Remember these.? All our yesterdays

[NewcastleFalcon]

Arkwright had one of course
If you want one now £49.99 buys one aka storekeeper/warehouse coat.

Does anyone know any shop within 30 miles where the shopkeeper/staff wear the brown shopkeeper's coat now.
Or indeed any workplace where they are used. I reckon Beamish would be the only place round here, and even there I doubt it

If anyone has one, uses one, and can supply an original photograph...the bullseye will have been hit.

Neil

[myglaren]

May just have a run to Beamish and see. Can't remember from last years trips.

[mickthemaverick]

When I joined the GPO the brown coat was the standard issue for Stores staff and engineers in the exchanges. As time went by they slowly became khaki and eventually, I believe when BT was born, they were discarded in favour of grey. However they were always known as 'dustcoats' and became very useful for many reasons. As for Beamish I have a recollection of the chap in the Hardware/Bicycle shop wearing one but it may have been the chap or a cardboard cut-out!!

[bobins]

I can remember my father wearing one in the 1970s - 90s whilst doing his joinery job. I'm pretty sure I've still got his last one he wore..... but I couldn't tell you where I've put it

[mickthemaverick]

I can now confirm that on one of our two visits to Beamish last year the shop keeper in the Bicycle/Garage/Hardware was not wearing a dustcoat. However as you can see he was engaged in conversation by some random dude at the time!

MTMO

[mickthemaverick]

Another memory about the original GPO brown coats comes to mind. In the battery rooms we used to keep bottles of concentrated Sulphuric Acid, and it was well known what that could do to cotton. A common gag used to be to wait until the apprentice had gone home and then paint the seams around the shoulders of his dustcoat. It was left to dry overnight and then the next time the coat got wet the sleeves would fall off!! Sometimes we left it to the mercy of the apprentice's mother who would put the coat in the wash to discover it in pieces when extracted or sometimes we would just attack the apprentice with water pistols to bring about the destruction !!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Quite pleased with the brown dust coat (aka warehouse coat, shopkeepers coat, store keepers coat etc) reminisces, but the icing on the cake surely would be production of such a coat and its submission to the thread in photo of the said item. I am half-hoping Mr Nutkins still has one

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The brown coat seems well-loved in the Comedy Sketch

Harry Enfield and Ronnie Corbett in the "My Blackberry is not working" greengrocer sketch, an homage in itself to the most famous of all "Four Candles" Sketch.

link
viewtopic.php?p=706265&hilit=blackberry#p706265

Neil

[momag46]

I started work Jan 6th 1962, green overalls for a 6 year apprenticeship, then blue until I went onto inspection, white coat from then on. When I retired in 2011 as Quality / H&S Manager I still used a white coat.
Maurice

[NewcastleFalcon]

No one could meet the challenge of supplying an original picture of the "brown" workcoat, maybe truly a disappearing thing.

There should be more chance with this/these. They do exist more widely still in the modern age.

The Enamel Mug

A small nest of Enamel Mugs
This lot have been producing them since the 1920's but probably have only just discovered orange

The thread will accept, jugs, pails, plates, cooking dishes, pans roasting tins , bread bins etc. with pride of place to the enamel mug.

Neil

[CitroJim]

A souvenir from our South Coast Saunter last year

[NewcastleFalcon]

Brilliant! It should be eminently possible to collect up some examples. If you have more Jim please add to it, but thats a great start.

Most will be the white enamel with the dark blue contrast. We had a literal Bread bin like that in my youth, not a one with a flip up roll up lid but a proper oblong high sided bin with an enamel lid with obviously "Bread" in blue lettering instructing you what to put inside it. My dad would use it as a "windbreak" for a camping gaz stove boiling up a kettle for tea in a layby on on car journeys! The water having been stored in a plastic container made the most awful tea!

A souvenir from our South Coast Saunter last year

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

We had a similar bin Neil which ended its life as a winter tuber storage box in the shed for Dad's dahlias!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

So far

Neil

[the2ems]

When I joined the GPO the brown coat was the standard issue for Stores staff and engineers in the exchanges. As time went by they slowly became khaki and eventually, I believe when BT was born, they were discarded in favour of grey. However they were always known as 'dustcoats' and became very useful for many reasons. As for Beamish I have a recollection of the chap in the Hardware/Bicycle shop wearing one but it may have been the chap or a cardboard cut-out!!

I’m sure we used to call them a cow gown.