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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/15 22:08:55
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer
Somewhere in south-central England.
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A nice little documentary was just shown on BBC 4 about R Balson, butchers, who have been operating in Bridport since 1515. They have a US branch run by a cousin. Apparently he gets a lot of trouble with government forms that ask when the business was established. http://www.rjbalson.co.uk/redirect/welcome.php?from=US Buy some bangers today! BBC online article about the company. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25711108
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This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/01/15 22:20:41
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/15 23:13:28
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Longtime Dakkanaut
St. Louis, Missouri
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Pretty cool stuff! I love how they can trace their lineage to almost 500 years ago. Wish I could do that with my family!
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 00:07:53
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Fixture of Dakka
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Wow... 500 years old. That store is older then the country I live in. That's a bit of a head spinner.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 00:09:27
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Zealous Sin-Eater
Montreal
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mega_bassist wrote:Pretty cool stuff! I love how they can trace their lineage to almost 500 years ago. Wish I could do that with my family! 
You probably can, 500 years is only 25 generations. More often than not, the annoying thing is that family names change over time.
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[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator. |
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:04:37
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[DCM]
Moustache-twirling Princeps
Gone-to-ground in the craters of Coventry
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Penn (of Penn and Teller) has a web-show.
He visited London a while ago and bought a hat. When he looked inside at the label, it listed the maker's info, and the year the company was established.
The company that made the hat has been around longer that his country. They probably made hats that were amongst the first to be taken across the Atlantic, and he had just bought one made by the same people.
So, even though it was new, and bought 'abroad', he'd just acquired some American history.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:10:44
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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Skinnereal wrote:Penn (of Penn and Teller) has a web-show.
He visited London a while ago and bought a hat. When he looked inside at the label, it listed the maker's info, and the year the company was established.
The company that made the hat has been around longer that his country. They probably made hats that were amongst the first to be taken across the Atlantic, and he had just bought one made by the same people.
So, even though it was new, and bought 'abroad', he'd just acquired some American history.
That's pretty cool, as is the 500 year old butcher shop!
My company is over 100 years old and invented sheetrock, so that's cool.
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DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:14:34
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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My grandparents owned a house house that was build in 1670something...
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:16:33
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba
The Great State of New Jersey
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Crap, and I'm impressed when I got to some of my friends houses that are 200-300 years old...
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:22:37
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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My house is 18 years old. Ancient!
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DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:22:52
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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It was in terrible shape, so they had to get rid of it. The taxes were stupid on it: it was worth $20,000 due to the condition, but appraised at $250,000 due to the potential for it, so they would have had to pay taxes on the higher amount...or something like that.
My wife and I seriously considered moving back to Germany for that house and living in it while fixing it up and then renting out the apartments.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:24:07
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[DCM]
Et In Arcadia Ego
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kronk wrote:
My company is over 100 years old and invented sheetrock,
Like Nickelback or Limp Bizkit one assumes ?
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The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king, |
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:25:57
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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No, that's gak Rock.
Sheetrock is this gak, also called Wall Board (generic name).
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DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:26:41
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[DCM]
Moustache-twirling Princeps
Gone-to-ground in the craters of Coventry
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I heard about a US hotel that billed itself as historic.
When it was due to JFK having stayed there, it lost some of its oomph.
Of historic interest, yes.
Historic itself, not really.
Age and history is a problem though. Just try improving traffic-flow through a UK city. It took me an hour to drive 5 miles into Oxford last week. The view wasn't that great either, with huge stone walls and lines of vehicles all I could see.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:32:52
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
UK
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It's interesting to note that around where I am a lot of village shops are gone - closed up and moved on years ago. However several villages still have their butcher. There seems to be something in the economise and social view about a butchers that makes them profitable and long lasting above many other shops.
On the subject of old houses our house is 400 odd years old houses is a nightmare for insulation (mostly because if you don't have thatch there isn't any insulation); plus plaster! Modern plaster is all hard and rigid - old houses; they move around a bit and if you don't get the right plaster it ends up shattering and breaking up everywhere with huge cracks
Oh and if you're in the attic during strong wind you can hear every gust and the whole house creeks!
The other downside is that you'll never be able to get used to modern housing - the walls just look wrong when its one huge blank sheet of plaster and paint without any wooden supports!
Oh and nothing beats a proper open fire in winter (at least when you get proper winter when its properly cold outside as opposed to this year where, so far, its mostly been damp  )
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:34:09
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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I have a semi-adopted grandmother who was one of the crew who designed and built the original neon Rose Bowl sign (I have no doubt that it's since been replaced/repaired after it was put up in the 20s or whenever.
It's not so much cool knowing that someone did something cool like that, it's more hearing the stories of the old folk who DID that stuff that, to me, is supremely interesting.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:40:54
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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[DCM]
Et In Arcadia Ego
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kronk wrote:No, that's gak Rock.
