Clegg install lino too?

[RickAns]

Hi,

I'm wondering if Norman Clegg also installed the lino that they sold from the Co-Op? I know that he sold it, and from First of the Summer Wine that he also delivered the lino with Sherbert. I know little about Co-Op stores so am unsure if they also installed the products that they sold. For something like a made to measure suit was ordered I figure it would be sent out to a shop to be made. As in Are You Being Served? they mention an outside source doing alterations. Those of you familiar with Co-Ops please chime in. It does sound like a very neat business idea.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[Pearl]

I've only ever heard him being described a lino salesman but he also delivered so maybe he did lay it too.

 

[maltrab]

Back in the days of lino,if I recall the home owner would fit it, if you had money and a big house you would pay for a man to come and do the job

 

[Marianna]

Back in the days of lino,if I recall the home owner would fit it, if you had money and a big house you would pay for a man to come and do the job

When my new was lino fitted this summer (real linoleum from Forbo's factory in Scotland, not vinyl), the local dealer sent their installation team to make a paper pattern, cut the lino and install it. The kitchen, pantry and powder room each required a seam. Installing the seam sealing color rods requires skill and experience to get it right, so the salesman wouldn't have dared attempt installation.

When we see Clegg and Sherbert delivering lino in rolled-up, apparently uncut, sheets, I wonder if they were linoleum "rugs" rather than fitted wall-to-wall. I remember seeing rather old lino rugs in many homes when I was a small child in the late 40s and early 50s.

 

[RickAns]

Thank you very much everyone that helps. I was wondering how the process went as well as how much service a Co-Op provided.


I remember having linoleum in our kitchens and bathrooms while I was growing up. Also had shag pile carpet in my bedroom as a kid - thought that was the greatest thing!


Cheers,
Rick

 

[maltrab]

The house we are working on still had original lino under the carpets, it was not fitted wall to wall, but around a 8 inch gap all round

 

[dick]

Thank you very much everyone that helps. I was wondering how the process went as well as how much service a Co-Op provided.


I remember having linoleum in our kitchens and bathrooms while I was growing up. Also had shag pile carpet in my bedroom as a kid - thought that was the greatest thing!


Cheers,
Rick

When I was growing up Rick, we had rugs made by my mother . These were fabric scraps pinned through hessian sacking. She cut old clothes up and "pegged" them through the sacking in a particular pattern. She used a "needle" similar to something you would sew up the end of a sack. As I remember them they were quite hard wearing and were thrown out when they were too tatty to repair!

 

[captain clutterbuck]

Clegg install lino too

When I was growing up Rick, we had rugs made by my mother . These were fabric scraps pinned through hessian sacking. She cut old clothes up and "pegged" them through the sacking in a particular pattern. She used a "needle" similar to something you would sew up the end of a sack. As I remember them they were quite hard wearing and were thrown out when they were too tatty to repair!

We had such mats in the North East known as Proggy Mats . There is an old infamous NE Comedian Bobby Thompson who used a line in his act which mentions them . When a neighbour comes in he asks if he can smoke to which Bobby's retort was " I but divn't drop ya dottle on the proggy mat" which effectively means don't flick your cigarette ash on the carpet. The Coop stores are infamous in NE history most families , including mine, had a dividend or divvy number which they were given as part of their membership of the Cooperative Society and they were paid a dividend of variable amounts depending how well the Cooperative was trading . I remember as a child going to the large store in the Centre of Newcastle which sold everything in the food line and any household good you can think of [ I can even now picture a row of ladies whose job was to produce pats of butter which they hand wrapped for customers] .

There is a replica of such a Cooperative Store at the local Beamish Museum and the volunteers who staff it are inundated every day with people who come in and quote their dividend number verbatim and its years since they last used it .

 

[dick]

We had such mats in the North East known as Proggy Mats . There is an old infamous NE Comedian Bobby Thompson who used a line in his act which mentions them . When a neighbour comes in he asks if he can smoke to which Bobby's retort was " I but divn't drop ya dottle on the proggy mat" which effectively means don't flick your cigarette ash on the carpet. The Coop stores are infamous in NE history most families , including mine, had a dividend or divvy number which they were given as part of their membership of the Cooperative Society and they were paid a dividend of variable amounts depending how well the Cooperative was trading . I remember as a child going to the large store in the Centre of Newcastle which sold everything in the food line and any household good you can think of [ I can even now picture a row of ladies whose job was to produce pats of butter which they hand wrapped for customers] .

There is a replica of such a Cooperative Store at the local Beamish Museum and the volunteers who staff it are inundated every day with people who come in and quote their dividend number verbatim and its years since they last used it .

Didn't Smiler mention being a "Butter Patter" ?: BTW Beamish took me right back to my childhood, when we visited a few years ago!

 

[RickAns]

That is great Dick.


Were you able to save any that she made? To keep them just because it is something that she created. I know you said they got some wear and usually thrown out. If not them then I hope you were able to save other things. Sounds like she was talented with a sewing needle. A lost art these days I wager.


I admire the resourcefulness of being able to re-use something to create something else. Instead of just getting rid of a thing in order to buy new. The disposable age that we seem to be in now. Granted being thrifty back then was probably more to do with necessity.


I still have a blanket my grandmother made when I was young. She patched together scrap pieces of denim rectangles roughly 10" x 6" together for the topside with a cloth underside. Actually, I have my mom to thank for saving it. Your mention of the patchwork rug made me think of it.





