Photographs
Carlisle: Wilson & Son (documents)
Shops
ACCRINGTON, Lancs. Cash ball system in use until 1971-2 given to a museum in Glasgow. (M.Proctor) - could be one of the locations below.
ACCRINGTON, Lancs. Shop on Union Street. "I loved the whizzy machine in the Union Street shop. It was probably made by a firm called Dart Cash Carriers in Stoke on Trent, still going in the late 60s." Pendy in post to Accrington Web forum, 8/2/06
ACCRINGTON, Lancs. Moffats (haberdashery), Church Street. Overhead wire system. Posting to Acrington Web Forum, 5/10/03. "The payment method in either Baileys/Moffats in Union Street, Accrington. The shop assistant put your money in this brass tube and it was transported upwards by a method of pulleys to the cashier sitting in a wooden box, a little like the judge in court. Put in your receipt and change and sent it back whizzing down to you. Thought this person very grand, and they, in turn, looked down on you with snooty arrogance." KateX in posting to Acrington Web forum, 6/2/06
ACCRINGTON, Lancs. Sauls 'Sell Anything' Shop, Abbey Street. "You gave the assistant your money, she would put it in an overhead container, pull a lever, and it shot up to the cashier sitting in a separate booth overlooking the stalls: it would then be shot back with your change. If you bought anything upstairs, your money was placed in a wooden ball which rolled down a track to the cashier." (Memoirs of an uncommon man)
ASHTON UNDER LYNE, Lancs. Co-op, Arcadia. Tube system. (Holt)
ATHERTON, Lancs. Hindleys. Lamson Ariel system. One line was moved to the bookshop of the Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire. (Proctor, Liffen and Holt.)
BIRKENHEAD, Ches. Co-op grocery shop, corner of John Street and Grange Road. "Money paid for purchases were placed in a cylinderical [sic] shiney metal container and attached to an overhead wire and pulled by a wooden handle by the shop assistant. This sent the container to the cashier who sat in a raised area in the centre of the shop. Change was returned back to the assistant in the same way. WW2 People's War
BURNLEY, Lancs. Freeman Hardy Willis (shoes). Cash carrier. (Granny Claret in posting to Acrington Web forum, 6/2/06)
BURY, Lancs. E.Redfern, Draper &c, Silver Street. "The shop is seventy-five feet in length, by twenty-five feet wide... This is the only establishment in Bury where the new American cash railway is in use; an invention which greatly facilitates the conveyance of change to and from customers." Bury: a century ago. Reprint of part of a book published in 1889 by Historical Publihing Co. (Nelson: Landy Publishing, 1990)
CARLISLE, Cumb. Binns. Pneumatic tube system. (Mike McCabe)
CARLISLE, Cumb.. Wilson & Son, English Street. Agreement to hire cash railway from Lamsons at $18 per station dated 7 Nov. 1885. Terminated in 1893 when John Wilson died.
CHEADLE, Ches. Co-op, cnr of Wilmslow Road and Gatley Road. "Several straight wires and one long route that went round at least one corner." (Andrew Hunt). Also mentioned (same shop?) in late 1940s and early 1950s by David Branyer in posting to Whirligig message board, 20/11/0
CHESTER. Duttons (grocers). "My grandmother patronised some shops in Chester... Dutton's for groceries, a visit to which was always exciting for us children as thy had a cable system by which cash canisters from the counter would be whizzed overhead along the wires to a central cashier and the change whizzed back." St James' Christleton Parish Magazine, June 2006, p.8
KNUTSFORD, Ches. Wildgoose (drapers and outfitters), Kings Street where Boots is now. "There was a high cash desk with wires, which whizzed the small canister with the bill and cash inside, backwards and forwards above one's head, while customers sat on a bent wooden chair." Knutsford Guardian, 23 Jan. 2003
LANCASTER. Reddrops. "I remember Reddrops where your money was put in a capsule which then shot along on overhead wires then returned with the change and the receipt!" Susie Milner in Lancaster Today website. Also Lancaster Online website
LIVERPOOL. Adair and Dawson, 73-77 London Road. "In consequence of expiration of lease. By order of Messrs. Adair and Dawson ... Thomas Whitehead and Sons are instructed to sell by auction the excellent shop fixtures: ... cash railway." Liverpool Mercury, 1 Sep. 1899
LIVERPOOL. Bon Marché. Pneumatic tube system in late 1940s. (Joyce Kearney in Millennium Memory Bank, National Sound Archive.)
