Photographs
Shops
BERWICK, Northd. Dunlops, Marygate. "One of those wonderful compressed air operated cash systems." (The North-Eastener Issue 20, Autumn 1999)
BILLINGHAM, Co. Dur. Stockton Co-op, Branch 30, Belasis. "The Co-op was made up of several separate shops, the large corner shop was the general dealers, money was put into continers and sent on cables to an office which seemed to be up near the ceiling. I can still picture the cashier up in her little 'box' raking in all the takings." Stockton on Tees Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.
BISHOP AUCKLAND, Co. Dur. Co-op. "The new additional co-operative buildings at Bishop Auckland were publicly opened on Saturday afternoon... The ground-floor is for drapery sales; the first floor for millinery, mantles and carpets and the second or top floor will be set apart for furniture... The great feature in connection with Messrs Kilburn & Syke's contract is the fixing of pneumatic cash tubes, which convey the cash in leather carriers from every department in the premises (both old and new buildings) to the central cash office." Northern Echo, 16 July 1894
BISHOP AUCKLAND, Co. Dur. Doggarts, Market Place. "The much changed market place, dominated by Doggarts department store - where a minature railway of change dispensers whizzed wonderfully overhead." Northeast Food website . "Mr Doggart's grandson, Sandy, .. believes there may be pieces of the Lamson Paragon pneumatic tube payment system left in unused sections of the Bishop Auckland building." This is the North East website
BLYTH, Northd. Woodcocks. Wire system in 1960s. (Maureen Boscoe)
CONSETT, Co. Dur. Doggarts. "That thing that used to take the money in Doggarts. The assistant would put the payment in and it would go whizzin' off somewhere and come back with the change." ("Roxmar" posting to Consett and Derwentside Online Community, 23 Oct. 2005)
CROOK, Co. Dur. Co-op. Cash Ball system, rescued from a loft and now in Beamish Museum. (The Museum)
DARLINGTON, Co. Dur. Co-op, Victoria Road. Photograph of grocery department with three Rapid Wire propulsions in Morrison.
DARLINGTON, Co. Dur. Doggarts, Northgate. Lamson pneumatic tube system, even in ground-floor departments. (Photograph in Hammond. Also mentioned in Northern Echo, 26 Jan 2000, p.6a)
DURHAM. Doggarts. Pneumatic tube system. (Lee)
DURHAM. Greenwells. Pneumatic tube system (Beamish Museum)
FELLING, Co Dur. Co-op. "When a customer paid for the goods, the money was put in a cylindrical container and attached to an Ariel wire, which, with a swishing sound was transported to a glass cubicle where the cashier checked the amount of money for your goods and returned the change by the same method." The Time Capsule - Childhood
GATESHEAD, Co. Dur. Shephards. Overhead wire system. Jarrow Online Forum, 2/2/03. Later changed to pneumatic tubes. Mike at Hebburn website
HEXHAM, Northd. Robbs, Fore Street. "So he [William Robb] acquired property connecting Fore Street and Back Street and built a large, modern store with its own electricity supply and pneumatic cash system." Hexham Courant 16/7/04
HEXHAM, Northd. F. Robinson & Sons (department store), Fore Street. Pneumatic tube system. Hexham Courant 4 October, 2002. Length of Rapid wiring and fittings in Northumberland Record Office, NRO730/13
JARROW, Co. Dur. Shephards (department store), Ellison Street. Overhead wire system. Jarrow Online Forum, 2 Feb. 03
MORPETH, Northd. J.Smail & Sons (furnishings and general ironmongers), Bridge Street. "During the 1950s... The note would be placed in the cash carrier along with the purchase details, and I would watch with glee as a rope was pulled to launch the monorail-like brass container along the wires which hung below the ceiling and led to the cashier's office. the 'hutch' - as it was called by the Smail family - sat on a raised platform at the rear, but with a window looking out onto the shop floor. After a minute or two the container would come whizzing back carrying the change... The Lanson [sic] cash carrier has made way for a more modern till system and the hutch has gone. " Northumbrian, June/July 2008, p.41 (with photographs of the shop now).
