Leeds 'Boots for The Bairns Fund'

[arry_awk]

Can't see any reference to the above,so I'll just try to remembera few instances covering the Fund (AND the boowits!).The above institution was in force in the '30's and into the '40'sto provide poor schoolchildren in Leeds with adequate footwearfor inclement (and other) sorts of weather. The boots were provided,I believe, by the Lord Mayor and Council(!!!)in conjunctionwith the Yorkshire Evening Post. Haven't gone into detail regardingthe providers as the subject has just occurred to me! (Sit down,Arry and have a breather!).The boots were supplied after a sort of means test,or recommendation by the Head teachers of the needy pupils'school.Luckily,I didn't qualify, although the quality of the boots was far superior to what I was wearing at the time! Plimsolls!I remember, each pair had three holes punched at the top of the upper ankle, to prevent unscrupulous parents from 'Popping'(Pawning) the boots to raise beer money!If a pawnbroker was found to have paid out money on the boots,he was up beforethe beak PDQ!We had one ruffian at Burley Road who had a pair of said boots c/w toe and heel plates and studs, who used to terrorise us in the lower classes by kicking our shins (and things!).'Bully Bloggs' wasn't in it! We called him 'Senna'. (He produced the same effect if we saw him coming!).Any other recollections of those Boots?Arry

[Trojan]

arry awk wrote: Can't see any reference to the above,so I'll just try to remembera few instances covering the Fund (AND the boowits!).The above institution was in force in the '30's and into the '40'sto provide poor schoolchildren in Leeds with adequate footwearfor inclement (and other) sorts of weather. The boots were provided,I believe, by the Lord Mayor and Council(!!!)in conjunctionwith the Yorkshire Evening Post. Haven't gone into detail regardingthe providers as the subject has just occurred to me! (Sit down,Arry and have a breather!).The boots were supplied after a sort of means test,or recommendation by the Head teachers of the needy pupils'school.Luckily,I didn't qualify, although the quality of the boots was far superior to what I was wearing at the time! Plimsolls!I remember, each pair had three holes punched at the top of the upper ankle, to prevent unscrupulous parents from 'Popping'(Pawning) the boots to raise beer money!If a pawnbroker was found to have paid out money on the boots,he was up beforethe beak PDQ!We had one ruffian at Burley Road who had a pair of said boots c/w toe and heel plates and studs, who used to terrorise us in the lower classes by kicking our shins (and things!).'Bully Bloggs' wasn't in it! We called him 'Senna'. (He produced the same effect if we saw him coming!).Any other recollections of those Boots?Arry No but I remember kids going to school in plimsolls (pumps) in summer and wellies in winter - never in shoes. My dad used to threaten me with clogs if I didn't look after my shoes.

[liits]

Trojan wrote: No but I remember kids going to school in plimsolls (pumps) in summer and wellies in winter - never in shoes. My dad used to threaten me with clogs if I didn't look after my shoes. I can remember a couple of kids at school [Crossgates Primary] who had the summer and winter outfit of pumps [plimsolls] and wellies. I can even think of one poor individual, no pun intended, who wore pumps all year round, and that was in the early 70's, not that long ago.As to clogs, my older brothers, all chefs, wear clogs. Non-slip, hard wearing and good for your feet if you're on them all day.

[Trojan]

liits wrote: Trojan wrote: No but I remember kids going to school in plimsolls (pumps) in summer and wellies in winter - never in shoes. My dad used to threaten me with clogs if I didn't look after my shoes. I can remember a couple of kids at school [Crossgates Primary] who had the summer and winter outfit of pumps [plimsolls] and wellies. I can even think of one poor individual, no pun intended, who wore pumps all year round, and that was in the early 70's, not that long ago.As to clogs, my older brothers, all chefs, wear clogs. Non-slip, hard wearing and good for your feet if you're on them all day.But not so good if you're the only kid in your class who wears them, plus of course if you're the only kid who wear glasses too

[arry_awk]

Thanks Trojan!Talking of clogs. Yes I wore them,so did a lot of my classmatesand we were proud to have a pair! They were classed as 'Essential Industrial wear' and you didn't need clothing coupons for them!It was wartime! (You've guessed!)We had clog irons like horseshoes on them and L.S.Lowry hit the Nail on the head with his 'Sparking Clogs'!Burley Road schoolyardgot a kicking,concreteand iron makes grand sparks!There was a shop called 'Clogger [edited for content]'s' on Kirkstall Road. and word soon got round when his supplies of kip leather and 'formed'wood soles came in! He never seemed to run out of iron stripto fashion the irons from!

[electricaldave]

I had an uncle who lived down Hunslet and from what I can tell had some hard times - he didn't really talk about it much.I got the impression he thought that being put on the 'boots for bairns' list was a stigma and he had been on that list.This is the sort of stuff that could get lost forever, yes, we can read about it, but you really can't compare it to first hand experience so I'd be very interested to read about experiences of people who were there.Whilst we are at it, does anyone remember the Leeds Taxi outings, they used to take us up to Flamingo Park Zoo to eat very nasty individual portion trifles, still it was nice to get out of Leeds for a few hours once a year.

[arry_awk]

OY!Who the fliping heck edited The name '[edited for content]' from Clogger [edited for content]'s in my last posting?? THAT WAS THE NAME OF THE RUDDY SHOP!!!!Richard was his name. It was not meant to be a rude word!!I suppose if you went to [edited for content] HUDSON'S pub you'd call it Richard Hudson'sGET WITH IT Who ever did the editing!!!Arry (furious)PS God Knows what You'd make of Fanny Craddock!!!!

[arry_awk]

Explanations please. I don't like my postingsinterfered with for no reason at all!Resignation from the site is waiting NOW!!!

[dsco]

Arry,This is an automatic edit, done by the computer not by a person. I'll sort it out...dsco

[dsco]

OK that's sorted - you can now post about Clogger Dick's to your heart's content without fear of being [edited for content].Just working out now if we can make it retrospective - i.e. put all the edited words back in... if not, I'll do it manually later this week.And apologies for any problems/irritation this has caused - I was obviously getting a bit overkeen on the word list. I do hope it won't cause your resignation from the site Arry!Cheers,dsco