Showing posts with label Blackheath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackheath. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 January 2026

Just what did Blackheath have do to get a decent mention in Bradshaw’s Guide to London?

Now if I was a resident in Blackheath in 1861, who had just gone out and bought my copy of Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London and its Environs, I might be miffed that where I lived was accorded just 79 words.*


It is there in the chapter on Greenwich which runs to eight pages and gets less of a look in than Woolwich,  or Eltham.

Not only that, but the entry ignores the fine buildings, the church on the heath or the railway station which in 1861 was just eleven years old.  

 Instead the reader is taken through the “large gateways of open ironwork , largely substituted for a small doorway in the wall at the southern extremity of the park, near the keeper’s new Gothic lodge, we pass on to Blackheath, where Wat Tyler assembled the Kentish rebels in the reign of Richard II., where Jack Cade  and his fellow insurgents are said to have held their midnight meetings in a cavern which still remains , though so chocked up as to be considered nearly in accessible”


And that is it.  Even Lee gets a sentence. 

But for those who still wish for more on Blackheath, our guide does offer up, a bit more as it heads along the old Dover Road crossing the Heath, on Shooters Hill taking in ‘a rustic little hostelry on our left distinguished by the peculiar title of the ‘Sun-in-the-Sands’ which was the haunt of quite a few 19th century writers who took advantage of an open balcony from which a pleasant view may be obtained of the surrounding country."

And from there we are directed up to Shooters Hill and told that it "commands an expansive prospect [from which] 'the mighty mass of brick smoke and shipping’ as Byron calls the view of London from this point, is well contrasted with the foliage of the wooded country extending towards the south beyond the vale of Eltham.”

But that is a bit of the guide I have already written about but will return to.

All of which just leaves me to compensate the tardy entry with extracts from the OS map of London for 1862 to 1872, which is a bit more than Mr. Bradshaw  gave us, starting with the heath and ending with a stretch of Shooters Hill and the old Dover Road and the Sun-in-the-Sands. what is now the British Oak.

Location Blackheath

Pictures; Blackheath in 1872, from the OS map of London, 1862-1872, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

* Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London and Its Environs, 1861


Monday, 12 January 2026

Of Eltham, Manchester and an artist from Wales

Now I like the way things have a habit of falling together in a most unexpected way.

Manchester  School of Art 1900
So recently when my friend Tricia found a painting looking down Well Hall Road with the parish church in the far distance my interest was tripped which was added to when Lesley stumbled across the fact that the artist had briefly lived in Manchester.

So given that I left Well Hall for Manchester in 1969 it was as they say “game set and match.”

Francis Dodd by the artist
The artist was Francis Dodd who had been born in Hollyhead, educated in Scotland and during the Great War was appointed as an  official war artist.

In 1895 he moved to Manchester.

I found him on the 1901 census living as a “boarder" in a house in Chorlton-on Medlock and three years later he was still there but is listed as the householder.

As yet I have no idea of what he did in Manchester other than that he “worked and taught” here.

He may have attended the prestigious School of Art as a student or even as a teacher.  Walter Crane was the Director of Design from 1893 to 1898, Adolphe Valette taught there from 1906 to 1920 and its graduates include

L.S. Lowry, Eugene Halliday, Liam Spencer and Ossie Clark.

I lost him after he left Manchester and only found him in Blackheath at the end of his life.

Entrance to  the School of Art  1972
All of which set Tricia off on a search and I have to say she found a lot.

“I have been out with my spade again doing some digging concerning the life of Mr Dodd  He was born 29.11.1874., 

He was the oldest child of parent Benjamin Dodd & Jane Francis Shaw. His siblings were Gertrude Helena Dodd bn 1876, Walter Stanley Dodd bn 1877 & Elsie Lilian Dodd bn 1881. 

He married  1911 to Mary Arabella Bouncker Ingle born 1871 Woolwich died 14.2.1947 Blackheath. Francis Dodd then went on to marry Ellen Margaret (Nell) Tanner born 1908 Chelsea. They married in January 1949 in Chelsea he was aged 74, she was 41. To my knowledge I can see no evidence of any children from either marriage.

Frances Dodd took his own life at his home in Blackheath in March 1949 two months after he married his second wife. The Daily Mail states of his death the following.

