General Chat

I wonder how many people fell into that brook!

The central gutter was very useful back in the day ............... houses had overhanging upper floors, and it was very easy to empty guz'unders straight out of the window which was just above the gutter.

Hence the call of "gardyloo"

The ultimate road gutter!
This was Middle Brook Street in Winchester in the 19th Century.

Pipes were laid in the latter part of the 19th Century, and the water/sewage, and everything else was diverted underground. Now, it just floods a little after rain.

https://middlebrookstreetwinchester.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/1817-bartlet-engraving.jpg

I grew up in Lancashire, and we called them gutters. I did not know the word "eavestrough" until we came here and bought a house.

Downspouts took water from the gutters, and were always on the outside of the house. That equals the down pipe here.

Some older houses also had a pipe leading from the sink and bath in the the bathroom to a downspout from the roof. When it was very cold, water in the downspouts froze solid, and I welt remember Dad leaning out of the bathroom window and pouring boiling water into the "funnel" where the pipe from the bathroom went into the downspout.

One of the last jobs I did before I got married was to climb a ladder to the roof of a 2-storey house, paint the outside of the gutters and then all the downspouts.

The word "gutter" was also used for the slight depression at the side of the road, if there was a pavement (= sidewalk) one had to step over the gutter.

There were grates spaced at intervals along the gutter where the water could run down into the underground system, just as there are grates in the gutters here.

I was amazed to see grates in the sides of the pavement "step" in the US, and some places in Canada, much larger than the flat grates, and some large enough for people to be washed into them in flooding.

Originally, way back when, the "gutter" ran down the center of the road, which was not paved back then, and it was where everyone threw their household waste, including human waste.

My goodness, it's a Canadianism? Most of these things I just assume are ours from Mother England, with the US doing its best to colonize us. In fact it's the US ones holding onto their own colonial past. :-)

When my father first visited me in Ottawa many moons ago, he remarked on two things from his drives around town.

The first was that none of the houses had eavestroughs -- which I later realized, as the owner of a home with no eavestroughs, was because of the enormous snow and ice load that could build up on the roofs (and occasionally actually kill someone standing too close when it fell), against which a mere eavestrough wouldn't stand a chance.

The second was the number of people driving around with one headlight (headlamp?), which would never have been tolerated where we were from.

My neighbour and I shared a driveway. That was fine when I didn't drive, and even after I got my first vehicle, a little 4WD Suzuki, since I could burrow my way into the back yard parking space relatively well. Not so good when I got a light-as-air Toyota minivan. The neighbour and I both parked in the driveway, usually me first so he could get in and out. I went out one February day and started the van, and found my driver's side windshield wiper gone. I got out and discovered what had happened. An iceberg (about 3 feet by 1.5 feet, at least) had fallen off the neighbour's roof, glanced off the wiper, and put a big dent in the slopey hood (bonnet!).

It cost a bundle to repair, even though I didn't actually care about the dent, I had a deductible to pay, and my deductible went up. And the @#$% neighbour didn't offer to pay any of it. I was quite amazed when I asked my insurance company how to go about claiming against next door's house insurance for the damage, and they told me my car insurance had to cover it. Car was sitting still on my property and an iceberg fell on it due to my neighbour's non-vehicle-related negligence, and I paid?!? Insurance, it gets you coming and going. Well, at least it didn't hit one of my cats.

Ah yes, cats. Then there was the time the across the street neighbours came looking for their cat Joey, who they were afraid had been on my back deck when a huge load of snow fell off the second floor deck roof, because they could see his little footprints going, but not coming back. We immediately set about hunting through two feet of heavy wet snow with shovels and poles, but found no cat. They thought he had gone under the deck, but I couldn't see where he might have been able to do that.

Then I had a brilliant idea. Joey and one of my cats hated each other; they had destroyed the neighbours' basement window screen fighting through it, or, as the neighbour said, talking to each other. (Yeah: I'm gonna rip your throat out! Well step outside and say that! -- that was after Joey had to be kept in because he'd been diagnosed with FIV, as one of my other cats later was.) Italian households are not known for being cat fanciers; these neighbours doted on Joey, whom they had found and first tried to offer me. Daughter at door: Here's a cat. Uh huh ... I have 5 and you have none. He's yours. The mother neighbour later took in some feral kittens and homed them with her aged parents across the street. I singlehandedly converted three generations. :-)

So my idea: let Tab out and see whether he'd find Joey. Tab came out the front door, headed straight down the driveway (I suppose he had been watching out the back door and needed to know what treasure we were hunting), went straight under the deck, and Joey came straight out.

JoonieCloonie, lovely picture of the catalpa.

I'm sorry to hear about your sister's ongoing after effects of covid. I read a lot of reports from people who had "mild" covid but have long term health issues now. Hateful thing. My neighbour's husband died, only in his early 50s.

I had not heard of "eavestroughs" ,makes perfect sense though.

