Photographs
Shops
AMPTHILL, Beds. Pecks (drapers/furnishings), Market Square. Wire system. Shop closed in 1980. Bedfordshire Country Life Magazine, No.4, Spring 1999
ATTERCLIFFE, Derbs. Co-op (grocery dept.) Kirkbridge Road. "I remember getting a little pink slip .. after it had been shot across the store on a pulley." (Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6)
BAKEWELL, Derbs. "A drapers near the Rutland Arms". Operating in 1975 according to article in "This England"
BEDFORD. Electricity showroom. About 1933 a pneumatic tube system was installed under the High Street to connect the electricity showroom with the Borough Treasurer's office so that bills could be paid at either. The office was demolished in 1940 for bridge widening. C.Collard in This England, Summer 1975
BIRMINGHAM. Beehive Stores, Albert Street. "The Beehive Stores in Albert Street had a similar [overhead wire] system. Incidentally, Jasper Carrot used to work there!" Charlie in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 1 May 2007.
BIRMINGHAM. Cable (shoe shop), Bull Street. Pneumatic tube system between ground and first floors in 1950s. (J.Eastlake)
BIRMINGHAM. Central Drapery, Smallbrook Street. "The last shop I remember using this system [cash ball] was the Central Drapery .. which, I believe, was destroyed during the war." Letter from J.Branch (Lamson employee for 44 years) to Daily Mirror, 11 July 1977, p.20
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Stoney Lane, Yardley, B25. Lamson wire system. Photograph of grocery department in A. & J. Douglas: Birmingham shops (Studley: Brewin Books, 1992)
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op No. 2 branch (grocers), Midland Road, Cotteridge, B30. Wire system. Cotteridge website
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op Erdington, B23. "During and after the war years, I loved to go shopping for my granny, because it fascinated me to watch the brass screw on cups with the money inside fly along the steel cables to a central cash point, and back again with the change." (Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6)
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op (grocery shop), Bristol Road/Oaktree Lane, Selly Oak, B29. "One of those marvellous old overhead wire contraptions for the cash". Ron Martin posting to Eng-Warks-Birmingham-L list, 5 Mar. 02
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op Strickley, B30. Cash carrier in 1940s. M.Widdicombe
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op Turves Green, B31. Cash carrier in 1940s. M.Widdicombe
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Hagley Road West, Quinton, B32. Wire system. (Quinton Local History Society website)
BIRMINGHAM. Co-op, Hall Green. "I remember the overhead wires in the Coop in Hall Green." Johnedward in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 10 Mar. 2007
BIRMINGHAM. Fosters, High Street, Aston. "They had them [overhead wire systems] in most Fosters. Ours was High St. Aston." Alf in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 30 Apr. 2007
BIRMINGHAM. Foster Brothers (clothing), Coventry Road, Small Heath. Wire system in 1940s-60s. (J.Eastlake)
BIRMINGHAM. Foster Brothers, Gooch Street, Highgate, B12. "I do recall them [overhead wire carriers] at a Foster Brothers in Gooch Street, Highgate. They used to be fascinating to a three year old child." Brunetteandred in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 30 Apr. 2007
BIRMINGHAM. Lewis's. "The pneumatic tube machines were always a fascination. The bill was written out and inserted with the money into a tube and then quickly flushed up the system to the Cashier's Office" Jennyann in posting to Birmingham History Forum, July 2002
BIRMINGHAM. Marsh & Baxters (butchers), Rowley Regis. "They would take your money and place it in a brass container which they clipped to some elaborate overhead contraption and pull a lever. The brass container would then fly across the store on wires or something arcane which I could never fathom to return with the correct change when the butcher had chopped and wrapped your meat." 'Greymalkin' posting to Rowley Regis Online Forum, 24 Sep. 2004
BIRMINGHAM. Maypole Dairy Co., High Street, Rowley Regis. Wire system. (Rowley Regis Online)
BIRMINGHAM. George Masons, Handsworth. Wire system. The shop assistants would write out the 'chittys' and enclose the cash sending them up to the cash desk via a pulley system where all the calculating would take place manually and the receipt and change returned to the shop floor. Each area had its own accounts sheet." (Handsworth History website)
BIRMINGHAM. Pearks. "I remember the overhead wires in the Coop in Hall Green and also in Pearks." Johnedward in posting to Birmingham History Forum, 10 Mar. 2007
BIRMINGHAM. Radfords (drapers), Dudley Road, B18. Rapid Wire system. Part of system was taken down in 1975 and installed in Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry. (Info. from the museum where I saw it.)