A short time after finishing an important picture Francis Edgar Dodd age 74, Royal Academican, took his own life at his home 51 Blackheath Park. It was stated at the Lewisham inquest that Mr Dodd was found by his gardener in a gas filled basement kitchen. 
Ellen Margaret Dodd

His wife out lived him by 34 years she died in 1983.


Being an old romantic I have a theory that maybe he pined for his first wife and thought by remarrying it would ease his broken heart but instead it made him miss his first wife even more. Just a notion I have with no evidence whatsoever to back it up.

The visitor at his home on the 1911 census Susan Mabel Dacre a fellow painter was also his benefactor for 14 years whilst he was living in Lancashire.

Miss Isabel Dacre born 1844 Leamington. She befriended Dodd & was his patroness for 14 year & affectionately know as Aunt Susan.”

And that of course brought me back to Manchester not only because of that house in Chorlton on Medlock but the School of Art is a place I know well.  Some of my friends  studied there, others taught there and for a while in 1972 I regularly stood in that entrance.

Odd world.  All we need now is a picture of the 9 roomed house in Blackheath.

Now that we didn't get but instead this from Michael Gorman,
"Isabel Dacre was an important artist in her own right - forming the Society of Women Artists whilst study at the Municipal School of Art and winning the Queen's prize. One of her contemporaries was Annie Swynnerton - who also attended the School - and was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy."

Research by Tricia Lesley

Pictures; Mr Dodd and Mrs Dodd, sourced by Tricia Lesley, Municipal School of Art, 1900, m66425, and entrance to the Art School, 1972, H Milligan, m66434,and in 1972, m66433, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass



Sunday, 11 January 2026

In Blackheath in the summer of 1977

Now there is a story here about the history of the postal service.

But that is for another day.  For now I shall ponder on what Tranquil Vale in Blackheath looked like in the summer of 1977.

Just a decade before I had whiled away many happy hours in the bookshop opposite the Crown, and a bit before that as a very junior member of the Charlton Park Rugby Club had spent my fair share of money in that pub on a Saturday after the game.

Not that my sporting career was either very long or distinguished.  It had started when a PE teacher at Samuel Pepys suggested that some of us might like to progress from school rugby to club rugby.

I think I lasted half a season having spent most of the games pummeled by the opposition which was the lot of a 15 year old turning out against men in their 40s.

And all of which is a diversion from our picture, which  is not so different from today.

Of course in the intervening forty-nine years, the House of Tranquility and Two Steps have gone, but the pub is still there, although I do have to confess that I was a tad disappointed when we visited the Crown a year or so ago.

It had gone the way of so many and become open plan and had lost something of the intimacy I remember when you could wander off into small rooms and hide from the curious.

Nor to my mind does the outside seating do much for me.

But then it is easy to judge a place from the high ground of nostalgia, so I shall shut up and ponder on the story of Blackheath’s postal history which with the help of my friend Jean I shall return to later.

Picture; from the collection of Jean Gammons

Saturday, 10 January 2026

When Mr. Bradshaw ignored All Saints Church on Blackheath

You would have to be pretty mean spirited to ignore that church on the heath.


It stands on the southern edge of Blackheath, was described by Pevsner as looking like a model, surrounded on all sides by grass* and has links to Sir Arthur Sullivan and Gustav Holst.

Not that Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London And Its Environs even bothered to comment on the building. **

For those who don’t know, Mr. Bradshaw compiled railway timetables and guides to Britain and beyond, the first of which came out just eight years after the first passenger railway company had started conveying people and goods from Manchester to Liverpool.  And before that he had published his “Maps of Inland Navigation” which described the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

And despite dying in 1852 Bradshaw’s Guides continued to be an essential part of many traveller’s possessions well into the 20th century.

I have dug out my London Guide book for 1862 and as you do turned to the five chapters devoted to south of the river, and in particular that one on Greenwich.**

Many of my childhood haunts are here, from Eltham where I grew up to Greenwich, Woolwich and Shooter’s Hill, including a reference to the Sun in the Sands.

But Blackheath is relegated to one sentence which leaves out the fine buildings, the church on the heath or the railway station which in 1861 was just eleven years old.  

