The Engineer

I spotted a couple of banks of Post Office 3000 type relays. They found their way into all sorts of automation as well as telephone systems.

I'm not saying manure is beneficial to anything other than certain plants; just suggesting a reason why it is not an offence to leave it where it falls.

There are no known toxic effects on people from exposure to horse manure. Horses do not carry any of the many viruses and pathogens that are a risk to people from carnivores/omnivores. If you were to eat horse manure, the pathogens that are there might cause belly ache, nothing worse.

Blackberries are high in pectin so you shouldn't need to add it separately or to use jam sugar (sugar with pectin) rather than regular sugar. You can get 1lb jam jars at Aldi for 28p each but you have to empty 1lb of their strawberry jam out of each one before use.

Got a bit of white druplet disorder on my thornless cultivar, probably caused by the recent hot spell. I may have to go a picking wild fruit instead. I tasted a few wild ones this morning while out strolling and have to say they were less tart than my home-grown ones. I do like an apple and blackberry crumble but the squirrels have stripped my two apple trees of every last fruit.

Kilner jars are fine. See life.wilko.com/making-your-first-preserve for hints and tips. Blackberries freeze well though it is best to lay them out on a plastic tray to freeze separately so that they don't form one big mass. Bag them up when frozen.

Mam picked me out with the bow tie so I think that is conclusive. Thanks to Jill I have identified my eldest sister (and maybe another sister) in Letsavagoo's photos.

I am not in touch with my sister's former husband. Another of my sisters concurred that it is I with the dickie bow and went on to say her husband also went to Berridge!

Jill, could two of my sisters be on your photos? One was a year above me and the other was two years above me.

Jill, to add to the curiosity, one of my sisters married a Stephen Wheat who was my age but I don't know whether he was from that area. I am now trying to decide whether the chap behind me is one and the same and that our paths crossed again in the mid 70s in Bulwell (where we and the Wheats both lived).

Jill, on that last photo (year above), I think middle row far right may indeed be me (apparently wearing a bow tie?) My wife picked me out as well so that confirms it!

Jill, I am not Richard Sewell. I have sent you a PM

I should add myself to the roll call, albeit briefly. We lived on Grundy Street and I went to Berridge infants late 1962 or early 1963 (aged about 5). It can only have been one or two terms because we moved to Basford mid-1963. My only recollection of Berridge was an aversion to using the outside lavs. From time to time I would go home at afternoon playtime to use the lav there (also outdoor) and didn't return to school. As far as I know I wasn't missed!

I expect the 'tins' were tin-plated steel (the same stuff that 'tin cans' are made from). The tin plate retards any rusting. I keep a Walkers hammer in my tool wallet for small jobs.

I had thought Bamboo but that was much further up Mansfield Road than Vic Station so I wasn't sure.