IT'S ONLY DROSS 'N' COAL BUT I LIGHT IT

So the coal lorry on yesterdays photo got me raking around for a few related items, because many of us who were brought up in the 60's/70's had coal fires or relatives who did.

Oor hoose in Craigie did, complete with coal bunker for our weekly delivery, and the wee indoor accessories like scuttle, poker, brush and fire-guard.

Above are a few reminders from those days.

Smith Hood & Co, the coal merchant, was on the corner of Union St & Whitehall Cres, with the photo of their premises taken in 1960.

James Hood was also in Union St, a few doors up at #28. He dealt with solid fuel, oil based fuel and chuckies! Their ad is from 1968.

The T.Muir, Son & Patton ad is also from 1968 and are highlighting the fact that they have moved away from the old horse & cart days onto a new modern lorry fleet. The photo of them in action in the ad was taken across from the Queens Hotel.

Ingram's place was in Kings Road on the corner of Whitton Street. They came up with a puntastic slogan - "The GRATE Corner". They weren't a coal dealer but they made your fireplace surrounds, installed your boiler and so on. 1966 is the date of the ad.

One of the aspects of having a coal fire was that it meant you had to have your chimney swept regularly, and chimney sweeps were quite common in the 60's. They would cover the fireplace with a big black cloth, stick their bristly brush through the cover and would add extension poles to it until it eventually poked out the top of the chimney pot. Because of all the soot involved, most of the guys looked like they were in the Black & White Minstrels!

However, I managed to find a wee ad in a 1972 Tele that would seem to do away with chimney sweeps - a product called "Imp Soot Destroyer". It says you just drop a packet onto a burning fire. No idea what happened after that!

Probably the majority of Dundonians had changed over to alternative heating systems by the 80's, so not much call for coal from then on.

ADAMSON'S - ARBROATH ROAD - 1972

Adamson & Son had this workshop/factory at 140 Arbroath Road.

It was a place I'd pass regularly as a schoolboy, but didn't have a clue what went on inside!

Well after recently finding an advert for them dating from 1970, I can now let it be known that in this Wire & Metal Workers building they called Riverview Works, they made a wide variety of items.

Their wire based products included - guards for windows, fires, fans and similar stuff - then there was fence enclosures for sports grounds, animal pens, works security etc and they also made more general items like baskets, sieves, trays and so on.

Their sheet-metal products included - lockers, bins, pipes, signs, storage tanks, things like that.

This picture of the premises was taken in March 1972 - but not long after, they had moved biz to Clepington Road and by around 1973/74 this building was demolished.

Photo by DC Thomson.

DALLFIELD MULTIS IN PROGRESS - 60'S

Here's a crackin' shot taken at the bottom o' the Hull in the mid 1960's when work on the Dallfield multis was well under way.
This image has "the 60's" stamped all over it - the multis being built, the cars, the red phone box, the community police box and the billboard ad for Consulate cigarettes.
What a whopper!
Photo from Gordon C.

DISMANTLING VICTORIA ROAD - 1988

They seemed to be going a bit canny with the demolition work at Victoria Road when this photo was taken on 19 Feb 1988. Perhaps this was the "snaffling the lead tiles off the roof" phase or something!
Anyway, the area in shot stretches from the Butcher on the left (#24) to the Knitting Centre on the right (#38).
I can't make out all the shops but the Central Cafe is there, also Chima, who sold saris and suchlike.
I remember in the mid 60's the 2 Chima daughters were the first Asians to enrol at Balerno Primary School, with Ravi Chima coming into my class.
The other feature in the picture is the lamppost at the top of Wellgate steps, referred to as the Bobbys Helmet.
And if you are in a particularly silly mood, you could do a double take and view the photo through surreal eyes where you might be able to see a wee gnome repairing the inside of the light!
Photo by Neale Elder.

BRUCE, THE PARKS HORSE - 1980'S

Bruce, was the Parks Departments cart horse during the 80's.

He wasn't just a novelty showpiece, he did actually do everyday work, although being the fine Clydesdale that he was, always attracted attention wherever he went.

The top photo is Bruce and co up at Camperdown stables in 1984.

The picture under it was taken in 1986 when the City Chambers kitchen was undergoing refurbishment and Bruce was called upon to cart the old kitchen equipment away. Before carrying on with his job though, Helen Smith, who was in charge of the kitchen, seized the opportunity to have her picture taken with him.

As a sideline, Camperdown also sold bags of dung as garden compost, and printed on the bags it had - "I Found It At Bruce's"!!

INSIDE TIMEX - 1980'S - #2

7. THE MACHINE SHOP.

8. CELL ASSEMBLY.

9. HEAT TREATMENT.

10. PLATING PROGRAMMED CONVEYOR.

11. FINAL INSPECTION.

12. THE TOOLROOM.

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Another half dozen images from the 80's brochure I featured on yesterdays post.