Instead, the reader is taken out of Greenwich Park and presented with just “we pass on to Blackheath, where Wat Tyler assembled the Kentish rebels in the reign of Richard II, where Jack Cade and his fellow insurgents are said to have held their midnight meetings in a cavern which still remains, though so chocked up as to be considered nearly in accessible”. 

Perhaps Bradshaw’s researchers reckoned that All Saints Church was still too new to be worthy of a mention.  After all it had been opened just four years before the London guidebook became available, and construction work continued until 1867.

Still these pictures by Chrissy go a long way to correct Bradshaw’s omission.  They were posted last week on her excellent Facebook site devoted to photography. ****.

Location; Blackheath

Pictures; All Saints Church, Blackheath, London, 2023, from the collection of Chrissy Rose.

 *"Puginian … already old fashioned, ........ Remarkable for the way in which it is placed right into the heath. Surrounded on all sides by grass, it stands as if it were a model." Pevsner, Nikolaus 1983. The Buildings of England: London 2: South. pp. 412–413.

** Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand Book to London And Its Environs even bothered to comment on the building, 1862

***Bradshaw’s Guides, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Bradshaw%27s%20Guides

**** The Photographic Gazette, https://www.facebook.com/groups/973270840174059


Friday, 9 January 2026

A silk from France .......... postcards from the Western Front

Now I have no idea if the soldier who purchased this embroidered silk postcard was from Eltham.

A message from the 8th London Regiment, date unknown
But given that it carried the badge of the 8th London Regiment the chances are he was from somewhere in the city.

These types of postcards are a favourite of mine.

They were made in France and Belgium and came with all sorts of designs from ones which carried a sentimental message to those with the badge of a regiment.

Many will have been sent in a letter which helped preserve the delicate nature of the embroidery.

To my dear daughter, date unknown
And here I have to thank my old friend David Harrop who has a large collection of silk postcards including this one from the 8th London.

It has has a special connection  with David, because the 8th London were also known as the Post Office Rifles and he worked for the Post Office.

The Post Office Rifles had been formed in 1868 following a bomb attack on a London prison.

After the attack the Government had created a body of special constables to protect public buildings and from a group consisting of postal workers came the request to establish a Rifle Volunteer Unit.

Detail of the London silk, date unknown
The unit saw action in Egypt in 1882 and participated in the second South African War from 1899 through to 1902.

At the outbreak of the Great War the existing Post Office Rifles were redesignated as the 1/8th Battalion, London Regiment.  A second battalion was formed in September 1914 and a third in 1915.*

And it appears that the third battalion was billeted at Blackheath from October 1915 till they went to Fovant in January 1916. **

All of which makes for a possible connection between Eltham and David’s silk.

Location; London

Picture; embroidered silk postcard, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop

*Post Office Rifles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Rifles

**The London Regiment, The Long Trail, http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm

Thursday, 8 January 2026

The Coal Hole Hall of Fame ………no. 6 …… one road seven covers

Now I am impressed.

Back in 2019 Karine discovered seven coal hole covers on Kirkside Road in Blackheath, and quick as a flash she photographed them and sent the images across.

What strikes me is that not only are they in good condition, but there are five different designs, with two  carrying the name of Peppercorn Brothers, Deptford, who according to one source, were provision dealers, dealing in “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”. *

“John Peppercorn was born in 1843/4 and died in November 1915.  He was a businessman and local politician active in south east London.

Born in Deptford, he was one of several sons of Joseph Peppercorn, a Bedfordshire born grocer and cheese monger and his wife Ann Howard née Down from Devon.


After serving an apprenticeship, John set up in business as a grocer by 1870, when he married Florence L Poulton from Torquay.

His business prospered and by 1898 he was described as a large draper or merchant. 

In that year he won a seat as a Progressive Party member of the London County Council representing Greenwich. 

He only served a single three-year term on the county council, standing down at the 1901 elections.

When the first elections to the Metropolitan Borough Councils were held in November 1900, Peppercorn stood for election to Deptford Borough Council but was defeated, with the Moderate Party gaining control. By 1905 he had gained a seat and served as Mayor of Deptford for 1905-06.

