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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted -  18/11/2011  :  09:28

ODDS AND ENDS FOR NOVEMBER

Warhorses. I got a lot of feedback from the horse articles. I learned that over 6 million horses were imported from the United States during the Great War. I know, it's an amazing figure but as far as I can tell it's a reasonable estimate. I also learned more about their disposal after the war. Many were sold to horse butchers on the Continent, horse meat is acceptable there and remember that food was short after the war. I also learned about Dorothy Brooke. She married British cavalry officer Brigadier Geoffrey Brooke and moved to Cairo with him in October 1930. Here Brooke became dedicated to the welfare of Egypt's working horses and donkeys. She learned that many of the most neglected and abused animals were sold to Egypt by the British, Australian, and U.S. armies after World War I. In 1931 she wrote to The Morning Post about their plight and raised the funds to buy or retire 5,000 former cavalry horses, an extraordinary feat in the depths of the Great Depression. In 1934 she founded the Old War Horse Memorial Hospital in Cairo. The Brooke Hospital for Animals still works at the same site over 70 years later. It's nice to know that someone cared.

The archaeologists have been busy re-examining artefacts in museums using the latest scientific techniques to date them. They looked at specimens from the Grotta del Cavallo, Apulia, and Kents Cavern, Devon, and discovered that they were older than previously thought at about 41,000 years old. This was long before the last Ice Age and confirms the evidence of stone tools that they already knew about. I have always said that just because we haven't found definite evidence doesn't mean that something didn't happen. I remember John Clayton and me looking at faint marks on Blacko Hillside and coming to the conclusion that they were signs of tracks and field boundaries that pre-dated the last Ice Age but of course we couldn't prove it. It looks as though we may have been right and some early form of humans, probably Neanderthal, was alive and well round Barlick all those years ago. I can't help allowing my imagination to roam free and conjecture that there is a possibility that the genes of one of these earliest humans might still be here buried deep in the past of a Barlick inhabitant! Don't laugh at me, it's possible! Now then, who do I know who looks a bit Neanderthal......

Remember my article on Cunning Wheezes? That struck a few chords as well with some of my readers and it made me do a bit more thinking about the subject. I shan't bore you with recent examples I have come across but ask the question that came to my mind; is it my imagination or is everything becoming over-complicated? Why can't we keep things simple?

I remember Ernie Roberts telling me about buying his little house on Club Row from John Capstick on 'rental purchase'. They agreed a price and the length of time it would take to pay it and Ernie paid that as rent every week until the debt was extinguished. No fancy clauses, no legal fees, no fine print in the contract, just two honest people agreeing an arrangement and sticking to it. Contrast that with a modern mortgage with all the complexities and 'administration charges'! When Vera and I bought Hey Farm we borrowed the money from the bank and paid it off as an overdraft at £15 a month until we owned the place because the building societies told me that I wasn't earning enough to pay the mortgage. My bank manager at Burnley, Mr Batkin, trusted me and accepted the risk. I can't remember any charges, all that happened was that the monthly bank statement was printed in red for 15 years! The farm cost £2,200 and we paid back £2,700. I've always thought that £500 was very reasonable interest and of course by the time we had finished paying the place was worth over £30,000! Bit of a bargain I reckon and dead simple. Like the case of Ernie and John, trust was involved and worked out well for all of us. (I can well imagine young people reading this in disbelief. A house and seven acres for £2,200? No mistake, only fifty years ago!)

On the whole, I think the complications are introduced to either catch us out and make more money out of the deal or to shift responsibility away from whoever is doing the complicating. Worst of all are the ones introduced 'for our safety' like the signs warning us of slippery floors instead of making the floors of material that isn't slippery! The point is of course that if you do slip whoever put the sign there can say “Not me Guv. We gave a warning”. A lot of Health and Safety regulation comes under this heading.

Can you remember me appealing for saucers on counters for small change? I haven't noticed anyone taking up the challenge but I was in a shop the other day haggling with the check out over a 3p discount because I was short of change and a lady reached over and gave me 5p! It turned out she was from Missouri and understood the principle of helping with small change to save breaking into a large note. Only a small thing but I thanked her and walked away reflecting that there are still nice people in the world!

One last thought for you. I noticed last week that the dog bins on the Green and in Valley Gardens were overflowing and happened to see Mark our regular street-sweeper. It turned out he had been on holiday for a few days and his replacement wasn't quite as thorough as he is. People like street-sweepers are almost invisible but make our lives a lot more pleasant. Not a bad idea to recognise this and say good morning to them now and again just to let them know we appreciate them! No relevant picture this week so I'll leave you with something I saw on Long Island, New York State many years ago. How's this for simple, direct and relevant advertising?

A roadside shop selling duck eggs!


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk



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