The Post Office/Newsagent run by Mr Windred
The Chemist
Mr Hall the butcher
Another butcher (Malcolm something)
Wood’s ironmongers
Fish and chip shop
Malcolm Manifold the Blacksmith
The Co-op
Mrs Mills the haberdasher
Dr Clarke’s surgery
The Junction Inn
The White Hart
The Waggon and Horses
The Pack Horse
The Roe Cross
Two petrol stations (one of which repaired cars)

Today we have
The doctor’s surgery
The chemist
A hairdresser
Wood’s ironmongery, still in the family
Post Office and general store
A kitchen/bathroom centre in the old Co-op
Roe Cross was undergoing some sort of renovation last time I saw it.
Two petrol stations (both also selling groceries and drinks)

I’m not saying this is good or bad, but I wonder if older posters can remember similar changes to where they lived. To relate to the thread title, long live the anachronism of an ironmonger in such a modest settlement.

 

[GusB]

I was thinking about how shopping patterns had changed, inspired by several posts on this thread, and remembered the village I grew up in - Mottram-in-Longdendale - with a population of about 1000 on the edge of Manchester in the 1960s. There were:
Small grocers/sweet shops
-Mr Burton
-Mrs Peel
-Auntie Beattie (properly Beatrice Shaw)
-Mr Beresford
Mr Flint the greengrocer
Joan Hulme the hairdresser
Greenwood’s bakery
The Post Office/Newsagent run by Mr Windred
The Chemist
Mr Hall the butcher
Another butcher (Malcolm something)
Wood’s ironmongers
Fish and chip shop
Malcolm Manifold the Blacksmith
The Co-op
Mrs Mills the haberdasher
Dr Clarke’s surgery
The Junction Inn
The White Hart
The Waggon and Horses
The Pack Horse
The Roe Cross
Two petrol stations (one of which repaired cars)

Today we have
The doctor’s surgery
The chemist
A hairdresser
Wood’s ironmongery, still in the family
Post Office and general store
A kitchen/bathroom centre in the old Co-op
Roe Cross was undergoing some sort of renovation last time I saw it.
Two petrol stations (both also selling groceries and drinks)

I’m not saying this is good or bad, but I wonder if older posters can remember similar changes to where they lived. To relate to the thread title, long live the anachronism of an ironmonger in such a modest settlement.

For a village of 1000 people that's a fair number of businesses to support!

My family moved to a small fishing village in 1980 with a population that was only slightly bigger. There were two "supermarkets" - one in an central location on the "high street" and one on the main road that ran along the top of the village (we'd class both as being "convenience stores" these days).

There was the Post Office which, in addition to its official functions, sold sweets (big jars on high shelves whose contents were weighed and then tipped into small paper bags - a "quarter" being the most common quantity requested), tobacco, newspapers and magazines along with a bit of tourist tat for visitors.

Over the road there was another small shop that also sold sweets from jars, along with a few grocery staples and ice lollies; Walls Mini-milk, Zoom and others that probably don't exist these days. Pot Noodles/Rice, still a relatively new concept, were also sold there. It had a really old-fashioned mechanical till that served no purpose other than to provide accommodation for the little cash that was taken; the proprietor would tot things up on a bit of paper and the only button that was used was "No Sale". If such a shop existed today, the first question I'd ask would be "why?!"

Heading back up the street, there was an antique/junk shop that seemed to have lots of stock but was never open. It was later taken over by a local solicitor and became an agent for the Halifax (I opened my Little Xtra account there); that was where one would wait for the free bus to Fine Fare. There was a baker's shop a few doors up that also sold general groceries (but not the same range as all the others).

There were also two butchers, a drapery, a chemist, the chip shop/cafe and two garages, one of which was also a coachbuilder.

Finally, there was the weird shop. This was definitely another "why?" shop that sold a few grocery items, along with various ornaments. The only way I can really describe it is by referring you to The League of Gentlemen; I remember the shop being quite dark and the feeling of not really being welcome!

