Out and Home.—By " The Extractor."
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Char-a-basics Progress. The Cat's Nine Lives. Ninepence for Fourpence. •
No development is more apparent in the provinces than that of the char-Is-basics. I spent a week end not long ago in Derbyshire, and although I was prepared for changes, I mar-Veiled greatly at the turn things have taken. The torpedo-body char-Is-banes seems to have quite hit the public taste, and as a consequence Sheffield, Huddersfield, Manchester and the adjacent towns send down to the beauty spots of Derbyshire a complete cavalcade of these motor monsters. I say monsters because, met with on the country roads, they still strike me in that way, and will do until our vision becomes accustomed to them. They are startling vehicles to meet with on a twisting mountain road, for instance, in these early days. At Whitsuntide I was on a holiday motoring trip through Wales, in that delightful bit from Beddgelert through the Gwyriant Valley up to Llanberis Pass, and at first it was a perfect nightmare to find round a bend one of these giants towering above you. One soon found, however, that the drivers keep well over to their own side round these narrow bends, and one need only be alert. Llandudno sends down some splendid vehicles into the Snowdon country. The char-a-bancs is, in fact, a tremendous asset to the seaside resort. I started this subject while thinking of the manufacturing towns and the boundless opportunities for these big passenFer vehicles.
The observations in the foregoing paragraph are called up by an ac
count which has reached me of a char-a-banes trip to Buxton by the foremen and some of the office staff of Bradbury and Co., Ltd., of Oldham, a concern I was happily connected with for many years. My correspondent sends me an interest
rng of the trip. He is enthusiastic about the Maudslay, which
served them so well. He drops a. tear about "the sudden demise of a member of the feline species," who deliberately disposed of its whole nine lives en bloc. You can't deal these out one at a time when taking chances under a char-a-bancs full of hefty " Owdham chaps." At a place named Hayfield, I understand they were stopped by an individual in the approved police manner. Visions of speed limits and police traps flashed through their minds. There was nothing so thrilling, however, the individual coolly clam
bered in, thinking this was a local bus. They don't tell me whether he bounced or not as he was dropped over the side. Anyhow, I am furnished with many details of their various diversions ; some, it appears, were photographic fiends ; some played bowls, a great game up in that part of the country ; some went for further driving up to the famous Cat and Fiddle. Others, I am told, meandered off on foot to discover that romantic spre' the Lovers' Leap, and which., mysteriously enough, they failed to find. My correspondent spicily informs me that these were the married men. Anyhow, the moral is that the motor has transformed the staff-outing question : it has made it a day of open air, with occasional tastes of the thrill of speed on the road, together with fresh views and scenes, and a general enlargement of ideas.
More Odd Items of Information,—
Matthew Wells and Co., the makers of the Wellsaline oils, are gradually rebuildin and extending their premises in Hardman Street, Manchester. When complete they will be found to be equipped with the most modern methods.
Mr. Percy Butler, the A.A. and M.U. agent in Manchester, is a great insurance man, but when you speak of insuring taxicabs, he suddenly looks dismal and tells you. that a £50 premium per cab would hardly pay.
Durham Churchill and Co., of Sheffield, are very busy building buses, lorries and chars-a-banes again.
National Insurance and the heat wave made business calls rather trying early last week. At one small factory at which I called, one of the employees came perspiringly out to me and said, "Well, sir ! they're both up to their necks in this ninepence for fourpenee. If you con call again they will be obliged."