The Rubbish Boats

[gregs dad]

Just recently walked by the Stanley & Collingwood docks which I knew very well as a lad (many, many years ago). I used to be taken there by my brother who used to fish by the Victoria tower into the Mersey. There was
always two boats in these docks called the Beta and the Delta which were used to ferry household waste out past the bar of the mersey and dumped into the sea.
Refuse was collected from household bins by a container pulled by a shire horse. This container when full was collected by a lorry which dropped an empty container off to be connected to the shire horse to carry on the collections. The lorry the went to the docks to be emptied onto the boats.
This required a few men to spread the rubbish evenly in the holds of the boats
It`s a good job we had coal fires in those days to burn a lot of household waste .

gregs dad

[Ged]

I can still hear the potato peelings squealing on the open coal fire and see my dad wrapping up the ashes from yesterdays fire in last nights echo (chip shop style) to be put down the rubbish chute that were in our tenny blocks.

[PhilipG]

I still know how to roll up newspapers very tightly to make them burn slowly.

Speaking of burning rubbish.
Bring back the incinerators.

[gregs dad]

You were posh Ged ,we had to carry ours to the communal bins which were on the staircase leading to our flats in Reading Street. There were 2 bins on the ground floor,2 on the second floor but none on our top landing,which meant that 30 families shared 4 bins. So you could imagine the smell on the staircases towards the end of the week. It`s a good job we burned most of our rubbish.

gregs dad
my flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/exacta2a/

[ChrisGeorge]

Just recently walked by the Stanley & Collingwood docks which I knew very well as a lad (many, many years ago). I used to be taken there by my brother who used to fish by the Victoria tower into the Mersey. There was
always two boats in these docks called the Beta and the Delta which were used to ferry household waste out past the bar of the mersey and dumped into the sea.
Refuse was collected from household bins by a container pulled by a shire horse. This container when full was collected by a lorry which dropped an empty container off to be connected to the shire horse to carry on the collections. The lorry the went to the docks to be emptied onto the boats.
This required a few men to spread the rubbish evenly in the holds of the boats
It`s a good job we had coal fires in those days to burn a lot of household waste .

gregs dad

Thanks, gregs dad. A great memory. I was interested in your reference to the Victoria Tower as I have written a poem about it called "The Docker's Clock" (see thread on the North Docks with photos of the Victoria Tower along with my poem at http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?p=23723).

Chris

[Ged]

Reading Street landing dwellings. LRO.

[gregs dad]

You can see one of the bins in the pic Ged, there was another one along side it ,As you can see they are only the same size of the ones that every house
had attached to the wall in the back entries. I have that picture on my flickr site,I bought it years ago in the market on Great Homer Street .It seems the
L R O published a book of street photos in the 50`s or 60`s and the fellow in the market had just ripped the pages out and was selling them for 3d each.
I wonder if that book is still about.
Also in that picture on the second landing the washing belongs to the family of a woman who lives by a few doors away from me now and I tease her about her nickers been seen on the railings.
gregs dad

[gregs dad]

Thanks, gregs dad. A great memory. I was interested in your reference to the Victoria Tower as I have written a poem about it called "The Docker's Clock" (see thread on the North Docks with photos of the Victoria Tower along with my poem at http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?p=23723).

Chris

nice poem Chris, I hadn`t read that thread before but I have always
believed that the clock was not 6 or 8 but 7 sided thats what made
it unique.

gregs dad