Iron railings in the war

[PeverilPeril 3,281]

A lot of iron railings were cut out and used as WW2 material. What puzzled me as a boy was, why did the rented houses have their railings taken but the privately owned houses were spared? Google map Lake St and you will see some railings are still there and they were the only houses privately owned after the war. OK most of the houses are gone now but they all had the railings removed.

[Braddy 160]

Even them days money talks and back pockets just like today.

[Trevor S 2,003]

Houses down Holme Road, West Bridgford had their railings removed and my Gran at #8 and her neighbours owned their houses.

They had no say in the matter according to Gran...one day along came a lorry and men, railings cut off at the base and away they went.

No question of compensation - Gran just said it was for the war effort and that was that!

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Buckingham Palace kept their's

[Trevor S 2,003]

Unfortunately, Gran was royalty only in her children's eyes and later,our eyes............

The big wigs and posh lot seemed to get away with a lot, even to this day...................

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I'll bet they didn't eat the same foods as the peasants either Bubblewrap, Three and four courses plus vino and brandy and cigars afterwards.

Mind you, from what my late Dad told me, my Gran lived the life of Riley too, she was heavy into the "black market" and had a shop. He said there were many times him and his Brothers were hiding stuff away in a hurry because the plod came a knocking....LOL

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

You mean no Tripe & onions or Boiled beef & carrots ?

[siddha 825]

I believe that many hundreds of tons of scrap iron and ornamental railings were sent to the bottom in the Thames Estuary because Britain was unable to process this ironwork into weapons of war.

http://www.londongardenstrust.org/features/railings3.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_railing

[poohbear 1,360]

I've read that most of the pots and pans collected also went the same way....just a big con to make the peasants think they were doing their bit.

Just because it was wartime didn't stop the political bullshit that we suffer to this day.

[mick2me 3,033]

Great topic (the railings bit)

I bet they got through a few hacksaw blades?

I wonder what Pre war Nottingham areas look like today if the railings remained?

Any images showing Nottingham streets with rows of houses with railings as they looked?

[Chulla 4,946]

I have heard the stories that the scrap collected during the war was never used. Tripe! Of course it was; but not necessarily for the reason stated. The aluminium pans were not of the correct grade for aircraft manufacture, but aluminium was used in many other things. There were local Aluminium Boards that made sure that it went to the factories that need it, and in the right quantities - it was, in effect, rationed as there was only so much of it available at any one time - no bauxite coming from France to manufacture it.

As for the iron railings; these could be used for low-grade items, such as bomb casings, artillery and cannon shell warheads, ship and tank construction, and a thousand other reasons. Some of the ships in the Atlantic convoys carried iron filings in bulk from USA and Canada. Do people think that the iron railings were discarded when scrap from three thousand miles away was being imported - at, I might say, a very great cost in lives.

I have always thought that some railings, perhaps discovered after the war, for what ever reason, never got melted down and some people thought that none of them were.

[colly0410 1,181]

I thought the steel stumps sticking up out of walls was to stop us kids sitting on them... My Aunties house on Thompson Street in Langley Mill had the tell tale stumps of removed (stolen) railings..

[catfan 14,793]

I always found it fascinating to see where iron railings once existed, when they were removed they seem to be removed very cleanly, with no "stumps".

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

Difficult to find photos showing railings; this is one of the side streets off Lenton Boulevard. Every house seems to have some kind of metalwork.

Presumably the railings all went when the war came.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

If you looked at the stumps, they were obviously burned off with oxy acetalene torches.

I remember a row of houses on St Anns Well Road near Peas Hill Road where the railings were removed, plus up the Chase.

Doesn't really matter about the quality of the steel, as once it's in the furnace, they can add carbon or burn it off, add other metals etc to raise it's quality to suit what is needed by the customer.

[LizzieM 9,507]

Weren't the railings along Gregory Boulevard, by the Forest, removed at that time?

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

Incredible coincidence.

Look at Gregory Boulevard and alongside the Forest you can see the cut off remains of railings. But in the background of the same Streetview image, you see the kind of lorry which takes railings and fridges and bikes and shelves and radiators.

If Streetview had been there 10 minutes earlier, the railings were still in place.

[Enigma. 1,533]

Looking South East Across The Forest, Gregory Boulevard, Hyson Green, Nottingham, 1956 - the railing were still there after the war - i wonder why they got removed

[catfan 14,793]

Pikey's ?

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Saves on green paint

[mick2me 3,033]

Correct me if I am wrong but were some railings set in lead, in the holes?

Molten lead poured in perhaps?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

When they were set in stone coping stones, yes.

[PeverilPeril 3,281]

#11 I would agree with your observations Chulla. Scrap iron was just too valuable to chuck away, either during or after the war. As stated (#15), any old iron, once in the crucible can be turned into almost any type of steel. Add a bit of manganese and control the carbon content and you have railway lines or if you could find enough chrome then you could make stainless steel cutlery.

I posted this because I wandered if I had experienced a social divide between owners and tenants. Mrs PP thinks that it was a voluntary thing.

I still bear a scar from ripping my hand on one of the burnt off railing stumps.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

#21 could they have used molten tar(cheaper) as they did when setting the granite cobbles in the streets?

[PeverilPeril 3,281]

#21 could they have used molten tar(cheaper) as they did when setting the granite cobbles in the streets?

Doubt it. On a hot day the heat would have conducted down the railing and melted the tar.