Click on the pictures if you want to view the large versions.

1000's on the dole quite a hefty price to pay for affordable watches!

Thanks to Ecky.

INSIDE TIMEX - 1980'S - #1

1. NIMSLO 3D CAMERA ASSEMBLY.

2. COMPUTER CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY.

3. TIMEX WATCH ASSEMBLY.

4. PRESS SHOP.

5. CHUCKING LATHE DEPT.

6. GEAR CUTTING DEPT.

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After a mass of redundancies in the early/mid 80's, many of the departments in Timex factories around Dundee lay idle. To try and attract alternative use for the machinery available, Timex printed hundreds of brochures in various languages to see if they could entice other companies to make use of what the factories had to offer. However, despite the desperate effort, it was all too little too late and they eventually closed their doors for good with the factory contents having been auctioned off.

The above pictures are from these 80's brochures and show a variety of departments when they were still in full flow.

The 3 main Timex factories were at Camperdown, Milton of Craigie and Dunsinane, which in their heyday employed many thousands.

A local saying back then was "Everybody in Dundee knows someone who works in Timex".

So on that basis, there are bound to be some of you out there who will be familiar with the departments in the pictures, or maybe even recognise a friend or relative.

If you need a closer look, click onto the image to view the large versions.

There will be more tomorrow.

Big thanks to Ecky.

EARLY 70'S DEMOLITION

I still have a small batch of photos remaining that my brother took in the early 70's around the city centre area, so thought I'd drop them in over the next few days.
Starting with this one here of 2 Trojan bulldozers shifting the rubble in Victoria Road.
No safety gear in these days, with the guy nearest wearing only a floppy hat! No dust masks either, so unless they had their hankies tied around their faces like we did as kids playing cowboys, then the 2 drivers would probably have pretty dusty lungs at the end of their shift!
There are quite a few photos from this period scattered around Retro, so if you want a wee reminder of how Victoria Road looked before/during & after demolition, there are a chunk of images to be found in the Retro June 2009 Archives.

CUTHBERT'S VANS - EARLY 70'S

2 adverts for Cuthbert bakers who are mostly known for their morning rolls.

Top ad has the delivery vans at their HQ ready for a days work in 1970.

Underneath is an ad featuring another Cuthbert's delivery van and is from 1971.

Cuthbert's HQ was based in Ure Street, but as they say, their vans were everywhere.!

STEVENSONS LAUNDRY VAN

The picture of Stevensons laundry van is dated 1966.

Their ad below it is from 1970.

During this period, their main base was at 222 Hilltown, but by 1974 that address disappeared and their branch at 173 Perth Road then became the main hub.

My uncle used to drive a Stevensons van in the early/mid 60's era and so as a consequence, I've had a hurl in one!

TIMEX AND WINTER ADS - 1966

Many of the adverts in the Souvenir Supplement I posted yesterday, incorporated the new bridge into their sales pitch.

Here's a couple of examples...

Timex manage to use the idea of "modern engineering and design" to relate it to their own product.

Winter's, in Shore Terrace, go for a bit of witty word play in their ad with the phrase "The Modern Approach To Printing" going along the side of the bridge.

Having all that machinery on the roof looks a bit dangerous mind you!!

Click on images to enlarge.

BRIDGE SOUVENIR SUPPLEMENT - 1966

To celebrate the opening of the Tay Road Bridge, the Evening Telegraph issued a couple of souvenir supplements.
The one above is the 2nd of them which came out on Wednesday 17th August 1966, the day before the official opening.
Inside it has lots of information about the building of the bridge, technical details, a bit about the guys who built it, the workers who died and an optimistic outlook for how Dundee would prosper in the future.
There are also loads of local ads, some of which I'll put up next.
The face on the front of the supplement is one of the men who worked on the bridge, Tony Curran of Inverkeithing.
It also features some of the Fifie workers who would be losing their jobs at Craig Pier's Ferries, but were given work on the bridge as toll collectors, patrolmen and so on.
You can see on the film clip below, some of the construction work being done.

BEFORE THE BRIDGE WAS BUILT

During the early to mid 60's period, before the Tay Road Bridge had been completed, the Dundee public were given occasional glimpses into the future as to how the new bridge would look. Most often it would be artists impressions showing the slick design, other times we would be shown images of models like the ones above.

This item about the bridge comes from a 1964 DC Thomson publication called "Dundee and round about" and has on display, models of the twin columns and the inner ring road approach. This was 2 years before the bridge opened, so it was all looking very modern at the time of course!
These were the actual models that were used during the planning stage when it was work in progress, and you can see these very models crop up in the short film clip below, showing the bridge design team in action!
Click image above to read the enlarged version.
Thanks to Neale Elder for the above items.

