A Few old Keyboards

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I have just posted up on 'Monkey-Organ',

some of the outdoor goings-on over the weekend

at the Milton Keynes Museum.

Inside the museum itself,

can be found some of the most interesting rooms,

packed with 'goodies' from by-gone days.

Here are just a few.

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Fairground toys and rocking horses in the nursery.

And on a musical theme.

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A Street Barrel Organ.

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A small portable Harmonium.

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A large organ rescued from a small church.

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And a Reed Organ - or is it another Harmonium?

I've never been quite sure which is which. (Deb?)

I used to have one but had to get rid of it to make space.

A sad day.

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Peter, Paul and Mary

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Just the way I remember them.

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"Taking the Mickey"

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This has to be one of the most unusual Organ Grinders around.

It is a Mickey Mouse tinplate clockwork organ-grinder with Mickey operating the organ and Minnie dancing on top in place of the monkey.

I have no further details.....it's probably German, from around 1930.

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Global Warming ?

I know you ladies are thinking that Kipper has a one track mind ......but I only remembered that I still had this on file after reading Sage's joke on Saturday!

'Kipper goes Great Western'

Yesterday, saw me going west, to the old country town of Swindon for the Organ Grinders AGM.

Not the most exciting of days out, but it was made more interesting for me as it was held at the GWR Steam Museum.

 Four or five organs were playing there during the morning and will be playing all day on Sunday. As I don't yet have a video camera, I can only post up 'silent stills'. 

The three above were sited at the entrance and Terry and Margaret were spotted in the museum itself playing to a very life-like but unresponsive wax secretary!

All three of the larger organs shown here are 'home-built' 26 note organs, similar to mine. They are built to the same set of plans but each builder does their own thing when it comes to casing it up.

Of course the finish and painting is a personal thing and hence no two organs look the same.

These three also have a Glockenspiel on the fronts.

This is an optional extra which I have not taken up as I was told that the Glockenspiel is sometimes drowned out by the pipes.

Being a steam museum, it contains, of course, many fine examples of of steam locomotives.

But rather than fill this post with pictures of engines, I thought I would put up a few unusal clips.

 

Again, a very convincing wax gentleman showing how carriages were built.

Two ladies having a bash at cleaning out a smokebox.

 During the second World War a lot of women helped out in factories.

Found a stove inside the guard's van. Rushed in to see if it was a 'Tortoise Stove' but alas no.

Probably a GWR stove as the Great Western seemed to make all it own bits and pieces.

And lastly, something that no pictorial posting should be without!!!

Very lifelike,........but I'm afraid it was not Singing!

 

What's in a Name

Following on from the post about finding bits in heaps of music, here are two more I found.

The first is a certificate for a music exam taken by Miss Butt in Weston-super-Mare.

 

It reads Francis Elizabeth Butt gained First Class Grade in Pianoforte Playing, and is dated 14 December 1911

The second item that came to light is a photo of an unknown young lady. It was not found with the certificate so is not Miss Butt, but is clearly of the same era.. 

A lot of the old music that I find, nearly always has the previous owners name on it. I get the impression that perhaps in those days people used to lend sheet music to each other, and this was to make sure that it was returned.

Many had their addresses on the music as well and it is nice to see if these old places still exist.

The one I am researching at the moment is 'Olive Backhouse' from Dunston Hall, Norwich.

As you can see this was written when she was a child, but later sheets in her pile of music show an adult signature and eventually, she marries and becomes 'Olive Buxton'.

Dunston Hall is now a hotel and I have found many references to the name Buxton in the Norwich area.

Fascinating stuff.

Hidden Gems

I am a great one for raking around antique shops although these days there tends to be more junk than antiques.

But it is the 'junk' that firstly, I find more interesting and secondly more affordable.

I will always 'home in' on a pile of old music. Some places sell this at £1-2 per sheet, but others, in a bit to get rid of it may sell a whole pile for a fiver.

These piles hold hidden secrets, for between the sheets of music, all kinds of things can be found.

I have come across newspaper cuttings and even old family photographs.

  

This bit above is of the First World War song "Goodbye" sang to the troops as they went off to the trenches. It was here reproduced in the newspaper and someone had saved it in with their music.

The interesting thing here is that the newspaper was the 'News of the World' and the date 1917.

Just imagine that bit of news had been tucked in with that music for around 92 years!

The date was Sunday 23 December 1917......and look at the circulation...2,750,000 copies.

.....and an advert for Lipton's Tea.  And how about a 92 year old 'tea stain'?

