Outdoor equipment catalogue C1959

[imagedude]

Below are images taken from a 1959 catalogue. The company, 'Fred and Ellis Brighams' was one of the first outdoor shops in the north west. The images are large to allow the text to be read easily.

Sleeping bags and stoves:

Boots and waterproofs:

Ice axes etc:

Tents and fleeces:

A reminder of how things were before we all became 'kit monkies.' Walking into a camping shop was a much less daunting experience back in the day, though prices were higher in relation to average earnings.

[Ropeman]

Manchester Bob, not the North West

I think you'll find most of that kit being recommended by DofE instructors all over the country.

[a6cjn]

Black's Good Companion - that takes me back a bit, one of the best tents I have ever owned or used - and I did for years,still have it somewhere.Easily backpacked, between two people, tent for one person and the flysheet and poles for the other.A later addition was a humungos flysheet which seemed like a marquis at the time.
Happy days

Chris

[Danzo]

Thanks Bob, I love looking at old catalogues like that. I had a hardback copy of the old Army and Navy Stores from the late nineteenth century. Makes for fascinating reading as a part of social history. Dunno where it is now.

Danzo

[Ropeman]

The trouble is, going hiking with Basemetal, I see a lot of that kit nowadays.

[Jerseyman]

I like the Parka Anorak..

[Basemetal]

The trouble is, going hiking with Basemetal, I see a lot of that kit nowadays.

Whippersnapper!

Oh, back when men were men...and so were the wimmin

I used to use a Good Companion Tent a lot, with an A frame conversion that did away with the central pole. Could sleep 4 in reasonable comfort and warm through blizzards. Heavy for solo use, it wasn't unreasonable for four. These days the closest might be a Golite Hex.

COme to think of it, I was born in 1959

[george]

I had a Blacks Mountain tent - superb design. Absolutely bomb proof, shame it leaked like a sieve really.

I always wanted one of their Arctic Guinea tents in Ventile

George

[seamonkey]

Nice - I reckon those icelandic sweaters would kick any hi-tech north face fleece!

[imagedude]

More boots:

Clothing and ropes:

Sacks:

Campbeds, tents, soft porn:

Guide books, cups and plates:

crabs and skis:

[Ropeman]

Wowsers, PAs cost 80/- and snowshoes cost just 2/6 that's a reversal of costs over the years.

I love that the new fangled, high tec rope 'often' prevents external and internal injury. What a safety breakthrough.

Anyone know what that butterfly crab is all about?

[Danzo]

Wouldn't it be wonderful to discover a stock of all this stuff in a sealed up disused warehouse somewhere?

It would be fascinating to see how it all compares to modern equipment.

Danzo

[Basemetal]

Anyone know what that butterfly crab is all about?

Plastic deformation before the gate is overloaded. Absorbs energy from the fall shock load.

[mojofilter]

I like the Parka Anorak..

I'm pretty sure my Dad still has one of them tucked away somewhere, and he definitely has an ice axe just like the one in the pics, and I have his old Blacks mountain tent, an ancient rucksack and a Karrimor daysack.

Pics?

[Ropeman]

Plastic deformation before the gate is overloaded. Absorbs energy from the fall shock load.

Ah, I see now. Rubbish ropes need energy to be absorbed elsewhere and steel allows for it to happen. Thanks.