CHESTERFIELD, Derbs. Swallows. Wire system. (Alan Hopkinson)
CHESTERFIELD, Derbs. Turners. Wire system. (Alan Hopkinson)
CHIPPING NORTON, Oxon. Co-op. Rapid wire system still being used in late 1960s. (Posting by John Mann to uk.telecom newsgroup 29/11/96)
COVENTRY, Warwicks. Owen Owens (dept store). Wire system ca. 1950-56. Cash office in middle of ground floor or possibly on a balcony. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)
DERBY. "Butcher's or grocer's shop, away from the city centre". Wire system in 1950s. "One cable run .. exited the shop through a hole in the wall through which daylight could be seen. Presumably the cable led to the neighbouring house wwhere the cash was handled." (R.Williams)
DERBY. Co-op, East Street/Albion Street. Wire system in main shop and pneumatic tube system in gents' outfitters. Knowhere Noticeboard for Derby and Bygone Derby and Derbyshire
DERBY, Co-op. Near corner of Princes Street and Pear Tree Street. "Once inside the Co-op, my queuing time was spent in speculation of the aluminium cups zipping to and fro on their catenaries (overhead pulleys) from counter to cashier and back again. The cups traversed upwards and through a first floor aperture to the two or three ladies employed there to take the payment, issue the change and record the 'divi', Co-op style. From my youthful height of about three feet, I could only see the head and shoulders of these ladies. But they were a jolly lot, always ready to share a joke and banter with the counter staff and customers." Derby Evening Telegraph, 26 Nov. 2002, p.26
DERBY. Midland Drapers. Cash carrier. Saga radio website.
DERBY. Ranbys. Gipe system in 1950s. (R.Williams)
DERBY. Whiteman. Had a contract with Lamson dated 1901, expiring 1906. One of the locations involved in the court case British Cash and Parcel Conveyors Ltd. v. Lamson Store Service Co. Ltd., 1908.
GORNAL, Staffs. Co-op. Wire system. Posting to demon.local 10 July 1998
GRIMSBY, Lincs. Chambers. "Money and receipts whizzed overhead in little gold capsules to the cashiers." Grandma Noddy's website
KETTERING, Northants. Co-op, Abington Street. Pneumatic tube system. (Executive on Sunday. Northampton: W.P.Publications, 1989)
KETTERING, Northants. Co-op, Wellington Street. "Shopping was at the 'Co-op' in Wellington Street where they had an overhead type of railway. Cash, no credit cards or cheques in those days, was placed in a container, attached to the runway; a cord was pulled and off it whizzed to the cash office." Burton Latimer website
KETTERING, Northants. Woodcocks (dept store), corner of Montagu and Newland Street. Overhead wire system. Later became part of the Co-op department store. (Addis, Ian and Mercer, Robert. Kettering Then and Now. Moulton: Jema, 1997, p.10)
LEAMINGTON SPA, Warks. Bobbys. Pneumatic system in 1960s. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)
LEAMINGTON SPA, Warks. Burgess & Colbourne. Pneumatic tube system in mid-1960s. Taken over by Army & Navy in 1970s. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)
LEICESTER. Beehive (drapers), Silver
Street. Extensive Cash Ball and wire systems. Shop closed in 1962 and
part of system reinstalled in Leicester Museum of Costume. (I saw
in both locations.)
Leicester Mercury, 13 October 1962, p.6 describes the closing of
the shop and has photographs of Miss Grimsley raising a Cash Ball for
despatch and of Leicester Museum representatives dismantling the railway.
