Interesting items from my parents home: - The Old Parsonage.

TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
My Mother died on Christmas Eve age 98. My father died six years earlier. I spent a week in the UK for my mother's funeral on January 11. So it is now time the sell the family home, my father bought in 1951. So my siblings, my wife and I started to empty this house we have occupied for 67 years to get it ready for sale.

The old parsonage is a an old vicarage to All Saints Church Frindsbury. It is an old Saxon church, at least parts of it are.



The church is high above the river Medway and you can get a good view of Rochester Castle and Cathedral looking South the the South Bank of the river.



The Old Parsonage was built during the reign of Queen Anne, 1702 to 1707 under Queen Anne's Bounty.



The dwelling suffered significant bomb damage in WW II, and my father bought it as a ruin from the Church Commissioners. The restoration took 2 years, and we moved in March 1953. I was age 5 and 3 months. I remember all this clearly, including the restoration in great detail.

So first the audio, and most of this I had no idea was in the OP still.

The first audio system was installed in the drawing room, (living) room in 1953 when we moved in. This was of course the mono era. There was a 12" Goodmans speaker in a brick cavity in the right side. It crossed over to an 8" Wharfedale super 8" in a small cabinet on a shelf just above and to one side of the 12" unit. I have this Wharfedale here and have had it for years. It needs the foam surround restored.

Now to my surprise the original AR Sugden Connisseur turntable was hidden away. This is pre Garrard 301, and is considered the world's first transcription turntable. It does not have the original arm, it has a rather crude arm that my father built. The turntable is 33 and 78 RPM. The 45 discs had not yet appeared.



I even found a spare set of idler wheels you can see beside it.

The original Leak TL 12 tube power amp was still around and my Leak TL 10 and both Leak RCPAU tube preamps.

My TL 10 power amp and he two preamps.



My Father's TL 12 power amp.



With the arrival of stereo in 1959, the Leak TL 12 was replaced with Quad 22 and two Quad II 15 watt each power amps.



I'm going I think to ship the Sugden turntable over here to restore since they are so very rare.

I also found a real curio, but did not photograph, my old Gramdeck. It is in its box. I will, as I will ship this for my museum.

Those were the most interesting finds. There was also and early NEAL Ferrograph cassette deck. This was one to of those early decks built round the 3M Wollensack decks, built in Minneapolis.

Now we will switch gears to other items. I found my old gauge O Hornby clock work tank engine. It was still in its box and with its key. It was mint and still worked when I wound it up. I must have been an odd chap then as there was not a mark on it. I had that age 5 and used it until age about 8 or or 9. There was complete Hornby gauge 0 track and the locking devices and some points. I did not take a picture unfortunately, but I will have my nephew do it, as it will go up on eBay.

Now for Christmas when I was 9, I was given a scale model Mogel 2-6-0 model gauge 0 Bassett Lowke working scale model steam locomotive. Yes this is powered by steam and all the pistons and valves are working scale models. Yes, the locomotive is driven by steam with water in the boiler and a methylated spirit burner under the boiler. There is a forced oiling system driven by steam pressure. I brought this engine back in my suit case.

I last fired it up in the UK for my grandson Ethan in 2004. I ran it up and down a small section of track. You can see the speed lever with controls speed, forward and reverse coming out of the cab. If you look closely you can see a little steam coming out of the funnel.





Ethan is now in his second semester studying mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota.

I also has at the time a Bassett Lowke 4-4-0 Enterprise which belonged to my father as a child. He gave it to my nephew John.

I found all the Bassett Lowke track that I built from Bassett Lowke parts. I never had any Basset Lowke rolling stock, I used my Hornby rolling stock from my clockwork era. That was all there with a lot of the items still in their original boxes. I'm arranging all this to be sent out to me. I'm not sure what to do with it though. Those engines are worth an awful lot of money now.

It was a different era. I used to use those engines as a child. They taught care and responsibility. You had to watch your boiler water carefully, as with all steam engines if you run them out of water then the engine would explode violently and you were one dead kid.

If the train came off the track and turned over, which it would on occasion,then the methylated spirit fuel would spill and it burst into flames. So I kept a hemp sack handy in a bowl of water, and would throw the wet sack over the flaming engine, and the flames were immediately extinguished.

I dare not even think what the modern snowflakes would think of a toy like that!

There are a couple of old interesting engines there. There is a Commer Knocker TS3 three cylinder six piston two cycle 120 HP diesel engine there. No I did not make a mistake!
My father put one of these in his boat Clarion. I was with him on a visit when he bought this engine out of an old horse box at a breaker's yard at Ipswich Suffolk. It stated right away.





This engine was bought as a spare. The engines were made during the fifties and until 1968. I'm pretty sure this is a later model. The later ones produced an extra 20 HP because they could make 200 extra revs at 2200, rather the 2000. The lift pump and starter are off it bu there. There is also a complete CAV injector pump which also looks to be in good condition. There are also some gaskets. I found not just one, but three complete service manuals.

The other engine of interest is this Lister HR 2A two cylinder air cooled generator set. This generator is perfectly governed and steady. Date of production of this unit was 1973.



There has been an awful lot of interesting items in that dwelling. One item I think I will have shipped is the old hall clock.





This clock was built by Thomas Dicker who built clocks in Silcester Berkshire from 1736 to 1756. From the look of his work, I suspect this is one of his earliest clocks. So it is in period of the home. It worked until about 8 or so years ago. Now it almost works, it goes for a while but the pendulum gradually peters out. I suspect it just need a little cleaning and lubrication after all that time.

