All Around the Shire

RECOLLECTIONS OF A SIMPLER TIME - DONKEY STONES

During one of our social history sessions, a woman came to look at the items we had on our table and said, “I thought you might have had a donkey stone”. Since I had never heard of this, she explained what it was.

A donkey stone was originally used in Northern mills to clean greasy steps and give them a non-slip surface. In the days when front doorsteps, windowsills and tile floors were intensively looked after, donkey stoning was employed to give a polished, marble-like finish which had to be regularly repeated.

The stones themselves took the form of small briquettes, made from pulverised stone, cement, bleach powder and water made into a paste and dried. Colours varied according to the type of stone used: brown, white and cream. They could be obtained from the corner shop or from the rag and bone man in exchange for old clothes or jam jars. Several companies manufactured the stones over the years including Eli Whalley from 1890, sold under the “Lion Brand” trademark. Another source was J. Meakin and Sons who produced “Pony Brand”. Both companies were based at Donkey Stone Wharf in Ashtonunder-Lyne and had ceased trading by 1977. The stone took its name from one of the earliest manufacturers “Reade’s Donkey Brand”.

“Doing the step” on your knees was a source of neighbourhood pride, gossip, and rivalry. Some housewives went as far as cleaning the pavement itself. A tradition which has all but disappeared along with black-leading and red tile polishing. Or do you know of anyone who still does?

This month I have hijacked Mandy’s page (at her request, honestly!!) because she wanted me to tell you all about my 40th birthday trip that she had planned for me.

Emily’s Birthday Break in Rome

A bit of background:

My birthday was in January. As it was a big birthday, I would not talk about it or admit it was real to anyone until end of December 2022. My only stipulation was that I didn’t want to be in the country on my actual birthday. I appreciate that this made it very difficult to plan!!!

Liam contacted Mandy around the second week in January, explained the situation and that all doors to any locations were left open but we only have a 5-day window (so no long hauls).

Now, (and this is the bit that I really want to get across to our readers and Mandy’s potential customers) Mandy has been looking after us on the holiday front for a long time and she knows what types of hotels we like, where we like to be (location wise) on city breaks and what our bucket list trips are etc etc and this makes it soooo much easier. With her, it really is personal! True to form, she came up with some stonking ideas and yet more places to go on our ever-increasing bucket list, but we settled on Rome.

I love a city break but I don’t like it to be too ‘peopley’ – it isn’t relaxing for me when it’s heaving and queuing everywhere and whilst I’m sure, Rome is beautiful in Spring, upon guidance from our friendly neighbourhood TC, it starts building up to busy season from then onwards. The weather is in fact, whilst not exactly tan worthy, warmer than at home (I was roasting in a jacket on one of the days!) and it is indeed, far less busy. Mandy managed to get us a beautiful hotel in a perfect location (we like our hotels to be in the goldilocks zone – not too close but just close enough to the centre) and she even checks out transfers, travel passes, etc and advises whether it is better value through them or for us to sort, once we are there.

The assistance of Mandy meant that Liam was able to book us onto an impromptu Vespa and sidecar tour of the city adventure on my actual birthday, which was awesome!! Strangely, Mandy’s advice before we left was “just don’t go on a Vespa”….. Ooops!!

And to top the day off, after we got back to our room, Mandy had arranged for the hotel to leave me a piece of cake with a note wishing me a happy birthday – now that is personal!

It was an amazing trip and I can enthusiastically recommend Rome and Mandy, not such a big bad birthday after all!!