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In article <COVTdOBnuACoFwKw@bancom.co.uk>,
tony sayer <tony@bancom.co.uk> wrote:
In article <m6pphfFf6d8U1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> scribeth thus
Andy Burns wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
I didn't notice the names of any regulars here.
Charles Hope and Bill Wright
The latter should really have credited Tony Sayer instead
<http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/aerialphotography/diy/038.shtml>
Yes well, i used to work at Television Mobile Service where its owner
Doug Hopper was mentioned, now deceased for quite some sometime, but the
Marshal ghost was after i left there around 1981 ish.
Of course our own Charles Hope worked for the BBC engineering
information service but is now long retired.
Indeed, It will be 29 years this autumn. But, I still remember the >Marshall's hanger 'problem'. Our survey vehicle's log periodic had no >problme swith the reflection from the hanger, but most of the aerialls in
the 'prolem' area were 'contract' quality with very poor front/back >performance.
Wolsey's Colour King was a good alternative to a log in rejecting
reflections from the back. We even carried one in the Survey Vehicle.
Bit of an odd question! A man used to wander around that area in the
middle of the night his job title was "Knocker-upper"
Anyone know what he knocked up;?..
... I think I remember hearing another,
though I can't remember any of the lyrics ...
On 2025-05-08 22:11, tony sayer wrote:
Bit of an odd question! A man used to wander around that area in the
middle of the night his job title was "Knocker-upper"
Anyone know what he knocked up;?..
A 'knocker upper' traditionally was someone who walked around the houses
of a firm's employees to ensure that they would be present at the start
of a night or early morning shift.
There are songs tolerably well known in the folk music scene about
knocker uppers. Here's one, but I think I remember hearing another,
though I can't remember any of the lyrics ...
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=79341
THE KNOCKER-UPPER MAN ~ Mike Canavan
THROUGH COBBLED streets so cold and damp
The Knocker-Upper man goes creeping
Tap-tapping at the window pane
To wake the town from sleeping.
chorus :
He said : "Hey thee up and stir th'self
The factory hooter's blowin'
So get up from your nice warm bed
To work you must be goin'."
DAY IN, day out, the year about
Though snow and rain are falling
You'd hear his clogs along the street
You'd hear his voice a-calling.
ALL THE EARLY-rising working folk
The Knocker-Upper's call they heeded
But times go by, old customs die
Now he's no longer needed.
THROUGH STREETS of quiet suburbia
The Knocker-Upper's ghost goes creeping
Now listening to the ringing sound
That wakes the town from sleeping.
In article <vvjbt5$27b02$1@dont-email.me>, Java Jive
<java@evij.com.invalid> scribeth thus
On 2025-05-08 22:11, tony sayer wrote:
Bit of an odd question! A man used to wander around that area in the
middle of the night his job title was "Knocker-upper"
Anyone know what he knocked up;?..
A 'knocker upper' traditionally was someone who walked around the houses
of a firm's employees to ensure that they would be present at the start
of a night or early morning shift.
[snip]
Yes that was what he did!, but in that location most all housing there
was built to accommodate the large number of railway employees many of
whom had an early start getting the engines going in the days of steam.
Mind you the first train out to London these days is at 4:48 AM! But
ISTR that in those days there were even earlier ones..
Here outside the co-op in Mill road there are some planters with railway
job descriptions thereon, he's on one not so visible!.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nwKruiw3SGM69o3h7
A 'knocker upper' traditionally was someone who walked around the houses
of a firm's employees to ensure that they would be present at the start
of a night or early morning shift.
On 2025-05-10 12:09, tony sayer wrote:
In article <vvjbt5$27b02$1@dont-email.me>, Java Jive
<java@evij.com.invalid> scribeth thus
On 2025-05-08 22:11, tony sayer wrote:
Bit of an odd question! A man used to wander around that area in the
middle of the night his job title was "Knocker-upper"
Anyone know what he knocked up;?..
A 'knocker upper' traditionally was someone who walked around the houses >>> of a firm's employees to ensure that they would be present at the start
of a night or early morning shift.
