Last year there was an exchange about cash carriers in shops, especially Banners. I have a website called "The Cash Railway website" if anyone's interested, and I'm always interested to add more shops that had them to the list. I'd be very pleased if "Flashman" would care to get in touch through the contact on my site. Also I don't understand Vera's mention of "Tim Buck, George Binns on Cambridge St." Was the shop name "George Binns"?
Thanks,
AndrewB

Where might this website be found?......I think it might have helped had you put a link on your posting.

Originally posted by BILDEBORG
Where might this website be found?......I think it might have helped had you put a link on your posting.

Googled it, so here it is: Cash Railway (http://www.ids.u-net.com/cash/)

by the way I noticed they had one in Specsavers at Crystal Peaks.

I remember the one in Banners, I used to get really fed up wating for the change to come back in "Banner Money" when I went shopping there with my mum. Those were the days when you had a lift attendant to operate the lift to the different floors.

My mum used to buy me a Matchbox toy every week for "being good". I wish I still had them.

Nice one lostrider........im 43 now and recall seeing these somewhere but not so sure as to where.......ill look at your link tomorrow..........who knows, it might ring a distant bell in this much abused brain :confused:

A compressed air tube system was used in Virgin at the top of Fargate. This linked the cash office to the counters. One lass in the cash office got a fright one day when someone called to her through the tube!

I think it might have helped had you put a link on your posting.

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to put in the link myself 'cos it was my first post to the Forum! (An anti-spamming measure.) Thanks to Lostrider for supplying it.

I'm not attempting to list the modern, plastic pneumatic tube systems - only the pre-1960s brass ones.

I also used to be bought a Matchbox toy some weeks. They were only 1/9 so a bit cheaper than Dinky Toys, which were only for special occasions like birthdays.

AndrewB

All I got was a small Airfix kit, about 2/6- if I didnt cry at the dentist.........and mum had to make them for me!..........sad eh?

Jay.

The Co-op in the old Greenhill village used to have one I remember that was round about 1956.

I worked at Burton Tailoring in Rotherham from 1959-64. Hated every minute of it, but that is a different story. They had a Lamson Paragon air tube system between the two floors - brass, as you say. One day I placed a carrier in the the tube without closing it. Oh dear, what a to do. In the end Steel Peach & Tozer had to be called out to retrieve the carrier, and the customers money. It was a terrible job and I've never ever regretted walking out of it. Not for one minute. I have been in my present job now for 42 years (says something). Full stop.

Last year there was an exchange about cash carriers in shops, especially Banners. I have a website called "The Cash Railway website" if anyone's interested, and I'm always interested to add more shops that had them to the list. I'd be very pleased if "Flashman" would care to get in touch through the contact on my site. Also I don't understand Vera's mention of "Tim Buck, George Binns on Cambridge St." Was the shop name "George Binns"?
Thanks,
AndrewB


Hi,

There used to be a shop in Fargate called Tuckwoods. Long gone- approximately where M & S are now. I seem to remember that they had a cash centre system (railway type) that was a little different.

You entered the shop through a sort of covered arcade with counters on both sides. At the far end was the main shoping area. A large hall with balconies, lots of wrought iron and a glass roof. The cash cente was in the middle of the main hall and the "rail tracks" radiated out.

Seem to think the center was a two-level affair. The low level served the main floor while the high level was for the departments on the balcony. It did the usual trick, like pass through holes in walls, etc.

Quite a few of the Co-op's in the various districts had cash railway systems.
The S & E Co-op at Holly Thorpe Rise (Lees Hall Avenue) for one.

Many of the shops that used to line Fargate had air tube systems. All long gone.

Can't remember what type of cash system Coles Brothers had when they were at the corner of Fargate and Church Street. They went to separate cash registers when they moved to Barker's Pool in 1963. Walsh's also went straight to a separate cash register system when the came back into town (and their rebuilt store) in 1954.