Captain Clutterbuck, interesting that you mention the ladies packing butter slabs at the Co-Op. Last night I saw them doing that in an episode of First of the Summer Wine. Did not know members got dividends from being a member. Are Co-Ops still popular over there, or have the big box chain stores taken over?


Cheers.
Rick

 

[Marianna]

Are Co-Ops still popular over there, or have the big box chain stores taken over?

There's a Co-operative Food store in Holmfirth. Very well-stocked, nearly a supermarket. Also a Co-operative Travel. You can see the many Co-operative Group businesses and their locations at http://www.co-operative.coop/.

 

[dick]

Sorry Rick (or is it Beaker??) They were fine for the two up/ two down house we had but had to go when my brother moved them to a modernish bungalow. He tried his best to give them a fairly modern home. The carpets and furnishings were all brought up to date. By this time I had married and moved out, and the small cottage had made way for a modern development.

 

[RickAns]

Thank you for the link Marianna.


Dick, that was good of your brother to help your folks move to another place.

I do go by Rick. The avatar pic of Beaker was readily available and he was one of my favorite characters from the Muppet Show long ago. Thankfully my hair is dark red (not counting the bits of gray ) and not orange-ish like his. I was almost a Dick - like yourself, but my dad's named started with a R and his dad's with a R so they decided to keep with the trend. I have yet to find a more suitable LotSW themed avatar pic for the forums. When I do, I will swap out Beaker.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[captain clutterbuck]

There's a Co-operative Food store in Holmfirth. Very well-stocked, nearly a supermarket. Also a Co-operative Travel. You can see the many Co-operative Group businesses and their locations at http://www.co-operative.coop/.

Certainly in my area they still feature heavily in lots of villages, basically where the major Supermarkets don't want to go, and are very much a local store stocking a lot more than your average village or corner shop ,not sure if the dividend system is still in operation , I suspect not. I was in Haydon Bridge recently little village west of Newcastle which does get some adverse weather in Winter and the Cooperative Store there seems to be thriving . I imagine its a lifeline when the bad weather turns up [along with the two pubs which was my reason to visit].

 

[Adanor]

When my new was lino fitted this summer (real linoleum from Forbo's factory in Scotland, not vinyl), the local dealer sent their installation team to make a paper pattern, cut the lino and install it. The kitchen, pantry and powder room each required a seam. Installing the seam sealing color rods requires skill and experience to get it right, so the salesman wouldn't have dared attempt installation.

When we see Clegg and Sherbert delivering lino in rolled-up, apparently uncut, sheets, I wonder if they were linoleum "rugs" rather than fitted wall-to-wall. I remember seeing rather old lino rugs in many homes when I was a small child in the late 40s and early 50s.

I just cannot envision Cleggy installing lino. He got befuddled trying to operate a toaster; delivering yes, installing not.

 

[captain clutterbuck]

Billy Connolly used to do a short routine about said linoleum early in his career . He said he spent some time in Kircaldy or as most people called it what's that £$%^&* smell because when people got off the train that's the first thing they said . Kircaldy was the major place linoleum was manufactured but it fell on hard times because when people went to buy it they had issues asking for it " can I have a lol of rinoleum , a mole of niroleum , a noel of miroleum........... aw give me a "£$%^& carpet! :me:

 

[dick]

Certainly in my area they still feature heavily in lots of villages, basically where the major Supermarkets don't want to go, and are very much a local store stocking a lot more than your average village or corner shop ,not sure if the dividend system is still in operation , I suspect not. I was in Haydon Bridge recently little village west of Newcastle which does get some adverse weather in Winter and the Cooperative Store there seems to be thriving . I imagine its a lifeline when the bad weather turns up [along with the two pubs which was my reason to visit].

Most of the Co-ops in the villages round me are converted pubs , The change of use benefits the village more than an ailing pub used to!

 

[Marianna]

Billy Connolly used to do a short routine about said linoleum early in his career . He said he spent some time in Kircaldy or as most people called it what's that £$%^&* smell because when people got off the train that's the first thing they said . Kircaldy was the major place linoleum was manufactured but it fell on hard times because when people went to buy it they had issues asking for it " can I have a lol of rinoleum , a mole of niroleum , a noel of miroleum........... aw give me a "£$%^& carpet! :me:

The smell was probably the linseed oil that's one of the components of lino. It takes a little bit of time after installation for the oil to completely dry and for the odor to go away. Without sufficient oil present until after installation the sheet couldn't be rolled or handled very much without cracking it.

 

[Brian Johns]

Billy Connolly used to do a short routine about said linoleum early in his career . He said he spent some time in Kircaldy or as most people called it what's that £$%^&* smell because when people got off the train that's the first thing they said . Kircaldy was the major place linoleum was manufactured but it fell on hard times because when people went to buy it they had issues asking for it " can I have a lol of rinoleum , a mole of niroleum , a noel of miroleum........... aw give me a "£$%^& carpet! :me:

My father used to work in Kirkcaldy (Not with lino) and I can remember going to the local fair as a kid. There was a rhyme my father used to tell me about travelling to the town by rail

"I can tell, by the queer-like smell that the next stop is Kirkcaldy!"

 

[joppyuk1]

The Co-Op still have 'divvy numbers' though now you don't have to quote it, you get a plastic swipe card. We use ours for top-up shopping (bread/milk/papers) and last year got about £30 from them. We used to get a lot more, but don't need the car fuel any more. We leave the cash in the Co-Op bank till we have £100 then buy Premium Bonds, though we haven't won anything yet!