Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[Skutter]

The discussion about telephone numbers reminded me of this ancient sign. Seen some years ago in a pub in Slapton Sands (Devon). The formal English and implied deference to customer in the tone aside, I particularly like that it calls out the presence of "electric light" and – of course, as this is Railforums – the frequent G.W.R. motor-bus service.

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Nice sign and the way it's worded feels like it goes back even earlier. The electric light may well have been from lead-acid batteries, occasionally charged by a small generator, which was the state of the art for big houses for a while. Now come back around again with solar panels and power packs.

 

[Bald Rick]

The UK law regulation to force fuel to be sold in litres was from October 1st 1995
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/1804/contents/made


However, practically most fuel pumps had been priced in litres for a long time before that. I passed my driving test in 1985 and I have only ever paid for fuel by the litre, although in the 80s, some places would also quote the price per gallon.

The Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czmk/mm23 has this plot which says that in October 1995 petrol was 53p/litre or £2.41 a gallon.
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I remember seeing petrol go over £1 a gallon for the first time in 1979. It wasn’t long after that when everything switched to litres.

 

[dangie]

I still think of MPG for comparing different cars, but for me, miles per litre makes a lot more sense, as my car does ~ 10-11 MPL so the sums are easier.

I only have a rough idea of our cars Miles per Gallon. As for Miles per Litre it might as well be Bananas per Litre. Haven’t a clue

 

[125Spotter]

Nice sign and the way it's worded feels like it goes back even earlier. The electric light may well have been from lead-acid batteries, occasionally charged by a small generator, which was the state of the art for big houses for a while. Now come back around again with solar panels and power packs.

I was curious so did some searching and came across this: https://stumbles.org.uk/Stumbles/index.html

The younger son Percy lived at Torcross where heowned and ran the Slapton Sands Hotel. He died about 1930

It would appear the Stumbles family were well-known in the Salcombe area, owning various small businesses, and that a Percy Stumbles is recorded there as running the hotel. I did some census searching but could find no references to Percy, but only 50% of the records have been transcribed on FreeCen for the 1891 (when he was either not born, or only very recently born) census, and very few records transcribed from the later censuses. It's unclear to me whether the Percy mentioned must have passed away for "Mrs A. P. Stumbles" (one presumes his wife) to be named as the proprietress, or whether that would have been the norm with the proprietor around (although I tend to think not).

Given the reference to the GWR motor-bus, which Wikipedia informs me ran from 1903 to 1933, and was introduced in the Kingsbridge region in 1904, I'd put the sign perhaps somewhere in the early 1930s, then. Interested to know anything else that might help narrow the dates, although I don't see any further useful clues in the sign itself.

 

[GusB]

I have no business posting on this thread given I hope I have another sixty or seventy years left in me, but I'd like to volunteer shops with their landline number prominently displayed on the front. Less general but probably more anachronistic: said shops leaving off the dialling code and just giving the last six numbers. I wonder if there's been any particular shift from one to the other?

I'm not sure that this is a massive problem. I have a landline which is used for my internet connection and I still have my old landline number, albeit on the new "digital voice" service. While big chains may have calls routed through a central location, smaller local businesses will still rely on having a local number. The dialling code may be omitted from the signage but anyone who routinely uses a mobile to make calls will know that they have to add the code to the local number. If you're local to the area, you'll know the code; if not, it's fairly trivial to find out what the local code is.

Why go to to the expense of replacing signage when most people will be able to figure it out?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Why go to to the expense of replacing signage when most people will be able to figure it out?

When London's dialling codes changed from 01 to 071+081, then to 0171+0181, I saw shops in north London which still had 01 prefixed shop signs even though it was 0181 by then for that area.
Once 0203+0207+0208 came in, I imagine most, if not all, of the shop signs changed.

 

[Purple Train]

I'm not sure that this is a massive problem.

It isn't.

 

[The exile]

When petrol had the price displayed in gallons. When did it switch to being priced in litres, I'm thinking early eighties...?

At the point it was about to hit either £1 or £2 per gallon, though I suspect that was coincidence.

 

[PeterC]

I remember seeing petrol go over £1 a gallon for the first time in 1979. It wasn’t long after that when everything switched to litres.

I remember some garages with pumps that went up to 99p having to set them to half price and charging double the displayed value.

 

[BingMan]

The main reason to switch from selling petrol by the litre instead of the gallon was that the price was going to be over £1 a gallon, and a lot of the pumps wouldn't show prices over 99p per unit.

I still think of MPG for comparing different cars, but for me, miles per litre makes a lot more sense, as my car does ~ 10-11 MPL so the sums are easier.

Yes. And a resolution of 0.1mpl is more useful than 0.1mpg

 

[DelW]

When petrol had the price displayed in gallons. When did it switch to being priced in litres, I'm thinking early eighties...?

If you go back far enough I can just remember pumps that had an analogue display like a clock, with the "hour hand" showing full gallons and the "minute hand" showing fractions of a gallon. IIRC the attendant (no self service then) had a chart to calculate the price, the pump didn't show it and there were no electronic calculators in those days.

Amazingly, just a couple of weeks ago, I filled up with petrol from an attendant service only filling station. Must have been the first time for several decades!

 

[GordonT]

If you go back far enough I can just remember pumps that had an analogue display like a clock,

I can remember a small country village which at least as "recently" as the mid 1970s had a solitary petrol pump at the "smithy" which required users to move an enormous silver handle back and forward many times in order to fill up their vehicle.

 

[Sun Chariot]

"Maureen - Ooooooh , she gives you more"
This will mean something to readers of a certain age.

 

[Howardh]

I can remember a small country village which at least as "recently" as the mid 1970s had a solitary petrol pump at the "smithy" which required users to move an enormous silver handle back and forward many times in order to fill up their vehicle.

I'm old enough to remember the mid-70's in the north of Scotland, you also had to quite literally "pump" the petrol into your tank, although it was usually the garageman that did that for you! Wonder where the very last of those was?

 

[BingMan]

I'm old enough to remember the mid-70's in the north of Scotland, you also had to quite literally "pump" the petrol into your tank, although it was usually the garageman that did that for you! Wonder where the very last of those was?

I used one in Ullapool about 1981-2

 

[swt_passenger]

Thinking of petrol pumps, when I worked on a forecourt around 1971, just after decimalisation, it was unusual to put more than about £3 or £4 of petrol in a car when filling it up. £5 was rare, and of course most sales were cash. I remember the grade of petrol, ie 2,3,4 or 5 star was selected with a rotary control on the side of the pump, and IIRC the individual pumps were fed with only 2 and 5 star, and they were mixed to the right proportions in the pump.

 

[Howardh]

Thinking of petrol pumps, when I worked on a forecourt around 1971, just after decimalisation, it was unusual to put more than about £3 or £4 of petrol in a car when filling it up. £5 was rare, and of course most sales were cash. I remember the grade of petrol, ie 2,3,4 or 5 star was selected with a rotary control on the side of the pump, and IIRC the individual pumps were fed with only 2 and 5 star, and they were mixed to the right proportions in the pump.

One brand of petrol, Agip, in Italy, used to make my dad's car "pink" or hiccough. He was an engineer, but could never work out why that brand caused that issue! He did try to avoid and use another brand, but sometimes that was all there was!

Not been to Italy for many years - so wonder if commercial vans and lorries still have that red stripe?

 

[D6130]

Not been to Italy for many years - so wonder if commercial vans and lorries still have that red stripe?

Not any more....and I'm pretty certain that AGIP petrol is no longer available either