philmayfield

Yes Rog, the townies think that country life is a rural idyll. In fact it's like living in a big outdoor factory. Oh for the peace of the town where nobody goes 'cause there's nothing to see anymore.

Yes, he’s gone now Rog. He’s got a spare hive for them. There is promise of a jar of honey if they settle down! That’s today’s excitement over in the dull life I lead.

Most of this sort of kit is usually leased. The farmers I’ve known have all been mean, tight fisted bastards. Odd people farmers. I spent a day on a tractor once going up and down a field. The work is absolutely mind numbing. No wonder it’s a job with a high suicide rate.

It’s been fascinating watching him collect them in a wicker mini hive. I’ve just come in as it’s raining but the bee man is suitably clad for the purpose. He must have the queen as the stray bees are moving towards his mini hive.

A man’s coming to collect the bee swarm this morning. Chairman of the parish council nontheless. He says he will have to get dressed up. Will he be wearing a clown outfit?

When I wrote paraffin I actually meant TVO, tractor vapourising oil. This was basically paraffin with the addition of a few extra ingredients to raise the flash point. A bit of a witches' brew actually!

The grey Fergie with the cab was one of many of the Harry Ferguson adoptions. There were innumerable tools and extras for every conceivable task. The tractor in the the picture is TEF model being a diesel. The TED model I have is a petrol/paraffin model where the engine was started on petrol and then switched over to the much cheaper paraffin for the day’s work which used a full tank. The engine had a very low compression ratio and was the same basic unit as used in the Standard Vanguard car. Not sure why the diesel was TEF and the petrol was TED but will have the info somewhere.

Seeing the old tractor pictures from Rog reminds me that I usually exhibit my 1952 Grey Fergie as an attraction in our hay meadow at the biennial 'open gardens' coming up soon. It's been outside under its tailored cover for two years and I know it requires a battery and a new mechanical starter switch. It's always good to see the 'old boys' climb aboard, with some difficulty, and reminisce about the old days. Being low technology, but mechanically quite brilliantly designed by Harry Ferguson, I guarantee it will start first time. The starter is selected by a particular movement of the gearstic

Oh yes, I bet you swam to the shops to get food supplies!

Totally unrelated but I knew a chap who worked for Bennetts Office Supplies who was trapped in a caravan with a nymphomaniac at Gunthorpe for three days when the Trent flooded.

There's still a problem in Notts apparently. The lay-by at Cromwell north of Newark is a notorious spot for prostitution and associated drug taking. The villagers are, understandably, getting a bit brassed of with the situation.

How did you guess I was at Netherfield Morrison’s?

I think it's a sort of brick 'frog' to hold the mortar and stop the bricks from sliding until set.

You've got me worried BK. Just sitting in wife's car parked at Morrisons!

Well obviously you’ve got my interest now Rog.

Sankeys used to make bricks as well but production ceased in 1940 but I guess you knew that already Rog!

There are some with the ‘Sankey Bulwell’ logo and others without. I presume all Sankey’s pots had the name thereon. I never thought I would find an interest in plant pots. I broke up a load for hardcore some years ago - a few quids worth destroyed there!

Thanks Cliff. That was most interesting. I'm going to have a closer look at those we've got. They came from my wife's parents' house at Fiskerton which was once a smallholding. They do look to be be of some vintage.

Yes, thanks Rog, I've been delving. I was surprised to discover it was around midday on a Saturday when I viewed it.

Further research tells me it was on 12th July 1980. I viewed it from the Basford end of Haydn Rd.and it looked pretty spectacular. They obviously didn’t have a sprinkler system which was most unwise in a plastics factory.

Apparently they switched to making plant pots out of plastic in 1976. My wife tells me we’ve got loads of their clay pots around the garden. There’s lots in trays under hedges. She’s rounding them up to check them and clean them since she discovered that they are worth a minimum of £4 each. Something to sell for fund raising at the forthcoming village ‘open gardens’. I remember seeing the fire at the Sankeys factory. Can anyone remember when that was?

Nonna doesn’t do fine dining BK. Just simple food.

He was indeed. I used to help him keep his old MF combine running at harvest time. I remember once going down with him to Fen Lane at Long Bennington on the A1 where there was a combine graveyard. We tracked down the appropriated model and a man arrived on a milk float with a gas cutter and removed the part we wanted without the need for a spanner! We took it back to Gibsmere and all was fixed within the hour! He was once teaching his daughter to drive in his little Fiat. He thought she was going too fast on the sharp bend at Rolleston so he pulled hard on the handbrake spinning the car r

Well Remain middle ground obviously. Corbyn's not a communist then?

Yes, it’s that big building in the Market Square with a dome isn’t it?