His business became a limited company, Peppercorn Brothers Limited of Greenwich and Deptford, and he retired to Lee, where he died aged 70”. **

Now there is a lot more research to do on the man, and the firm, and at the end of it we may discover that his is not our man.

In the meantime, I will just leave you with the five, and thank Karine for taking the trouble to photograph them.

I would happily send her a gold-plated coal hole cover, but I couldn’t stretch to such an expensive exercise.

 I have however inducted the seven in the Coal Hole Cover Hall of Fame.

Location; Blackheath














Pictures; coal hole covers, Kirkside Road in Blackheath, 2019, from ye collection of Karine Lepeuple

*There is a picture on the Bexley Archive of a shop front of Peppercorn Brothers, dated 1900 which announces that the firm sold,  “Furniture, Carpets, Pianos, Lino, and Second-Hand furniture”.

*Shop front of Peppercorn Brothers Provision Dealers, Deptford c.1900. Images from Bexley Local Studies and Archives, https://www.boroughphotos.org/bexley/dew172/


**John Peppercorn, London Wiki, https://london.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peppercorn

Wednesday, 7 January 2026

Looking for the Blackheath Hospital ........... and finding it

Now I thought I had found Blackheath Hospital, but alas it is not so.

Nurses, Starting, Green, Leadbetter & Lines, May 1931
For while there is a very impressive private hospital with that name at 40-42 Lee Terrace it is not the one, I am looking for.

It was only opened in 1984, having had a varied history including as a private residency, a school, and old people’s home and even during the Second World War as a fire station.*

And so it cannot be the one where a young Jean Lines trained in 1931.

I must admit I doubted that it would be that easy to find, more so because many of the ways of locating the place are denied to me.

So while I have maps and street directories of Blackheath they do not stretch to the 1930s.

All I have so far is an entry in the 1932 electoral register for Jean Lines who was living at 32 St John’s Park, along with five other women.

This is all the more frustrating given that I have quite a few pictures of Ms. Lines and other members of the family, which come from the family collection of Frances Jones.**

Jean Lines left of centre
Like many such collections they are a mix of professional photographs and snaps.

And of these snaps there are three of Jean Lines and a caption which links her to a hospital in Blackheath where she was training to be a nurse.

Of course, if I were dealing with Greater Manchester I would be confident that I could track it and her down, but alas Blackheath is a long way from where I live.

And my hospital may not even have been called Blackheath Hospital, but it is or was out there in 1931.

That said there will be someone who knows, and can point me in the right direction, which will add to what I know of this young woman.

Jean Lines  (training at Blackheath)

We shall see.

And within minutes of posting the story and the quest to find Jean's hospital, Frances came up with a link to the place I having looking for.  

It comes from that very interesting site, Lost Hospitals of London, which I have used in  the past but had forgotten about, leaving me just to to thank Frances and post the link.

I could of course just lift the information , but that's not how I work.

Location; Blackheath

Pictures; from the family collection of Frances Jones

*Paradise  Tree Care, https://treesurgeonsblackheath.co.uk/blackheath-se3-places-of-interest-hospital-pubs-bars-and-the-royal-standard/

**Stories behind the pictures ………https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/06/stories-behind-pictures.html

***Blackheath & Charlton Hospital, Shooters Hill, Blackheath, SE3, Lost Hospitals of London, https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/blackheathandcharlton.html?fbclid=IwAR02-vedWbKnRmGT0daOLWtxunBcvFXsGHmlvZVtut_XLHJ1PPFnxMu9RtM

Friday, 16 February 2024

Looking back at Blackheath and Greenwich in the 1960s

 Yesterday I posted a story from Sandra Harper about her dad who like me was born and grew up in southeast London.*

She also included a wonderful collection of photographs taken by her dad during the 1960s.

They will be familiar to many, more so because if you are of a certain age, you will recognise that they are old style made with smelly photography.

That now almost vanished process where the image had first to be converted into a negative, then printed on photographic paper.  

All a mile away from digital camera and mobile phones.

As a regular reader of the blog she got in touch commenting, “When your posts come up on my feed, it does bring back some good memories of where I grew up.

Sunday mornings at Greenwich Baths with one of my dad’s brothers and his wife. 

Blackheath Fair, donkey rides, boating lake and much more.