ARDLER UNDER CONSTRUCTION - 1960'S

This picture taken in the 60's, shows Ardler still in the process of being built.
Plenty of work to be done yet at this stage by the look of it, with the pipes, cement mixer and so on lying around.
Although the multi's appear to be complete, Turnberry Avenue took many years to finish off, even going through into the 70's. In my 1970 Dundee Directory, Turnberry Ave had reached up to house number 385, but by the time the 1974 Directory was published, the Avenue had extended to number 1255!
And talking of Turnberry Avenue - does anyone remember the Nisbet's at number 21? Well in 1967 quite a few people in Scotland knew of their whereabouts. The slideshow below contains a sound clip from Radio Scotland (still a Pirate Station back then) featuring a request for Margaret Nisbet at #21. It cropped up on the Ben Healy show, who's voice incidentally, resembles Mike Smash from Smashie & Nicey! It's all rather fab & groovy with mentions of Monkees T-shirts and Union Jack T-shirts on offer.
Anyway, there are 3 Ardler shots from the same photo session to accompany the radio clip.
Images from Mike & Laura

SUNSPAN AND COKE ADS - 60'S & 70'S

Here's me thinking Sunspan was an "Orange only" drink, but there's the evidence on the ad from 1970, that it was also available in Lemon and Cola. Sunspan Cola??!!!

All those fizzy bubbles must have given me the bends and affected my memory!

G & P Barrie were located at 191 Albert Street.

The last of the soft drinks ads is dated 1968 and is for the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant at 181 Clepington Road. This place had a window where passers-by could see inside the factory and watch all the bottles snaking around on the conveyor belts being filled.

The plant was closed down in April 1983.

All together now...

"I'd like to teach the world to sing,

in perfect harmony,

I'd like to buy the world a Coke,

and make redundancies!"

A SIGN O' THE TIMES

Here's a quirky (or arty) wee bit of footage shot in the late 60's.

It's quite unusual because it has the word "Dundee" as it's main feature. So it crops up on things like road signs, shop fronts, work premises and so on.

See how many you are familiar with.

I only got 4...(hangs head in shame!!)

 

HAMILTON CARHARTT JEANS - MID 80'S

This ad for Hamilton Carhartt is from 1984.

With their factory based in North Isla Street, I think it's fair to say their denim products were aimed more at the workplace rather than the catwalk.

However, as you can see, they made a range called Huskie Jeans. Although I'm not familiar with these, I was wondering if they ever became the choice favoured by Dundee's young trendies, or were they the 80's equivalent of Johnny X'ers?!!

RADIO TAY'S JOBCENTRE - 1980

When Radio Tay started up in 1980, The Jobcentre teamed up with them and set up, what was known as, the Job Shop, at the stations premises. The idea behind it was to expand the Jobcentre's facilities in Dundee to help spread the word about work in the local area. Radio Tay would then broadcast vacancy updates 3 times a day, to remind the unemployed what jobs were available and they could make enquiries about the jobs either at Radio Tay or the main Jobcentre.
Below is a short, silent clip of the interior of the Job Shop in 1980.

D.R.C.U. - HILLTOWN - 1980s

Whilst on the subject of the dole, here is my DRCU concession card from 1986.

This entitled me to discounts from selected shops, clubs & services in town. For example, I remember using it in places like Willie Low's, Manifesto, Fats Sam's, and on buses too I think.

The top image is the back of the card which reads - Dundee Resources Centre for the Unemployed. 2 Hilltown. Dundee - and the office hours.

On the flip side it had a mugshot and name & address. You had to visit the DRCU each month for them to stamp and validate it for the following month's usage, as shown in the 2nd image.

This was my final year in Dundee as I headed South in January '87.

It's good to recall I was still going to Fat Sams to catch live bands, right to the end!

DRCU also put gigs on too.

I missed out on this example here, a weekend programme of visuals and audio called Vaudio.

Bands, video, film, performance art and suchlike, all put together by tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCe, A Conspiracy Of Feelings, Pete Horobin & co.

This was in July 1988.

TIMEX CANTEEN - MILTON - 1973

When Dundee FC won the Scottish League Cup in 1973, some of the players went on a wee tour of the Timex factories, flaunting the trophy and signing autographs.
Above is Bobby Wilson & Dave Johnston doing the biz in the canteen at the Milton of Craigie factory in December 73.
Not sure whether the ladies are from a particular dept or if they are the canteen girls, but hopefully someone may recognize a face and pass on the information.
There are also a couple of photos on the Timex Reunited website gallery of Jocky Scott & Gordon Wallace visiting one of the other factories.
Photo by DC Thomson.