What you will find in Best of British…

Each monthly issue of Best of British is packed with readers’ memories through the decades stretching back to the 1940's and the trip down memory lane is made even more enjoyable with a variety of nostalgic articles and pictures on collectables, traditional crafts, entertainment and transport from the past.

The magazine’s Postbag pages bulge with letters from all over the world about readers’ reminiscences while the Helping Hands pages is an information resource centre covering everything - from half-remembered songs, family and friends searches and items from the past, as well as reunion announcements.

Click on the above image to enjoy "Passage of Time" by Trevor Mitchell, a painting depicting the same same street scene in the 1930's through the 1960's.

Best of British also features nostalgic art, books, CD and DVDs.

The Yesterday Remembered section features readers’ true stories recalling childhood memories, teenage years, National Service, cars, families, places, jobs - even a first kiss. They can be humorous, poignant or just simply nostalgic.

Here's an example of a typical article:

Collecting Coal from the Wear

It was a Saturday morning; the sun shone from a clear blue sky warming everything it touched. Four lads, about ten years old wearing nothing but a pair of khaki shorts, sat on the quayside.

They were brown and healthy looking due to an outdoor life spent mostly on the river sculling and rowing cobbles and collecting driftwood to sell around the doors as firewood. This would help eke out the coal that, for most folks, was too expensive to buy.

Whenever ships were launched from the yards flanking the River Wear, stacks of timber would wash off the slipways. The only requirement was strong arms to row a cobble, which when full to the gunwales, they would return to the quayside. Here it was chopped up, put into sacks that sold for a penny each.

Today, the lads were going for coal. Lambton Drops, situated next to Monkwearmouth Bridge, was a loading stage for colliers who carried coal from the Wear to the Thames. The berth was vacant and, it being Saturday, it would have remained vacant until Monday morning. What they were after was the coal that dropped between the ships and the quayside and settled on the riverbed. Quite often the big grabs that scooped the coal from the trucks opened too soon and instead of all the coal going into the ships’ holds, some of it fell in the river.

The four boys slid down the ropes with practised ease and cast off. Two sets of oars dipped in the river and the cobble pulled away from the quayside. They rowed as one - even at their age they were strong. Most lads born in this neighbourhood were good on the river as it was their only playground. They rowed steadily keeping inshore, passing the ferry landing while the ferry was on the other side of the river and slipped past Thompson’s Shipyard where the keel of a ship was being laid. It looked enormous from where they were and it would not be long before it was afloat. The men of Sunderland knew how to build ships. They kept on rowing, keeping a lookout for traffic. There were always tugs working the river, towing hoppers laden with mud and silt out to the North Sea to dump, only to return to repeat the procedure over and over again. The riverbed was constantly being dredged to maintain a working depth of water.

It was important to arrive at Lambton Drops when the tide was at its lowest. It meant there was less distance to haul the dredge from the riverbed into the cobble. The dredge was an iron bar, about two feet long with a semicircle of iron welded to it. Fastened to it was a net that scooped the coal up when dragged along the riverbed on the end of a tow-rope.

The lads decided it was safe to cross over to the other side. They bent their backs over the oars and the cobble skimmed over the surface, arriving at the Drops. They lowered the dredge overboard and started rowing. Although they were unable to see, they knew there was a lot of coal on the riverbed. Half a dozen strokes of the oars and the net was full. They hauled it aboard and tipped it into the bottom of the cobble.

One hour later they had as much as they dared carry, as there was only six inches freeboard between the river and the gunwales. They rested for a while before starting off downriver. Once they began the return trip they had to keep going as the tide was turning and they would be rowing against the current in a cobble that was heavy and sluggish.

It took them nearly an hour to row back to their moorings, sweating and exhausted, but happy with the amount of coal they had to share for their own fires. Their mothers would be pleased. They would have to wait now for high tide when the cobble would almost be level with the quayside, as it would be easier to unload the coal. Two of them went home to get something to eat, the other two remaining to guard the cobble and its contents.

After swapping over and they had all returned the work of unloading began. This was done simply by lowering a bucket tied to a rope, two of them filling the buckets and the other two pulling them up and tipping the coal on the quayside, counting the buckets as they did so. When the task was completed there were twenty buckets of coal - five for each household - enough to last a week.

The pram could only carry three buckets, which meant two trips to each home. It took them an hour to transport it all home. Back on the quayside they lay, filthy and soaked in sweat. It was time for a bath so they jumped into the river and spent the afternoon playing about, swimming, diving and generally enjoying themselves.

Twenty buckets of coal could have been sold for forty pennies. That would have been 10d for each of them and, if their mothers got eight pence, they might have been able to keep the other tuppence to buy sweets. Each of the lads knew what the other was thinking. There was a lot of coal lying up just waiting to be collected and after tomorrow the berth would not be vacant. Come Monday morning there would be a collier there loading for the power stations on the Thames. One of the lads suggested another trip the next day and it was very quickly agreed, but this time with an earlier start. Each lad went home with an oar and a rowlock; without them the cobble was useless.
Richard Ford - This story was first published in Best of British, October, 2001.

What the readers say about Best of British

· Your magazine simply gets better. Brian Selwood, Rotherham, S. Yorks.

· You are producing a really first-class nostalgia magazine. Keep up the good work! Bob Shelcot, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

· Excellent magazine. John K. Austin, Rainham, Kent.

· Earlier this week I renewed my subscription to Best of British for another two years. What a bargain! David Oyston, Bingley, W. Yorks.

· Congratulations on a superb magazine. Mrs Mary Evans, Bilston, W. Mids.

· May I congratulate you for publishing a very informative magazine, which keeps us in remembrance of the happenings of yesteryear; the nostalgic photographs and anecdotes are very interesting indeed. Cyril W. Guy, Usk, Monmouthshire.

· Thank you for a terrific magazine; a friend of mine showed me one last year and I was very impressed so I put in a regular order with the local newsagent. Mr P. J. Smith, Murray Bridge, South Australia.

· My wife bought me my first copy of your TERRIFIC magazine; I’ve had a hard job putting it down during the last three days. I find every page so interesting and for that I sincerely thank you. M. Denman Lalonde, Richmond B.C., Canada.

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