This is my dad standing in the back garden of no. 75 Maidstone Hill Greenwich SE10 where his sister Doreen lived until she died aged 82. 

She was the matriarch of our whole family where we would congregate. Dad and uncles to The Groom pub. 

Us 4 children and some cousins and mums enjoying family time. Those were the days".


He was Denis Lesley Roland Scales and He lived at 75 Maidstone Hill Greenwich but was born next door to the left I think that was 73”.

Like Sandra these images bring back so many memories of Peckham and New Cross where I spent m early years before we moved to Well Hall.

Here are the places like Greenwich Park where went as kids, the now very ancient looking cars, vans, and lorries.

And even down to those low walls outside the houses.  

Back then I took them for granted along with the rusty metal lumps sticking up at regular intervals, and only years later realized that they once had railings, taken up as war salvage sometime in the early 1940s.

So that is it, leaving all of you to conjure up your own memories from the pictures taken by Mr. Scales.

But I couldn’t close with out including a photograph of Sandra’s dad who sixty years ago recorded our bit of London.







Location, Blackheath and Greenwich

Pictures, of Blackheath and Greenwich, circa 1960s by Denis Lesley Roland Scales and courtesy of Sandra Harper

*Walking Greenwich and Blackheath in the 1960s ....... Sandra's story, 

https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/02/walking-greenwich-and-blackheath-in.html


Thursday, 15 February 2024

Walking Greenwich and Blackheath in the 1960s ....... Sandra's story

 I am a great fan of other peoples photographs.

And more so when they are of Greenwich and Blackheath in the 1960s. 

These are the places I knew when l was growing up in Eltham, with some going back even further  to when l lived  in Peckham.

Back then  the park, the heath and Queen Ann's House were the end of adventures which started on Queens Road and  by degree took me Jimmy O' Donnell and John Cox through New Cross, Deptford and finally to the River.

Aged ten we walked it there and back making heaps of discoveries. 

All of which came flooding back when Sandra shared these wonderful pictures taken by her dad. She told me "I just wondered whether you might like to see these old photos taken by my dad in the 1960s. 

They are of Blackheath Greenwich Park and Maidstone Hill Corner Shop SE 10, the road where my dad was born. 

The flats opposite. Bus going alongside Greenwich Park and the Heath. 


My dads name was Denis Lesley Roland Scales. 

He lived at 75 Maidstone Hill Greenwich SE10.

But he was born next door to the left I think that was 73, I don't know why but his Uncle Tom lived there.

There were 11 children in my dads family all living un that 2 bed house with their parents and a lodger too. 

I have photos of family standing at the door of 75 in the 60s. 

I can tell you more if you wish. 

No. 75 could be seen in an advert for Gas some years back. 

The Corner shop was where myself and all my cousins went to and then of course up to the Point to play. I will look out the photos later. 

I belong to two groups where I've shown these photos before some time ago.

Bermondsey & Rotherhithe and also Growing up in Bermondsey & Rotherhithe in the 50s 60 70s. 

Thanks for wanting to put my dads name to the photos. 

It's 50 years this year that we lost him and he would have been 100 this April".


And that is it, I don't really think I need to add any more, other than to thank Sandra for sharing these images of a London I knew and which has brought back lots of warm memories.

Leaving me to say there will be a part two tomorrow.

Location, Blackheath, Greenwich and Woolwich

Pictures; of my bit of southeast London, circa 1960s, taken by Denis Lesley Roland Scales, courtesy of Sandra Harper 


Thursday, 30 March 2023

Sorting Eltham's letters at Blackheath in 1830

A short series looking at the story behind the picture.

Back in the 1977 my friend Jean gave a  talk on the postal service in Eltham during the 19th century which she later turned into a set of articles published in the Eltham Society magazine.

“This is the building in Dartmouth Row, Blackheath which was the sorting office for Eltham and all the surrounding districts from the mid 1830s.

This was where the people of Blackheath would have bought their Penny Blacks in 1840 or a 'Twopenny Blue'- the world's first postage stamps in 1840”

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year.

All London post offices received official issues of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, continuing to accept postage payments in cash only for a period.

It was still a post office in 1977 but today is a private residence.