The operation of the wire system is also described.
Hollins reproduces the photograph of 'The
old cash by railway system' and also has a photograph of the frontage
on Silver Street.
LEICESTER. Bennetts (hardware). Wire system in 1950s. (H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Co-op. Overhead wire system. Not open before WW1. (Don Hurd posting to Leicestershire-Plus-L list, 10 Jun 1999). "To see and hear cash disappearing in capsules up magical tubes to disappear to Lord knows where, what wonders!" (Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6)
LEICESTER. "Provision store on Hotel Street, possibly R.L.Ackinson at no. 18" . Photograph showing three Rapid Wire stations in Images of Leicester (Derby: Breedon Books, 1995) p. 91. There is a smaller version in Hollins.
LEICESTER. Freeman, Hardy and Willis (shoe shop), Cheapside. Pneumatic tube system until ca. 1970. (L.Hammond and personal recollection)
LEICESTER. Grices and Cordells, High Street. "My grandmother used to go to Grices and Cordells in High Street. They were just past Lloyds Bank. I think Grices is there now but I don't know what it's called. I remember them putting money in little boxes and pulling a string and it ran along to the cash desk in the middle, it was rather fun!" Highfields Remembered website
LEICESTER. Hawkins (drapers), Cheapside. Wire system in 1950s. (H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Herringtons (drapers), Market Street. Cash carrier. (H. Boynton)
LEICESTER. Hope Bros (gents' outfitters), Gallowtree Gate. Pneumatic tube system. (H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Lewis's (dept store), Humberstone
Gate. "Lewis's had a modern vacuum system. Your transaction was
inserted into a metal container, this was set on its way down a pipe and
returned a minute later accompanied by a loud plop." (Leicester Mercury,
12 Dec. 2005, p.16.)
• External photograph at English Heritage website
LEICESTER. Melia Bros (grocers), Gallowtree Gate. Pneumatic tube system. (H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Midland Educational, Market Street. Pneumatic tube system on at least three floors. (A favourite haunt for books and Meccano. Also H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. R.Morley & Sons (drapers), 14 Cheapside. "Then on to Morley's to buy some cotton (just loved the overhead cash system there)." Leicester Mercury 14 Sep. 2000, p.14 . (Also H.Boynton). There are photographs of the exterior and interior in Paul and Yolanda Courtney. The changing face of Leicester (Sroud: Alan Sutton, 1995) p.81
LEICESTER. Raiments/Raymonts? (grocers), Granby Street, opposite Grand Hotel. Tube system. (T.W.Buxton and H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Simpkin and James (high-class grocers), Horsefair Street. Lamson pneumatic tube system (Agreements dated 1923 in Leicstershire Record Office, ref. 5D71/6). Carrier was still operating in 1950s. (My recollection and H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Smiths (outfitters and toys), High Street. Tube system in 1950s. (The source of my school uniforms! Also H.Boynton)
LEICESTER. Vickers Mt. (grocers), Gallowtree Gate. Cash carrier (H.Boynton)
LONG EATON, Derbs. Co-op. "I was called in to staff the cash desk at an out-of-town branch - grocery and butchery. In my elevated glass cubicle, I managed the overhead spring wires, which received cash from the counter and I sent back the change in the whizzing metal canisters." (Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6)
LOUGHBOROUGH, Leics. Pickworths. Wire system. Quorndon Magazine, Summer 2002
LOUGHBOROUGH, Leics. Pilsbury & Youngs, drapers opposite Baxtergate. Wire system. (Jean Carswell (ed.) Loughborough as I remember it)
LOUTH, Lincs. Topliss (silk mercer and draper), 16 Mercer Row. Cash Ball system. "This England", Spring 1975 has photographs of the top and bottom of the liftcashier and service point. Henry Topliss took over the shop in 1882. Miss Lacey ran the business until 1975 when it was taken over by Boyes and completely refurbished. (Boyes stores book). The system remained in full working order until 1975. (Mrs Proctor.)