I dismantled the tree audio systems there. The Garrard 301 I will bring out. It is in mint cosmetic condition, but run a bit too fast. So I will restore it. It has an SME series one arm with a Shure V 15 at the moment. I already have the early Ortofon moving coil cartridge which was the second cartridge on that arm.

This is a long post but I hope many members will find some of these items interesting.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
This is a long post but I hope many members will find some of these items interesting.
Sorry to hear of your mother's passing.

You are very lucky to have grown up in such a beautiful place, very nice!
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Too bad you didn't find an 8 track player. You could have sold it to 3db.
There never would have been one of those. The 8-track was very much an American contrivance. It was the descendant of " Earl Mad Man Muntz's" 4 track tape cartridge player.



I don't think I have ever seen and 8-track in the UK. They were only produced by Ampex in Europe from 1970 to 1974. They never gained any traction. The only UK cars that had them strangely were Bentley and Rolls Royce cars.

This is like the NEAL 102 that was at the OP and will be going on eBay.

 
M

Midwesthonky

Audioholic General
Thanks for the post! That is some super cool history you have there. The trains alone are worth a small fortune as you know. Not to mention the fun factor of winding up today's parents in regards to the safety aspects. That alone is worth it! The trip down memory lane had to be fun though...

I'm glad you are keeping the radio history. Those are some really cool items. So thank you for sharing the pics.

Same for the engines. If they were on the North American side of the pond, I know someone who would be interested in them.

Clearing out that many years of history isn't easy. I don't look forward to clearing out my in-laws when it's time. They have so much stuff, that I doubt a month of hard work could do it. There is literally a Quonset hut full of cars, car parts, engines, tractors, etc. He has a complete MG body and engine, no frame. Parts for a Model A out the butt. Ugh...
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I see the passion for Quad amps runs in the family
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Thanks for the post! That is some super cool history you have there. The trains alone are worth a small fortune as you know. Not to mention the fun factor of winding up today's parents in regards to the safety aspects. That alone is worth it! The trip down memory lane had to be fun though...

I'm glad you are keeping the radio history. Those are some really cool items. So thank you for sharing the pics.

Same for the engines. If they were on the North American side of the pond, I know someone who would be interested in them.

Clearing out that many years of history isn't easy. I don't look forward to clearing out my in-laws when it's time. They have so much stuff, that I doubt a month of hard work could do it. There is literally a Quonset hut full of cars, car parts, engines, tractors, etc. He has a complete MG body and engine, no frame. Parts for a Model A out the butt. Ugh...
Thank you for that post. Yes, there is very unusual stuff there, especially that Commer Knocker. Not only are they one of the most unusual engines ever, but one in that condition is very rare. I bet it would start up. They were very good starters, and made a wonderful throaty noise. If you do know some one who would like to buy it. Please let we know. They would need a use for it though. We are prepared to arrange shipping anywhere in the world. They make wonderful marine engines. The only thing you have to so is give it a slant oil sump. Lister marketed a marine version of that engine, which was very popular.

Most of the interest for them is in Australia, where they have clubs devoted to that engine and Commer commercial vehicles. The Australians call those engines: - "Tommy Knockers."

Talking of the safety wind ups, those engines were put on all Commer trucks for nearly 20 years. One problem they had is that they run in the direction you start them. So if a driver was on a hill and did not have enough revs before engaging the clutch and the engine went to stall, it was inclined to spin in reverse and hit any vehicle behind. Drivers had to be experienced for those.
 
M

Midwesthonky

Audioholic General
Thank you for that post. Yes, there is very unusual stuff there, especially that Commer Knocker. Not only are they one of the most unusual engines ever, but one in that condition is very rare. I bet it would start up. They were very good starters, and made a wonderful throaty noise. If you do know some one who would like to buy it. Please let we know. .
Unfortunately, I don't think they'd be able to pay a fair price close to what it's worth. I'd hunt down some engine and marine boards and post it there. I'd love to have it, but my wife would be extremely not pleased.
 
MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
There never would have been one of those. The 8-track was very much an American contrivance. It was the descendant of " Earl Mad Man Muntz's" 4 track tape cartridge player.



I don't think I have ever seen and 8-track in the UK. They were only produced by Ampex in Europe from 1970 to 1974. They never gained any traction. The only UK cars that had them strangely were Bentley and Rolls Royce cars.

This is like the NEAL 102 that was at the OP and will be going on eBay.


The bottom picture looks like my Advent 201 cassette deck from 1975! A few knobs and switch above the knobs are different, otherwise the same machine! So it seems the NEAL is the British version of the Advent?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
The bottom picture looks like my Advent 201 cassette deck from 1975! A few knobs and switch above the knobs are different, otherwise the same machine! So it seems the NEAL is the British version of the Advent?
They look similar as both used the 3M Wollensack deck, built in Minneapolis. I do know that the electronics of the NEAL were British design and made in the UK. Whether or not Advent used the electronics from NEAL I don'r know. At that time NEAL and Ferrograph had had a forced merger due to losses by Ferrograph. The expertise would have been on the UK side, and not US, as in the fifties and sixties Ferrograph were one of the most renowned tape recorder companies in the world. They built machines like this.



Herr Willi Studer did for them, as they could not make the transition to logic controlled decks. The Ferrograph Logic 7 was a disaster. The Wollensack was a completely mechanical deck.
 

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