Smog - Sulpher and TCP

[Royboy39]

Anyone remember these three elements in the air in and around Church?

[MargaretR]

I raised this issue in my thread about disguised mobile phone masts -

"A major problem in the 40's and 50's (I lived through it) was air pollution. All the terraced houses (there were far more of them then) burnt coal. There were numerous mill chimneys all belching out smoke too. In winter when everybody needed to heat their homes a short walk outside resulted in soot specks on your face -ladies carried powder compacts to conceal the muck.

On the day after bonfire night you didn't stir out unless you absolutely had to because of thick smog that lasted all day if not longer.In London the smog spells were frequent and notorious for causing deaths. Burnley geographically is in a basin and had the highest rates of suicide because they rarely saw the sun in winter, and a shorter life expectancy due to lung disease (partly due to 'miners lung').

Cigarette smoking was fashionable and accepted because we were not aware that the smoke pollution was damaging.The Smoke Control Act came in the early 60's. Coal was replaced by coke which still gave off fumes but not smoke. Eventually gas and electric fires were used and even later - central heating.

We have now replaced one sort of air pollution with others-
vehicle exhaust fumes (known to be damaging- vehicle ownership was rare in the 40s & 50s) and these high tech microwave and radio emissions ,which we are not sure about ..............YET!!!!."

Nobody responded to it, making it the end of the thread.
I try to explain to my son that the reason for my 'old lady's cough' is more than just fags, but if they didnt live through it they cant conceive how bad the air pollution was.

[steeljack]

i remember the sulfer smell ,Billy Blythes employed a lot of Poles in the fifties , not sure if they were refugees or not but they allways had a "yellow"cast to their skin ,

[MargaretR]

One of the reasons why the mucky air has been forgotten is that by now there are very few stone buildings that havent had the blackness sandblasted off them.

[Royboy39]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

I raised this issue in my thread about disguised mobile phone masts -

"A major problem in the 40's and 50's (I lived through it) was air pollution. All the terraced houses (there were far more of them then) burnt coal. There were numerous mill chimneys all belching out smoke too. In winter when everybody needed to heat their homes a short walk outside resulted in soot specks on your face -ladies carried powder compacts to conceal the muck.

On the day after bonfire night you didn't stir out unless you absolutely had to because of thick smog that lasted all day if not longer.In London the smog spells were frequent and notorious for causing deaths. Burnley geographically is in a basin and had the highest rates of suicide because they rarely saw the sun in winter, and a shorter life expectancy due to lung disease (partly due to 'miners lung').

Cigarette smoking was fashionable and accepted because we were not aware that the smoke pollution was damaging.The Smoke Control Act came in the early 60's. Coal was replaced by coke which still gave off fumes but not smoke. Eventually gas and electric fires were used and even later - central heating.

We have now replaced one sort of air pollution with others-
vehicle exhaust fumes (known to be damaging- vehicle ownership was rare in the 40s & 50s) and these high tech microwave and radio emissions ,which we are not sure about ..............YET!!!!."

Nobody responded to it, making it the end of the thread.
I try to explain to my son that the reason for my 'old lady's cough' is more than just fags, but if they didnt live through it they cant conceive how bad the air pollution was.

Excellent post that Margaret.
I remember walking home from Ossy to Church Kirk having been to the Empire pictures, the air was thick with smog but underneath the smog was a layer of sulpher which was a dirty yellow colour and your found it very difficult to get your breath. This went on for years and I refuse to believe that this did not have an adverse affect on anyone living in the area.
The sulpher fumes came from Blyth's and I dont think they were ever brought to book for this?
Ossy had the smell of TCP to contend with, which sometimes drifted to Church and we also had Steiners dyeworks helping to polute.

[WillowTheWhisp]

I used to work in Church and whatever was belching out of Blythes chimney corroded our brass doorkob and knocker. I also remember the smell from the glue factory - boiled bones.

[panther]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

I used to work in Church and whatever was belching out of Blythes chimney corroded our brass doorkob and knocker. I also remember the smell from the glue factory - boiled bones.

ewww was that ashworths products?
cocker chemicals up nook lane in ossy used to have many chemical spills, thank god its closed now!

[Royboy39]

Originally Posted by panther

ewww was that ashworths products?
cocker chemicals up nook lane in ossy used to have many chemical spills, thank god its closed now!

Yes it was............Cocker Chemicals were responsible for the TCP smell.

[magpie]

I remember seeing a blue almost like paint stuff on the walls around there and the houses...

I used to call it Blue Town:

[WillowTheWhisp]

What was that from?

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

What was that from?

My dad worked there for a short time - I recall him saying that they made 'dolly blue' - a fabric whitener used in laundering. It was a small muslin bag tied to a short piece of wood as shown in the bottom left of the postcard shown here -
Dolly Blue-Nostalgic Postcards