Off-topic but does anyone remember the Dial-Dispatch systems that some steelworks had. These were the big brother of the regular air tube cash systems. The carriers was about the size of an artillery shell with a telephone dial on the end. You put the thing you wanted to send in the carrier (hot steel samples if it was in a steel works), dialed up the destination, and popped it into the system.

Every number you dialed caused the carrier to emit a different sound as it went along. Sensors at the various outlets listened for its own special note or sound. When it heard it, it opened a door and as the carrier came along, it popped out.

Most times it got to the right place - sometimes it didn't. Lots of fun.

Falls

CO-OP must have had a job-lot. I remember thhe one at Bents Green. It was the canister hanging on a wire system, with a cord hanging down that fired the canister over to the cashiers. Mind you Greystones didn't have one - too small I guess, bit of a one-man operation.

I'm sure the Co-Op at the corner of Chesterfield Road and Meersbrook Park Road had the brass tube system when I was little. I always thought it was really exciting - once the manager took me into the room upstairs where the cashier sat and let me wait for our money to arrive there!

From then on it was my ambition to be her one day :) Sitting up there in splendid isolation, bird's eye view of the shopfloor, money and power hehe ... world domination :D

I'm sure there was an overhead wire system in a toy shop in London Road, Heeley bottom. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but it was one of the last shops on the left going out of town before the railway bridge and Broadfield Road and the Post office on the right. This would have been around 1967.

Sheffield and Ecclesall Co-op Society had the vacuum version. When I was younger I had the opportunity to go underground and see the vast number of tubes. I could also hear the money-carriers clattering on their way.

Small co-op near Hickmott Road had the railway variety with three tracks. They went to the corner of the shop where a female cashier sat on what looked more like an elevated platform with a veranda. She overlooked everything and could have thrown customers their change a lot quicker.

Hi,

There used to be a shop in Fargate called Tuckwoods. Long gone- approximately where M & S are now. I seem to remember that they had a cash centre system (railway type) that was a little different.

You entered the shop through a sort of covered arcade with counters on both sides. At the far end was the main shoping area. A large hall with balconies, lots of wrought iron and a glass roof. The cash cente was in the middle of the main hall and the "rail tracks" radiated out.

Seem to think the center was a two-level affair. The low level served the main floor while the high level was for the departments on the balcony. It did the usual trick, like pass through holes in walls, etc.

Quite a few of the Co-op's in the various districts had cash railway systems.
The S & E Co-op at Holly Thorpe Rise (Lees Hall Avenue) for one.

Many of the shops that used to line Fargate had air tube systems. All long gone.

Can't remember what type of cash system Coles Brothers had when they were at the corner of Fargate and Church Street. They went to separate cash registers when they moved to Barker's Pool in 1963. Walsh's also went straight to a separate cash register system when the came back into town (and their rebuilt store) in 1954.

Off-topic but does anyone remember the Dial-Dispatch systems that some steelworks had. These were the big brother of the regular air tube cash systems. The carriers was about the size of an artillery shell with a telephone dial on the end. You put the thing you wanted to send in the carrier (hot steel samples if it was in a steel works), dialed up the destination, and popped it into the system.

Every number you dialed caused the carrier to emit a different sound as it went along. Sensors at the various outlets listened for its own special note or sound. When it heard it, it opened a door and as the carrier came along, it popped out.

Most times it got to the right place - sometimes it didn't. Lots of fun.

Falls Hey Falls, please remind me, what did Tuckwoods sell?
Did they sell luxury food items for instance?

Hey Falls, please remind me, what did Tuckwoods sell?
Did they sell luxury food items for instance?



There used to be a Tuckwoods Restaurant in the city centre. Where was it please?

There used to be a Tuckwoods Restaurant in the city centre. Where was it please?

I think the entrance was next to Channing Hall on Surrey street ?

Hey Falls, please remind me, what did Tuckwoods sell?
Did they sell luxury food items for instance?

