Changes in Shetland (what can you remember?)

[ArabiaTerra]

Who Killed Roger Rabbit being the last thing i watched at the North Star Cinema

I mind going to see The Abyss, we turned up three nights in a row before they got 10 people and would show the film. I think it was the last film ever shown in the North Star. The posters were up outside for years afterwards.

[joenorth]

I mind seeing films at the North Star and not being able to hear the words because of the roar of the space heater on the lower floor. I also mind smuggling in cans under our jackets as young boys, and leaving the film half-cut (probably not worth remembering, that one)!

[MuckleJoannie]

Here is a bit of film showing a snow plough working in the Lang Kames, in I think, 1963. I believe the man walking towards the camera is the late Jerry Harper.

 

Sorry couldn't get embedding to work

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=govBm9LzikA&v=-2U_IUfesxQ

[joenorth]

Wow - real blast from the past. Great bit of film, MuckleJoannie! It certainly looks like Jerry - he was a friend of my father's, and his brother was married to my aunt. It was said of him that he was one of the old breed who could fix any car or truck - related problem, electrical or mechanical (naturally without any formal training). The snowplough looks like one of the aforementioned ex -army American Macks. You can see it's left-hand drive by the driver hanging out the window while steering. The plough is huge compared to modern versions. Some of the early Coonty snowplough chassis were made from the scrapped wartime radar masts from Noss Hill.

[greenman]

arriving at victoria pier on the st clair

[Ghostrider]

Bressa onlee haein ae mast, an kennin da odds atween da Bressa an Sumbra fug hoarns whin dey blew upoa a caum an misty simmir moarnin.

[Vivari]

Ghostrider Wrote

Brindister's orange trucks,

I'm old enough to mind when the Brindister trucks was brown and blue.

[Ghostrider]

^^ I can just mind Henry driving a two tone truck for them, before him and anidder een lockit horns and wrote them both aff.

 

I have a much clearer memory of the orange ones, two twin axle tippers as best as I can remember, may well have both been the same make, PS 4040 was one, the other I can't remember the number of, a sooth reg I think maybe.

 

One single axle Ford tipper, APS 500E, Andrew drove that one uplatterly after Boddam whet.

[lerwick]

Im old enough to remember a local lawer with a SC personal plate on his merc . Cant think what his name was. David tells me its santa claus.

[Medziotojas]

Soond bairns at Bell's Brae afore da new school opened. My first year and their last year there.

[Ghostrider]

^^ Yup, I mind the same lad havin a short lived legal practice idda auld hairdressin shop up da stair abune da Lifeboat shed, atween da auld Tollbooth an Queens, wi his name pentit upoa da windoos.

[Foords_Chocolates]

This year we are trying to get a new exhibition up and running at the factory showing Shetland and particularly Unst in years gone by. We get many many visitors to Unst to whom the concept of no electricity, 1 tv channel or no running water is totally foreign, and so we are looking for old photographs showing how life used to be. If you have any photos that you can date, and can scan them in we would be extremely grateful if you could email them to us for possible use in this display. If you have a story to go with the photo, even better!

 

We are also looking for old copies of The Shetland Times, the older the better so if you have any lying in the loft or currently wrapping old china that you can spare, please send them to us and we will be displaying examples at the factory for all to see.

 

The factory has no admission charge and anyone can come and see the displays at any time, but we are hoping that those people who do not want to spend their holiday time in the museums or heritage centres will at least get a chance for a glimpse into the past.

[Vivari]

Ghostrider wrote

I have a much clearer memory of the orange ones, two twin axle tippers as best as I can remember, may well have both been the same make, PS 4040 was one, the other I can't remember the number of, a sooth reg I think maybe.

 

I recall that they were both Albions and that Henrys one (PS4040) was repaired after the crash and survived for a number of years . I remember when the first one was on order being told it would be a "10 wheeler" and when I finally saw it thinking that it was cheating to include the double wheels at the back in the total.

The other one had a number something like FRS541D, when it came it was orange and probably triggered the change in colour for the fleet.

[Ghostrider]

^^ Ahh, I didn't appreciate that it was the same truck that Henry drove after the knock. I was just a peerie fellow and minded seeing him with a two tone not that long before the crash, then the orange one after, so assumed it was a different truck. Probably an idea helped along by Henry telling some rather gruesomely graphic stories of the state of the trucks at the time.

 

Those trucks lasted the company up I think, they were still around when Brindister sold up, or at least were not long before. No idea what became of any of them after that though.

[Gaepshot]

Here's one for Ghostrider, courtesy of the late Gordon Jamiesons collection

 

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http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu126/gaepshot/Lorries934.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu126/gaepshot/Lorries933.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu126/gaepshot/Lorries932.jpg

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu126/gaepshot/JeemieandPS4040.jpg