Gatley - The End of the Line

By Peter Boden

12. INVENTIONS.
Click on images to enlarge

What about the latest technology you may ask! We had an HMV “mechanical” gramophone which played breakable 78 rpm records. Today I still have one single -sided record dated 1912. A famous singer of that time was the Australian Nellie Melba who has a dessert named after her. She had recorded, “Home to Our Mountains”. As the clockwork mechanism ran down the speed of the record slowed, and the sounds became lower in pitch. Nellie became a basso profundo in no time. A “re-winder” for the contraption was always popular. Sometimes it was necessary to re-sharpen the wooden needles!

Frank made a “crystal set” wireless receiver (radio) inside a wooden box marked Coleman’s Mustard. You could just hear the music and speech if you wore earphones, and did not jump up and down. Any vibration would disturb the delicate “cat’s whisker” which worked the blessed thing. I thought it was magic but some adults thought it was a toy and that wireless would not last long. Several years later I was making my own wireless sets as it had become my hobby. Subsequently it became my career in radio and radar engineering.

The church hall, next to St James’s Church, had a magic lantern slide projector operated by the vicar (Reverend John Tyler Whittle). This was used to improve our minds by showing the bible class artistic pictures with religious significance. A more miraculous invention was obtained later which showed silent moving films of Charlie Chaplin and Lillian Gish. They were much more interesting than the vicar’s shows.

18 - A 1925 Morris Cowley Car (1989)

My father owned a 1925 Morris Cowley car (Illus. 18) which crashed into the shops in Church Road, opposite Oakwood Avenue. Apparently part of the steering mechanism, called a drop-arm, had dropped off. Before this final debacle I was sitting in the rear seat while being driven through Fleetwood. I noticed a lone car wheel rolling past my window and, after trying to inform my parents in the front seat, I was told not to tell stories. Finally my father decided to stop and check. I was right, it was our rear wheel which had sailed on passed us. The rigid construction of the chassis had prevented the car from tipping. They do not build cars like that one nowadays!

A telephone was installed in our house which was one of the earliest in the village. There was a huge “wet” battery in a large kitchen cupboard to make the phone work. Of course, children were not allowed to touch it. Now children have computers. How times have changed!

At Jackson’s brickworks, across from Stonepail Road, I used to stand in awe as steam engine wagons came out of their yard with white clouds of smoke pouring from their chimneys.

Once each year, in the yard of Greenbank Farm, there was the great excitement in watching a huge steam traction engine driving a massive threshing machine for the harvest (Illus. 17)

17 - Greenbank Farm Gatley with Threshing Machine.(1928)

There were also large steamroller machines with huge wheels which used for road repair work. One morning my father’s friend, Bob Harding, left his sandwich tin on top of the large wheel and the roller started. It was duly flattened! It was said that Fred’s sausages were elongated by several feet. That story went into the mythology of Gatley. What other wonders were going to be invented in the future? The telephone wires allowed us to speak over long distances. Will we ever be able to see pictures of the callers, that far? Ridiculous idea!

Chapter 13