NEWCASTLE. Bainbridges, 29-37 Market
Street. "Ariel Messengers" pneumatic tube system. (A. & J. Airey).
• "It is our painful duty to record the death of Mr Emerson Muscahamp Bainbridge, founder, and for many years head of the firm of Messrs Bainbridge and Company... The latest improvements introduced at the Newcastle establishment include two systems of cash railways." (Newcastle Weekly Courant, 27 Feb. 1892)
• "The visitor is also invited to see the general offices, with their
admirable system of pneumatic cash tubes all converging on a central station,
where the cash is received from various departments and the change sent
back." (Eye witness's account dated 26 Oct. 1895, reprinted in Bainbridge
& Co. Ltd. 1838-1976: the chronicle for Bainbridge)
• Joined John Lewis partnership in 1953. "Gas engine powered
pneumatic cash tubes" (John
Lewis website). Business moved to a new shop in Eldon Square, October
1977.
NEWCASTLE. Dene Motor [Cycle?] Co., Haymarket. "I worked as a cashier at the Dene Motor Co., Haymarket, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the Lamson cash ball system was in operation there until the shop closed, about 1972. The system was then dismantled and donated to the Beamish Open Air Museum. (Daily Mirror, 5 Aug. 1977, p.20)
NEWCASTLE. Farnhams. Pneumatic tube system. (Beamish Museum)
NEWCASTLE. Fenwicks, Northumberland Street.
"A statistics dissecting machine was linked to the pneumatic tube
system installed in all departments except quick-sales on the ground floor;
those were dealt with by decentralized cash units." (Pound, Reginald.
The Fenwick Story. Newcastle: Fenwick, 1972)
NEWCASTLE. Freeman Hardy & Willis. "Many customers who need only 1p change will not wait for it to come back from the cashiers on the Lamson tube. We have collected these odd pence - and here's £11 for your Appeal." Daily Mirror, 7 Jan. 1976, p.20
NEWCASTLE. "Shop at the top of Northumberland Street". Cash Ball system. (Beamish Museum)
NEWCASTLE. Henry Walker & Son, 55 Westgate Road. "Walker & Son were Hardware manufacturers and inventors of the pneumatic cash transit system used extensively in early department stores." (Newcastle Arts Centre website)
NORTH SHIELDS. Atkinsons, Bedford Street. Wire system. "As you watched you could see the lady take your money out and then you tries to guess which returning container held your change." (North Shields Library Club website)
NORTH SHIELDS. Co-op, Bedford Street. Wire system. (Liz Kelly)
NORTH SHIELDS. Hill Carters (department store). Pneumatic tubes. (North Shields Library Club website)
SHILDON, Co. Dur. Co-op. Cash carrier.
"Better than John Hendley's." Northern Echo, 13/2/98.
