TalkingScot.com

JustJean wrote:For those interested....another bit of trivia.....how much did a new bicycle cost in Ayr in 1891?

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Best wishes
Jean

That's not the full question!, - how much did a new bicycle cost in relation to average wages ?

The answer, in 1890, is somewhere around 10s/week (£0.50) for an apprentice to 35s/week (£1.75) for a journeyman in the West of Scotland. Now it's possible to put that price of 17 guineas in real context

BTW Up until a decade or so ago at least there was a McQuiston's garage in Ayr ............

David

Hi folks,
From - http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/ Todays value would be near £1,200.
But that's "cheaper" than the cost of 17 guineas in 1891. My first bike (2nd hand) cost 10/- in 1955 (a bargain!).
Jack

m

Wages in the 1950's were seven pound fifty for a 5th year apprentice and Ten pounds as a first year Journeyman
Flying Scot was the bike to have. will tell you what they cost later

wini

What about the heavy duty bikes they used for shop deliveries. The ones with the frame in front which a wicker basket fitted into.

They were used by butchers, bakers and grocers for carrying the 'messages' to the person's house.

Isn't it funny that some of the supermarkets are begiining to do the same again - from the comfort of a van - and at a cost!!!

My first bike was of the sit-up-and-beg variety and cost 30/- (£1.50) in 1951. It even had the wee leather pouch behind the saddle for the puncture repair kit.

Heavy, no gears, prone to rust - but it was mine and meant freedom!!!!!

Russell

What about the heavy duty bikes they used for shop deliveries. The ones with the frame in front which a wicker basket fitted into.

Crikes, I remember those!! I had no idea I was so old!

My mother used to phone the local grocers with an order and a chap called Douglas used to bring it up the hill on his bike, the type descibed above. As did the butchers too. I think you maybe paid an "account" at the end of the month rather than paying for your goods on the spot. That all seems worlds away. Its true that "the past is a different county, they do things differently there" ("The Go-between", L P Hartley) I can't believe refrigerated lorries will have quite the same nostalgia value, but who knows!!

Best wishes
Lesley

Lesley

You 'put it on the slate' or if you were broke you went to the shop and pleaded to get the groceries 'On tick'.

I was about to take offence at your first comment then realised I AM old - Well as old as I feel which varies not just from day-to-day but hour to hour!!!

Just think though. The grocers boy didn't have a COMPUTER!!!

Russell

Hi Russell

I was about to take offence at your first comment then realised I AM old

It was in no way directed at you - I was just shocked at how "quaint" the whole idea of delivery bikes was when I realised , heck! I remember that! This was only in the 1960s, which sometimes seems not long ago to me but suddenly it did seem a long time ago when I thought back to how things were then. Grocers with big wooden counters, no supermarkets in sight (at least not where I was!) a tobacco shop, again with a big counter, which sold all sorts of cigarettes, cigars, loose tobacco, pipes etc. (I'm not a smoker but the tobacco had a powerful and memorable smell!) Hardware shops and toy shops crammed with stuff, none of which you were allowed to touch!! And this was all in a small town. Drapers shops and grocers and greengrocers who served you in their shops - no self-service back then at all!! Shopkeepers who not only knew you by name but knew your family too, and where you lived - you rarely see these types of shops now. (you couldn't get up to much in a small town either without being spotted by someone who knew you!) Gawd, I feel ancient now!!

Best wishes
Lesley

Lesley
Did you feel like your leg was falling off? That's because I was pulling it!!!

Youre too young to remeber in the shops where they put your money in a tube, screwed it onto a cap on wire then pulled a handle to send it up to the cashier in a high eyrie . She put the change into the tube and sent it back down!!
If you wanted cheese they put a great wedge onto the block then drew a wire through it to cut off the size of piece you wanted.

Not a wash-hand basin in sight either

In the Co-op you put your 'divi' passbook into a box at the door and were taken strictly in turn. Didn't need queues then. and all you wanted was 'half-a-pound o broken biscuit, please'. Poured out of the open tin into a paper poke on the scales and if you were lucky and they wanted the tin emptied you got extra for the same money!

You only remember the good things though!!

What's this to do with bikes anyway?
Russell

Hi Russell

Youre too young to remeber in the shops where they put your money in a tube, screwed it onto a cap on wire then pulled a handle to send it up to the cashier in a high eyrie . She put the change into the tube and sent it back down!!

er, no I don't remember that exactly but... there was a big department store in Dundee where they did that sort of thing via vacuum type tubes until, I think, the early 80s!!

Poured out of the open tin into a paper poke on the scales and if you were lucky and they wanted the tin emptied you got extra for the same money!

Nope, well before my time...

Bicycles? Oh I dunno - its all your fault going on about those delivery bikes with the baskets in front! Now look what you've started

Best wishes
Lesley

Lesley

I'm going to bed before I fall off my trike

Russell