Sheetrock is this gak, also called Wall Board (generic name).

..hmm..... I think it'd be more fun to put nails in Fred Durst but this would be easier to paint one supposes.
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The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king, |
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:43:17
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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It's actually oddly satisfying to hang a piece of wall board, but I digress.
Old companies are cool. However, I thought the oldest business anywhere would either be politics or prostitution.
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DA:70S+G+M+B++I++Pw40k08+D++A++/fWD-R+T(M)DM+
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 14:59:33
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Longtime Dakkanaut
St. Louis, Missouri
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My parent's house was originally build in 1897. It was a one room house with a chimney. I helped them update/renovate it, and it was cool because you would see when each additional room was added onto the house. My favorite was finding the newspapers from the mid-1960's we found. Cadillacs for $3000! JFK giving speeches! Really neat stuff.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 15:06:39
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[DCM]
Et In Arcadia Ego
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kronk wrote:It's actually oddly satisfying to hang a piece of wall board,
You Americans and your crazy euphemisms !
Friend of mine used to be a tour guide at the Cathedral, one of the "highlights" was/is
http://www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk/#/old-door/4579044334 ( link is now somewhat broken, alas, so no images )
This door can be found in the north aisle of the cathedral choir. It is constructed from four vertical panels of oak and overall measures 6 ft 5 ins high and 2 ft 9 ins across. It leads to a staircase that was built in the time of Lanfranc (1070s) which led to the former chapel of St Blaise. The wood has been dated by dendrochronology (tree rings analysis) to around 1180 but the metalwork is more problematic. The large 'C' clasps seem to be the work of Lanfranc (1070s) but the horizontal straps, with surface cross-hatching, appear to be the work of 1180s. A plausible scenario is that the door was partially destroyed in the fire of 1074, the 'C' clasps were re-used after the fire, but strengthened with new horizontal straps.
My chum had this job for three or four years and it was reported by him and several of his colleagues that at least once per "season" one tourist would loudly whistle/similar sign of disbelief and then ask if that meant that Jesus might have touched this door.
Our local Waterstones ( bookshop chain) has some odd bits of history too
http://waterstonescanterbury.co.uk/?page_id=5
The spring that fed the bathhouse causes some issues with damp at times today.
Less impressed by the " Our escalator is one of the oldest working escalators in Europe. It was made in 1985 by German firm O&K at their factory in Keighley, West Yorkshire " but YMMV
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The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king, |
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 15:12:57
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Insect-Infested Nurgle Chaos Lord
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Half a Millennium.... madness...
Here was me thinking the British Museums 255th Anniversary was impressive. (It still is, but 500 year old Butchers tops it!)
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 16:03:10
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Battlefield Tourist
MN (Currently in WY)
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Yeah, I was disappointed too.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 16:13:39
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Infiltrating Broodlord
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500 years is pretty good.
Our local butchers are relative newcomers; established 1829, they're just a bit younger than our house...
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 16:20:02
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Insect-Infested Nurgle Chaos Lord
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That's a great picture. Good to hear that they are still in business!
Does the shopfront still look the same? (Minus the pigs, naturally  )
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 16:22:57
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Infiltrating Broodlord
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They've moved down the street, to two smaller buildings which I imagine are older than the one pictured, later 1600s or early 1700s, woodframed... and kinda plain looking, in a good way, white interior, fluorescent lights, all in this slightly saggy, tilting building.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/16 16:23:49
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Longtime Dakkanaut
Dundee, Scotland/Dharahn, Saudi Arabia
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The school I went to is about 1000 years old.
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If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it. item 87, skippys list
DC:70S+++G+++M+++B+++I++Pw40k86/f#-D+++++A++++/cWD86R+++++T(D)DM++ |
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/17 01:06:47
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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Holy cow crap thats an old business. I bet there isnt a thing about butchering they couldnt tell you about
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/17 14:35:57
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Decrepit Dakkanaut
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/17 14:54:41
Subject: Re:Britain's oldest family business
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Esteemed Veteran Space Marine
Sheppey, England
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Medium of Death wrote: Here was me thinking the British Museums 255th Anniversary was impressive. (It still is, but 500 year old Butchers tops it!)
The Museum was actually founded by Act of Parliament in 1753, so we've been around longer than 255 years. That's the anniversary of our opening, though.
/pedant off
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/17 19:52:56
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer
Somewhere in south-central England.
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Had a word with my local butcher today. They have been trading out of their shop for 150 years though not with the same family all the time. I think a lot of them were killed in the Great War.
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![[Post New]](/s/i/i.gif) 2014/01/17 20:06:51
Subject: Britain's oldest family business
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Wolf Guard Bodyguard in Terminator Armor
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There's a well-known brewery in the Netherlands that dates back to 1340. Well, it's well-known in the Netherlands. No, it's not Heineken.
An even older one exists in Poland, I believe, but I don't recall the name.
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