You first TV set ?

[Dreb48 35]

I cant imagine, for the life of me, that my dad bought our little Bush fom Wiggys in 53 so he must have rented it. We had a succession of TVs from them during the 50s/60s. He was a great believer in rental and HP, my dad. There was no way we could have afforded all the groundbreaking stuff like fridges and washing machines without it

[beechnut 10]

In the Kelly's directories I have there are no local TV rental firms listed up to 1957, then by 1963 there were Wigfall's, Radio Rentals, Rentaset and "Robinson Rentals Ltd" of Norfolk Street. In the early 1950s most TVs were bought on hire purchase. How times change!

[hillsbro 32]

....It was one of the really early ones, a Bush. The screen was so small set in a huge polished wood cabinet. The first night we attempted to view it but it was ludicrous the picture was fuzzy and constantly jumping. I suppose today it would be the prize in someone's collection or in a museum somewhere...

These old sets are certainly collected, and there is at least one book about them. In 1994 I went to an exhibition of early TV sets at Sotheby's. Shortly afterwards I saw a Bush set like this in a York junk shop priced at £40 - I was almost tempted! Nowadays I don't suppose a Freeview box will give a 405-line signal, but needless to say, such old sets are sold on eBay..

[Puffin4 10]

Our first set was a Defiant bought from the B & C Co-op (own brand) in 1953. It was a 12" and was bought specifically to watch the coronation. The Co-op undertook delivery and installation of the aerial. It wasn't an "H" shaped aerial like most homes had at that time but a single diapole or "I" shaped one.

 

Mike

[hillsbro 32]

Hi Mike - that's interesting; I don't remember any dipole aerials in Sheffield but perhaps if you were in a good reception area it would work well. The 'H' aerial that we had was OK in Hillsborough. In East Anglia in c. 1960 I noticed that some people had tall poles in their gardens with the aerial horizontal - like this but with a single 'H'.

[jmdee 10]

I worked at Wiggies from 1957 into the 60's. There were probably 40 tech's working there when I started, repairing rental T.V.'s. The rental business must have been going on many for years before this.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Kelly's directories I have there are no local TV rental firms listed up to 1957, then by 1963 there were Wigfall's, Radio Rentals, Rentaset and "Robinson Rentals Ltd" of Norfolk Street. In the early 1950s most TVs were bought on hire purchase. How times change!

[chrishall 10]

I think ours cost about £60 from Wiggys in '53 - 6 weeks wage? - must be equivalent of roughly £3k+ today?

[Banker 10]

I worked at Wiggies from 1957 into the 60's. There were probably 40 tech's working there when I started, repairing rental T.V.'s. The rental business must have been going on many for years before this.

This seems strange - my dad rented our first TV in 1956 (I remember the year as we watched news reports of the Melbourne Olympics) but when my uncle had moved from Birmingham two years earlier he bought one (on HP) as he was told you couldn't rent in Sheffield..

[hillsbro 32]

I just remembered our second TV, which we rented from Curtis's on London Road around 1959. It was an Ekco with doors (I think they called them 'console' models) and it looked like this..

[beechnut 10]

Our first TV was a "console" model with polished walnut doors - very posh! It lasted us until the mid-1960s when you needed a 625-line set to receive BBC2, but my grandma had it for several more years.

[scargill 10]

I cannot remember the make, my main memory was that the tuner knob had broken off, and we had a pair of pliers by the TV for dad to turnover the channel. My first memory of watching TV with a purpose was the Wednesday v Everton 66 cup final.

[rugbyguy223 10]

I remeber having 4 channels and having to get up and press a button to change the channel - the good old days, eh? :-)