There is always a tally man.
The name may change, and so to the description of the business.
We knew it as “tally” but others will remember it as “the never never” or “HP” and today it’s simply “credit.”
But the process was pretty much the same and consisted of the opportunity to buy goods in advance of the full payment up front.
Now I am not being sniffy about this.
For my family and for many others if we wanted to share in that new consumer boom of the 1950s and 60s, we pretty much were forced into putting down the deposit and paying monthly.
In our case it was a chap with a van who came round each week collected a small regular payment, brought back the shiny catalogue and if mother had decided on something he would bring it out of the said van.
I have completely forgotten the chap’s name which might have been Terry and until recently I had also forgotten the name of the firm which was John Blundell Ltd, but also seems to have traded as Edward Evans and maybe also the Hartlepools Mutual Trading Company Ltd.
But as you do in going through some old family stuff there, dating back to the 1960s were the payment cards.
There are no dates on any of the cards, but we were round 116 and our payment day was “day 6” which I suppose was a Friday and was always in the evening.
The weekly sums paid back range from 4 shillings up to a £1 and mother never seemed to miss a payment which given that a £ in 1964 was still a substantial amount of money was a serious commitment.
I have no idea when it began but Terry or his name sake was already a feature of the weekly routine in the late 1950s when were still in Lausanne Road and carried on when we moved to Well Hall.
From memory Dad always paid on the nail for the big domestic items like the washing machine, telly, and wireless and so the tally man was there for those items of clothes, bedding and shoes.
And these were always in demand given that there were five of us all at school.
The down side of the system was that it was no cheaper than credit today.
So the “Terms” on the card announce that “5p per week for every £1 in value or as arranged, Payments may be used as a deposit on a later purchase [and] Special terms arranged for Furniture and Cycles.”
Added to which of course many of the clothes items may well have been almost worn out before mother had finished paying for them.
But that was the price you paid, and while some more virtuous than me will mutter “we always saved up for and then bought” I have to point out that there was and still is not an option for many.
Not that this is a rant, or a reflection on the power of consumerism, just a reflection on how we lived prompted by the discovery of some old credit card payment books.
Location; Eltham, New Cross, Peckham and pretty much everywhere.
Pictures; tally Payments Cards circa 1964, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
We knew it as “tally” but others will remember it as “the never never” or “HP” and today it’s simply “credit.”
But the process was pretty much the same and consisted of the opportunity to buy goods in advance of the full payment up front.
Now I am not being sniffy about this.
For my family and for many others if we wanted to share in that new consumer boom of the 1950s and 60s, we pretty much were forced into putting down the deposit and paying monthly.
In our case it was a chap with a van who came round each week collected a small regular payment, brought back the shiny catalogue and if mother had decided on something he would bring it out of the said van.
I have completely forgotten the chap’s name which might have been Terry and until recently I had also forgotten the name of the firm which was John Blundell Ltd, but also seems to have traded as Edward Evans and maybe also the Hartlepools Mutual Trading Company Ltd.
But as you do in going through some old family stuff there, dating back to the 1960s were the payment cards.
There are no dates on any of the cards, but we were round 116 and our payment day was “day 6” which I suppose was a Friday and was always in the evening.
The weekly sums paid back range from 4 shillings up to a £1 and mother never seemed to miss a payment which given that a £ in 1964 was still a substantial amount of money was a serious commitment.
I have no idea when it began but Terry or his name sake was already a feature of the weekly routine in the late 1950s when were still in Lausanne Road and carried on when we moved to Well Hall.
And these were always in demand given that there were five of us all at school.
The down side of the system was that it was no cheaper than credit today.
So the “Terms” on the card announce that “5p per week for every £1 in value or as arranged, Payments may be used as a deposit on a later purchase [and] Special terms arranged for Furniture and Cycles.”
Added to which of course many of the clothes items may well have been almost worn out before mother had finished paying for them.
But that was the price you paid, and while some more virtuous than me will mutter “we always saved up for and then bought” I have to point out that there was and still is not an option for many.
Not that this is a rant, or a reflection on the power of consumerism, just a reflection on how we lived prompted by the discovery of some old credit card payment books.
Location; Eltham, New Cross, Peckham and pretty much everywhere.
Pictures; tally Payments Cards circa 1964, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
remember him and a 2nd Talley man named Mr Jones both calling weekly no white goods until at least 4 or 5 of us siblings left school and were bringing home a wage we struggled but I wouldn't change a day of it, and i'd give all we have got to go back and do most of it again
ReplyDeleteDecimal currency suggests 1970s rather than 50s or 60s
ReplyDeleteI remember when I lived at Forest Hill a man came round every week, can’t remember his name though, and I bought two bath towels off of him and I still have them to this day
ReplyDelete