Oh, and yes,  the heap of music was full of wonderful gems.

 

Murphy was sitting there in the Pub reading the Dublin Times, and he turns to his mate Pat and says

“Isn’t it amazing how just enough things seem to happen every day to exactly fill a newspaper!”

"Everything stops for Tea"

All tea comes from the dried leaves of Camellia sinensis, the tea plant that was first cultivated in China and later found growing in India. 

Tea is the second most popular beverage in the world, with water being the first. 

Several factors affect the flavour characteristics of tea: where the tea is grown, the climate, soil conditions, and how the tea is processed. 

Tea is harvested after each "flush" - the sprouting of the top two leaves and bud. The top two leaves and bud are hand-plucked and then processed into one of the four main types of tea - Black, Oolong, Green, and White. 

Black Tea is withered, fully oxidized and dried. Black tea yields a hearty, amber-coloured brew. 

Oolong Tea is generally referred to as "semi-fermented" or partially oxidized tea. It principally comes from China and Taiwan (often called Formosa, its former Dutch name). Oolong tea falls between black and green tea in taste. 

Green Tea skips the oxidizing step. It is simply withered and then dried. 

White Tea is the least processed. It is not oxidized or rolled but simply withered and dried by steaming.

The first samples of tea reached England between 1652 and 1654. Tea quickly proved popular enough to replace ale as the national drink of England. 

Prior to the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals-breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread and beef. 

Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day.

 The Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) was one of the first to adopt the European tea service format. She invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o'clock in her rooms at Belvoir Castle. The menu centred around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, assorted sweets, and, of course, tea. 

This summer practice proved so popular, the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for "tea and a walking the fields." (London at that time still contained large open meadows within the city.)

 The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses.

A common pattern of service soon merged. The first pot of tea was made in the kitchen and carried to the lady of the house who waited with her invited guests, surrounded by fine porcelain from China.

 The first pot was warmed by the hostess from a second pot (usually silver) that was kept heated over a small flame. Food and tea was then passed among the guests, the main purpose of the visiting being conversation. 

I have to admit I am not a great tea drinker, but if I am going to have a cuppa, I do prefer it strong.

My sister-in-law however, is completely the opposite. So I will finish with a little ode...

                 I think that I shall never see,

            A drink as weak as poor Jane's tea:

            For when it pours out from the pot,

                   I can't tell if it's tea or not !

               The water's there for all to see,

              But only God could find the tea.

A Reason for a Holiday ?

                    No one calls it racist,

          When the daffodil's worn in Wales:

            Or is offended by their dragon

            With its forked tail and scales.

        When St Patrick’s day comes round

          And the shamrock's being worn,

             The Irish are not treated

             With insult or with scorn.

          If a Scotsman on St Andrew’s day

                  Hoists his flag aloft,

           He’s not proclaimed a fascist

              Or ridiculed or scoffed.

         So when St George's Day arrives

             We English men won't hide,

        For Elizabeth, England & St George

          We’ll wear our Rose with pride.

Thanks to 'Susan' on Facebook.

A reason for a National Holiday ?

In the thirteenth century a certain gentleman called Jacques de Voragine wrote a story called Legenda Aurea, which translates to “Golden Legend”.

De Voragine tells of the city of Silene in Libya which was menaced by a dragon in a nearby lake with breath so foul that it poisoned the countryside.

To keep the monster at bay it had been necessary to provide a daily sacrifice of two sheep. But eventually, when the supply of sheep ran out, human substitutes had to be offered. Eventually, they got down to sacrificing the children and one day it was the turn of the king’s own daughter.

At this moment St. George, in the role of a knight errant, makes a timely appearance.

He asks the princess what is happening …..she tells him…..and beseeches him to save himself by fleeing.

Naturally, St. George stands his ground and, when the dragon emerges from the lake, smites it with his spear, “..and hurt him sore..”.

The dragon is so seriously wounded  (and possibly so astonished)  that it is led meekly back into the city by the princess.

St. George makes a brief oration, baptizes the entire population (those few who had not been put on the dragon’s menu ) and then, with a striking want of Christian forgiveness….lops off the dragons head !

So in 1349 King Edward III made St. George the patron saint of England ;  a curious choice, given the English love of all animals (other than foxes and game birds ).

A strange tale and a strange reason for a National Holiday, don't you think ?

A Tortoise Stove

A post not in any way connected with music.

A certain blogger, who went away for Easter, popped into a church for a look around.

