http://www.car4play.com/forum Car4play forum en-gb Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:15:49 +0100 Copyright: Car4play webmaster@car4play.com (Technical) 5 car4play691240 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:15:49 +0100 Good for rolling fags made from, erm, dogends. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691240&v=e car4play691233 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:43:50 +0100 It came in both roll and boxed sheet form, and was equally unpleasant in both. It was manufactured in Chapeltown (Sheffield) by Newton Chambers, the factory being next to the Scout Camp I frequented in my youth. I posted this some years ago on here, it might amuse anyone who didn't see it (or doesn't remember). === Last Saturday radio documentary literally scraped the barrel of the bottom, with Sally Goldsmith's Now Wash Your Hands (Radio 4). It was a tribute to the medicated Izal toilet roll - now sufficiently a part of history for us to get nostalgic about it rather than hating it as much as we did at the time. For those too young and fortunate not to have experienced it, the Izal loo roll was a sort of shiny white thing with the consistency of lino (it was best to scrunch it up before use, make it a bit more malleable) and smelling of coal tar. It didn't do its job properly, tending to, how to put this delicately, spread the work rather than clean it up. Put another way, it - OK, maybe better not put it another way. Ask an older person if you're that interested. But by God it made for a jolly half-hour documentary on a weekend morning. From the middle of the 19th century, where the British Empire went it had a rifle in one hand and a weapons-grade bogroll in the other. Johnny Foreigner was invited to share in the Izal disinfectant experience, a miracle cure for tuberculosis, cholera, diptheria, typhus - everything short of baldness, really. Back home, the growth of the inside lavatory meant many more people went for the Izal and its cheaper, non-medicated competing brands than the more traditional forms of tending to your bitt-bott, such as torn up newspapers and string sacks that had formerly contained oranges. A cunning marketing campaign whereby municipal buildings were given free roll rolls in exchange for placing bulk orders of the disinfectant made going to a public lavatory an ordeal by fire for decades. By the Sixties, though, a more sophisticated clientele demanded a toilet roll that wouldn't do untold damage to the perineum, and by the Eighties the Izal roll was no more. The surprising thing was that it took that long to die off. But that was not the meat of Goldsmith's programme. Rather it was the people who spent their lives in the Izal factory in Chapeltown, a suburb of Sheffield, making the things. A woman named Maggie Holmes, who ran one of the huge roll-making machines, handed over a cherished cutting from a local newspaper that honoured her and her colleague and best friend, Patricia for having produced 268 boxes of rolls - 72 rolls in a box - in a single eight-hour shift during "the busy time before Christmas". Why Christmas should lead to an increase in toilet roll demand was not explained. "It was a record that broke all other records," Holmes said, proudly. And, yes, she and Patricia had set out to set the record. "If I could have my time over again," she reflected, "I'd do it all over again. I loved it." As did the woman who once had the job of taking rejected rolls and making them fit for human consumption, as it were. If the tops of the roll weren't flat she would sandpaper them flat. And the quality control supervisor who would select rolls at random and count the number of squares to make sure that the public wasn't being shortchanged. That's consumer care of an order you just don't get these days. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691233&v=e car4play691232 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:32:03 +0100 I think we had Bronco bogroll at school rather than Izal. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691232&v=e car4play691231 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:29:12 +0100 Original was in rolls. Step up from newspaper. I thought you hiking types used grass.’ http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691231&v=e car4play691230 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:15:41 +0100 from memory, Izal toilet paper was dispensed from a green cardboard box. Used in the bogs at my first employer…imagine using something similar these days ? yuk. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691230&v=e car4play691219 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:03:18 +0100 >>annex must be able to generate a reasonable income http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691219&v=e car4play691214 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 17:48:48 +0100 >> OMG, the house I need and want has come on the market. >> You're just hankering for the khazi of your youth. Box of Izal toilet rolls and job's a good 'un. ;-) http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691214&v=e car4play691213 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 17:03:10 +0100 You could run marathons just going from one end to the other a few times. Not obvious frrom the lavish descriptions but you could develop very intimate relations with your neighbours - not the ones with all the money but those you could wave at across the track bed on the "UPSIDE". Not one for the gree gingered - tortunately nearly all greenery has been eleminated making for a low maintenance property. A further plus - the track is no longer in use so possibly very quiet. Not my cuppa - high maintenance as listed building, outside space limited for size of property, and although I admire the quality of the craftsmanship it is not really to my taste. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691213&v=e car4play691212 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:52:03 +0100 Who wouldn’t want an Equerry’s corridor! Seems almost reasonably priced for what you get, and that signal box / annex must be able to generate a reasonable income to offset some of the costs of running the place. But, you are in Norfolk… http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691212&v=e car4play691211 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:49:22 +0100 That seems relatively 'cheap' - although I bet the upkeep is going to cost. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691211&v=e car4play691210 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:35:18 +0100 I'm not a rail enthusiast but that is a very interesting place and would be great to own, except for the Grade II status... looks in lovely condition and very well done... http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691210&v=e car4play691209 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:45:05 +0100 Yes, last time I was up there was chatting to a guy in a Kings Lynn eatery, his mate was part of non police security. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691209&v=e car4play691208 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:43:24 +0100 Just a few minutes walk from Prince Andrew’s place. You could invite him round to tea. http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691208&v=e car4play691207 Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:41:38 +0100 OMG, the house I need and want has come on the market. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/91940265 I visited about 13 years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Dj4B3IOCI&t=99s http://www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?m=691207&v=e