LUTON, Beds. Blundells drapery store. Pneumatic tube system. (Eric Meadows)
LUTON, Beds. Co-op. Rapid Wire system. (Eric Meadows)
LUTON, Beds. Oakleys (family grocers), Chapel Street. Rapid Wire system in 1930s. (Eric Meadows)
MANSFIELD, Notts. Co-op, corner of Queensgate and Stockwell Gate. "Here I was fascinated to see the assistant place the money and a paper slip into a wee tube and twist it shut. Then a flap was lifted and the tube popped in and the flap sprang shut. There followed a slight hissing and a bumping noise as the tube passed along the piping of the shop. After a brief interval there would be a bumping noise again and 'bump', out came the tube into a tray containing both change and receipt." (R.Goodall)
MANSFIELD, Notts. Small outfitters on Church Street, between Market Place and railway viaduct. "Here the assistant placed both the cash and the slip in a tube, screwed it to a hanger on a wire, then pulled a lever and the thing whizzed up the wire to a cashier in a glass windowed box at the rear corner of the shop." (R.Goodall)
MARCH, Cambs. A haberdashers. Wire system. (Cambridge Library staff)
MELTON MOWBRAY, Leics. Co-op. Wire system. "Three of the overhead wires ran to counters in the shop, but others ran through holes in the wall to the Co-op butcher and cobbler next door! The cylinders were sent up to the cashier by a spring mchanism, but came back by means of gravity" (D.Bell: Those were the days: Leicestershire in the forties, fifties and sixties. Newbury: Countryside Books, 2001. p.58)
MELTON MOWBRAY, Leics. Maypole. Wire system. (T.W.Buxton)
NORTHAMPTON. Co-op, Abington Street. Large shop with many departments. Pneumatic tube system. (Tony Barker)
NORTHAMPTON. Co-op, St James' Square. Wire system in 1950s. "I would often accompany my mother and delight in seeing the canister travel through a hole in the wall to the cash office." (Tony Barker)
NOTTINGHAM. Boots, Pelham Street. Cash carrier. Saga radio website
NOTTINGHAM. "Big" Co-op. Pneumatic tube system. "It went with such a whoosh, it fascinated me as a little kid. It went upstairs to the accounts dept. Back it would come with your receipt and change. No chance of the sales assistants pinching money in those days!" "Arizonakid" posting to Daily Mail chat, 17 Jul. 2005
NOTTINGHAM. Roughtons. Pneumatic tube system. "Arizonakid" - see above.
NOTTINGHAM. Staddons (dept. store). "Money on wires system." 'FourofFive' posting to Whirligig message board, 2/7/05
NUNEATON, Warwicks. Co-op, Queens Road/Abbey Street. Pneumatic tube system in 1930s-40s. "Minutes later the brass tube would crash into a wire basket with your receipt and change." Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society - Journal, Oct. 2000, p.8
OAKHAM, Rutland. G.George. Gipe system. The shop closed in the late 1990s. When Lamsons stopped leasing systems, the shop bought it for a nominal sum (J. Liffen). Now in Rutland Museum but not on show. Shop is now Book World. (H.Boynton)
OAKHAM, Rutland. Allens (drapers). Cash carrier. (H.Boynton)
OLDBURY, B69. Co-op. "Before the Second World War .. I was fascinated by the network of wires criss-crossing the shop and the metal containers, containing money and bills whizzing along to the cashier before returning to the counters with change and receipts." (Membership matters: newsletter for Midlands Co-op members, Sept. 2006, p.6)
OXFORD. F. Cape & Co., 7, 8,11...32
St Ebbes Street. Wire system later replaced by pneumatic tube. "Another hallmark of the department store was the cash railway
which, though disused, was not scrapped until the late 1960s... On busy
days the railway became overloaded and younger members of staff were brought
in to take cash to and from the desk. The cash railway was eventually
replaced by a pneumatic tube system." (Richard Foster: F.Cape &
Co of St Ebbes St Oxford. Oxford: Oxford City & Co Museum, 1973).
