To be accurate it was our cellar rather than the attic, but the principle remains the same, which is that all sorts of stories can be conjured up from the bits and pieces we carefully store away and then forget.
In our case, it was two leather suitcases, which had accompanied dad on his travels across the Continent, during his drive as a coach driver, transporting happy passengers on sightseeing tours from Antwerp to Paris, to the Swiss and Italian Lakes and the French and Italian Rivera.
Along the way he picked up lots of luggage labels, form hotels.
Dad being dad, chose instead to collect them, storing them carefully in envelopes, which is how we inherited them.
Over the years I have plundered the collection to write about places as varied as Venice, Paris, Nancy, and Brussels.*
But until yesterday I had missed a group of six identical one’s advertising Glenton Tours, which was the tour company he worked for, for over 40 years.
The firm had begun in the 1920s when an estate agent settled a debt with a customer by accepting a coach and that started “Glenton Motor Coach Holiday Tours.”
Dad worked for them from the very beginning and finally retired in 1987 having driven their coaches around Britain and Europe from the early 1930s.
The tours were all inclusive, offering “first class accommodation” and the “Chauffeur-Couriers have been chosen after exacting tests of their reliability and skill and give every attention to travellers.”***
The tours lasted for anything between 7 and 15 days.
For £45 Tour C7 in 1965 offered nine days to the Swiss and Italian Lakes, leaving London on the Saturday, staying in Brussels on the Sunday night and travelling on to Lake Lucerne on the Monday, then later in the week to Lake Maggiore and then in to Switzerland and back via Burgundy to London.
Of course it is easy today to sneer at an experience where everything was provided and if you failed to look out of the window you might miss a country, but in an age before the internet with television still in its infancy this was a relatively cheap way to see places which would otherwise just be a picture in a book.
And this was value for money given that the national average wage in 1965 was £26.
There are still plenty of travel companies offering this sort of holiday but back in the late 1940’s and ‘50s this was an experience just opening up for thousands who were beginning to enjoy the first taste of consumer prosperity.
They are as much an indication of that new Britain as the washing machine, television and motor car.
And given the stories that will tumble from these treasures, Peter and I have embarked on the next project which will be to use those objects left in cellars, attics and garages for the new book, which we have called The Lost Stories of Chorlton-cum-Hardy In Our Attics, Cellars, Garages and Sheds.
We are confident that there will be plenty of people with their own treasures and stories which they would like to be included.
Leaving me just to make the appeal for objects.
You can contact us by leaving a comment on the blog or through Facebook, telling us just what you have and its importance to you and your family.
Location; across Europe
Pictures; Luggage labels, 1950-1968, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the box of treasures from the book cover, courtesy of Linda Rigby
*Hotel labels, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=hotel+labels&max-results=20&by-date=true
**Glenton Tours, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Glenton%20Tours
***Glenton Tours Brochures, 1951-1968
 |
| Glenton Tours circa 1956 |
Along the way he picked up lots of luggage labels, form hotels.
Dad being dad, chose instead to collect them, storing them carefully in envelopes, which is how we inherited them.
Over the years I have plundered the collection to write about places as varied as Venice, Paris, Nancy, and Brussels.*
But until yesterday I had missed a group of six identical one’s advertising Glenton Tours, which was the tour company he worked for, for over 40 years.
 |
| Venice, cicra 1950s |
Dad worked for them from the very beginning and finally retired in 1987 having driven their coaches around Britain and Europe from the early 1930s.
The tours were all inclusive, offering “first class accommodation” and the “Chauffeur-Couriers have been chosen after exacting tests of their reliability and skill and give every attention to travellers.”***
The tours lasted for anything between 7 and 15 days.
For £45 Tour C7 in 1965 offered nine days to the Swiss and Italian Lakes, leaving London on the Saturday, staying in Brussels on the Sunday night and travelling on to Lake Lucerne on the Monday, then later in the week to Lake Maggiore and then in to Switzerland and back via Burgundy to London.
 |
| Dad and Elizabeth, circa 1959 |
And this was value for money given that the national average wage in 1965 was £26.
There are still plenty of travel companies offering this sort of holiday but back in the late 1940’s and ‘50s this was an experience just opening up for thousands who were beginning to enjoy the first taste of consumer prosperity.
 |
| St Anton, date unknown |
And given the stories that will tumble from these treasures, Peter and I have embarked on the next project which will be to use those objects left in cellars, attics and garages for the new book, which we have called The Lost Stories of Chorlton-cum-Hardy In Our Attics, Cellars, Garages and Sheds.
We are confident that there will be plenty of people with their own treasures and stories which they would like to be included.
Leaving me just to make the appeal for objects.
You can contact us by leaving a comment on the blog or through Facebook, telling us just what you have and its importance to you and your family.
Pictures; Luggage labels, 1950-1968, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the box of treasures from the book cover, courtesy of Linda Rigby
*Hotel labels, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=hotel+labels&max-results=20&by-date=true
**Glenton Tours, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Glenton%20Tours
***Glenton Tours Brochures, 1951-1968
I went on a fam trip (familiarization for travel agents) back in 1982 and I loved it. Saw a lot of great things but one of best parts was meeting so many interesting characters from all over America & Canada. I kept in touch with a few for some time. It was exhausting though 5 countries in 9 days with only a few hours sleep a night because you want to see as much as you can. It was the only time I ever travelled in a tour and I think it was the best trip I ever had.
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