LIVERPOOL. Bunney's Juvenile Shipparies (Liverpool International Exhibition). "Bunney's Juvenile Shipparies increase in popularity, and fresh attractions are being added daily. Lamson's cash railway system has been adopted here for conveying cash from purchasers to the cash desk without the assistants leaving their prescribed positions. Over a thousand purchases were made in the building on Monday, the cash and bills for which passed over the railway with marvellous precision. Those who have not seen this clever contrivance in operation should examine it at Bunney's Shipperies. Liverpool Mercury, 17 June 1886
• "At Messrs. Bunney's Limited .. the cash railway system also facilitates the conduct of the business." Ibid. 18 Dec. 1897
LIVERPOOL. Co-op, London Road, L3. "They used to put your money in a tube and send it upstairs to the cash office, then your change came back down another tube." (MerseyPride posting to The Scouse House! Froum, 23/3/04)
LIVERPOOL. Co-op, Wavetree Nook Road, L15. Wire system. (Liverpool ndo site)
LIVERPOOL. Co-op, Heyworth Street, L5. "My mother .. mentioned the Co-op in Heyworth Street L5, and the overhead gadget that took the money." (Carol B posting to ENG-Liverpool-L list, 9/6/03)
LIVERPOOL. Co-op, Lodge Lane, L8. "The Co-op on the corner of Asbridge St where you gave your 'divi' .. number and the assistant put the money into one of those overhead gadgets which whizzed to the cashier." Sylvia Walker posting to ENG-Liverpool-L list, 8/6/03
LIVERPOOL. Henochsberg & Ellis (tailors and outfitters), University House, Islington. Messrs. Henochsberg & Ellis will signify .. the opening of their handsome and comfortable premises ... Messrs Henochsberg & Ellis have the cash railway system, and all cash vouchers pass into one cash desk." Liverpool Mercury, 5 Nov. 1891, p.1
LIVERPOOL. T.J.Hughes, London Road, L3. "[In the 1950s] we had those overhead wire thingys where you would put the customers money in and fire it to the nearest elevated cash cubicle. We weren't as modern as the Co-op with their suction ones." (Benzroy posting to The Scouse House! Forum, 24/3/04)
LIVERPOOL. E.H.Mahony, London Road. "Lamson's cash railway, an ingenious contrivance of American origin, is now in constant operation in the premises of Mr. E.F.Mahoney, of London-road, who was the first to adopt the system in this city... Mr Mahoney, who has had great experience as a tradesman, says he would not do without the cash railway." Liverpool Mercury, 1 March 1886
LIVERPOOL. Wilkinson Bros., London Road. "Desk cashier - wanted, sharp girl; cash railway - Wilkinson Bros." Liverpool Mercury, 23 Dec. 1891
LIVERPOOL. Woolworths. "You could pinch sweets when they were busy reaching up to retrieve the change from those brass containers that used to zing overhead from cashier's cubicle to counter". (Daily Telegraph, 1/9/01, p.22). [This is the only report I have for Woolworth's and I wonder if it has been confused with another shop.]
LYMM, Ches. Co-op. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Holt)
MANCHESTER. Affleck & Brown (department store). "Some photographs taken at the ladies' underwear counter in 1927 show a barrage of tubes (15 parallel ones) below the ceiling creating an appalling eyesore." (Mrs Proctor). "I also seem to remember that payments were made in an overhead 'bullet' which took your bill and money to an invisible cashier."(Times, 13/1/01)
MANCHESTER. Blackley Co-op, Blackley. Photograph of the "Bungalow emporium" in Townley, showing a two-wire system - similar to a Gipe.
MANCHESTER. Finnigans (jewelry, leather goods), Deansgate. Pneumatic tube system. (Graham Ellis)
MANCHESTER. Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op, 66 Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Opened Jan. 1915 and closed 1967. Wire system. "There was a lady who sat in an elevated box. She was the cashier. The grocer sent the money and grocery list in a metal can which was attached to a pulley and sent across on a wire, where she would check the list and send back the receipt and change. I think there were two of these, one at each end of the shop." (Beech Road website)
MANCHESTER. James Hughes. Pneumatic tube system. Photograph in Hammond
MANCHESTER. Lewis's. Pneumatic tube system. See Reminiscences
MANCHESTER. Leather Bros, Withington. Wire system. Cash was dealt with in the basement. (Information from Mrs Proctor.)
MANCHESTER. Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-operative Society, 66 Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Wire system. Shop opened in 1915 and closed in 1967. (Beech Road website)
MANCHESTER. Pauldens, All Saints. Pneumatic tube system. Shop burned down. (D.Holt)
MILLOM, Cumb. Co-op, Wellington Street. "[After WW2] Wellington Street was a nice shopping street and I used to go to the Co-op with my grandad and grandma and watch money catapulted from the counter across the shop to the office and then the return journey of our change and divi book." Ian Jardison on Francis Frith website.
RUNCORN, Ches. Robinsons. "Robinson's Haberdashery store had aerial runways that criss-crossed the shop carrying cash and receipts between sales assistant and the cash office." (Heather J. Höpfl in Aesthetics of organisation, ed. S. Linstead and H.J. Höpfl, London: Sage, 2000) p. 93
ST HELENS, Lancs. Boots. Cash carrier. (Harry Preston)
ST HELENS, Lancs. Harts. "A cash things [sic] that ran on wires overhead." ("The Undertaker" in posting to St Helens Connected, 17/8/04)
ST HELENS, Lancs. Hawkins, Naylor Street (men's clothiers). "Flying cash canisters". (Jules in posting to St Helens Connected, 18/8/04)
ST HELENS, Lancs. Stringfellows "had those overhead cash canisters as well". (Alan in posting to St Helens Connected, 18/8/04)
SALFORD, Lancs. Lands, Regent Road. Overhead wire system. "It even went up and down the open stairway to the second floor and from the basement." (Posting to rec.arts.tv.coronation-st newsgroup, 19/9/02)
WHITEHAVEN, Cumb. Beehive. "I remember the Beehive from a very early age, being fascinated by the pneumatic cash delivery pipes." Whitehaven on the Web
WIDNES, Lancs. Abrahmsons, later Oxleys (dept store). "Had an overhead wire system until well into the 1960s." Steven Pickthall
WIGAN, Lancs. Peterkins (high class grocery store). Wire system. Wiganers community website
WILMSLOW, Ches. T. Seymour Meads (grocery chain), Grove St. Wire system in 1930s. (Graham Ellis)
WORKINGTON, Cumb. Browns (later Mark Taylors). Lamson pneumatic tube system. The vacuum pump etc. were on the upper floor. (Posting to uk.local.cumbria newsgroup, 24/10/99). Vacuum pump had a flywheel about 1 metre in diameter and sat on one end of the office desk. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 15/8/02). In use until 1970s. When shop closed around 1992 part of equipment loaned to Toy Museum , Cockermouth. (Rod Moore)
Museums
COCKERMOUTH, Cumb. Toy Museum. See WORKINGTON above and photograph.