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One of my favourites my mother made on the old Yorkshire Range was rice pudding made in a large enamel bowl,I being the oldest of four always got the skin off the top with my helping!.If my siblings stopped rooring for five minutes I would generously allow them a small sample if I was in a good mood!.She made all sorts of goodies another one I liked,a large egg custard as well as jam and lemon tarts and turnovers!.As I reached working age I worked for W.A.Brooms aka Don Bakery,I scoffed samples of their extensive range of confectionary until I was sick of it and in the end I lost my sweet tooth and to this day I only like savouries,if I was hungry I would buy a sandwich or wait for my dinner never bother with any of the van full of pastries at my disposal,funny that!.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 04/01/2022 at 13:31, cuttsie said:

coconut buns nearly forgot about those ,lovely when crunchy on top /

Hi Cuttsie

 

Do you remember that cheap plywood substitute we used  to flush doors and box in pipes?

 

An ex pat And I got talking about "doing up" the Arbourthorne estate houses, and neither of us could remember the name of it.

 

TIA

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44 minutes ago, trastrick said:

Hi Cuttsie

 

Do you remember that cheap plywood substitute we used  to flush doors and box in pipes?

 

An ex pat And I got talking about "doing up" the Arbourthorne estate houses, and neither of us could remember the name of it.

 

TIA

Hardboard.

The manufacturers must have made a fortune selling this as I recall every working class family that I knew had this on every downstairs internal door and some even used it outside too.

Nowadays, people realise that the old fashioned wooden doors look far nicer when properly painted.

It was probably cheaper though, to buy hardboard than to buy a tin of paint.

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1 hour ago, trastrick said:

Hi Cuttsie

 

Do you remember that cheap plywood substitute we used  to flush doors and box in pipes?

 

An ex pat And I got talking about "doing up" the Arbourthorne estate houses, and neither of us could remember the name of it.

 

TIA

As Orangrinder  said , all the houses on our estate did it , years later our gang of builders used to rip it of and desolve the old pine panel doors in acid baths , this removed layers and layers of paint and varnish . Then the new kids on the block in the posh terraces at Broomhill and Fulwood bought em off us complete with cast iron hinges and old locks so as  to hang in place of the doors that they inherited along with  roses around the front porch .

The acid baths would get rid off owt you needed to get out of the way inc unwanted wives or husbands ,   all that was left was the gold fillings from ones teeth so they say .

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The best Tart I ever had, used to go in Bellhouse Rd. WMC on a Saturday night.

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2 hours ago, Padders said:

The best Tart I ever had, used to go in Bellhouse Rd. WMC on a Saturday night.

From Bakewell or Bellhouse rooooad .

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3 hours ago, Padders said:

The best Tart I ever had, used to go in Bellhouse Rd. WMC on a Saturday night.

I knew her well 😉

Edited by hackey lad

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I used to strip those old doors as a sideline back in the 80’s. As I didn’t have access to an acid bath I used to take them off and strip them with a torch or Nitromors, sand, varnish and re hang them. Often a load of bits of Woodbine packet would fall out from the hinge rebates and I knew that door would be a bugger to re hang properly! Often the door would have been planed to death to fit the crappy nailed in, out of plumb casing so I pity the joiners who were having to hang them for the yuppies at Fulwood 😂. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be a second fix joiner 100 years ago and I would imagine punch ups between them and the first fix guys would have been common. On the subject of tarts a nice lemon curd or Bakewell will do nicely. That or an obliging lass called Carol who used to know 😂😂

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8 hours ago, trastrick said:

Hi Cuttsie

 

Do you remember that cheap plywood substitute we used  to flush doors and box in pipes?

 

An ex pat And I got talking about "doing up" the Arbourthorne estate houses, and neither of us could remember the name of it.

 

TIA

It was Barry Bucknall with his television DIY programmes in the 1950s and 60s  who started the trend of 'modernising' houses by, at best, boxing in original architectural features like traditional doors and fireplaces with hardboard or, at worst, ripping them out.

The Philistines couldn't have done a better job!

Not sure what that's got to do with tarts though! Perhaps some mother's pasty tasted like hardboard.

 

echo.

Edited by echo beach

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18 hours ago, cuttsie said:

As Orangrinder  said , all the houses on our estate did it , years later our gang of builders used to rip it of and desolve the old pine panel doors in acid baths , this removed layers and layers of paint and varnish . Then the new kids on the block in the posh terraces at Broomhill and Fulwood bought em off us complete with cast iron hinges and old locks so as  to hang in place of the doors that they inherited along with  roses around the front porch .

The acid baths would get rid off owt you needed to get out of the way inc unwanted wives or husbands ,   all that was left was the gold fillings from ones teeth so they say .

It's 1956. So I'm an apprentice electrician. I decide to do up the old Hartopp Rd council house, so I can bring friends and birds in without being embarrassed.  But tight on money.

 

First the old piano has to go to make some room. Chopped it up, had a bonfire and buried the leftover parts at the bottom of the garden. Now the Yorkshire Range, what to do?

 

First the big old fireguard has to go, the fender and the tin hearthplate. and the old pegged rug.

Then scrape off years of accumulated black lead, a big job. Sand it down and get some Dulux mushroom paint supposed to be heat proof. Shine the edges with wire wool. Not bad, brightens up the room already.

 

Cut in two corners of the mantlepiece to hold some modern candlesticks from the market.

Then took out the big double cupboard that took up one of the alcoves, and just collected junk, and my purloined scrap copper and lead I was collecting from the job sites (worth a bomb in those days) A bit more room.

 

Stripped off the old wall paper, took down the picture rails, and painted the walls cream. another big job. New lino for the floor.

 

Now for the nice modern touches. Flush the doors with hardboard and quarter round, some cheap glittery plastic handles to replace the knobs. Ball bearing caches for the doors, and painted them cream and mushroom of course. A couple of strategically placed electric outlets. Pull switches for the lights.

 

There, a do over you could be proud of, on the cheap. Wish we could afford a real tiled fireplace though, which was the holy grail in those day.

 

Somehow the corporation inspector got wind of it (curtain peepers?) and came while I was at work.

 

He told my mam that, "Your lad did a good job, it looks nice, but he's got to put that cupboard back in",  but we never did and never heard any more about it. :)

 

But the kitchen was still a mess, so that was the next job.

Edited by trastrick

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Echo, I’v uncovered a few of those fireplaces too. Usual giveaway is finding a nice Victorian tiled hearth under the carpet. Hopefully leading to a cast iron and tile fire insert behind the hardboard. Usually cacked up with paint so another job for the Nitromors followed by a tube of Zebrite. Then a trip to the antique centre/junk shop/salvage yard for the missing grate and a nice fender. If you were lucky the bricks separating the flues in the chimney stack hadn’t collapsed due to damp and disuse (I seem to remember they were called mid feathers but it’s a long time ago so I might be wrong)so a bag of coyl and you were in business. A pair of pliers and a couple of feet of heavy gauge steel baling wire would make a handy toasting fork to finish the job. Btw, just to stay on topic, I had a go at making mince pies with the nipper over Christmas. We were short on margarine so I used Lurpak instead. Was a lovely bit of pastry if I say so myself.👍

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