Ladies in Waiting to Queen Victoria

[dobfarm]

Hi All

dobfarm, they now say a good cup of strong tea, has anti-oxidants and healthful properties.

Our Boss would not have been happy with us, if some of the water wouldn't empty and neither would we!

We were taught having the correct fall is also crucial in horizontal underground drainage, if it runs too fast or two slow.

We were taught how to wipe lead joints, boss lead, weld lead, leadwork, solder, braze, bend and set pipe, copper, thread steel pipe, the whole lot, all the Maths (mainly used by designers). Taught every conceivable thing, including Coal, Gas and Oil Installations, Building Regulations, stopping the spread of fires through floors in high rise, dry and wet Fire risers, electrical flow sensing and control valves, tank fresh water storage, filters, all this was part of our training! Swimming Pools. Drinking & waste water treatment basics. Although a lot is forgotten, it can be looked up again.

Now, I see a Plumbing system and it either looks cheap plastic and very angular, no nice swept bends or very very over complicated.

My Brother-in-Law has a heating & hot water system in a small modern two bed house and it has 3 electric circulating assistors (3 pumps) and the 'Engineers' haven't a clue how to fix it or check it, without telephoning and having the manufacturer's technician talk him through it. Neither did I want to get involved, I have never seen such an over complicated system of dross in my life.

When I see so called Tradesman (never been Apprenticed) cutting corners, I put my head in my hands. It makes me so  angry, or laugh at the stupidity!

Some years ago, I had a letter, begging former Time-served Plumbers to teach and offering figures like £38 an hour. The UK government push people through University and many won't get jobs that pay enough to repay Student loans.

I should like to see the same push for skilled Building Tradesman and Tradeswomen in the UK.

I went to a modern loo in a Hotel Restaurant and I had to flush it 5 times before I could use it. It was also running continuously cistern water into the pan (Water Byelaw Contravention too - wasting treated tap water). When I lifted the lid off, it had the wrong (low) height siphon fitted, no wonder water was running continuous and it wouldn't flush easily!

I absolutely dispair at some of the Workmanship I saw and what I see now, if you can call it workmanship!

Don't need Spa Water, just a good old cup or mug of tea!

Thank you to all who have contributed to my questions.

Best wishes, Mark

1961 after Princess Margaret had complained about our smoky town after her visit to open a new school & we went as a smokeless zone area soon after. We had a tank airing cupboard copper hot tank fitted with a gas immersion heater, the plumber had been moaning to mum while slurping his tea about my dad earning £30 a week at the time with overtime, saying they could not earn nothing near that, just as his apprentice came to tell him he had put the union outer nut on the pipe the wrong way round from the other end of the pipe, he re-melted, then took the inner union off, lost his outer union nut and had to get a new complete union. For 30 years we had that floating outer union nut loose on that cold tank to hot tank pipe.

Now back on topic.

[BushInn1746]

Not found from official Royal records and incomplete, claimed to be Companion or attendant to Queen Victoria

Lady Emily Cathcart
(The Honourable Emily Sarah Cathcart)
Baroness Lehzen, Companion
Hannah Gooderson died 27[?] th August 1940 was one of Queen Victoria's former Personal Maids.

(Not in any date order)

https://www.rct.uk/collection/2906615/the-honourable-emily-sarah-cathcart-1834-1917

Amended

Mark

[Skoosh]

Interesting thread. Did a bit with the lead wipes myself back in the day, getting it properly "Tinned!" I was taught. Lead sheathed cables though not pipes! 

Skoosh.

[BushInn1746]

Interesting thread. Did a bit with the lead wipes myself back in the day, getting it properly "Tinned!" I was taught. Lead sheathed cables though not pipes! 

Skoosh.

Yes Skoosh, we had to make sure water was running through the lead pipe with a listening device before cutting!

Some lead sheathed cables had thick clay copings placed a few inches above the run with "Electricity" stamped in the tops, but most cables didn't. Mark

[Skoosh]

Mark,  ours were heavy KV with steel-wire armour then wrapped in jute & bitumen, this had to be cut back to expose the lead for capping. I believe they were laid in sand & indeed bricked plus warning plastic tape.


 The Princess Margaret was a bit smoky herself, probably killed her!


Skoosh.

[Maiden Stone]

A drama series on BBC Radio 4 this week is supposedly based on reminiscences of a woman who was a maid to QV during the last weeks of her life. "Curtain Down at Her Majesty's - a Play in Five Acts". Maid's name was Winnie Powell; I don't know if she was real. 2019 is bi-centenary of Victoria's birth.