Photographs

Peterborough Museum

Shops

CAMBRIDGE. Co-op. "The fascination of the Co-op was to watch, thumb in mouth, the intricate whizzing overhead, to and fro, of little suspended money pods on wires from counters to a mysterious chamber set high at the back of the shop." Late 1940s/early 1950s. (Malcolm Hensher)

CAMBRIDGE. Co-op, Burleigh Street. Wire system shown in photograph of Central Grocery Department (Cambridge Chronicle, 27 June 1928, p.7). In early 1960s, grocery department had wire system with small office in the corner. Clothing and furniture shop next door had pneumatic tube system. (Posting to uk.rec.subterranea newsgroup, 8 Mar. 2000)

CAMBRIDGE. Co-op, Victoria Road branch. Wire system. (Photographs of interior and exterior in Cambridge Chronicle, 27 June 1928, p.7)

CAMBRIDGE. Mathew & Son, The Stores, Trinity Street. Cash ball system. (Photograph of provision department in Cambridge Chronicle, 13 Dec. 1922, p.4 - not very clear)

FRAMLINGHAM, Suff. Carleys (grocery). "We would also buy a few items from time to time in Carley's shop itself and the girl at the check-out, as we would now call it, would put our bill, with prices marked and the money to pay, in a small container which whizzed on a taut wire to the cashier in his office, across the shop. Arthur Staniforth. Farmers: from producers to park keepers (Victoria B.C.:Trafford, 2005) p.23

IPSWICH, Suff. Edward Brand (drapers and furnishers), 28-36 Tacket Street. "Opening of our cash railway. Friendly house. Edward Brand is now showing in all departments a large and well-assorted stock of useful drapery." Ipswich Journal, 13 May 1887
• "Suffolk Agricultural Show, June 1891. Visitors to the above are invited whether purchasers .. or not to walk through the extensive showrooms, warehouses, and factories... Also inspect the Ready Money System with its numerous trains running every second on the cash railway, which is composed of wires, points, signals, junctions, main lines, branch lines, permanent way, stations, &c. Special service of trains during the show." Ibid., 30 May 1891, p.4

IPSWICH, Suff. Coes, 20-28 Norwich Road. "True to its traditional feel, the store on Norwich Road still operates the Lamson cash transfer system." Evening Star, 2 Sep 2002. "Money is loaded into a plastic carrier and gets sent to the stores secure office using vacuum power."

IPSWICH, Suff. Central Coop. "The last one [cash ball system] I remember was in the Ipswich Industrial Co-op. It was replaced some forty years ago by the Lamson 'whizzer'. Daily Mirror, 6 Dec. 1968. Overhead wire system in 1930s (Marjorie Goldsmith in National Sound Archive). Pneumatic tube system in late 1950s (Douglas Self).

IPSWICH, Suff. Coop, Caulder Hall Road. Wire system in late 1950s. (Douglas Self)

IPSWICH, Suff. Footmans. Pneumatic tube system in 1940s. "The cashier was in the basement and money was sent to the store vault by air tubes if notes were enclosed. Change was returned through a chute with a receipt." Shop demolished and replaced with Debenhams in late 1970s. Evening Star website, 11 June 2002

NORTH WALSHAM, Nfk. F.Randell and Co. (ironmongers and agricultural and general engineers). Lease agreement for Gipe Closed Wire Carrier in Norfolk Record Office, BR 87/69

PETERBOROUGH. Glass's (dept. store), corner of Market Place. Pneumatic tube system in 1960s. (Ian Carr)

PETERBOROUGH. ?Hodgsons (haberdashers), Bridge Street. Wire system in 1960s. (Ian Carr)

SUDBURY, Sfk. Winch and Blatch, Market Hill. (Formerly C.F.Winch and on King Street until premises burned down in 1920s). "John and Vera [Blatch] overhauled the ramshackle acounts system and installed up-to-the minute overhead pulleys to take cash and bills from the counters to a cashier... Their son Richard, now in his 50s and the firm's managing director, has early memories of climbing up to pull the cord and send the containers whizzing to the cash desk." Suffolk Free Press, 28 Oct. 2005

Museums

PETERBOROUGH. Museum, Priestgate. One line of Rapid wire system with two propulsions in reconstruction of provision merchants. Not well-lit and difficult to see.

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.