Hi Texas,

Yes, they sold luxury food among other things. In their hey-day, they had a reputation for high quality.

My father had an aunt who thought the sun shone out of Tuckwoods. She was an earlier version of Hyacinthe Bucket. I think you get the picture

Periodically, we would have to attend one of her afternoon teas. One of her favourite expressions was " Do have a piece of this cake, its Tuckwoods"

Like a lot of other shops on Fargate and High Street, Tuckwoods used to catered to what was know as the "Carriage Trade". They were all hit hard by the wartime rationing and the years of austerity that followed.

I seem to think that they were taken over by Atkinson's and traded for a while as Atkinson & Tuckwood. Can't remember how long this arrangment lasted. Then the store was closed and the building sold. The restaurant was kept on and moved to Surrey Street.


Just a footnote.

Even though most of the shops on Fargate were shadows of what they had been by the late 40's or so, there was still some prestige attached to the location. Therefore there was quite an uproar (letters to the editor, etc) when it was announced that M & S had bought the old Tuckwood property and intended to open a store on "Sacred" Fargate. How times have changed.

Regards

Falls

'Do have a piece of this cake, it's Tuckwoods'. I like that, it has a certain style to it. It could've been used on an advertisment.
Thanks for the info' though. I remembered something I put on another thread a while back, regarding chocolate covered ants in plain or milk. That was the store who sold them, Tuckwoods, I couldn't remember it at the time.

When I was a kid, Woolworths in The Haymarket where the now closed British Home Stores is, had an overhead cash wire system. It was totally fascinating to watch.

The co.op on Barber rd had a overhead money system and the cashier sat in the office looking down into the shop.
The Shentalls grocery shop lower down the road was too small for such a setup,but they had a bigger bacon slicer.
Cole brother when they were on the corner of Church street had a more modern vacuum system which went downwards.
Mags

I'm sure there was an overhead wire system in a toy shop in London Road, Heeley bottom. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but it was one of the last shops on the left going out of town before the railway bridge and Broadfield Road and the Post office on the right. This would have been around 1967.
My grandfather allegedly invented "cash tramways" which were in the drapers shop at Heeley from the early 20 cent. I used to have all the patterns for the cast bits used. He was approached by Co-op for the design but refused, so the Co-op allegedly sent a man with a paper & pencil and the rest is history, as they say!

There was a similar kind of system in Sayers the butchers on Dixon Lane when it was open. Many moons ago.They put the money in a tube which was on a wire to the cashier sat over the top end of the counter.They then let it go with the bill & the money in it & she sent it back to the salesman with the change.It always fascinated me to see such technology.

I'm almost certain hawksfords on South Rd, Walkley had a cash railway, you popped the money from the sale in a container, pulled the trigger mechanism & shot the money on a cableway to the cashier, fascinating to watch.

Nostalgia, it's a thing of the past

If anyone is interested there are some great pictures of the tuckwood's shops on Picture Sheffield.com

I hope this helps

PopT

Pickfords motor dealers on Eccelsall rd had a vacuum system and we lads put cheeky notes in for the office girls,unsigned of course,the internal phones never stopped ringing!!

I lived in Greenhill during the early 1940's and the Branch of the Brightside &Carbrooke Co-op at the top of Bocking Lane had such a system. As a small boy I was fascinated by it.

Blanchards on Infirmary Road had a vacuum cash thingy too. I remember it because that was where I had my first Saturday job when I was about 15 and I was really impressed by the way it whooooshed the cash away to some mysterious far away office (on the next floor probably) If I remember rightly Blanchards was part of the Wigfall group?

Roberts Brothers on the Moor had an overhead wire system in the 1950s that fascinated this ten year-old!.:)

I remember the old Co-op down on Heeley Bottom where the mosque now stands having a wire system, it was fascinating to watch, going in there every week with my nan to buy the milk checks.