Picture; the sorting office on Dartmouth Row in 1977 and text from Jean Gammons, and The Penny Black fro Wikipedia Commons

Wednesday, 29 March 2023

The not so different bits of where we live, part 4 ............. Blackheath

Now I am always intrigued at those more recent photographs of where we live.

So while pictures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are fascinating often everything is so different that it is almost looking at a different landscape.

But those from say the 1960s onwards are often almost the same but not quite, and with this in mind here over the next few days are some from the camera of Jean Gammons all taken in the late 1970s.

And that is all I shall say,

Picture; Blackheath, 1977 from the collection of Jean Gammons

Monday, 5 September 2022

The not so different bits of where we live, part 1.............Blackheath Hill 1977

Now I am always intrigued at those more recent photographs of where we live.

So while pictures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are fascinating often everything is so different that it is almost looking at a different landscape.

But those from say the 1960s onwards are often almost the same but not quite, and with this in mind here over the next few days are some from the camera of Jean Gammons all taken in the late 1970s.

And that is all I shall say,

Picture; looking down Blackheath Hill, 1977 from the collection of Jean Gammons

Still to come; Eltham High Street, Shooters Hill, Woolwich, the river, and Blackheath

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Growing up in Eltham in the 1950s ......... stories by Eddy Newport no 16 ..... 1959, Margate and a job

 Another in the series by Eddy Newport taken from his book, History of a War Baby.

1955 and back at the Poly, one summer’s day a trip to Margate’s Dreamland was organised.

All those going met at the school and coaches were laid on for the journey. With our packed lunches and dressed to kill we were off. We were left to our own devices. When we got there and went on all the rides we could.

We met up with some girls and followed them around and eventually shared some rides with them. I picked up with a girl and found out she lived in New Eltham. We agreed to meet up once we got home. We had a good day out and went home with a sense of excitement that I was about to go on my first date.

We had arranged to meet at Avery Hill Park at an appointed time. (I am sorry to say I can not remember her name). She did turn up and we wandered around the park talking. She was very nice and I did get to kiss her goodnight and she went home. We went out once more but it faded out soon after. That was my first girlfriend.

My first job, after leaving school and prior to me starting an apprenticeship.


Dad had scoured the local papers and found a job advertised and told me to go and apply for an interview. I did, and off I went to the White Line Laundry on Blackheath Hill to be interviewed for the job as a motor fitters mate.

The job involved working with a skilled fitter who job was to maintain a fleet of Vauxhall Bedford delivery vans that delivered laundry around the South London area. I got the job and duly started.

The fitter, I think his name was Charlie.

Charlie was to me an old boy who had been through the war as a prisoner-of-war and had a lung problem. He had a habit of coughing and spitting and what he spat out made me feel bad. I had to follow him around and do whatever he asked me to do. He had a short temper and would often swear at me. The conditions we worked were dreadful.

A small shed that serves as a workshop and where all the spanners and other tools were kept.  I had to supply my own overall which we were allowed to be washed by the laundry. The only place we had to work on the vans was where they were parked at night. This also served as a coke and coals storage area. This was fuel for the furnace to heat up the water used in the laundry. As one can imagine we got very dirty indeed.

I was there for only nine weeks and during that time I was involved with changing the vans oil, fan belts, greasing nipples, adjusting tappets, mending punctures, fixing a gear box and regrinding cylinder valves.

Charlie would be asked to look at a fault reported by a van driver and said to me, pointing to somewhere inside the engine compartment. “Go and get me a spanner to fit that nut”. I looked at the nut and went to the workshop and duly fetched the wrong spanner. He exploded with rage “You stupid b*****d, I want a spanner to fit THAT nut, now go and get me the right size “

I did, only, this time, I fetched an armful of spanners. Another time we were working on a van struggling to get the gearbox out. The van was propped up at the front and Charlie, lying on his back undoing the nuts that held the clutch bell housing in place. As we got to the last nut to undo he said I was to take the weight and lower it gently on to him. Unfortunately, it slipped out of my hands and it fell on his chest. He gave out a groan, and what he called me is not for repeating.  I think he was security pleased when I gave my notice.


© Eddy Newport 2017

Pictures; from the collection of Eddy Newport