"I spent much time at the C.W.S. .. and was very familiar with the
'cash systen'. It was a dual 'Lamson' system. On the ground floor was
the Lamson Rapid Wire System - a system of wires on which little trucks
were propelled by pulling on a pulley which opened the gap between 2 wires
causing the 'bomb' as they were known to whizz along the wire & through
a little square window into the cashier's cubicle." [This sounds
more like a Gipe system]. "Then there was the pneumatic system, whereby
capsules about a foot long & 4" diameter were whistled through
tubes from one floor to another. This latter system was still used within
I.C.I. right through from the fifties to the nineties to send 'samples'
from plants to laboratories." [The dimensions given are more appropriate
to this kind of system.] Ken in posting to Shildon
Net, 26/2/04
SOUTH SHIELDS, Co.Dur. Cash and Carry (clothing), King Street. "Also had one of those tube things they put the money in. They used to sell jeans and work clothes. (Cisco in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 5/4/05)
SOUTH SHIELDS, Co.Dur. Co-op. "You put the cash and a little receipt in the cylinder, lift a flap and pop it in, then [it] shot off to the cash office on the top floor and returned with a receipt and change a couple of minutes later." (Baldy Smith in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 24/3/05)
SOUTH SHIELDS, Co.Dur. Hintons (grocers), Fowler Street. Pneumatic tube system. (Jerry in posting to South Shields Sanddancers Forum, 26/4/05)
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. Co-op, Wellington Street "Emporium". "At that time [1930] and well into the store's life the money was put into tubes and transferred from the counter to the cashier's office, the relevant amount being taken out and any change sent back to the counter via the tube system." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. Co-op Branch 8, Holly Street, Norton. "No. 8 (1910) Holly Street, Norton High Street had an earlier cash-ball and track system installed." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. Co-op Branch 12, Bishopton Road. "The general grocers had the cashier in a raised cubicle at the back on the left, and money and chits were sent across the room in containers suspended by pulleys on wires, and launched on their journey by pulling down on a spring loaded handle. This was one of the main reasons I loved being sent there on errands." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. Co-op Branch 24, Richardson Road (grocers and butchers). "I was fascinated with a system of wires and pulleys and springs to send the cash up to someone in what appeared to be a little cabin on the floor above." "The overhead wires that took the money to the cashier who was in an elevated office up in one corner of the store." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. Co-op Branch 29, Leven Road, Norton (grocery and butchers). "Norton Co-op No 29 the building is still standing in Leven Road, closing as a Co-op in 1969... Many will remember.. the cash disposal systems. No 29 (1930) had a cup and wire way from counter to cash kiosk." Stockton Local Photo Collection Online with photo of exterior.
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, Co.Dur. M. Robinson,
High Street. "Open to-day. M.Robinson and Company's gigantic new premises, 149 and 150, High-street, Stockton... Electric light! Cash railway system! Eveything 'up-to-date'. Northern Echo, 2 May 1896, p.1
• Later there was a pneumatic tube system. "The basement was used for .. the famous Lanson [sic]
vacuum system for sending money around the store in vacuum tubes. Staff
in each department would send customers' cash in canisters, place [them]
in the system, and the transaction [was] handled by cashiers in a central
location. All the change and receipts were then sent back to where it
came from via the 'system'. I helped dismantle the system in the basement
in 1965/66 although I believe it was not used for a few years prior to
that. It was a work of mechanical engineering, art, noisy, hot and sticky.
" Alan Davis comment in Stockton
Local Photo Collection Online
SUNDERLAND, Co.Dur. Joplings. "I started at Joplings in 1950... [The] cash office manager (where the Lampson Paragon 'chute' system terminated) was Miss Oliver... Customers' bills and money and sometimes Joplings' own tokens were put in a metal canister and into a chute connected to a cash desk in a separate office, and returned receipts and the change came back to the staff the same way." Sunderland Today website
WEST CORNFORTH. Co.Dur. West Cornforth Industrial Co-op, High Street. Shop started operating 27 Jan. 1893. "An ingenious overhead cash system was installed in each department, whereby after any goods were sold at any counter in the store a bill of sale and money were put into a metal container which was attached to a system of wires and pulleys. The assistant gave a short pull on the handle and the container then travelled at speed along the overhead wire to a small cashier's office in one corner of the building. If any change was required this was returned by the cashier using the same system." West Cornforth website. The store was destroyed by fire in 1962 and a new store opened in 1963.
WEST STANLEY, Co.Dur. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. The cash office also dealt with the "divvy" tickets. (Joe Leigh)
WEST STANLEY, Co.Dur. Doggarts (clothing shop). Wire system in 1950s. (Joe Leigh)
Museums
BEAMISH,
Co. Dur. North of England Open Air Museum. Cash
Ball system. The shop is in two parts with a cash office between. The
equipment in the drapery department came from the Coop in Crook, Co. Durham
and that in the hardware department from the Dene Motorcycle Co., Newcastle.
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.