 

[billh]

I was thinking about how shopping patterns had changed, inspired by several posts on this thread, and remembered the village I grew up in - Mottram-in-Longdendale - with a population of about 1000 on the edge of Manchester in the 1960s. There were:
Small grocers/sweet shops
-Mr Burton
-Mrs Peel
-Auntie Beattie (properly Beatrice Shaw)
-Mr Beresford
Mr Flint the greengrocer
Joan Hulme the hairdresser
Greenwood’s bakery
The Post Office/Newsagent run by Mr Windred
The Chemist
Mr Hall the butcher
Another butcher (Malcolm something)
Wood’s ironmongers
Fish and chip shop
Malcolm Manifold the Blacksmith
The Co-op
Mrs Mills the haberdasher
Dr Clarke’s surgery
The Junction Inn
The White Hart
The Waggon and Horses
The Pack Horse
The Roe Cross
Two petrol stations (one of which repaired cars)

Today we have
The doctor’s surgery
The chemist
A hairdresser
Wood’s ironmongery, still in the family
Post Office and general store
A kitchen/bathroom centre in the old Co-op
Roe Cross was undergoing some sort of renovation last time I saw it.
Two petrol stations (both also selling groceries and drinks)

I’m not saying this is good or bad, but I wonder if older posters can remember similar changes to where they lived. To relate to the thread title, long live the anachronism of an ironmonger in such a modest settlement.

A Mr Manifold the blacksmith/farrier from Mottram used to shoe our horses in the 80s and 90s. It might have been his son by then?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Today we have

Wood’s ironmongery, still in the family

Believe the J. Wood & Co. irommongers is now closed. Also, one of the two filling stations (the BP one alongside the A628 when passing through Mottram-in-Longdendale) currently isn't selling any petrol or diesel due to work being done on their fuel tanks.

 

[GordonT]

A Mr Manifold the blacksmith/farrier from Mottram used to shoe our horses in the 80s and 90s. It might have been his son by then?

I wonder if there were manifold Manifold families in the area

 

[Monarch010]

Plus Semolina and Tapioca.

And don't forget Cremola.

 

[D6130]

And don't forget Cremola.

Rice cremola and sago cremola.

 

[GordonT]

Rice cremola and sago cremola.

And going off at a slight tangent - Creamola Foam (which possibly is still around but not nearly as popular as it once was?).

 

[Bald Rick]

Two frequently consumed if not universally enjoyed desserts which rarely surface nowadays - bread and butter pudding and sago (aka frog spawn).

Very coincidentally, at precisely the time you oosted this I was with a friend who was eating some B&B pudding bought from a bakery!

 

[Harpo]

Cream Soda, which seems to have re-emerged as a soft drink flavour. Fab for lobbing vanilla ice cream into it.

Back when R Whites and Dr Whites were best not confused.

 

[BingMan]

Does anyone still "surf" the internet?. It is not a term I have heard for some years.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Does anyone still "surf" the internet?. It is not a term I have heard for some years.

Possibly now only if you are elderly and have silver hair, I reckon.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Does anyone still "surf" the internet?. It is not a term I have heard for some years.

The decay of the 'independent' enthusiast website in favour of social media walled gardens is partly to blame - the behaviour described as 'surfing' is much less common now than it once was!

 

[Brent Goose]

Is it too soon to talk about the COVID era signs erected in public places five or so years ago and still in situ?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Is it too soon to talk about the COVID era signs erected in public places five or so years ago and still in situ?

450067 still wears SWR yellow flash Thank you Key Workers vinyls (well, it was when I last saw it three weeks ago).
Havant, Emsworth and Cosham still sport the attached street / road signage (I took these photos mid 2020)

 

[Brent Goose]

A ‘Wash hands/face covering/2m apart’ sign is visible on the latest street view in Gosport

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ka1WnKC2DvER6hXc7

Similar signs are still around on Weymouth quayside where the railway used to run. Oddly they have been blurred out in this street view

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AGidYL7cetLNnsD58