"Our club cards, perhaps more money and the bill would be put into
a little round container, screwed to an overhead railway, the handle pulled,
and away it went across the shop, round corners, until it reached the
office. A few minutes later it would zoom back with a clang and our change
and a receipt would be given... As a girl I'd simply loved to have pulled
the handle of that little overhead cash railway". (Mrs Lillian Garrett
in Oxford Mail, 16 March 1976, p.4)
Photograph in Oxford Library (OCL 74/2648) 7 Dec. 1971, shows a Pneu-Art
terminal in furniture department.
"Until the 1960s the shop had a cash railway which propelled your
money across the ceiling to a central cash desk and shot your change back"
(Malcolm Graham. A century of Oxford. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999)
OXFORD. City Drapery Stores / Webbers, 10-12 High
Street. "In consequence of the rapid and continued increase of business, this enterprising firm has also adopted the use of the Lamson Cash Railway, which is one of the most useful and clever inventions of our 'cute cousins' across the 'silver stream'. " (Jackson's Oxford Journal, 15 Oct. 1887). At that time a novelty in
Oxford... The shop was taken over by Webbers in 1905. (M.L.Turner
and D.Vaisey. Oxford shops and shopping. Oxford: Oxford Illustrated Press,
1972. p.38). "The older generation will remember the little cash-holders speeding along their overhead wires to the cashier's cubby hole" (Audrey M.Taylor. Gillets, bankers at Banbury and Oxford. Oxford: Clarendon, 1964, p.150).
• Photograph of November 1948 in Oxford Library (OCL 15626-N) shows tubes
in the ceiling of the houseware department and another (OCL 15630-N) shows
tubes and carriers in the millinery department.
• "Whereas Cape's had its famous money containers which sped along overhead wires, Webber's method was less visible. The money was put in a tube which went on a cash railway down to the basement. Here the cashiers would put in the change and send the tube back." Oxford Times Online
• External photograph at English Heritage website
OXFORD. Co-op, George Street. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (Andrew Kay)
OXFORD. Co-op, London Road, Headington. [In 1930s] "The whole corner of London Road and Windmill Road was occupied by the Co-op drapery department... The shop continued into Windmill Road with a grocery, and later perhaps a chemist's department. The attraction here for me was in the method used to deal with customers' money. The money and slip was sent to a cashier in a raised cubicle at the rear of the shop by enclosing it in a container which was then attached to a carrier above the assistant. He pulled a handle which released a spring which shot the carrier along an overhead wire to the cashier." Headington History website
OXFORD. Elliston & Cavell (dept store), Magdalen Street. Pneumatic tube system in 1940s (Ian Walker) and early 1960s (Andrew Kay). It was the largest department store in Oxford. It was taken over by Debenhams in 1953 but the name was not changed until 1973.