There in a corner was a 'Tortoise' stove. This brought to mind a poem by John Betjeman called Christmas.  The first verse being:-

          The bells of waiting Advent ring,

           The Tortoise stove is lit again

        And lamp-oil light across the night

      Has caught the streaks of winter rain

     In many a stained-glass window sheen

      From Crimson Lake to Hooker's Green. 

So, how did a stove get a name like that. I had heard of 'Pot-bellied' stoves named after their shape.....but a tortoise ? No surely not.

Well, after a bit of digging up came the history:-

" In the Church can also be seen a excellent example of a Portway Patent Tortoise Slow Combustion Stove Size 2.   Charles Portway designed and hand built his first Tortoise stove in 1830 in Halstead Essex. He started a foundry which by 1900 had produced over 100,000 stoves. The success of a solid fuel stove was judged by its slowness to burn one filling, thus extracting the maximum amount of heat from the fuel. The Portbury stoves burnt so slowly they were named 'Tortoise' stoves. Each stove was produced with the motto "slow but sure combustion" displayed on the top or front."

The Trade Mark shows the 'Slow But Sure' tortoise.

Now having a similar stove in my conservatory, I had to go and investigate its manufacturer.

No....it wasn't a tortoise.....it was a 'Deville' and its 'eyes' on the front glow red from the fire. 

“From Music to Y fronts”

I read that Marks & Spencer are setting up an exhibition in Manchester to celebrate their 125th anniversary. They are putting on display many items that they have sold in their shops over that period…..except there was no mention of sheet-music. 

I wonder if they had any I thought?

Now Marks started the whole thing off in 1884 on a stall in an open market in Leeds, Yorkshire. Then known as Marks’ Penny Bazaar, it was the household goods, haberdashery, toy, and sheet-music business of Michael Marks, a Jewish refugee from Poland. 

His sign read “Don’t ask the price—it’s a penny.” 

Now in my music collection I have quite a few copies of M&S sheet music…I bought them as part of a large bundle of music at a car-boot sale.

This music in this photo mentions the Penny Bazaar and from the M&S website I have managed to find a picture of one.

There are no dates on this music but it is around a hundred years old and just think it originally cost One Penny. 

In 1894 Marks  took on Thomas Spencer as a business partner. In 1907 Marks died and his son, Simon transformed the business from the small number of outdoor stalls in various markets in northern England to a larger number of indoor shops, and he launched the company’s St. Michael brand name ….a popular label for decades. 

Ah…. Kippers.

           Rowena took up boxing, but
        Her fists were more like flippers.
        She met a man from Billingsgate,
           So now she’s boxing kippers.

Ah…. Kippers. I like mine in a sandwich, dry bread and spread with Tartare sauce.

It is claimed that the first kippers were prepared in Northumberland early in the 19th century. The story goes that John Woodger, a fish curer from that area, began to experiment in 1843 with a new way of smoking herrings. He knew that salmon had been ’kippered’ as long ago as the 14th century, and he wanted to try the same method with herrings. So he split the fish down the backbone, gutted them and soaked them in brine.
Then he hung them up over oak fires to smoke for about 12 hours.
He had invented kippers, and they quickly replaced the much more salty and dry red herring that had been the staple diet for hundreds of years.

"K-D goes Digital"

All of the images on this blog, have so far been scanned into the computer as I didn't have a digital camera. All of these years I have managed with a roll film camera and only since blogging have I seen the advantages to go digital.
Well, yesterday I went over to PCWorld to get a printer cartridge and what did they have on offer?...Yes, a nice Canon Digital...£100 off!
So now I am on a 'learning curve' to try to get to grips with all this new software.
I was just thinking what my grandfather would have made of all this. About 100 years ago he was a chemist working at his shop in Birmingham. He was a keen photographer and one of the cameras he used, has been passed down, via my father, to me.

So , using my new 'toy',  I can show the old camera and a rather small pic. of grandad himself.

I have quite a few old family photos but I have no idea how many were taken using this old plate camera.

My father carried on the interest in photography, being an active member of the Bournville Camera Club. (Yes...he worked at Cadbury's).

His first camera was a Zeiss Icon and, on aquiring a new Minolta he passed the 2 1/4" square Zeiss on to me. I used it for many years, it had an excellent lens and produced some good images.

The above shows the old Zeiss with a picture of my grandmother on the left and my great-grandmother on the right.

I then moved on to a SLR 35mm Pentax and yesterday......a wee Canon, no larger than a bar of Cadbury's chocolate.

What would my grandfather have made of this 'new fangled technology'?