{"id":15194,"date":"2025-09-11T03:56:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15194\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:56:17","slug":"new-nostalgia-book-focuses-on-how-we-used-to-make-a-living-in-thanet-the-isle-of-thanet-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15194\/","title":{"rendered":"New nostalgia book focuses on how we used to make a living in Thanet \u2013 The Isle of Thanet News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Machinists at work at Westgate based John Fairdale Ltd c1964.
\nPhoto \u2013 \u00a9 Thanet District Council SEAS Heritage Collection.<\/p>\n

A new nostalgia book looking at the working lives of Thanet people in years past will be unveiled at the East Kent Ploughing Match on Wednesday 24 September.<\/p>\n

All In A Day\u2019s Work \u2013\u00a0How Thanet Made A Living is the latest in the series of nostalgia books to be written by Nick Evans \u2013 his 12th volume in the past five years. Copies will go on sale for the first time at the event which is being held at Quex Park, Birchington, before appearing in local shops a few days later.\u00a0 Nick\u2019s stand will be close to the main craft tent.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2013 Testing newly made model railway engines at Hornby\u2019s Westwood factory in 1977. Photo \u2013 Hornby Hobbies<\/p>\n

The 112 page book is packed with stories and photos of businesses long gone and the jobs that people carried out in the days before computers, mobiles, internet and AI. \u00a0\u00a0The book contains nearly 150 photos and features of working lives at Volkswagen, Rediffusion, Klingers, Nelbarden, Invicta Airways\/Air Ferry, Vye\u2019s grocers and Westons\u2019 Dairies, among several others. The book is priced at \u00a313.50.<\/p>\n

\"\"Making humbugs at Rowlands\u2019 Harbour Street shop in Ramsgate in 1961. Customers could watch the confections being pulled, twisted and cut to size.<\/p>\n

In common with other books in the series, Nick\u2019s latest title includes many photographs which have been lost to the public view for more than 50 years.\u00a0 Along with photos from his family\u2019s collection, Nick has sourced images from Thanet District Council\u2019s SEAS Heritage collection, originally taken by Cliftonville based Sunbeam Photography.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rediffusion Relay \u2013 Relay House, set on the junction of Westwood, Broadstairs, was the headquarters of Rediffusion from 1934 until demolition in 1992. The building is seen here in the mid 1950s.<\/p>\n

Nick said: \u201cIn the years following the Second World War the government determined that Thanet should become a development area to attract new businesses and create jobs.\u00a0 This saw companies move to Thanet to build factories and also encouraged existing enterprises to expand.\u00a0 These steady jobs brought a year round alternative to seasonal roles reliant on the summer holiday trade.<\/p>\n

\"\"Complete Beetle bodyshells in Volkswagen\u2019s warehouse at Manston Road, Ramsgate in 1964. Photo \u2013 \u00a9 Thanet District Council SEAS Heritage Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work scene has changed enormously during the past 40 years of course and a lot of Britain\u2019s \u2013 and Thanet\u2019s \u2013 manufacturing has either moved overseas or vanished altogether thanks to technology and lower labour costs.<\/p>\n

\"\"Milkmen from Westons\u2019 Dairy form a flotilla of barrows and floats for a photo during the 1930s in the back yard of the company\u2019s premises in Addington Street, Margate. Photo \u2013 Richard Terry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy book includes the stories of some pioneering operations \u2013\u00a0Rediffusion invented cable radio and, later, TV while Vye\u2019s was among the first grocers to introduce self-service and free home delivery during the 1950s and early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people will really enjoy reading this nostalgic look back at how we used to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All In A Day\u2019s Work \u2013\u00a0How Thanet Made A Living will soon be on sale at Westgate Galleria in Westgate, No3 Cards & Gifts, Broadstairs, Ramsgate Tunnels gift shop, Ramsgate, and Festival Framing, Minnis Bay.\u00a0 Produced by Bygone Publishing, the price of a copy is \u00a313.50.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Machinists at work at Westgate based John Fairdale Ltd c1964. Photo \u2013 \u00a9 Thanet District Council SEAS Heritage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-15194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}