In England, I called it guttering, the drain pipes for catching the water running on the roof.
Here in Scotland, they call them the "Waterones"
Yes gutter are drains at the side of the pavements.

I got sidetracked the other day by work, and I'd been looking and looking to find a photo of the Medway catalpa actually in bloom. Hard to come by, but I found a magnificent one:

https://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Kent/Rochester/pictures/1196991

Very glad to hear that it was salvaged!

I'm going to change my avatar now from the Hoare in Cornwall thing to a pic of the side of my house ... before I had my not overly handy guy tear down the trumpet vine last year. It grows about 100 miles a year and was invading the eavestroughs and covering my windows. It and the Rose of Sharon bushes were here when we bought, but I look at them as legacies from my Gramma. The whole side of her house was covered in trumpet vine, which at the time was a bit of a horicultural rarity (climate change makes it less so), and which my Grampa hated for all the reasons I now understand, plus he was the one who had to go up the ladder to deal with it. And she had a big mauve Rose of Sharon in the back yard.

For some reason, I call it Rose of ShaRon, not just Sharrun like the name. (Like saying ReCord not Reccurd.) My sister laughs at me. Is there a reason I do that?? Have I mentioned that after a moderate case of covid in early March 2020, she has since been hospitalized and had multiple treatments for lung problems and now has lost nearly half her lung capacity, suffers extreme fatigue etc., and sometimes needs to use a walker ...

Speaking of eavestroughs: Sylvia -- how peeved are you by the rash of USAmerican home improvement commercials invading our televisions with their yammering about "gutters"? Gutters are what run along the sides of roads. My house has no gutters, ta very much. But there goes one more bit of Canadian English.

... My house is sideways. Better find a better pic ...

True, JoonieC

Way back in 1970!

And all with no cellphone, Sylvia!

I think I might hold some sort of record for getting lost in one's home town

My dad died 3 years after we married and moved over here. OH and I went over for the funeral then OH returned to Canada, and I stayed on for 2 weeks to help my brother and to sort out what I might want to keep from my old home ......... as it turned out I left a lot behind that I've since regretted :-(

Brother used to take me "home" from his house, leave me there, and then pick me up to go back to his place. But I decided one day that I needed to visit my best friend's mother (friend had moved to Australia) and that I could ride the several buses to her place, then to Manchester and out to brother.

Boy oh Boy

I managed the bus from Dad's house to the centre of town, had about a 10 minute walk to the next bus ............... and I was lost, in the centre of my home town, where I used to know how to get everywhere.

They'd begun a major reconstruction including removal of a very large round-about and demolition of a certain very obvious building!

I'd expect major changes after 20 or 30 years, but 3????????

I was completely flummoxed, fortunately someone pointed me to where the bus stop now was, had a good time with friend's mother, and succeeded in getting the bus from her place to Manchester and then out to brother's house.

Duncan yes I am still Rose and still rambling lol.

I had a 'walk' around Rochester courtesy of Google maps and saw a lot of changes to the shops. The last time I was there would have been about 1989 so not surprising, everywhere has changed since then, except in memories. The good thing about places on a river and with a Cathedral is that those areas of the towns stay somewhat the same.

I also lived in Otford and worked in Sevenoaks in the 1980s so had a look at them too, just about recognised the old bits of both. But again lots of changes.

Thank you AnninGlos, nice to be back! I did't exactly stop researching, I just found I didn't have time to do it. But I'm back now, I'm glad to see there are so many familiar names still about.
Rambling - did you used to be Rambling Rose? - you might not recognise Rochester any more, most of the antique shops are gone.

I put a 'floating' shelf up yesterday - it took 3 attempts to get the poles that make it 'floating' in the right place :-|
Then I put 2 brackets under it, because I don't trust 'floating' shelves :-D :-D

Me planting seeds is always hopeful Rose. Showing willing!!

Ive planted some peas in a big tub, fingers crossed they grow this year!

Planting seeds is hopeful anyway Ann :-)

I think we are all the same these days Rose, the most exciting thing I did yesterday was plant tomato seeds. :-(

Thank you Gwyn and Duncan. I am glad it's still there. Rochester used to be where I spent my day off, my mum and I would visit the charity shops and antique shops, sit in the little park by the Dickens Centre and then go to the refectory cafe at the cathedral and have cheese scones and tea. Happy days.

Ann, yes it is nice to see people returning :-) I came back to look at a finding ancestors post from years ago ( I found the ancestor!) and was tempted back to post, if I can think of things to say lol. I don't do a lot that's exciting enough to talk about.

:-D

Hi rose, I don't remember ever doing that but I was a timid child I would have been afraid of getting stuck.

But hey, isn't it lovely when we get long time members returning for a chat. so good to see you JunieCloonie, Duncan too. :-)

Hi Rambling and Gwyn
I live near Rochester. The article in the link was several years ago, when the tree split. From memory half of it fell off. Tree surgeons tidied it up, and railings were put round it to protect it from tree climbers, and it's still there