[snip]
Yes that was what he did!, but in that location most all housing there
was built to accommodate the large number of railway employees many of
whom had an early start getting the engines going in the days of steam.
Mind you the first train out to London these days is at 4:48 AM! But
ISTR that in those days there were even earlier ones..
Presumably there would have been night-mail trains, as in the famous
poem by W H Auden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLHrPrk3PkU
Here outside the co-op in Mill road there are some planters with railway
job descriptions thereon, he's on one not so visible!.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nwKruiw3SGM69o3h7
Thanks for that (or not?)! Just spent (or wasted?) some time
re-exploring the scenes of my childhood, and, jeez, how it's all so
changed! I spotted only one shop, Mackay's at the top of East Road,
that was still there. The greengrocer, name now forgotten, opposite
Abbey Road has been knocked through with the neighbouring shop and is
now an electric bike shop, but I'm pretty sure the shop-front is more or >less the same, although now painted red rather than the green it used to
be. The supermarket next or next but one to it, Traylens, now appears
to be offices, as does the ironmonger's, Twinn's, that used to be on the >corner of Abbey Road and Newmarket Road.
Perhaps worst of all are the flats, or more offices (?), along Walnut
Tree Avenue, which appear to have replaced Brunswick School. When we
lived at 83 Newmarket Road, we used to walk the dogs along there going
down to Midsummer Common, and even after the construction of Elizabeth
Way, it still felt comparatively open, but now it looks real gloomy
along there. BTW, 83 was compulsorily purchased and demolished to make
way for a new entrance to the school, which was why we had to move, and
so ended up at Abbey House:
<www.macfh.co.uk/Temp/Yorke_House,_83_Newmarket_Rd,_Cambridge,_Being_Demolished.
Most particularly, it was very strange looking through the gates of
Abbey House - I can still hear in my memory the sound of the latch and
the creak of the hinges as they opened - and feeling momentarily an >irrational resentment that others live there now, as if somehow they'd >stolen and usurped your very life!
Regards
The Mill Road shop that most of my pocket money went to was H. Gee which burnt up in a fire some years ago, 2019?, its still not yet been
rebuilt!..
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dvXuJT2bdJTsrPzNA
On 2025-05-13 10:21, tony sayer wrote:
The Mill Road shop that most of my pocket money went to was H. Gee which
burnt up in a fire some years ago, 2019?, its still not yet been
rebuilt!..
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dvXuJT2bdJTsrPzNA
"Gee's" certainly sounds familiar, but no further details come to mind.
What type of shop was it?
Given who I'm replying to, I'll guess, electronics?
On Wed 14/05/2025 10:02, Java Jive wrote:
On 2025-05-13 10:21, tony sayer wrote:
The Mill Road shop that most of my pocket money went to was H. Gee which >>> burnt up in a fire some years ago, 2019?, its still not yet been
rebuilt!..
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dvXuJT2bdJTsrPzNA
"Gee's" certainly sounds familiar, but no further details come to
mind. What type of shop was it?
Given who I'm replying to, I'll guess, electronics?
Henry Gee and Son = Electronics and components supplier on Mill Road
just about opposite Gwydir Street.
...But I stopped going there after about 1977 (from 1973) as their
prices went stupidly high and they never had what I wanted anyway!
On Wed 14/05/2025 10:02, Java Jive wrote:
On 2025-05-13 10:21, tony sayer wrote:
The Mill Road shop that most of my pocket money went to was H. Gee which >>> burnt up in a fire some years ago, 2019?, its still not yet been
rebuilt!..
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dvXuJT2bdJTsrPzNA
"Gee's" certainly sounds familiar, but no further details come to mind.
What type of shop was it?
Given who I'm replying to, I'll guess, electronics?
Henry Gee and Son = Electronics and components supplier on Mill Road
just about opposite Gwydir Street.
...But I stopped going there after about 1977 (from 1973) as their
prices went stupidly high and they never had what I wanted anyway!