This scene captures a kind of taxi service to one of Northern Ireland's most famous spots.....

any idea where this is?

Extra marks for naming the year...

Karen Morris - Feb 06
taxi service to the Gobbins?

Glen Brown - August '05

The current photographc c1955 at the Giants Causeway, Portrush?

YPAM ED - Getting warm Glen...

David Thomas - Feb '07
The photo of the Gentleman and the two ladies on the Cart, is down at the Giant's Causeway, but is not at Portrush like the other answer. How about Giant's Causeway, Bushmills then? they were heading back up to the top, and just before passing my aunt 'Sell's Shop' ! They would have just past my Auntie Nellie's shop, which was just after Aunt Annie's shop, and before that Aunt Jean's!

This strange lump is on display in County Down and is fairly old.

What do you think this was used for ?

any ideas?

YPAM Ed - Yes, well done John and Frank (who spotted the link with another YPAM story on this site -
Clifton House Belfast

It is indeed a wooden water pipe - dating from the 18th Century - which is currently on display in the visitors centre at the Silent Valley in the Mournes.

Frank Kelly - April '05
This wooden water pipe was recovered from the junction of High Street and Church Lane, Belfast, during the excavation for "Hi-Park" multi storey car park in June 1986.

John Steen - April '05
Top photo, wooden water main?

Matthew Wightman - April '05
Well it might have been used in the rope factory or something like that?

Jack Thompson - April '05
It looks like a petrified eyeball from some large prehistoric animal.

No cycling please !!! This sign is in a very well know Belfast landmark..

cycle free corridors?

Eilleen Semple - July '05
When I read that the picture wasn't taken in Belfast City Hall, as I had also thought, I was then going to suggest 'THE TECH', as it was known to us! However when I read on I realised that someone else got there before me! A relative of mine was Superintendent at 'The Tech' when I was a child & my brother, cousin & myself spent many a long hour roaming the corridors after everyone else had gone home. It was very eerie & we were sure that on many occasions we had ghostly visitations! They may have been 'cycle free' corridors, but not necessarily 'ghost free!'

Robert Smyth - February '05
The plasterwork may be in the Belfast City Hall!

YPAM Ed - Close but not quite - another clue : the building is "technically" gifted.....

Robert Smyth - February '05
The Belfast Tech.

YPAM Ed - Correct ! The image is of the plasterwork above the ground floor corridor from the main entrance of the Belfast Technical College.

We photographed this brightly coloured lump of machinery and wondered what it was used for...

Mangle Memories?

The text around the red hand symbol reads : " The Ulster Mangle" so pretty straightforward then, it's a mangle. But what was it used for ? When or where was it used ?

YOUR RESPONSES

M Woods - Feb '07
Women used this mangle for putting their blankets through the men usuall yturned the handle.

Jennifer Crawford - July '06
This version of the red hand is supposedly the correct one and there is this version above the library facing the City Hall in Belfast.

John Close - May '06
I remember when i was a lad i used to visit my grandparents in argyle st. shankill road. and my grandmother bela edgar had the same mangle in the scullery and i used to help her turn the handle and it was damn hard work , i don't know how she did it day after day , those ladies were tough in those days , thank god for washing machines and clothes dryers (smile ladies).

John Close n.s.w. Australia, ex old lodge road belfast 1954.

Noel Maguire - Oct '05
The size and style would suggest an industrial connection - perhaps flax or linen?.

Thomas Irvine (New Zealand) - Oct '05
This was a similar type of mangle my mother used in our home in stanhope St Carrick Hill. I remember it was used until the late 50's. A chap called Bobby Docherty, the son of Dan the puplican on the corner of Stanhope and Wall streets, came up with the idea of renting washing machines: end of mangles in the district.

Michael Murray - Sept '05
Just about the left-handedness! This is the correct representation of the symbol "The Red Hand of Ulster" - sure don't you know that Finn McCool carried his sword in his right hand, therefore chopping off his left!

Eilleen Semple - July '05
I remember as a girl visiting my nana who had a mangle in her back yard, my mother told me stories of how hard the work was on wash day, when she & her elder sister ruth had to help with all the family's washing. No modern day appliances for them! Your picture brought back the memories of the stories my mother told me of those hard times.

Ruby McDonald (Hinds) Australia
My granny had a mangle in the back yard. I remember when I was a teenager she caught her thumb in it while putting the sheets through to get the water out of them, needless to say her thumb never looked the same again, ah!what memories this photo evoked.

Robert McClements, Norway - May '05
The mangle was used for cutting turnips to feed to pigs and cattle.

David Phillips - April '05
There is one of these from the same Belfast maker on the shore at Red Harbour between Ballagh Bridge and Bloody Bridge in the mournes. It has been cemented into the rocks and obviously used as a winch to pull something to shore.

Raymond O'Regan - February '05
Just a thought on the red hand emblem shown on the mangle. I am surprised no one has noticed that it is the left hand and I thought to the purist it should always be the right hand. On the railings of the old Ulster Bank HQ in Waring Street it is also shown as the left hand?

Robert M Smyth - January '05
A mangle or clothes wringer was used to get rid of water from washing before hanging it on a clothes line. I remember when I was a boy helping my mother mangle the clothes!!!

Bill Bragg - January '05
How unfortunate that the Red Hand appears below the wringers! Is it a Health & Safety warning of the 1800's?

Alan Pentland - February '05
James Young could tell you of the trouble with mangles!

If you have any thoughts on the identity of these photographs, please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.