OXFORD. Sainsburys, High Street. Wire system in 1940s. (Ian Walker)
SCUNTHORPE, Lincs. Co-op, High Street. Dart Cash pneumatic tube system. In 1931 Mr Waite of Dart Cash visited and checked the time taken for a carrier to be returned to the tobacco kiosk. It was 8 seconds. Dart recommended coloured carriers to make it easier for the cash girl to distinguish them and sent a carrier guage for checking the wear on the felts. (Letter from W.A.Edwards, director of Dart Cash, 27/7/1931)
SCUNTHORPE, Lincs. Co-op, Ashby High Street. "In a tiny raised office at the far end was the cashier... Like a spider's web wires ran from different points on the counter, carrying brass torpedo shaped containers on overhead runners to the cashiers office. These could be opened to take the customer's payment along with the receipt issued by the assistant who served you. With every transaction there was a receipt for the customers as well... With a sharp tug the assistant would send the 'torpedo' shooting off to be dealt with by the cashier. As a child I never could understand how it worked. These torpedos seemed to have a life of their own, shooting back and forth across the ceiling.' (Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, 2 May 1998, p.5)
SHREWSBURY, Salop. Morris (bakery/grocers). Wire system in 1930s-50s. (M. Goodall)
SOLIHULL, Warks. Birmingham Co-op, Olton Boulevard. Wire system. (See Reminiscences)
SOLIHULL, Warks. Wrensons, Shirley. "Wasn't it at Wrenson's that they used cash flasks that whizzed round on wires?" (Neil Varley posting to Solihull Online)
STOKE-ON-TRENT, Staffs. Co-op. Wire system in 1954. David Brayner in posting to Whirligig message board, 20/11/04
STOKE-ON-TRENT, Staffs. Coxs, Burslem. "I loved shops like .. Cox's, a small department store which sold almost everything. They had those little cash carriers flying about on wires." (The Sentinel [Stoke], 1 Jan. 2004, p.7)
STOKE-ON-TRENT, Staffs. Lewis's, Hanley. "I also enjoyed going into Lewis's because they had air suction cash carriers and you could hear it rattling through a tube." (The Sentinel [Stoke], 1 Jan. 2004, p.7)
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, Warks. Debenhams. Pneumatic tube system. (Steve Newman)
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, Warks. Fred Winter Ltd. Wire system. (Steve Newman)
SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD, Notts. Co-op, Outram Street. Wire system. I remember Sutton-in-Ashfield website
SWADLINCOTE, Derbs. Co-op, High Street. "The money-taking system was also, to me, increible. Overhead wires ran from the counters to a small hole in the wall, behind which was the cashier's office. Attached to the wire was a ball-like container which unscrewed into two halves... The assistant placed the bill and money into the ball and screwed it up. He then pulled a piece of elastic and the ball shot through the hole in the wall." You & Yesterday website
SWADLINCOTE, Derbs. Salt's. "Sold almost everything except food. They had shops at intervals all the way down the High Street. An unusual feature of the company was the use of Lamson tubes to take the customers' cash from the sale point to the cashier's office." You & Yesterday website
TAMWORTH, Staffs. Tamworth Industrial Co-operative Society, Church Street. Wire system. Tamworth Past and Present website includes photo of exterior.
WALLINGFORD, Berks. Field Hawkins and Ponking. "The shop assistants at Field Hawkins and Ponking, the drapers in Wallingford, where your money whizzed in a little container on a wire across the shop to the cashier and back with your change." Desmond Fitzgerald. Many parts: the life and travels of a soldier, engineer and arbitrator in Africa and beyond. (London: Radcliffe, 2007) p. 77
WALSALL, Staffs. Yarnolds, Digbeth. Wire system. Wendy Doyle in posting to Staffordshire-L list, 1/1/03.
WANTAGE,
Oxon. Arbery & Son (drapers), 11-12 Market Place. Now Arbery Bar & Bistro. Foot-operated Lamson pneumatic
tube system connecting terminal on the ground floor with one in the first-floor office. (I visited in May 2007.)
WELLINGTON, Salop. McClures (outfitters and drapers), Duke Street.. Overhead wire system. Wellington News Online
WILLENHALL, Staffs. Harry Cooper (gents' outfitter), 5-6 Cross Street. Dart Cash wire system until 1988. Ned Williams, Shop in the Black Country Part(?) is now in Bromsgrove Museum.
Museums
BIRMINGHAM. Museum of Science and Industry. Rapid Wire system from Radfords in aircraft hall. (Also photograph in Palmer). The museum has reopened as "Thinktank" but the system is no longer on display.
BROMSGROVE,
Worcs. Museum, 26 Birmingham Road. One line of Dart
Cash system from Harry Cooper, Willenhall in reconstruction of Brighton
& Co. shoe shop.
CRICH,
Derbs. Tramway Museum. From Hindleys, ATHERTON. Two propulsions and right-angle
bend. Includes a "curve car" - a carriage with a gap on one
side for negotiating curves. "Too short to work properly. (Holt)
LEICESTER. Museum of Costume. See LEICESTER
above. NOW CLOSED.
indicates systems which
are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.